This NBD post needs a little preamble:
I bought a Carvin LB75 back in 1995. I loved that bass and played it exclusively until I made my first bass in '02, at which time it was kind of put aside and not really used much. After playing a bass with wider spacing, I didn't like the narrower spacing on the LB75. I also started playing fretless, so that kind of pushed me away from the fretted LB75 as well. The LB:
My house recently got hit by lightning, caught fire (as documented here) and I lost all my basses. 8 of them were custom builds that I made and one was that '95 Koa Carvin LB-75. I have full replacement value on my insurance, it will take months before it's settled and I know what I can spend on a new studio and parts for basses. Right off the bat I know I can replace that LB-75 with a "like model" and know the insurance will cover it. Luckily condition doesn't matter - here's what the LB-75 looks like right now - the headstock is burned off it and it's laying down between the wall and the desk my recorder was on:
I considered ordering a custom made Kiesel to the exact specifications of the LB-75, but with their 9-10 week lead time that would mean I'd have to borrow a bass to get me through. The great thing was I had quite a few offers from folks here on TB to loan and/or send me basses outright, it really is a great community here, offering to send a more or less complete stranger a bass? amazing. This whole lightning experience has really opened my eyes about the kindness in this world, make sure you take a minute to look for it and if it's not there create it.
I hadn't really heard of a NBD post until someone mentioned it in the fire thread. Since I got so many words of encouragement and offers like I mentioned above, I figured I could at least put one of these together.
I used Kiesel's "Build a bass" tool to build a bass exactly like my LB75 - over the years many things have changed, the LBs are now passive, koa is a very expensive wood etc. I took the value of the build from the tool and looked at what Kiesel had in stock and came across this beauty:
When I looked at it I started thinking about what I would change if I could start from scratch. The first thing I thought of was "fretless", but as I thought further about that, since I build mostly fretless instruments, if I bought this one fretted, then I would feel less pressure to build a fretted instrument immediately (even as a dedicated fretless player, there are times when you need a fretted instrument). That was pretty much it, so away we go!
It's an Icon 5 with a bookmatched Claro walnut top, maple neck and ash body wings. Abalone inlays and Luminlay inlays for side dots.
The top wood is gorgeous, and I love the way the roundover exposes the ash below, it has really nice lines all over.
I've seen and done a fair amount of inlays and covers and know how difficult it is to get a perfect match, the inlays on this bass are flawless, I mean there is not one tool mark, not even the slightest gap in any of the inlays that I can see - there is no "mix glue and sawdust trickery here. I know Kiesel does everything via CNC, but even considering that, this is some incredible work:
Even the logo inlay is perfect:
The back, meh, nothing to write home about, but it is the back.
The finish is satin and once again the consistency on the finish is just unbelievable. I have quite a ways to go in my finishing technique to get to this. Wow, just wow. The neck feels great with a satin finish. I usually do my necks in gloss then knock it back with steel wool, it's smooth, but not baby's ass smooth like this.
When I got the bass the action was a lot higher than I like to play, which is a bit strange I remember my LB75 coming in with very low action. The truss rod needed adjusting to bring it in (there was too much bow in the neck). I still need to go through the string saddles, but it's pretty close to where I want it now. The frets are all perfect and level as far as I can tell so far.
I have only replaced my small practice amp so far, but I will say sounds REALLY nice through that amp - I like a bass with a lot of tonal possibilities right on the bass - the preamp sounds good and with a sweepable mid, treble and bass, there is plenty of adjustment available. The pickups sound good and the placement seems really good (I might have to borrow some measurements for my next build) - I can get some very different sounds by balancing the two pickups. I was concerned about the 34" scale for a fiver - when I build a five I always use a 35" scale. I can tell the difference, but really it's not as significant as I feared. Kiesel doesn't offer the XB series neck anymore, all their fives are 34" (I found that out after contacting them).
For the last few years I've been doing this thing where I fire up Garageband and challenge myself to write, record and mix a song in 20 minutes (there are many 2 minute songs in my soundcloud feed that are the result of this exercise if you're interested in hearing some of them). It forces me to think quickly and not spend a lot of time being critical of what I wrote or played. Results are mixed, as you can imagine, but since I had the interface and a new bass, I had to try it. Unfortunately I don't have any kind of external speakers for the mac, doing all this using only the crappy little speakers in the laptop added some challenge - especially on the mixing side. In any event, here's a short song I recorded with the Icon - I know it's far from perfect, but it gives you some idea of how the instrument sounds:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Overall, I'm very happy with this instrument, I know we'll have many hours of play time together, at least until (and hopefully well beyond) I get back to building and I get the first fretless done.
I bought a Carvin LB75 back in 1995. I loved that bass and played it exclusively until I made my first bass in '02, at which time it was kind of put aside and not really used much. After playing a bass with wider spacing, I didn't like the narrower spacing on the LB75. I also started playing fretless, so that kind of pushed me away from the fretted LB75 as well. The LB:
My house recently got hit by lightning, caught fire (as documented here) and I lost all my basses. 8 of them were custom builds that I made and one was that '95 Koa Carvin LB-75. I have full replacement value on my insurance, it will take months before it's settled and I know what I can spend on a new studio and parts for basses. Right off the bat I know I can replace that LB-75 with a "like model" and know the insurance will cover it. Luckily condition doesn't matter - here's what the LB-75 looks like right now - the headstock is burned off it and it's laying down between the wall and the desk my recorder was on:
I considered ordering a custom made Kiesel to the exact specifications of the LB-75, but with their 9-10 week lead time that would mean I'd have to borrow a bass to get me through. The great thing was I had quite a few offers from folks here on TB to loan and/or send me basses outright, it really is a great community here, offering to send a more or less complete stranger a bass? amazing. This whole lightning experience has really opened my eyes about the kindness in this world, make sure you take a minute to look for it and if it's not there create it.
I hadn't really heard of a NBD post until someone mentioned it in the fire thread. Since I got so many words of encouragement and offers like I mentioned above, I figured I could at least put one of these together.
I used Kiesel's "Build a bass" tool to build a bass exactly like my LB75 - over the years many things have changed, the LBs are now passive, koa is a very expensive wood etc. I took the value of the build from the tool and looked at what Kiesel had in stock and came across this beauty:
When I looked at it I started thinking about what I would change if I could start from scratch. The first thing I thought of was "fretless", but as I thought further about that, since I build mostly fretless instruments, if I bought this one fretted, then I would feel less pressure to build a fretted instrument immediately (even as a dedicated fretless player, there are times when you need a fretted instrument). That was pretty much it, so away we go!
It's an Icon 5 with a bookmatched Claro walnut top, maple neck and ash body wings. Abalone inlays and Luminlay inlays for side dots.
The top wood is gorgeous, and I love the way the roundover exposes the ash below, it has really nice lines all over.
I've seen and done a fair amount of inlays and covers and know how difficult it is to get a perfect match, the inlays on this bass are flawless, I mean there is not one tool mark, not even the slightest gap in any of the inlays that I can see - there is no "mix glue and sawdust trickery here. I know Kiesel does everything via CNC, but even considering that, this is some incredible work:
Even the logo inlay is perfect:
The back, meh, nothing to write home about, but it is the back.
The finish is satin and once again the consistency on the finish is just unbelievable. I have quite a ways to go in my finishing technique to get to this. Wow, just wow. The neck feels great with a satin finish. I usually do my necks in gloss then knock it back with steel wool, it's smooth, but not baby's ass smooth like this.
When I got the bass the action was a lot higher than I like to play, which is a bit strange I remember my LB75 coming in with very low action. The truss rod needed adjusting to bring it in (there was too much bow in the neck). I still need to go through the string saddles, but it's pretty close to where I want it now. The frets are all perfect and level as far as I can tell so far.
I have only replaced my small practice amp so far, but I will say sounds REALLY nice through that amp - I like a bass with a lot of tonal possibilities right on the bass - the preamp sounds good and with a sweepable mid, treble and bass, there is plenty of adjustment available. The pickups sound good and the placement seems really good (I might have to borrow some measurements for my next build) - I can get some very different sounds by balancing the two pickups. I was concerned about the 34" scale for a fiver - when I build a five I always use a 35" scale. I can tell the difference, but really it's not as significant as I feared. Kiesel doesn't offer the XB series neck anymore, all their fives are 34" (I found that out after contacting them).
For the last few years I've been doing this thing where I fire up Garageband and challenge myself to write, record and mix a song in 20 minutes (there are many 2 minute songs in my soundcloud feed that are the result of this exercise if you're interested in hearing some of them). It forces me to think quickly and not spend a lot of time being critical of what I wrote or played. Results are mixed, as you can imagine, but since I had the interface and a new bass, I had to try it. Unfortunately I don't have any kind of external speakers for the mac, doing all this using only the crappy little speakers in the laptop added some challenge - especially on the mixing side. In any event, here's a short song I recorded with the Icon - I know it's far from perfect, but it gives you some idea of how the instrument sounds:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Overall, I'm very happy with this instrument, I know we'll have many hours of play time together, at least until (and hopefully well beyond) I get back to building and I get the first fretless done.
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