Happy Birthday to the man himself. My photo, 2006 IIRC.
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- Jun 30, 2010
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Often it's "pick 2 of the 3", right?. But Mr. K had it all going on. So cool that his legacy lives on.
- Jun 30, 2010
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Absolutely - so generous with his time and advice. I spoke to him a number of times on the phone and I wanted to show him my Factorbird fretless when I was in Carpintria (just south of Santa Barbara) but he'd already moved back east. I have the Fender/Kubicki 9v pre in two of my basses but don't own an Ex-Factor anymore.
My 1st was a used beat-up black '86 that I refinished in trans orange -
I also had a Sonic Blue FCS/Kubicki 9v Ex-Factor -
And my hybrid JFactor - the Factorbird and this one are included on the Kubicki Factor fb page. I bought this FCS/Kubicki with missing pre & pu's and a very worn unlined fretless neck. Used the tuner/bridge for my Factorbird, sold the neck after having it planed (pretty rutted), made an alder plug and installed Seymour Duncan passive pu's/VVT harness & AllParts J neck with redefined hs. It had a drop-D tuner also. I bought them all back in the '90s and they each were under $1K -
Are those MDF pickups in the factorbird? Are those pickups the real deal?
- Jun 30, 2010
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Yes, and it has the L2000 9v pre also. Like the Ex-Factor, the G&L L2000 is a great platform for every application/need both live and recording.
And the L2K makes a fine test bed too. My '81 ran for several years with a U-Retro and a pair of EMG VJs. The control plate allows for 4 pots if you add a side jack, and 3 switches and the pickup routes are large enough for various pickups. Mine was fairly ugly with the Jazz pups, but it sounded great.
- Jun 30, 2010
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It was a soft pearl blue - that pic (not mine) looks darker than I remember. I had a choice between it and a dark blue reverse-burst - I had to flip a coin! The sound of a Kubicki is in the pre. I don't know how his pu's would sound w/o his pre.
The Saundersbird has Wilkinson buckers & the '93 AS J has Nordstrom NJ4 singles - both sound more or less like a Kubicki
- Jun 30, 2010
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Out a a few active pre's I'm familiar with, the L2000 is in my opinion the most player friendly across the board. To my ears in all settings it never sounds like an "active bass" but it has a lot of easily accessible tonal variety. If I had to describe its character - I'd say it definitely sounds like a Leo Fender product.
- Jun 30, 2010
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Yes, I designed/built it in the late '90s. I bought the lined fretless Ex-Factor neck new from Phil in '94 and the tuner-bridge was from my '86 Ex-Factor. (later replaced with an early '90s FCS/Kubicki tuner-bridge) I wanted to buy a new tuner-bridge from Phil but at the time I called he only had stock for commissioned basses. I'm sure he would have needed to commit to a large number ($$$) manufacturing another batch. A tuner-bridge on his parts list then was $500. Body is made from 3-sections of very old Koa following my '64 T-bird II specs. Originally it had EMG Jazz-pu's and 9v electronic harness. (pic below)
When I got my 1st beat-up '86 Ex-Factor in '93 I called Phil's # hoping to get some information. I thought a secretary would answer but Phil himself answered! I told him about the bass I just bought and he asked how much I payed. I told him $750 and he replied, "for that price I would have bought it!" Back then I had the impression that players were moving away from '80s headless basses in favor of traditional (Fender) basses. Remember the whole "retro" movement was big in the later '80s-early '90s.
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I looked on their site and they have parts for a bridge and assume you can buy everything you need to build one. There seem to be no necks for sale.
I did an email exchange with him in the 90s over John Taylor and his Kubicki. Seems like he was a good dude.
I regret not buying a Kubicki when they were affordable.
- Jun 30, 2010
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$500 was still a lot of money in the mid-'90s but assembling a tuner-bridge from parts most likely would be very costly - if I remember correctly, the lined fretless neck was also $500. I have a parts-list somewhere that Pat mailed me - I didn't get a computer until later '90s!
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- Jun 30, 2010
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Drool city! The only color I like more than that is the flip-flop version!
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- Jun 30, 2010
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A better idea would be buying an Ex-Factor for half that and have Pat Wilkins shoot that finish on it
