NBD: Custom EGC 500 - All Aluminum!

[Lazarus.Bird]

Had my NBD a few days ago, when my EGC showed up from FedEx. I've been pretty excited over this one for awhile, and it's my first custom bass I've ever purchased.

EGC 500 body (aluminum, powder coated green)
Dual EGC humbuckers wired V/V/T with a push-pull coil tap
Every thing is aluminum (including the pickguard)

Here's some pics!

First photo from EGC
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Full rig shot
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Some closeups
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I've only had it for a few days, but so far I love this thing. The build quality is about as perfect as you can get. Fit and finish is fantastic. Everything about it screams high quality.

It probably weighs somewhere around 9.5 - 10 lbs. Most of the weight sits down in the body when you are playing it, so it ends up being very comfortable. Super easy to play, nice thin neck, right hand feels effortless hitting the strings. There is sustain for DAYS.

The tones out of this bass are great. The bridge pickup solo'd sounds a lot like a Stingray with a very interesting piano-like quality to the sound. The aluminum fretboard basically sings out the notes. Adding the neck pickup in adds some P-bass lows for a nice balanced tone. Sounds great by itself through my Orange and Ampeg, and also sounds great with fuzz.

I had him string it with medium gauge Chromes. Adjusting to a bass with no truss rod is a new thing for me. I think my E string might be too thin for Drop C tuning, so I may try a larger flatwound E string.

Definitely will be using this on my band's full length that we will be recording very soon. Overall, I'm thrilled.

 

[Baird6869]

Very nice bass!

Looks great.

Maybe not the best bass for an outdoor New Year's Eve gig, but I would rock that for sure!

 

[verycoolname]

Looks great! Does it feel much different than wood? You described it as "comfortable," but was the change from wood noticeable, or non-existent?

[DEL]Is this the best bass for metal?[/DEL]

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Honestly the feel of the aluminum neck is very similar to the feel of the painted neck on my Ric, but less "sticky" although I've never had an issue with painted necks. You don't notice the aluminum in a negative way that's for sure.

 

[mbelue]

Just noticed how far back your "E" saddle is. You got any travel left in it with your C tuning?

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Yeah plenty of room for some adjustment to the saddle. Bass is perfectly intonated anyways

 

[mbelue]

Bass is perfectly intonated anyways

Then that's all that matters, sweet bass dude.

 

[Tonegasm]

Very cool. I'll be machining my own bass body put of solid aluminum soon. Working on the Milling program now.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

That's awesome! I wish I had the ability to do so. Ran a big water jet machine when I was younger for my dad but he did all the CAD programming.

A bass made out of aluminum seems somewhat of a novelty act at first, but when you get your hands on one of these EGCs you really see what a quality work of art they are.

 

[smperry]

That looks so cool.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Thanks

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Metal.

 

[FourNotFive]

That's a bad beast man. Congrats! Nothing cooler than a bass created just for you. Love how it matches your cab.

I've got a Kramer DMZ and really like what the aluminum brings to the party. Heavily considering going for an all aluminum. Ha ha, "heavily"...no pun intended...

 

[Turtle71]

That thing is so cool!!

Congrats!

 

[Grizzey]

Drool, so jealous, love the green and block inlays. And everything else.
Metal necks rock my socks.

 

[SirMjac28]

That is too cool congrats.

 

[Quimbymeat]

did you ask for the back scratch plate? is the flats on there? i would love to hear that.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

It's not a "plate" so to say, just the bottom half of the body. I actually didn't even realize the aluminum bodies were hollow until it showed up at my door. The bottom half is coated in a truckliner-type finish that is smooth to the touch. I kind of had a "what is going on here" moment when I first looked at it, but after about 10 seconds I decided that I really liked it

And yeah, it is strung with Chromes... I've used Chromes on every bass I've owned for the past 4 years or so, as I've always shot for a low, grindy tone with a blanketed top end. Well I feel doing that with the EGC kind of handicaps the tone, plus this .105 E string does not want to cooperate in Drop C, and I decided with Supervoid I want to shoot for that Stingray-like mix cutting tone that rounds will do a better job with. The A D and G strings tuned G-C-F sound great, but the low C is kind of muddy and undefined, and missing that aluminum zing the other 3 strings have.

It did ok through my practice amp, but once I played it through the big boy amp I didn't really like what was going on. Kevin told me the string is simply too small. I've got a .124 drop tuning set of Circle K's on the way. Very excited to hear how it sounds with those, as I think the aluminum tone combined with Circle K's tonal description of their strings is gonna put me exactly where I want to be.

 

[Barkless Dog]

Really cool looking bass. I love the color too. Nice.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Thanks! I love the color too. Told him I really liked the color Matamp uses for their Green amps, and to try to get it close to that. He did a great job.