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I had this built by a luthier friend. What do you think?

#43
Valvehead said:
My long time buddy and great guitarist Vincent had been asking me for ages "If I built you a bass what would you like?"

I combined qualities and ideas from other basses I owned and still own, and came up with this passive bass. He built it for me and it has everything I dreamed up in there.

Ideas I came up with myself:

- The lacquered Bubinga fretboard. I dig Rics.
- Dual Jazz pickup with mode and coil switches.
- Slanted neck pickup for a more evenly 'rich' sound across the strings.
- Purpleheart+Maple laminated neck. I just LOVE the look of Purpleheart.

I drew up the schematic for the electronics myself, too and selected the ABM solid brass bridge.

Vincent did all the work, including custom building those pickups to achieve the tonal qualities I described to him.

As a luthier, can you tell me what you think of the design and execution?
The headstock shape is the standard shape he uses for all his 'Fenderish' like models. At first this looked bulky to me but once I got used to it I actually now like it.

Cheers, Marco

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Wow! Amazing!! Really cool and totally yours. What an awesome project! Congrats!
 
#46
Valvehead said:
My long time buddy and great guitarist Vincent had been asking me for ages "If I built you a bass what would you like?"

I combined qualities and ideas from other basses I owned and still own, and came up with this passive bass. He built it for me and it has everything I dreamed up in there.

Ideas I came up with myself:

- The lacquered Bubinga fretboard. I dig Rics.
- Dual Jazz pickup with mode and coil switches.
- Slanted neck pickup for a more evenly 'rich' sound across the strings.
- Purpleheart+Maple laminated neck. I just LOVE the look of Purpleheart.

I drew up the schematic for the electronics myself, too and selected the ABM solid brass bridge.

Vincent did all the work, including custom building those pickups to achieve the tonal qualities I described to him.

As a luthier, can you tell me what you think of the design and execution?
The headstock shape is the standard shape he uses for all his 'Fenderish' like models. At first this looked bulky to me but once I got used to it I actually now like it.

Cheers, Marco

View attachment 4005594 View attachment 4005595 View attachment 4005596 View attachment 4005597 View attachment 4005598 View attachment 4005599 View attachment 4005600 View attachment 4005601 View attachment 4005602
Click to expand...
Wow!
What a friend, what a bass!
The headstock threw me off for a sec, but it goes really well with the bass. It wouldn't bother me in the least to gig with it. The craftsmanship of the entire instrument looks fantastic. And the veneer between the fretboard and neck was an awesome idea. It not only accomplishes setting the two apart like your friend wanted, it also shows that attention to detail is important to him too. The whole bass just oozes attention to detail. It is spectacular and on a scale of 1 to 10 I give it an 11!
 
#47
I echo all of the positive sentiments already expressed regarding this very cool and well thought-out bass, with two additions:

1) I'm really not a fan of heavy lacquer on guitars & basses for tonal reasons, but that lacquer job couldn't look any more pro if it tried.

2) Something about the headstock vaguely reminds me of the Funko Pop figurines.
 
#51
Nice, and very well done, if not to my tastes. Three quick questions: Do you like its look and aesthetic? Does it sound good to you? Does it feel alive under your hands?

Those, to me, are what really count in a custom bass. From your responses, I'd say "yes" :-)
 
#53
That's actually really cool. I need to find myself someone i can share my ideas with, i have an awesome bass in my head ( and basically designed out ), but no way to really realise it. I'd love to make it myself, but given nowhere teaches lutherie where i live, i'm kinda stuck.
 
#56
Thanks for all the uplifting and positive responses!
This really makes me feel I was on the right track when spending time to think about what I really want from a passive instrument and came up with the pickup configuration.

Vincent babtized the model "Hyperjazz" since it can do Jazz tone and a lot more and included it as one of the models in his series. I am kinda proud of this of course.
When using the bridge pickup in humbucker mode this baby pushes some serious air. I can make it growl and snarl like my Ric and of course there's its Jazz Bass tone - be it with some more mids shining through then what I am used to from Jazz Basses. If I didn't need a low B string every so often this would probably be all I need.

All in all I am extremely happy with how it turned out. Its tonal palette is just perfect for the styles of music I play most often, which are grungy rock, bluesrock and punkrock. When I need a more polished tone I grab either my Zon or Fodera NYC, although that Fodera is quite an aggressive Jazz too when I dig in.
 
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#59
Beautiful bass, I'm a sucker for lacquered bubinga (RIC clone builder here). The head stock....might grow on me...after a while...but if you dig it, its all gravy. Your guy obviously has his finish work down, in my experience nearly the hardest part of any build. Congratulations on your new bass!
 

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