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chris larkin club

#61
Papazita said:
+1! :bassist:

I kinda feel guilty for not drooling over a Skjold, what with Pete living only a few minutes from me...but I've never owned or even played a Skjold.

Chris' work, I'm familiar with.

If I recall the conversation correctly, I believe that's a Chris Larkin fretless being played by Bob Daisley on Ozzy Osbourne's "Goodbye To Romance." Well...if you can find an original recording that Sharon didnt have Bob's lines re-recorded on! :rollno:
Other than that, I don't know of any major recordings with Chris' basses. I know Del Palmer has quite a few, so maybe there's some Larkin basses on Kate Bush's albums, but I dont know...
Click to expand...

Don't know about recordings, but Jethro Tull's bassist has a 6er ABG by Chris, it seems.

4010108606_53145de3e0.jpg



Oh yeah, go for the wineburst! :D
 
#62
emjazz said:
At this point in my life I have a good friend who makes anything that I need. He just finished a 6 for me last year and it's incredible. However, it's really good to see that a smaller luthier from across the pond is being talked about here, especially someone who's been doing it as long as Chris has. I'd love to see someone like him become more recognized over here, although there is something to be said for building up your clientele close by, as long as it can support your business and family.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see a small luthier like Chris break though across the pond but the thing is the people who own one are so few and far between that no-one else in the wider bass playing community knows him so, it's not like they take no notice of him, it's just that they generally have so many cool luthiers available in their area that he just gets passed by.

As I said. It's fair enough but I personally would just like to spread the work about him:)
 
#65
I know that there are Chris Larkin instruments played on some of the Kate Bush albums. The bassist from Jethro Tull and Van Morrisson uses these too.
With all the "dodgy" luthiers out there I must say it is always a pleausure to work with Chris. He always delivers and he answers your mail or any question you have within 24 hours. Getting a custom made bass is always an ongoing process for me so I really appreciate that in a luthier compared to all the luthiers who keep their customers in the blue by not not answering mails etc. Beside of that Chris's basses gives best value for the money, - they are perfectly made, sound good and is very reliable!
 
#68
Papazita said:
Chris, any chance of digging up the specs on this beauty?
Call me crazy and irresponsible (he knows why! :p), but it looks like I can bring it to the US for less than $1800!

Looks like it has the old Citronic circuit, too...
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay on this. Been a bit busy.

Without the serial number I cannot be more specific than to say that it must be a post 1991 bass (Citronic circuit), looks like a quilted maple top over mahogany with a maple/mahogany neck and rosewood board - very typical of it's time and almost certainly 35" scale. Armstrong pickups wide spaced and Schaller hardware.

The story on the wonderful Citronic circuit is that in 1990 my booth at Frankfurt was close to that of Citronic who, at that time, were a UK company that specialised in disco gear for pro DJs. During the fair I sold an Irish walnut electric guitar to Mike who owned the company. When he got it back to the UK he opened it up, looked at how it was wired and suggested that he could supply me with a circuitboard to reduce the amount of soldering required to fit the components. I wasn't into this but suggested that we work on something else that I wanted - my own EQ. So I got to work with Ian Wilson the tech at Citronic and we designed the 3 band EQ with active/passive switch(the bass would work if there was no battery power), continuous passive tone and modular EQ units that sat on the motherboard and could be exchanged in less than a minute. Also the daughterboards (EQ units) could be easily adjusted with a few component changes to alter the frequencies to suit the customer or the useage. I never heard anyone complain about this EQ and I loved it to bits.

Mike supplied these units to me for years and then he sold the company to a Korean firm who shut the UK factory (lots of jobs gone), moved production to Korea and just sent container loads of product to the UK for sales and distribution. I asked them about making the EQs for me but they were only interested in large quantities that I couldn't afford to deal in so that was the end of the most musical EQ I ever tried.

I still have one complete motherboard with the stage and studio daughterboards (never to be used!) as well as a few daughterboards which I can hardwire into an EQ circuit but I don't advertise this fact! I also have all the schematics so, in theory, this EQ could arise again if I ever had enough money to have the pcb's made up and assembled.

emjazz, thanks for the welcome. My business is very much export based - only about 10% of my instruments sell in Ireland. Until the dollar became weak I had a reasonable market in the USA for guitars (electric and acoustic) as well as the basses. Hopefully, when the world sorts out it's finances, I'll be back there again but for the moment my stuff looks expensive in dollar terms.

My pleasure John and Pamela. It's a great story. And your head is not fat!
 
#70
Chris Larkin said:
The story on the wonderful Citronic circuit is that in 1990 my booth at Frankfurt was close to that of Citronic who, at that time, were a UK company that specialised in disco gear for pro DJs. During the fair I sold an Irish walnut electric guitar to Mike who owned the company. When he got it back to the UK he opened it up, looked at how it was wired and suggested that he could supply me with a circuitboard to reduce the amount of soldering required to fit the components. I wasn't into this but suggested that we work on something else that I wanted - my own EQ. So I got to work with Ian Wilson the tech at Citronic and we designed the 3 band EQ with active/passive switch(the bass would work if there was no battery power), continuous passive tone and modular EQ units that sat on the motherboard and could be exchanged in less than a minute. Also the daughterboards (EQ units) could be easily adjusted with a few component changes to alter the frequencies to suit the customer or the useage. I never heard anyone complain about this EQ and I loved it to bits.

Mike supplied these units to me for years and then he sold the company to a Korean firm who shut the UK factory (lots of jobs gone), moved production to Korea and just sent container loads of product to the UK for sales and distribution. I asked them about making the EQs for me but they were only interested in large quantities that I couldn't afford to deal in so that was the end of the most musical EQ I ever tried.

I still have one complete motherboard with the stage and studio daughterboards (never to be used!) as well as a few daughterboards which I can hardwire into an EQ circuit but I don't advertise this fact! I also have all the schematics so, in theory, this EQ could arise again if I ever had enough money to have the pcb's made up and assembled.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for that Citronic preamp. I have a custom Reacter 5'er with one. VERY clean preamp. Extremely usable. I usually use it to dial in a a lightly hyped "modern" sound then toggle between passive and active. In active mode, there it doesn't sound....choked?.... like some preamps do. Really nice bass and treble control. My instrument is thick enough that I find myself not using the mid knob, but it work squite well also. At least I used to use it that way. A "tech" was cleaning a dirty knob out for me and managed to disconnect some wires in my bass. :scowl: I've been using it passive lately till I manage to figure out how it all wires up. Been down for a while now, but I've had pressing issues on the double bass front that have distracted my attention till now. Time to get that baby wired up correctly again!

I really can't fathom why Larkins aren't more well known that they are. This is the only bass I've ever held on to for longer than a year or so that is 35" scale. Normally I can't do that scale length, but this bass keeps me making "just one more crack" at it.
 
#74
Chris, did you ever consider getting John East to make a version of your Citronic preamp? Perhaps ye could come to sort of agreement where you have your own bespoke that John makes for only your instruments and then John sells a more pared down version for himself. Just an idea but I know he does a similar deal with Alan of ACG basses with his filter based pre.
 
#75
cgordonfreeman said:
Chris, did you ever consider getting John East to make a version of your Citronic preamp? Perhaps ye could come to sort of agreement where you have your own bespoke that John makes for only your instruments and then John sells a more pared down version for himself. Just an idea but I know he does a similar deal with Alan of ACG basses with his filter based pre.
Click to expand...

A preamp which, ironically, I was considering using in the next bass I wanted...

I'm still bummed that I can't get any sort of response form that shop in Antwerp. :atoz:
Loads of great basses in there; not just the one of Chris'.
 
#77
cgordonfreeman said:
Chris, did you ever consider getting John East to make a version of your Citronic preamp? Perhaps ye could come to sort of agreement where you have your own bespoke that John makes for only your instruments and then John sells a more pared down version for himself. Just an idea but I know he does a similar deal with Alan of ACG basses with his filter based pre.
Click to expand...

It's an idea John. I have a good relationship with John East and I can talk to him about it. An alternative would be to look for somebody to print the pcb's for me and then add the components myself as I need them. Ideally the pcb's should be flow soldered - something that needs the facilities of a specialist and this would require a large order which would involve a considerable investment by me to get a decent price. At the moment that is not possible.

One of the (many) problems of being a small custom producer is that it is very expensive to get 'one off' items made. I can do a lot of stuff myself but there are some areas where I have no expertise or the necessary tools and I have to contract out. Larger producers have the resources to order in bulk which reduces their costs.

I am lucky in that many suppliers give me deals that my business with them should not logically deserve!
 
#78
Chris Larkin said:
Sorry for the delay on this. Been a bit busy.

Without the serial number I cannot be more specific than to say that it must be a post 1991 bass (Citronic circuit), looks like a quilted maple top over mahogany with a maple/mahogany neck and rosewood board - very typical of it's time and almost certainly 35" scale. Armstrong pickups wide spaced and Schaller hardware.

The story on the wonderful Citronic circuit is that in 1990 my booth at Frankfurt was close to that of Citronic who, at that time, were a UK company that specialised in disco gear for pro DJs. During the fair I sold an Irish walnut electric guitar to Mike who owned the company. When he got it back to the UK he opened it up, looked at how it was wired and suggested that he could supply me with a circuitboard to reduce the amount of soldering required to fit the components. I wasn't into this but suggested that we work on something else that I wanted - my own EQ. So I got to work with Ian Wilson the tech at Citronic and we designed the 3 band EQ with active/passive switch(the bass would work if there was no battery power), continuous passive tone and modular EQ units that sat on the motherboard and could be exchanged in less than a minute. Also the daughterboards (EQ units) could be easily adjusted with a few component changes to alter the frequencies to suit the customer or the useage. I never heard anyone complain about this EQ and I loved it to bits.

Mike supplied these units to me for years and then he sold the company to a Korean firm who shut the UK factory (lots of jobs gone), moved production to Korea and just sent container loads of product to the UK for sales and distribution. I asked them about making the EQs for me but they were only interested in large quantities that I couldn't afford to deal in so that was the end of the most musical EQ I ever tried.

I still have one complete motherboard with the stage and studio daughterboards (never to be used!) as well as a few daughterboards which I can hardwire into an EQ circuit but I don't advertise this fact! I also have all the schematics so, in theory, this EQ could arise again if I ever had enough money to have the pcb's made up and assembled.

emjazz, thanks for the welcome. My business is very much export based - only about 10% of my instruments sell in Ireland. Until the dollar became weak I had a reasonable market in the USA for guitars (electric and acoustic) as well as the basses. Hopefully, when the world sorts out it's finances, I'll be back there again but for the moment my stuff looks expensive in dollar terms.

My pleasure John and Pamela. It's a great story. And your head is not fat!
Click to expand...

Hello Chris,

Wow that does sound like a musical preamp! I use the John East stuff and there are several things with both your old preamp and the East pres that I wouldn't want to be without.

BTW, I love the six acoustic bass! Just beautiful! I remember becoming aware of you in the early nineties and have always liked your designs. I hope you have continued success in the coming years.

Pete Skjold
 
#79
I preferred the "studio" board with my Citronic pre. There was a very subtle (to my ears) difference in tone over the "stage" board that I really liked, and the shorter battery life with the studio board was so negligible for me that it wasn't an issue.

Man...the more I think about my old bass, the more I really miss it! :(
 
#80
Hi Pete. Thanks. Looked at your site and liked what I saw too.

Was talking to a guy yesterday who has a friend who works with pcbs and we are exploring the possibility of getting the stage module of the Citronic re-worked as a stand-alone pre-amp. Basically the circuitry 'potted' in epoxy with wires coming out to be hard wired to pots. It would be different to the original in that there would not be a motherboard with all the pots already attached so the opportunity to change modules would not be there but it would still have the sound of the original and, free from the motherboard, could be fitted into spaces where the pot spacing was different.

You guys have focussed my mind on this, and the coincidence of that focus and meeting the guy yesterday, have kicked the idea forward. Thanks and I'll keep you informed if anything comes of it.
 

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