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From The Shuker site
. A while after that a friend of mine, Shaggy, was talking to JJ at the Hilton hotel in sheffield, JJ was sick of the lack of recognition he was recieiving from an 'american' company and the fact that he wasn't getting on with the instruments as a whole. He wanted a better service and a more superior instrument, preferabley built in the UK. He'd been down this route with a couple of english companies before and nothing even acceptable had come of it. Shaggy told him that he should speak to me and thats how it came about. The following week myself and shaggy made the trip to the Stranglers recording studio near Frome in Somerset, JJ explained what he wanted from a bass, what he liked and disliked from the two he played at the time, we had a few drinks.... and a great lunch the following day... although Shaggy was not impressed that baked beans were not on the menu to go with the pie at the gastro pub and that salad cream was not available to go with the beans....
So I went about making a bass that had the best of both, but also updating the design and trying to make improvements to really bring out his individual style and sound.
His 70's Precision sounded great, but weighed a ton. The 60's P was a nice weight, had a great feeling neck but lacked a little in the sound. Both basses weren't the easiest instruments to play, but JJ is a strong player, really digs in and gives the bass hell. So I knew it had to be quite robust !
I settled on a design that I thought was good, slightly changed the shape to make the curves more flowing, better access to the upper frets, my headstock shape,....heres the spec:
The ash is a heavy dense wood, great for a defined low end and crisp trebles, definitely the right wood for JJ's sound, but very heavy, so its used as a core wood with lighter swamp ash wings. Slightly thinner body too to reduce the weight.
The pickups are of course extremely important, they are custom wound to sound like a vintage P but with a higher output, a bit more aggressive sound.
The Gotoh bridge is a huge improvement on the original, well made. Heavy gauge baseplate, channels for the outer saddles aids stability
The control cavity is lined with copper sheet, soldered at each joint for improved shielding.
The tone cut removes a little more of the treble than on the original, giving a wider variety of sounds.
The neck is a single slab of rock maple, central is a two way truss rod which adjusts the neck in both planes. Its adjustable at the body end, a small cover in the scratchplate lifts out. Either side of the rod theres two lengths of carbon fibre that increase the strength on the neck immensely, making it very stable but also the properties of carbon fibre improve harmonic content, sustain and attack.
The Gotoh tuners are improved versions of the elephant ear tuner. They are also adjustable for gear friction, so zero backlash.
The satin finish on the neck feels musch less sticky than gloss.
The headstock has the Shuker bass logo and JJ decal. On the rear each is numbered and signed.
. A while after that a friend of mine, Shaggy, was talking to JJ at the Hilton hotel in sheffield, JJ was sick of the lack of recognition he was recieiving from an 'american' company and the fact that he wasn't getting on with the instruments as a whole. He wanted a better service and a more superior instrument, preferabley built in the UK. He'd been down this route with a couple of english companies before and nothing even acceptable had come of it. Shaggy told him that he should speak to me and thats how it came about. The following week myself and shaggy made the trip to the Stranglers recording studio near Frome in Somerset, JJ explained what he wanted from a bass, what he liked and disliked from the two he played at the time, we had a few drinks.... and a great lunch the following day... although Shaggy was not impressed that baked beans were not on the menu to go with the pie at the gastro pub and that salad cream was not available to go with the beans....
So I went about making a bass that had the best of both, but also updating the design and trying to make improvements to really bring out his individual style and sound.
His 70's Precision sounded great, but weighed a ton. The 60's P was a nice weight, had a great feeling neck but lacked a little in the sound. Both basses weren't the easiest instruments to play, but JJ is a strong player, really digs in and gives the bass hell. So I knew it had to be quite robust !
I settled on a design that I thought was good, slightly changed the shape to make the curves more flowing, better access to the upper frets, my headstock shape,....heres the spec:
The ash is a heavy dense wood, great for a defined low end and crisp trebles, definitely the right wood for JJ's sound, but very heavy, so its used as a core wood with lighter swamp ash wings. Slightly thinner body too to reduce the weight.
The pickups are of course extremely important, they are custom wound to sound like a vintage P but with a higher output, a bit more aggressive sound.
The Gotoh bridge is a huge improvement on the original, well made. Heavy gauge baseplate, channels for the outer saddles aids stability
The control cavity is lined with copper sheet, soldered at each joint for improved shielding.
The tone cut removes a little more of the treble than on the original, giving a wider variety of sounds.
The neck is a single slab of rock maple, central is a two way truss rod which adjusts the neck in both planes. Its adjustable at the body end, a small cover in the scratchplate lifts out. Either side of the rod theres two lengths of carbon fibre that increase the strength on the neck immensely, making it very stable but also the properties of carbon fibre improve harmonic content, sustain and attack.
The Gotoh tuners are improved versions of the elephant ear tuner. They are also adjustable for gear friction, so zero backlash.
The satin finish on the neck feels musch less sticky than gloss.
The headstock has the Shuker bass logo and JJ decal. On the rear each is numbered and signed.
From memory the greenburst bass was his recording bass. It has a big split in the body! I'm guessing it was an Olympic White '60s bass that got a nice rattlecan burst finish.
Perhaps there would be confusion as to which bass to honour him with? A bone stock late '70s black P bass, or the greenburst creation? How would you spec a JJ P bass beyond being a stock Fender product?
Thinking more laterally, was JJ Burnel and the Stranglers known in the US? The classic Stranglers output is the stuff they recorded with Hugh Cornwell, but I don't think they really did much in the US at the time. Instead they are maybe a bit of a cult band, straddling pub rock, pub rock and even goth rock a wee bit. They weren't as big as the Ramones, and perhaps not as iconic visually.
I'm glad that JJ gets a Shuker sig bass. It is arguably closer to what he wants than the compromise Fender would offer.
This is my favourite thing by the Stranglers:
Perhaps there would be confusion as to which bass to honour him with? A bone stock late '70s black P bass, or the greenburst creation? How would you spec a JJ P bass beyond being a stock Fender product?
Thinking more laterally, was JJ Burnel and the Stranglers known in the US? The classic Stranglers output is the stuff they recorded with Hugh Cornwell, but I don't think they really did much in the US at the time. Instead they are maybe a bit of a cult band, straddling pub rock, pub rock and even goth rock a wee bit. They weren't as big as the Ramones, and perhaps not as iconic visually.
I'm glad that JJ gets a Shuker sig bass. It is arguably closer to what he wants than the compromise Fender would offer.
This is my favourite thing by the Stranglers:
Because it would just be a standard precision bass? He's a great player but there wasn't anything unique about his bass.
That didn't stop them making a Dee Dee Ramone bass, in fairness, but your point stands. The temptation would probably be to make a JJ Burnell P bass with a really hot, overwound pickup as well, which wouldn't be right.
JJ Burnell did have an unusual DIY finish on his early Stranglers bass. It was at some sort of Stranglers exhibition a few years back and apparently it had high action and a split body. Probably not worth recreating that sort of damage.
That didn't stop them making a Dee Dee Ramone bass, in fairness, but your point stands. The temptation would probably be to make a JJ Burnell P bass with a really hot, overwound pickup as well, which wouldn't be right.
JJ Burnell did have an unusual DIY finish on his early Stranglers bass. It was at some sort of Stranglers exhibition a few years back and apparently it had high action and a split body. Probably not worth recreating that sort of damage.
True, but from a marketing standpoint, it's probably easier for them to sell a standard P "Ramones" bass than a lot of other artists.
Hugh had painted the bass in that burst finish before he gave it to Jean JacquesThat didn't stop them making a Dee Dee Ramone bass, in fairness, but your point stands. The temptation would probably be to make a JJ Burnell P bass with a really hot, overwound pickup as well, which wouldn't be right.
JJ Burnell did have an unusual DIY finish on his early Stranglers bass. It was at some sort of Stranglers exhibition a few years back and apparently it had high action and a split body. Probably not worth recreating that sort of damage.
The owner of this rig no longer has it.....He said he was pigeonholed by sounding like JJ all the time...Haha
