My Psychobilly Bass Guitar

[G0n]

That’s an elegant bass with the right attitude. A perfect compliment to psychobilly music, and probably the best looking bass I’ve seen used for that type of music (I spent several years in psychobilly bands).

 

[WI Short Scaler]

Awesome looking bass! Nice work.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

View attachment 5352595

The body is a Jomo custom made 54 style with TV Jones pickup rout in the traditional neck position (unlike a Cabronita or CS Proto bass). Capri orange satin nitro finish. String through (small ferrules), top rout control cavity. Cabronita bass 1 ply white pickguard, .090 in thickness. Vintage modified two saddle chrome bridge plate, step drilled to accommodate larger saddle screws. Handmade replica 51-54 bakelite saddles by Webbteca. 51 chrome control plate drilled for US pots, chrome dome knobs, reverse position volume and tone. TV Jones Thunderblade pickup, 250K CTS pots, .047 vintage PIO cap, cloth wiring. Allparts rosewood board tele bass neck, round heel. Gotoh FB30 nickel tuning machines setup by PostLang. Vintage style chrome strap buttons and string tree.

Initially I bought the loaded body and hoped to simply bolt it on to a loaded neck. What happened was replacing all the relic hardware on the body with new modified hardware as seen here to include the pickguard and saddles. I had a vision for blending a variety of my favorite features from early Precision basses in a sort of retro fashion. I am very pleased with the end result!

You should be pleased. The project came out great. Congrats! So how is it in use?

 

[LowendG]

Love it, perfect for psychobilly. Are you gonna put a Bettie Page sticker on it?

 

[insomehonkytonk]

It is absolutely beautiful. How does it sound ?

Nice! How does the TV jones sound with bass?

It sounds like how a P Bass should! The pickup is very transparent and adds little to no coloring. Strung with LaBella flats. I honest wqs expecting a a different sound due to the Thunderblade’s reputation but it’s just a very honest pickup. Very full sounding.

 

[Green Hornet]

How about some sound-bytes?

 

[insomehonkytonk]

That’s an elegant bass with the right attitude. A perfect compliment to psychobilly music, and probably the best looking bass I’ve seen used for that type of music (I spent several years in psychobilly bands).

Love it, perfect for psychobilly. Are you gonna put a Bettie Page sticker on it?

I haven’t played in the genre (hard to find band situations) but it’s name was most inspired by Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” psychobilly Cadillac

 

[fourstringbliss]

 

[KellyC]

I love it!

 

[J Posega]

Capri Orange is the single greatest color that any guitar company has ever applied to an instrument.

 

[skycruiser]

Looks really nice. Do you have even volume across the strings? The pickup width barely reaches across the strings so I thought the magnetic strength might be weak on the E and G.

 

[2saddleslab]

Looks really nice. Do you have even volume across the strings? The pickup width barely reaches across the strings so I thought the magnetic strength might be weak on the E and G.

I know this was directed at the OP but the neck position ThunderBlade has flat blades so the E & G strings are actually slightly stronger in comparison to the A & D. The bridge position ThunderBlade has curved blades [and slightly hotter] with even volume across the strings.

I have used both neck & bridge pickups and prefer the neck w/ flat blades.

 

[insomehonkytonk]

You should be pleased. The project came out great. Congrats! So how is it in use?

It feels like a nine pounder and a little neck divey, a very wide strap helps this. The allparts neck feels great, P bass nut width, 9.5 radius and medium jumbo frets. The neck pocket was a little too large for the neck which was a concern assembling the instrument. However, it came out rock solid.

Looks really nice. Do you have even volume across the strings? The pickup width barely reaches across the strings so I thought the magnetic strength might be weak on the E and G.

I get great string to string volume, totally responsive to pickup height adjustments. The magnet goes past the strings on either side.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Good on ya! It's always cool when we get to turn a vision into reality. Y'know, if it had a maple fb it would look like a giant creamsicle! Which would, I think, also be appropriate for the genre...

BBB

 

[insomehonkytonk]

I know this was directed at the OP but the neck position ThunderBlade has flat blades so the E & G strings are actually slightly stronger in comparison to the A & D. The bridge position ThunderBlade has curved blades [and slightly hotter] with even volume across the strings.

I have used both neck & bridge pickups and prefer the neck w/ flat blades.

This leads me to believe that mine has the bridge pickup installed in the neck position because it is curved.

 

[skycruiser]

I know this was directed at the OP but the neck position ThunderBlade has flat blades so the E & G strings are actually slightly stronger in comparison to the A & D. The bridge position ThunderBlade has curved blades [and slightly hotter] with even volume across the strings.

I have used both neck & bridge pickups and prefer the neck w/ flat blades.

Cool thanks for the info. I'm not familiar with this pickup. I actually thought it might be a re-purposed guitar pickup! I'll look it up.

 

[insomehonkytonk]

Capri Orange is the single greatest color that any guitar company has ever applied to an instrument.

I was never a fan until I got the body now I'm a believer.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

It feels like a nine pounder and a little neck divey, a very wide strap helps this. The allparts neck feels great, P bass nut width, 9.5 radius and medium jumbo frets. The neck pocket was a little too large for the neck which was a concern assembling the instrument. However, it came out rock solid.



I get great string to string volume, totally responsive to pickup height adjustments. The magnet goes past the strings on either side.

I really admire guys like you that can build beautiful instruments.

 

[2saddleslab]

Cool thanks for the info. I'm not familiar with this pickup. I actually thought it might be a re-purposed guitar pickup! I'll look it up.

Well, according to Tom Jones himself, the ThunderBlade for bass is the exact same pickup as the SuperTron for guitar, except for the chrome housing.

Fender Custom Shop uses the SuperTron on their basses and I have one in my Cabronita.

 

[Discount Bassy]

Great color!