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David Minnieweather fretless question

AudioDwebe

AudioDwebe

Guest
Dec 21, 2011
888
805
Pacific Northwest
#1
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Hey all, I need your help.

Firstly, if anyone recognizes this bass and has any info to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

This bass is the first I've come across without a truss rod in a wooden necked bass. The neck construction is wenge and purple heart with a rosewood fretboard. It's a 34" scale with 27 frets. It has a single Bartolini pickup with a non-adjustable bridge.

I'm assuming the neck has some sort of metal in there, as it feels heavy and I cannot imagine wood alone being able to handle the stress of the strings.

So...anybody have any info either on this bass in particular or necks like this, in general?

Thanks.
 
#4
This thing sounds quite amazing. A broad range of tonal colors are available with its single passive pup and active electronics. It really is a terrific sounding fretless.

The only issue - and it's huge to me - is it fits my playing position horribly. I cannot get it comfortable no matter the strap length.

It feels like David designed this bass for the player who likes his bass position almost horizontally. Also, the headstock feels further away from the body than my preferance.

It sucks, really. I love the sound, but feel like I'm constantly fighting it.
 
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#7
It is the bass from Bass NW and I have to decide by today whether or not to keep it.

The bass actually looks like my fotos.

I don't know if there is a truss rod if I remove the neck. I was hoping that someone would have personal, hands-on knowledge about this bass.

I've read about basses that require the neck to be removed before making adjustments to the truss rod. What a PITA! Why would a luthier build a bass in that way? Is there an advantage of some sort?
 
#8
AudioDwebe said:
It is the bass from Bass NW and I have to decide by today whether or not to keep it.

The bass actually looks like my fotos.

I don't know if there is a truss rod if I remove the neck. I was hoping that someone would have personal, hands-on knowledge about this bass.

I've read about basses that require the neck to be removed before making adjustments to the truss rod. What a PITA! Why would a luthier build a bass in that way? Is there an advantage of some sort?
Click to expand...

Supposedly the truss rod is more stable down there and the headstock is potentially more stable because there's much less routing. Keep in mind that Fender still does this. If the bass is nice, a luthier could always rout out a little channel near the truss rod.
 
#10
I have a David Minnieweather fretless bass as well, and I wish I could tell you more about it but I just bought it used. My bass uses many of the same woods (wenge/purpleheart neck and rosewood fingerboard). I am just excited to have found someone else who owns one of his wonderful basses. Here is a video of me playing it
 

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