This is my latest Warmoth project, now my 4th using both a body and neck from them. I love putting things together but don't have the practice or tools or space to do scratch building, so project basses are a lot like Lego to me, just more practical!
(Don't worry, the bass doesn't live on this window sill)
Background
I got an SBMM Ray24 in trade a year or so ago. It's my first 4 string 'Ray style bass and I liked it, but didn't love it. So, I took out the preamp, put in passive volume, tone, and series/single/parallel switch and a Nordstrand MM4.4 pickup. Then, I leveled the frets. Finally, I arrived at a good playing, great sounding bass, but even after installing Hipshot Ultralite tuners, it's still neck heavy and I've never been in love with the neck. I decided I enjoyed the passive Ray and wanted a bass I enjoyed the feel of more.
I took inspiration from the Joe Dart EBMM signature basses and smooshed features together to arrive at something that's fun to play and sounds great to my ears.
Specs
Pickup wired in series straight to the jack.
Here's the raw body. I applied 5 or 6 coats of Howard's Feed n Wax.
The bass balances great and has all the punch I was expecting. The finish doesn't really protect the body from dings, but I'm pretty careful with my instruments.
I may still try out other pickups just because there's not a lot of sound samples out there of MM pickups in passive configurations. Reverend sells their Split Brick pickup which is a reverse P in an MM shell and might sound really cool in this bass.
(Don't worry, the bass doesn't live on this window sill)
Background
I got an SBMM Ray24 in trade a year or so ago. It's my first 4 string 'Ray style bass and I liked it, but didn't love it. So, I took out the preamp, put in passive volume, tone, and series/single/parallel switch and a Nordstrand MM4.4 pickup. Then, I leveled the frets. Finally, I arrived at a good playing, great sounding bass, but even after installing Hipshot Ultralite tuners, it's still neck heavy and I've never been in love with the neck. I decided I enjoyed the passive Ray and wanted a bass I enjoyed the feel of more.
I took inspiration from the Joe Dart EBMM signature basses and smooshed features together to arrive at something that's fun to play and sounds great to my ears.
Specs
- Warmoth G4 lightweight one-piece swamp ash body weighing 4.13 lbs, routed for 1 MM in the sweet spot (from the Showcase)
- Warmoth roasted maple neck and fretboard, 1.5" nut, steel reinforcement rods, small frets, black Tusq nut, black dots (from the Showcase)
- Gotoh Resolite tuners. They're lighter than Hipshot Ultralites.
- Hipshot A-style Fender mount bridge. Warmoth forgot to drill for bridge mounting screws but gave me a $50 refund and I drilled them myself. Spacing is setup for even 19mm center to center.
- Bartolini MMC pickup
- Dunlop Strap Lock buttons
- D'addario nickel XL balanced tension strings
- Super secret, extra special, quadruple mojo wiring... I'll let you in on the secret sauce
Pickup wired in series straight to the jack.
Here's the raw body. I applied 5 or 6 coats of Howard's Feed n Wax.
The bass balances great and has all the punch I was expecting. The finish doesn't really protect the body from dings, but I'm pretty careful with my instruments.
I may still try out other pickups just because there's not a lot of sound samples out there of MM pickups in passive configurations. Reverend sells their Split Brick pickup which is a reverse P in an MM shell and might sound really cool in this bass.
