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RIM Marseer 5 fretted for Sleek Elite in Japan!

RIM Basses

RIM Basses

Custom Basses from the UK
Aug 6, 2006
345
6
Luton Town
www.rimcustombasses.co.uk
#1
Hi All,

Ive been contacted by Hajime Hirose of Sleek Elite in Japan to build him a Marseer 5 string fretted.This bass will be going up for sale in his high end bass shop, ive been looking at the sleek elite website for around 3 years now and loved the basses he was getting in from the likes of Carey Nordstrand,Chris Benavente,Fodera etc.So when Hajime contacted me I was over the moon!

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The Specs on the bass will be up soon,for now you can have a look at the Custom pickups for this bass.Hajime put me onto Harry Haeussel of Haeussel Pickups.The set is called a Jazzbucker set which is two singlecoils wound together at the bridge and a singlecoil in the neck postion.The pickups have Ebony covers also,

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So the specs look like this,

Marseer 5 fretted with fishtail
5 piece Purpleheart/wenge thru neck
Bubinga body wings
Cocobolo bookmatched top
Slotted RIM headstock design 2/3 layout with Cocobolo cap.
Ebony 34" scale board

Haeussel Custom Jazzbucker and singlecoil Pickups (Ebony faced)
Hipshot Ultralites
ETS MK III bridge with custom tailpiece (Black with gold saddles)
Aguilar or Noll Preamp
JD flushmount straplocks
Lacquered finish
Hardcase

Cheers,

Robbie.
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#4
Cheers lads,

Limited production now thats a great quote! I cant see me getting to busy just yet, lets hope one day soon I can go fulltime as i love building basses.Next year should be interesting as I plan to offer a bolt on Marseer and I will be hopefully offering some basses up for sale on my website.Im sure I can tempt someone into having a custom build.

Cheers,

Robbie.
 
#10
Hi All,

Well things are going nicelt on the bass and last night me and the missus went to a wedding reception on the River Thames in London,so I took some pics to show you guys the sights,also Ive machined a template out for the Marseer bolt-on with fishtail.

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The mighty Battersea Power Station

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Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
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40mm Beech Marseer Template
 
#13
Hi All,

Well I machined out the holes for the tuners today and the headstock is taking shape now, also I ruffed out the headstock for my 4 string bass and drum sanded the profile for the possible Mahseer Singlecut bolt/set neck body.

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Setup completed on a friends Warwick Infinity

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More to come next week guys,

Cheers,

Robbie.
 
#16
If that's the current model Infinity SN, the body is chambered for weight reduction.

Once again looking good, robbie. Your basses almost make me like the look of purpleheart. Speaking of which, how do you find the balance on your basses? I'm not sure at what fret your strap peg lands, and I know that purpleheart is pretty heavy.

And while I'm at it, one more question. since the tuner posts on that great-looking headstock of yours are at an angle slightly towards the nut, do you have to do anything special while mounting strings or tuning up?
 
#17
Hi PJ,

So far the balance has been good, ive just got hold of some sperzel bass tuners to use on my 4 string bass and they are gonna help even more on the headstock.Purpleheart is a heavy wood but Ive had no problems with weight, Garry cribbs bass was around 8 lbs,I like the feel on slightly heavier bass, wal etc. About the headstock again,it is a bit ticky getting the strings on as you cany push the string down into the post, but once I convert to Sperzels it will be nice and simple, also due to the slight angle I will have to scoop out the slot alittle to get the access for the string lay to the tuners.Otherwise I love the idea and Ive had no problems with the bass staying in tune or strength etc.

I just wouldn't want to drop one!

Cheers,

Robbie.
 
#18
Hi All,

Now the fretboards have turned up ive got cracking with the bass,the Gaboon Ebony board is on and the neck taper is cut to size.Also Ive glued the two extra wenge stringers on today also,should be stepping the diff down on the body before the weekend and radiusing the fretboard for 16"

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Ive also started building my own bass which you can see more updates on my forum

Cheers,

Robbie.
 
#19
Hi All,

Well things are going well on the bass, ive now ruffed the neck out alittle and machined the body section for the Coco drop top. Gonna glue the wings on soon,so for now here's some latest pics

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Unglued wings next to the neck thru section

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Also ive decided to try and make some Jazz pickups, ive got some Alnico 5 magnets coming from a local supplier and custom Tufnol bobbins being made for me also. We use 42 awg wire at work on our Tanaka Coil winding machine so that gonna be handy. You never known I might even give Carey Nordstrand a run for his money,yeah right!

21092006.jpg


State of the Art Coil winder made from a bench driver with a vari speed from mutli voltage power adapter.I can get around 400 rpm max out of it and it takes me around 25 mins to do a Jazz pickup.
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Dummy pickup that i wound the other day, If it goes well Im looking into making my own covers and getting the R logo Lazer cut into the covers.

More next week guys,

Cheers
 

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