Some runners up
Lightwave
I think I'm in love
I can very honestly say that I have met a few groupies over the years who's panties, along with the rest of their clothes and their feedbag, are better off left on!
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Basses with the most control knobs and switches.
- Thread starter mettec
- Start date
I think I'm in love
I can very honestly say that I have met a few groupies over the years who's panties, along with the rest of their clothes and their feedbag, are better off left on!
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
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I love this thread; very inspiring! Not able to compete with Phil's Alembic YET, but it is an aspirational target for us. Our latest are probably worthy of the thread however. Wiring diagram is ugly but functional. Star grounding is overkill, but that's precisely why we do it. 
^--------------- LOVE! That airforce bass looks amazing. If you hit the shield switch does it kick in the afterburners?
6jase5
Mammogram is down but I'm working manually
This thread sort of 
in the face of the "the tone is in your fingers" crowd eh?
My next custom bass will have one volume knob and that's it. I would go in to shock trying to play any of the ones posted in this thread. Not putting down them down, but quite honestly the opposite of what I could deal with playing live.
in the face of the "the tone is in your fingers" crowd eh? My next custom bass will have one volume knob and that's it. I would go in to shock trying to play any of the ones posted in this thread. Not putting down them down, but quite honestly the opposite of what I could deal with playing live.
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
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That one just can't be real, but I love it! Comment is based on that F Bass being too expensive for anyone to mod it like that.
On the other hand, that's quite a pile of expensive knobs to make a picture as a gag.
Is it real???
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
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Thanks bk! Actually the black toggle flips on the afterburners (a Bartolini TC3 preamp). The covered switch is a master on/off to the jack but the afterburner idea is a great one for next time. The momentary push button could be used for that too, but its a currently machine gun effect.
The TC3 was initially intended as a gimmick - exactly as an afterburner type concept. It does not have active bass/treble - its boost only.
An unplanned benefit of the TC3 boost is that when the preamp is kicked on and both tone controls turned fully counterclockwise the volume is roughly equal to the tone controls wide open in passive mode. The make-up gain is really helpful on the bass-cut control.
I have heard of G&L bass owners using their passive tone controls this way (mentally thinking of and usingthem as boost rather than cut controls). Now I get it.
- Oct 7, 2000
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No, of course not. It's just the original knobs photoshopped randomly all over.
Doner Designs said:I love this thread; very inspiring! Not able to compete with Phil's Alembic YET, but it is an aspirational target for us. Our latest are probably worthy of the thread however. Wiring diagram is ugly but functional. Star grounding is overkill, but that's precisely why we do it.
The air force bass does look cool
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
This thread sort of
My next custom bass will have one volume knob and that's it. I would go in to shock trying to play any of the ones posted in this thread. Not putting down them down, but quite honestly the opposite of what I could deal with playing live.
Spoken like a true musician! My son says the same thing and, in my heart of hearts, as a player, I could be very happy playing a P bass wired straight to the house with no controls whatsoever. But as a hobbyist, more controls = more fun!
Reminds me of my younger days as an audio geek. Like many others I spent far more money on gear than on albums and more time perfecting the tone than just listening to music.
In those days I had a few test albums that got played over and over with different settings. Now I play Born Under a Bad Sign over and over on different gear with the dials in different positions. Some things never change.
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
We posted this previously without the labels. Here's what they all do along with a full story in eBass...
http://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/b...-designs-fight-back-air-force-theme-bass.html
http://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/b...-designs-fight-back-air-force-theme-bass.html
Phil Lesh playing his Alembic
If i remember correctly, his bass is a Guild Starfire Bass that Alembic completely overhauled!
He must get the exact tone anyone would want.
correct. he did own an alembic (or maybe a few), but the bass in the pic is indeed his modified guild.
Yeah, that thing appears everytime the discussion turns to knobosity.
But I do have a comment. WAY back in the dark ages I had a cheapo japanese short scale clone. Was called "Kingston" (Influnced by the "Kingston Trio" I presume...from that era
) It didn't even have a decal for a headstock logo just a paper sticker! Anyway, as a fun project I built this circuit board that consisted of a vibrato and a circuit that was supposed to simulate a Leslie rotating speaker and routed the back of the bass and installed it. Since bass was originally passive I added the needed battery box and made it active.
The problem, obviously was too many knobs as the circuit board had four of them. The solution was to rout the upper horn and put them in a row there much as seen in the photoshopped bass.
The point I'm trying to finally get around to making is that a row of knobs on the upper horn turned out to be an amazingly handy place to have them! The original circuit was quite interesting, but FAR too noisy by today's standards. But the point was that the upper horn makes a great location for knobosity!
I keep thinking one day I'll redo that circuit with modern low noise components but I never have. However, I can see the next generation of bassdom having a DSP inside with controls along the upper horn.
This thread sort of
My next custom bass will have one volume knob and that's it. I would go in to shock trying to play any of the ones posted in this thread. Not putting down them down, but quite honestly the opposite of what I could deal with playing live.
Are you sure you can handle a volume control? Better let the professionals deal with that (soundguy).
Nope, no sympathy here from me! Hey my main axes are G&L L2500 not only with K mod but push-pull OMG mode on treble knob.
I will say, however, that I DO understand the problem of knobosity playing live. Which is why I'm a big fan of Leo's idea of switches. It gives you just enough tone change to be worth it and yet you don't have to deal with "dialing" anything in.
I even hate dual volume controls because of the "dial-in" thing. So I've modded my SX Jazz bar-bass clones by removing the dual volumes and installing a rotary switch that gives me neck pickup only, both series, both parallel, bridge only, and mute. It's Leo's idea applied to a Jazz bass.
Yes, you can't "dial-in" a mix, but that was the original problem. Dig?
I did have to leave my Squier PJ vol/vol because a full up mix on that one isn't properly balanced.
