Custom Basses

[Max Vartanian]

Drew up a custom bass
specs:
Body: Basswood
Neck: Maple (including headstock)
Fretboard: rosewood
# of frets: 24
Pickups: Dual EMG's
Bridge: BB-3B
Tuning Knobs: TMB4 #025
Colors body can be:
Red, Cobalt Blue, Piano Black, And White.
Feel free to post your own ideas for a custom bass

 

[Malak the Mad]

Going for the "Best Bass For Metal" award, ain'tcha Max?

And if we're bandying around ideas for our own custom jobs, then I'll bite. Having put together two parts-basses and explored a handful of personal criteria, mine would definitely have the following;

• Jazz body (I'm a bit of a "tone-wood skeptic", so I'm not too picky. As long as it's on the lighter side, all is good.)
• Rosewood fretboard on a '70s-style Jazz neck (1.5" nut width, curvier 7.25" fretboard radius, a little thicker front-to-back)
• Babicz full-contact bridge (Such a cool-lookin' invention!)
• Hipshot Drop-D tuner
• Santellan Sounds series/parallel tone control wiring harness (Seriously! Link Removed Neat stuff!!)
• Matched, painted headstock!!

The last thing would be two different pickguards and some very specific routing underneath it. And I'm not talking about color or style of the guard either. I mean, one guard would be cut for a Precision pickup in the classic "sweet spot" and the other for a Jazz pickup. The routing would allow for one or the other to be installed at my whim, while the pickguard would cover up the additional routing. It would also have the extra benefit of shaving off an ounce or two of body-weight.

As far as color goes, I'm leaning towards a metallic pewter, same as the first bass I ever wanted to own, a Squier Standard P-Bass Special. The only difference would be a glossy-but-tough polyurethane coating, unlike the satin treatment the original has.

 

[Nephilymbass]

If i had 10 grand right now...

Conklin 36 fret 7 string f#-C with delano sbc quad coils. Aguilar pre. Black and gold Hipshot hardware. Ash body with a really nice flamed maple top. Neck would be wenge and bubinga with ebony board. For finish is want the entire bass dyed black. Then the top sanded back a little and thensome turquoise blue dye just on the top. Kind of a prs double dye type of vibe. Brass nut and bronze frets but unlike my warwicks i prefer the smaller fret size of my conklin gt7. Id probably go 35" scale to help the low f# out some more.

Really other than finish its not a far stretch from my modded gt7. Electronic wise nearly identical. The 36 frets would be the biggest difference but as i nearly always play standing up the oddness of sitting down with it wouldn't be a big issue and i guess id like to think the bigger cutaway would reduce the weight a little and allow me to tap a little higher with my right hand. Without dealing with unwound strings that don't cut through a band mix.