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Extended Range Bass (Club??) Thread

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#181
john turner said:
koa certainly is sweet. my 8 string fretless is flamed koa. very nice. i love it.
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Yeah man, i haddnt really known about Koa untill it was offered to me as one of the in stock selections for the top of my bass. Dude, i fell in love with it as soon as i layed eyes on it. It kinda reminded me of the wood off the back of a violin. But this wood doesnt need wood stain or nuthin. I'm really happy about it. Originally, i had asked for a buckeye top, but Fred at Bee Basses told me he refuses to work with buckeye wood ever again.... :atoz:

i guess that leaves room to get another custom build in the works. I'm thinking of going with SEI BASSES for the buckeye ERB. ;)

John, can you do me a favor and post a pic of your Koa ERB??? That would be swell. :cool:
 
#182
sure :) had to toss in my fretted walnut 8 in too, (they get jealous of one another).

cool thing about koa is that it has a sort of "velvet" look to it - darker or lighter depending on the light. i have another pic of the 8 from different angles, i'll see if i can find it.

another thing about koa is it is heavy. my fretless 8 is my heaviest bass - 16 pounds. solid koa body, with wenge and bubinga neck.
 

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#184
john turner said:
sure :) had to toss in my fretted walnut 8 in too, (they get jealous of one another).

cool thing about koa is that it has a sort of "velvet" look to it - darker or lighter depending on the light. i have another pic of the 8 from different angles, i'll see if i can find it.

another thing about koa is it is heavy. my fretless 8 is my heaviest bass - 16 pounds. solid koa body, with wenge and bubinga neck.
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HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!:eek: Them be some baaaaaad mamajamaz!!

The more angles the better! :cool: Man i hope my Bee looks even half as sweet as your koa! Your Koa bass is solid body wings, right?
 
#188
john turner said:
heh. i have it tuned weirdly (e-a-d-g-c-e-a), so i don't end up playing it often.
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Wild tuning man, if i had a choice i wouldnt be playing that tuning too often either, unless i'm like, crazy bored and want to noodle around with trying to figure all that out, and make it sound good lol :D

Those angle pics of that koa all look like different basses! Velvety effect indeed! Hope you find a pic of your other koa bass!:ninja:
 
#189
this one wasn't built for me - i bought it off ebay about 10 years ago. it's one of bill's first 7 strings (serial number 6) . my first conklin was an unlined fretless 7 i got in '93, serial number 16, so seeing this one available on the bay was a treat.

the koa is a lot more brown and less orange than my 8 string.
 

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#190
john turner said:
this one wasn't built for me - i bought it off ebay about 10 years ago. it's one of bill's first 7 strings (serial number 6) . my first conklin was an unlined fretless 7 i got in '93, serial number 16, so seeing this one available on the bay was a treat.

the koa is a lot more brown and less orange than my 8 string.
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sweet! #006:smug: Does it have a year writen on the bass?

Even the plainest of koa have a sweet natural sheen to the wood. That wood pops and shines in light at certain angles.

I wanna get koa tuning heads made for me but i dont know who to go too to get that done...... any suggestions?
 
#194
john turner said:
do you mean tuning keys? i don't know - maybe fred could cut you some from the leftovers from your top.
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I wish, Freds a one man operation and i bet the demise of the world that he couldnt find the time to stray away to get something like that done for me. lol. :rollno:

This is what i mean by "tuning heads", but made for my bass.
 

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#199
Brian7StringNY said:
Ed...

I visited your page...I am in love with your FBB fret less 8. Can I get more details?
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Much to my extreme disappointment, that is not my bass ... :bawl:. I have been trying to locate that particular bass for well over two years now, last I heard it was in Europe somewhere. This is FBB #1025-00

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The bass was originally built for Jorg Schroeder in 2000. At some point Jorg sold it and eventually it made its way to the LowEnd where it was sold again. There was one other US owner and then it dropped off into the overseas abyss ... I have been unable to locate it since.

But here are some details on the axe:

8 string fretless Player body style, 35" scale. The body is ziricote over honduras mahogany with a neck thru 7 piece maple/purpleheart neck. The fingerboard is gaboon ebony.
Last I heard it had Bartolini electronics (both pickups and preamp). Closer shot of the body:

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I'm currently playing a prototype fretless 8 that is very similar in appearance to that FBB, but unfortunately the local builder I'm "test-dummy-ing" the bass for is having some issues with various portions of the build. He's currently on version #3 of the prototype .... I can't post a pic of it (at his request) until the issues are straightened out, and I respectfully have agreed to honor his request. Primary problems are with the neck taper and balance of the bass, plus it's kind of rough around the edges.

As some of you may know, Matt Schmill @ FBB is very backlogged with custom builds and has pretty much closed nearly all intake for the rest of this year. I was initially going to have Matt build me a copy of #1025, but that'll be on hold for a while ....

If anyone ever come across FBB #1025 please let me know where it is ... perhaps I can entice the owner to let her go ... :cool:
 
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