Chef
In Memoriam
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Getting beautiful custom 5-string '51 P-bass built
- Thread starter stflbn
- Start date
you took time to write this, rather than take time to plug it in and wail on it...????
I'm at work. It's sitting here in it's case in my office taunting me. I'm refusing to take the day or afternoon off. Inner strength is my friend today at least.
dude, that's really awesome and absolutely gorgeous, congrats!
be sure to post a vid or soundclips, i'd love to hear what it sounds like!
and, just out of curiosity, how much did it cost you in the end?
be sure to post a vid or soundclips, i'd love to hear what it sounds like!
and, just out of curiosity, how much did it cost you in the end?
Chef
In Memoriam
With all of the tricking out, Fat Stack Nordy, real shell inlayes, neck inserts, birdseye, custom finish, slab rather than standard contoured body, different wiring schemes, etc it's right at $3250.
IMHO rod's building some cool things that are able to do both vintage or modern vibes very well, and with some of the models being able to do both, as is the case with mine. Which is what is was designed and tweaked to do. Chef's '51P was kind of the grandfather of the heritage series, so I guess this makes mine the tweaked out pole dancing Mother of the series.
Here's the specs for a standard Heritage Plus Extreme which runs $2495
Link Removed
- Select Swamp Ash body with forearm & tummy contour, 3/8″R edge round over
- Eastern Maple 21-fret neck, 16″R Birdseye fretboard, 5 in-line tuners, zero-fret, vintage tint satin finish
- 1-7/8″ nut width
- Nordstrand custom 5-string SCPB (neck) + Big Single (bridge) pickups
- Nordstrand 2-band 18v pre-amp (Vol – Blend – DPT (pull passive) – active Bass/Treble)
- Hipshot Ultralight tuners, clover keys
- Hipshot bridge
- Chrome hardware
- Pickguard
- Soft case included
IMHO rod's building some cool things that are able to do both vintage or modern vibes very well, and with some of the models being able to do both, as is the case with mine. Which is what is was designed and tweaked to do. Chef's '51P was kind of the grandfather of the heritage series, so I guess this makes mine the tweaked out pole dancing Mother of the series.
Here's the specs for a standard Heritage Plus Extreme which runs $2495
Link Removed
- Select Swamp Ash body with forearm & tummy contour, 3/8″R edge round over
- Eastern Maple 21-fret neck, 16″R Birdseye fretboard, 5 in-line tuners, zero-fret, vintage tint satin finish
- 1-7/8″ nut width
- Nordstrand custom 5-string SCPB (neck) + Big Single (bridge) pickups
- Nordstrand 2-band 18v pre-amp (Vol – Blend – DPT (pull passive) – active Bass/Treble)
- Hipshot Ultralight tuners, clover keys
- Hipshot bridge
- Chrome hardware
- Pickguard
- Soft case included
I was hoping that you had the BIG metal flakes sprayed on your bass.Beautiful either way!!Love that f/board!!
No, I'm not that flashy. I wanted something unique and distinctive that was capable of being modern and punchy sounding, but also capable of being vintage sounding while visually "at home" playing tunes at some of the clubs down on Broadway in Nashville.
We'll see how it does as I've not 'heard' the bass plugged in yet. :-0
We'll see how it does as I've not 'heard' the bass plugged in yet. :-0
That would be the Heritage Plus 4
Heritage Plus® 4
- Select Swamp Ash body with forearm & tummy contour, 3/8″R edge round over
- Eastern Maple 21-fret neck, 12″R Birdseye fretboard, vintage tint satin finish
- Choice of 1-1/2″ or 1-5/8″ nut width (1-5/8″ standard)
- Nordstrand SCPB (neck) + Big Single (bridge) pickups
- Hipshot Ultralight tuners, clover keys
- Hipshot Type B bridge
- Chrome hardware
- Pickguard
- Vol/Vol + Tone controls
- Soft case included
And... just FYI...
NONE of the photo's in this thread do justice to this bass. I'm booked heavy this weekend but will try to get a full photo shoot done on it possibly next week. Along with some sound clips of the different pickup configurations, etc.
This one's the closest to the real vibe of the bass, but it's lacking a depth and character the real bass has:
Invalid Link Removed
NONE of the photo's in this thread do justice to this bass. I'm booked heavy this weekend but will try to get a full photo shoot done on it possibly next week. Along with some sound clips of the different pickup configurations, etc.
This one's the closest to the real vibe of the bass, but it's lacking a depth and character the real bass has:
Invalid Link Removed
That's an in-production photo that's a couple weeks old before final setup and such was done to it.
It has DR Sunbeams on it now. I may try Sadowsky Flats on it also.
It has DR Sunbeams on it now. I may try Sadowsky Flats on it also.
Played the bass for about 4 hours last night. Started the process of getting to know it and it's primary tones, then where other tones lay in it's many knobs.
Thusfar I'm very very impressed.
Being a player who has done his own setups for years and comfortable doing so I chose to tweak a few things. The action was actually a bit lower than my preference when it arrived... just slightly. So I flattened the neck just a bit (about a quarter turn) and then adjusted the string heights for my preferences and how I play, intonation after those changes, etc. Some of the need for this may likely have came from the basses quick travel from Seattle area to Nashville area. We'll see how it settles in after this slight change.
One thing I was not used to was a neck with an overhang of a couple frets. I've always had basses with truss rods at the top of the neck. So this adjustment was more indepth than I was used to. But... having neck inserts in the neck allows me to have no concerns about stripped neck holes, etc. Everything about this bass is as I expected it to be.
While I had the neck off I noticed that Rod was nice enough to mark the neck heel and pocket of the body with start/end dates, his signature and notation of this being #1 production model of the Heritage series. Nice. It's hidden to most, but it's there for posterity.
This is my first Nordstrand Preamp. it's a 3B (3band) and is setup Vol/Vol Stack, Passive Tone (push/pull for active/passive mode), Mids (push/pull for 400Hz or 1kHz), Bass/Treble Stack, mini-switch for coil tap on the Fat Stack. My other basses have had OBP-3's. My feeling with the OBP's has been that they're punchy and fat, but I feel when boosting lows the lows can get muddy or pillowy fairly quick. I'm not seeing that as much with the Nordy thus far. I don't think the Nordy has as much overal boost/cut as the Aguilar, but I at least initially feel that the Nordy is more musical and more delicate sounding than the Aguilar. I'm happy with the choice, and setup.
Nordy 5-string '51p pickup - This is a cool pickup. I immediately noticed that this new bass was noticably quieter than my heavily modded schecter with custom Kent Armstrong Humbuckers wired Series Parallel and an Aguilar OBP'3 in it, but thats a very high output bass. Didn't surprise me. So I tried raising the '51P pickup... which was a mistake. Rod had it in the right place. Raising it closer to the strings gave me noticable chorusing and phasing especially on higher notes. It's back right where rod had it.
Nordy Fat Stack pickup - Really liking this pickup also. It's punchy and jazz like in my opinion, then with the additional benefit of being able to flip the switch and it's on steroids and even more punchy.
My goal for this bass was for it to be an excellent live gig bass for gigging around Nashville. It's going to serve this duty beautifully. The only real sound I'm not going to be able to get out of it is that of a real Musicman humbucker. But I can make due. That's a good excuse to buy a Pre-CBS Musicman at some point. :-0
I'm going to get to know the bass for a week or two and do a couple gigs with it, then I'll likely start a new Final Review thread on it with final photo's and sound clips of the different tones and such.
Thusfar I'm very very impressed.
Being a player who has done his own setups for years and comfortable doing so I chose to tweak a few things. The action was actually a bit lower than my preference when it arrived... just slightly. So I flattened the neck just a bit (about a quarter turn) and then adjusted the string heights for my preferences and how I play, intonation after those changes, etc. Some of the need for this may likely have came from the basses quick travel from Seattle area to Nashville area. We'll see how it settles in after this slight change.
One thing I was not used to was a neck with an overhang of a couple frets. I've always had basses with truss rods at the top of the neck. So this adjustment was more indepth than I was used to. But... having neck inserts in the neck allows me to have no concerns about stripped neck holes, etc. Everything about this bass is as I expected it to be.
While I had the neck off I noticed that Rod was nice enough to mark the neck heel and pocket of the body with start/end dates, his signature and notation of this being #1 production model of the Heritage series. Nice. It's hidden to most, but it's there for posterity.
This is my first Nordstrand Preamp. it's a 3B (3band) and is setup Vol/Vol Stack, Passive Tone (push/pull for active/passive mode), Mids (push/pull for 400Hz or 1kHz), Bass/Treble Stack, mini-switch for coil tap on the Fat Stack. My other basses have had OBP-3's. My feeling with the OBP's has been that they're punchy and fat, but I feel when boosting lows the lows can get muddy or pillowy fairly quick. I'm not seeing that as much with the Nordy thus far. I don't think the Nordy has as much overal boost/cut as the Aguilar, but I at least initially feel that the Nordy is more musical and more delicate sounding than the Aguilar. I'm happy with the choice, and setup.
Nordy 5-string '51p pickup - This is a cool pickup. I immediately noticed that this new bass was noticably quieter than my heavily modded schecter with custom Kent Armstrong Humbuckers wired Series Parallel and an Aguilar OBP'3 in it, but thats a very high output bass. Didn't surprise me. So I tried raising the '51P pickup... which was a mistake. Rod had it in the right place. Raising it closer to the strings gave me noticable chorusing and phasing especially on higher notes. It's back right where rod had it.
Nordy Fat Stack pickup - Really liking this pickup also. It's punchy and jazz like in my opinion, then with the additional benefit of being able to flip the switch and it's on steroids and even more punchy.
My goal for this bass was for it to be an excellent live gig bass for gigging around Nashville. It's going to serve this duty beautifully. The only real sound I'm not going to be able to get out of it is that of a real Musicman humbucker. But I can make due. That's a good excuse to buy a Pre-CBS Musicman at some point. :-0
I'm going to get to know the bass for a week or two and do a couple gigs with it, then I'll likely start a new Final Review thread on it with final photo's and sound clips of the different tones and such.
My Fat Stack was an upgrade of my choosing beyond the Big Single that's shown as the normal spec pickup for the bass.
Just personal preference.
