After seeing John Paul Jones play a double course 8 string I decided I needed one too. So I picked up a used ESP B-208FM as an affordable, good looking, handy entry level double course bass. Turns out I absolutely loved it, the band loved it, we wrote songs that featured that guitar/bass cross over tone. Amazing.
Only one problem.
I play 5 string basses, so it was a little uncomfortable playing what is essentially a 4 string configuration. Is there is a 10 string bass out there? Turns out Dean made one in the past that was commercially available but apparently didn't sell very many units I couldn't find any on the market.
With no Dean's available, and not being a big fan of Dean guitars to begin with, I decided to make my own custom 10 string bass. I figured I could partner with a luthier and craft an instrument that would suit my needs and have some fun designing the instrument.
Don't think making a custom instrument is going to be either cheap or fast, it takes time and money to get it done, and there are no guarantees it will work out in the end.
Of the three approaches possible, 1) totally custom (expensive) 2) partially custom with off-the-shelf parts or 3) modifying an existing 5-string (cheapest), I opted for 2, making a hybrid custom instrument from as many existing parts as I could acquire.
I started with a Fender dimension bass 5-string body with native electronics. I was able to partner with Conklin Guitars and Basses, they are the multi-string experts, though they don't have a 10 string in their product line. More about them later.
A key factor was that Dean still carries replacement parts for their discontinued 10-string, so I was able to order the bridge and tailpiece from them at a great price. WD music made the pick guard from my custom tracing. The shape is a combination of a Fender Stratocaster and a Dimension bass. At this point things are moving fast, I have the body, bridge, electronics and pickguard. All I need is the neck, nut, machine heads, strings and assembly.
Turns out we couldn't find an off-the-shelf neck blank with proper fitment to the body. So Conklin sourced a new custom neck to proper specifications from one of their vendors. That took about 6 months. Long pause...
They also discovered that the pickup wasn't going to work out because the poles weren't aligning to the 10 strings. So I bought an EMG soapbar pickup and shipped it to them. Then we found that the EMG wasn't playing nice with the native Fender electronics so they installed a Bartolini pre-amp they had handy.
Six months later, the neck arrives and we're ready for assembly. We decided on a shape for the headstock and they got started. They used small bass tuners to prevent neck-dive, and to keep a nice balance.
During the assembly process it was discovered that the tailpiece didn't quite have enough room and would slightly hang off the end of the instrument. Thinking of the overall form, we decided to drill and have the strings go through the body, but that required ordering ferrules to seat the strings in the back. Also, other sets of guitar and bass ferrules were used to support the holes in the front. We didn't realize it at the time, but this modification also meant that we could no longer use regular guitar strings, they weren't going to be long enough to go through the body.
Another hiccup in the assembly was that the EMG pickup was rectangular whereas the dimension bass body pickup cavity was concaved. So there was a gap around the pickup. Conklin stepped up and made an ebony pickup ring that beautifully covered the gap, made for a nice thumb rest (though this instrument is typically played with a pick), and added to the single-pickup design nicely.
Also the Bartolini preamp was 18 volts, and with the location of the wide bridge they had to route out a new cavity for the two 9V batteries. Finally assembly is done, they ship the instrument back to me.
After taking delivery it was clear that more work was needed before the instrument could be considered finished.
The shape of the headstock was too big for my taste, the action was too low for my playing style, I wasn't loving the low-torque of the small tuners for the bass strings, and something was not quite right with the electronics.
Taking matters into my own hands I boldly cut down the headstock and painstakingly drilled, filed, sanded, and re-finished it into a new smaller shape. That took about 3 weeks using household tools. At that point I decided to add a truss rod cover which I plucked off ebay for about $5. Nice ebony wood to match the pickup ring at the other end. Though I accidentally drilled the screw hole all the way through the neck lol, oops.
I swapped out the small bass string tuners for medium sized machine heads for better leverage. That required drilling larger holes and new screw holes. Also decided to use different tuner buds for the guitar strings so that when you tune the instrument you clearly can see and feel the differences in each tuner. That added a little bit of weight so there is a slight neck-dive which I compensate for with a wide strap.
To address the action problem I went to Chicago Fret Works and they re-seated the frets and did a professional setup. That made a profound difference in the playability and action. Check.
Then the was the odd electronics problem. The bass seemed to be extremely loud and would distort. Turns out the active EMG was being overdriven by the 18V preamp. So we had to switch out the pickup. If you're still counting, that's the 3rd pickup to match the 2nd set of electronics. They installed a Bartolini passive soapbar pickup to better match the pre-amp.
I got it back from CFW yesterday and will be putting it through its paces this week with the full stack amp and the band. But it seems that the beast is finally finished!
Conkin Guitars and Basses turned out to be ideal partners. They were one of the few luthiers who were willing to make a hybrid custom instrument with some off-the-shelf parts. They turned out to be excellent communicators, skilled luthiers and shared my passion for the project.
The serial number is binary for 10. This is the headstock before it was cut down.
Only one problem.
I play 5 string basses, so it was a little uncomfortable playing what is essentially a 4 string configuration. Is there is a 10 string bass out there? Turns out Dean made one in the past that was commercially available but apparently didn't sell very many units I couldn't find any on the market.
With no Dean's available, and not being a big fan of Dean guitars to begin with, I decided to make my own custom 10 string bass. I figured I could partner with a luthier and craft an instrument that would suit my needs and have some fun designing the instrument.
Don't think making a custom instrument is going to be either cheap or fast, it takes time and money to get it done, and there are no guarantees it will work out in the end.
Of the three approaches possible, 1) totally custom (expensive) 2) partially custom with off-the-shelf parts or 3) modifying an existing 5-string (cheapest), I opted for 2, making a hybrid custom instrument from as many existing parts as I could acquire.
I started with a Fender dimension bass 5-string body with native electronics. I was able to partner with Conklin Guitars and Basses, they are the multi-string experts, though they don't have a 10 string in their product line. More about them later.
A key factor was that Dean still carries replacement parts for their discontinued 10-string, so I was able to order the bridge and tailpiece from them at a great price. WD music made the pick guard from my custom tracing. The shape is a combination of a Fender Stratocaster and a Dimension bass. At this point things are moving fast, I have the body, bridge, electronics and pickguard. All I need is the neck, nut, machine heads, strings and assembly.
Turns out we couldn't find an off-the-shelf neck blank with proper fitment to the body. So Conklin sourced a new custom neck to proper specifications from one of their vendors. That took about 6 months. Long pause...
They also discovered that the pickup wasn't going to work out because the poles weren't aligning to the 10 strings. So I bought an EMG soapbar pickup and shipped it to them. Then we found that the EMG wasn't playing nice with the native Fender electronics so they installed a Bartolini pre-amp they had handy.
Six months later, the neck arrives and we're ready for assembly. We decided on a shape for the headstock and they got started. They used small bass tuners to prevent neck-dive, and to keep a nice balance.
During the assembly process it was discovered that the tailpiece didn't quite have enough room and would slightly hang off the end of the instrument. Thinking of the overall form, we decided to drill and have the strings go through the body, but that required ordering ferrules to seat the strings in the back. Also, other sets of guitar and bass ferrules were used to support the holes in the front. We didn't realize it at the time, but this modification also meant that we could no longer use regular guitar strings, they weren't going to be long enough to go through the body.
Another hiccup in the assembly was that the EMG pickup was rectangular whereas the dimension bass body pickup cavity was concaved. So there was a gap around the pickup. Conklin stepped up and made an ebony pickup ring that beautifully covered the gap, made for a nice thumb rest (though this instrument is typically played with a pick), and added to the single-pickup design nicely.
Also the Bartolini preamp was 18 volts, and with the location of the wide bridge they had to route out a new cavity for the two 9V batteries. Finally assembly is done, they ship the instrument back to me.
After taking delivery it was clear that more work was needed before the instrument could be considered finished.
The shape of the headstock was too big for my taste, the action was too low for my playing style, I wasn't loving the low-torque of the small tuners for the bass strings, and something was not quite right with the electronics.
Taking matters into my own hands I boldly cut down the headstock and painstakingly drilled, filed, sanded, and re-finished it into a new smaller shape. That took about 3 weeks using household tools. At that point I decided to add a truss rod cover which I plucked off ebay for about $5. Nice ebony wood to match the pickup ring at the other end. Though I accidentally drilled the screw hole all the way through the neck lol, oops.
I swapped out the small bass string tuners for medium sized machine heads for better leverage. That required drilling larger holes and new screw holes. Also decided to use different tuner buds for the guitar strings so that when you tune the instrument you clearly can see and feel the differences in each tuner. That added a little bit of weight so there is a slight neck-dive which I compensate for with a wide strap.
To address the action problem I went to Chicago Fret Works and they re-seated the frets and did a professional setup. That made a profound difference in the playability and action. Check.
Then the was the odd electronics problem. The bass seemed to be extremely loud and would distort. Turns out the active EMG was being overdriven by the 18V preamp. So we had to switch out the pickup. If you're still counting, that's the 3rd pickup to match the 2nd set of electronics. They installed a Bartolini passive soapbar pickup to better match the pre-amp.
I got it back from CFW yesterday and will be putting it through its paces this week with the full stack amp and the band. But it seems that the beast is finally finished!
Conkin Guitars and Basses turned out to be ideal partners. They were one of the few luthiers who were willing to make a hybrid custom instrument with some off-the-shelf parts. They turned out to be excellent communicators, skilled luthiers and shared my passion for the project.
The serial number is binary for 10. This is the headstock before it was cut down.
