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Nice. I have a walnut SCB from cliff. I was thinking the grain would be a shame to do a double cut shape with.
This is gonna be a beaut!
Just another excuse to post mine:
That is one of my favorite tops @LowWay
I'm down with show your Walnut.
I have always wanted a cedar back bass with a walnut top. I think Keith Roscoe use to use this wood combo a lot back in the day. Especially with a Purple Heart accent!
-ScottM
- May 20, 2002
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Spanish Cedar is the body wood going under my new top.
We're both going to be rocking the Paduak in the necks. I'm doing a paduak wenge combo.
I've used Spanish Cedar as a body wood before too. It makes for a beautiful wood just as much as it does as a great tone wood.
-ScottM
- May 20, 2002
- 1,385
- 1,229
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- Provided content for Genzler Amplification
The Mahogany back and Wenge' thick middle accent layer of my future bass.
-ScottM
Okay, I don't know why I didn't think to post here earlier... Build #3 coming, with a bit of a story.
Earlier this year, I sold my Stambaugh fretless 5 and bought a EBMM Stingray 5HH fretless from the custom shop. Beautiful bass, light, sounds great... but I had the realization the 'Ray fretless tone was not the holy grail tone I thought I was seeking (it's still ultimately the Wal fretless tone, but I'm not gonna pull the frets out of my Wal 5 and there's no way in hell I'm waiting 3+ years and over 10k for a Wal fretless). I like it, but... it doesn't sound like my Bordwell fretless 6. The Bordy has tons of mwah, and a lot of aggressiveness... when I had Cliff build that, I told him to keep the Wal in mind. I didn't build a Wal-alike like he just did... went with the Nordy Big Blademans (Blademen?)
I was playing the 5'er 'Ray for a while, enjoying it, hadn't picked up the 6 for a bit, but when I did... ouch. Such a contrast. That was the tone I'd wanted all along, I coulda had Cliff build me another one like the 6 for not much more than the price of the 'Ray. So after agonizing over it for a while, even considering the state of the world/nation and how it is clearly not going to get better, with all that, I threw caution to the wind and reached out to Cliff, essentially asking me if he could nail that same tone again in a 5. So here we are. One can't face the apocalypse without proper fretless tone, right?
Specs/mockup:
Spanish cedar body, Nordy BigBlademen and 3 band pre. I went with the special JC-3b on the six (as it was made for Justin Chancellor - I'm not into his particular Wal tone but it is still a Wal). I realized I didn't use most of the special features on the JC - I never use parallel, or the mid boost, so after talking to Nordstrand, we were able to put together a 3 band pre that has the tonal characteristics of the JC without the other stuff I don't use).
Spalted Maple top, 2-tone Katalox fingerboard (see below), chrome hardware. I'm also continuing a piece of katalox through the center (so it kind of looks like a neck-through).
17 mm spacing
3 position toggle for each pickup : left/right coil tap and full bucker, so I'll have more versatility than the six. I was kind of limited with what I could do with the JC pre.
D shape - I wanted something a bit more mild than my McNeeely/Ball hybrid shapes on my 6ers)
I chose the Katalox, as it's just as hard as ebony, but it had a blonde streak across the top (see pics). I'm going to have Cliff put tiny 1/8 lines up there, like I had on my Stambaugh. It'll be done in February.
I may still keep the 'Ray. It's kinda sweet, and it's still really versatile. I can see using it when I don't want such an aggressive fretless sound:
Top:
B
Bad mockup I did in photoshop. Pickup covers won't be cottonwood like this, probably just plain maple)
Fingerboard wood (the part I have circled is when I asked Cliff if that was going to be visible - thankfully, no, he said it was just unplaned):
Earlier this year, I sold my Stambaugh fretless 5 and bought a EBMM Stingray 5HH fretless from the custom shop. Beautiful bass, light, sounds great... but I had the realization the 'Ray fretless tone was not the holy grail tone I thought I was seeking (it's still ultimately the Wal fretless tone, but I'm not gonna pull the frets out of my Wal 5 and there's no way in hell I'm waiting 3+ years and over 10k for a Wal fretless). I like it, but... it doesn't sound like my Bordwell fretless 6. The Bordy has tons of mwah, and a lot of aggressiveness... when I had Cliff build that, I told him to keep the Wal in mind. I didn't build a Wal-alike like he just did... went with the Nordy Big Blademans (Blademen?)
I was playing the 5'er 'Ray for a while, enjoying it, hadn't picked up the 6 for a bit, but when I did... ouch. Such a contrast. That was the tone I'd wanted all along, I coulda had Cliff build me another one like the 6 for not much more than the price of the 'Ray. So after agonizing over it for a while, even considering the state of the world/nation and how it is clearly not going to get better, with all that, I threw caution to the wind and reached out to Cliff, essentially asking me if he could nail that same tone again in a 5. So here we are. One can't face the apocalypse without proper fretless tone, right?
Specs/mockup:
Spanish cedar body, Nordy BigBlademen and 3 band pre. I went with the special JC-3b on the six (as it was made for Justin Chancellor - I'm not into his particular Wal tone but it is still a Wal). I realized I didn't use most of the special features on the JC - I never use parallel, or the mid boost, so after talking to Nordstrand, we were able to put together a 3 band pre that has the tonal characteristics of the JC without the other stuff I don't use).
Spalted Maple top, 2-tone Katalox fingerboard (see below), chrome hardware. I'm also continuing a piece of katalox through the center (so it kind of looks like a neck-through).
17 mm spacing
3 position toggle for each pickup : left/right coil tap and full bucker, so I'll have more versatility than the six. I was kind of limited with what I could do with the JC pre.
D shape - I wanted something a bit more mild than my McNeeely/Ball hybrid shapes on my 6ers)
I chose the Katalox, as it's just as hard as ebony, but it had a blonde streak across the top (see pics). I'm going to have Cliff put tiny 1/8 lines up there, like I had on my Stambaugh. It'll be done in February.
I may still keep the 'Ray. It's kinda sweet, and it's still really versatile. I can see using it when I don't want such an aggressive fretless sound:
Top:
Bad mockup I did in photoshop. Pickup covers won't be cottonwood like this, probably just plain maple)
Fingerboard wood (the part I have circled is when I asked Cliff if that was going to be visible - thankfully, no, he said it was just unplaned):
Last edited:
Yeah, it was sort of easy in the sense that I knew what I wanted it to sound like and what was needed. Hardest part was picking the top wood. I sometimes get a bit self-conscious of the 'coffee-table bass' aesthetic and was gonna go for something more subtle. But you know how that goes when you start seeing all those gorgeous wood tops Cliff has.
I thought about it on this one. But apart from the cost it would add, I really love the sound of my 6 with the Blademen. It's not exactly the Wal, but it has a lot of the fundamental characteristics in the tone/timbre that are close enough to make me really happy.
- May 20, 2002
- 1,385
- 1,229
- Disclosures
- Provided content for Genzler Amplification
- May 20, 2002
- 1,385
- 1,229
- Disclosures
- Provided content for Genzler Amplification
Really curious to see how the Katalox fingerboard goes. I have been interested in possibly having Cliff build something with that wood species for some time now.
