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Advice needed on custom build

G

GHI

May 27, 2008
122
0
Norway
#1
Hi everybody!

I've been lurking these forums periodically the last couple of years, but this is my first post.
Before I start off I just wanna thank you for the great source of information you all have made this forum into. It has helped me alot.

And here I go.

I'm in need of a new instrument. I currently own two electric basses. A Ibanez SR400 and the reissue ATK300 wich original pickup has been replaced with a Bassculture Neobucker. Both have qualities I like, one more then the other, but neither plays like great instruments. That beeing said, I have only been playing for about 3 years and have somewhat of a limited expirience playing 'truly great' basses. But after I had the opportunity to play a vintage fender p-bass, once at my bands practice space, nothing has been the same. The timbre and rich harmonics of that p spoiled me and now everything else seems dead and lifeless in comparison.
And ever since I've been searching for a great bass of my own.

I tried out some fender's at a local music store, and a roadwoarn p-bass stood out. But alltough a great bass, not great enough to spend like over 2200 US dollars, wich is what they go for here in Norway.

Besides P-basses, I really like Rickenbackers and would love to get my hands on one. Retail prices on the 4003 has dropped from like 5000 us dollars to 4000, so it's still way too pricy for me to even consider, at this time.

So, besides scoring a used P or ric, wich still will get pretty expensive (like 2500-3500 us dollars I think), I'm left with the option of putting together a parts bass. I'm considering having a local luthier put it together for me, and even then I figure it will cost me under 2000 us dollars.

My band is into heavy and groovy riffs with trippy/psychedelic and/or drone'y and pounding buildups and counterparts. we do alot of solos with a great deal of improvisation.
we tune to C standard and play loud. :bassist:

Since we tune so low and my guitarist sonically occupies alot of room and somewhat intruds on the space traditionally left for the bass guitar, so I want real deep lows to accomodate this.
Besides, I'm a sucker for huge lows.

And I want some serious thump, and growl. I want it to roar.
I want the highs to be punchy. And not thin, but sharp with abit of bite. I want the tone be dark and warm, yet articulate, and organic. Oh, and yeah, I want lots of sustain. I think what I'm aiming for is Ric-like tone in a P.
And yes; I'm looking for the be all, end all of basses :p

I will most likely be choosing warmoth for parts.

Here's what I'm thinking:

- Dual Darkstar pickups in Rickenbacker positions

- Jaguar shaped body in Mahogany, preferebly 1-piece (I just love that shape and the pickguard works well with the pickup placement I'm planning. I might go P shape to save a those extra hundred dollars in cost of the Jag shape)

- Passive controls with concentric pot knobs controling the volume and tone for each pickup. A series/paralell switch where the outputjack is normally located and a 3-way switch for choosing neckpu/both/bridgepu. Siderouted Input Jack.

- P-bass maple neck with Bubinga fretboard (I've also considered Ebony or Maple fretboard. At first I were thinking Brazilian Rosewood, but since export is controled under the CITES treaty, it's pretty much out of the question)

- Fender style headstock (but I have also been thinking about the warmoth angled headstock)

- Badass III string-trough bridge and Schaller BML tuners

I made a mockup in photoshop of how it might look:
magjagd.jpg


So what do you guys think?

Do you think this the right move for me?

what about my wood choices?

will it sound 'great'?
:rolleyes:

Any advice and toughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
#4
That looks awesome. The only thing I'd point out is that if you loved the P sound so much, you might want to consider adding a P pickup in the P position. Darkstars are great pickups, but they don't sound like a P...
 
#8
Thanks guys :)

Beej said:
That looks awesome. The only thing I'd point out is that if you loved the P sound so much, you might want to consider adding a P pickup in the P position. Darkstars are great pickups, but they don't sound like a P...
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, I do agree. And I have thought about it. But I kinda came to the conlusion that I'm eventually gonna get me P anyway and kinda looking for something a bit different for this project. What I meant, or atleast closer to what I was thinking when I wrote it, is that I really like how a P-bass feels and plays, and of course how it sounds. But I think what I really love about the P is that fundament the mass of the body and that huge neck gives. I may be off on this, but this is what my logic tells me. Of course the pickup contributes massively in beefiness and whatnot, but wouldn't a couple of j-style single coils in humcanceling mode wired in parallel do much of the same? Well I don't really know :p
Anyways, I would say that I'm more in love with the ric sound, or at least the sound other people make out of their rics. And I'm under the impression that Darkstars and rickenbacker pickups have many similarities. And also that Darkstars are very bright I'm thinking it might help even off all those dark sounding woods and maybe help with the articulation? But I dunno

mikeyswood said:
Can we get rid of the word "build" on these threads and replace them with the word "assembly" please?
Click to expand...

Sorry. I will get right to it. When I started writing the thread I had many other things I thought I'd take up, among other things having the bass custom built and going neck-trough, and had some questions about neck-trough contruction and tone. But as the post grew in size I decided to leave it out for some reason.

josbroek said:
i'd place a SD 1/4" in neck position for the growl and punchy and maybe a humbucker for the dark and warm
:)
Click to expand...

I will think about it. Haven't really ever heard a splitcoil in neck postion. But If were to have a set I would definitely go with some quarter pounders :D
Having a humbucker in the bridge position were actually something I was thinking about, but then I thought that a singlecoil in it bridge position has much to do with the way a ric sounds.

Another thing I was thinking about was doing that whole ric stereo outputs thing.
 
#13
The color of the body brought to mind 3 basses I used to have, Hagstrom Coronado, Guild Jetstar, and Fender Musicmaster/Jazzmaster(can't remember, was back in the 70's)....mainly the Jetstar though, same color, and I had the coronado pick-ups in the jetstar after the coronado neck got snapped.
 
#14
I've never seen a Coronado or a Jetstar. They look awsome, and I bet they sounded awsome too.
I really like the shape of that Jetstar, It's got whats cool with the SG/EB shape, but with the bold flowing 70's lines. very jazzlike
 
#17
Hello, GHI, from Isdalstø :)
well, that's the name of the post office, anyway, we're just outside the bigger and more famous town of Bergen. ;)

And Tom means that he has several of his basses in that area, more specifically in my house. I've got 5 Clement basses with a 6th on its way in as we speak. I guess Tom meant that if you were closer to me, it wouldn't be an impossible task for you to drop by my house and take a closer look at them. ;)
 

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