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NBD - The best five strings ever.

Quite a bold statement.. :)

Yeah, but I'm pretty confident. I have in the past had a bass that I thought (and said) I'd keep forever only to move on a couple years later so I'm sure the potential is there for me to change gears again. But at this point I feel like I know what I like and what I need. I could actually trim down from five basses now but unless I hit some hard times financially I don't see that happening. And I definitely don't need anything more.

I'm happy.

That fretless is drooly.drool

Thanks. And the sound is fantastic too.

Well done!

Thanks!

@Jared Lash - Great looking basses from Chris!!! I own one of his Master Classic 5'ers, not as pretty as yours, but a great bass from a very good builder!!

I envy you to have decided to not buy any more basses. I made that same statement after each bass I buy! :laugh:

Chris does great work. And I love his Master Series body shape. I originally spec'd it for these builds. I'd love to see pictures of your Stambaugh.

And I could be wrong, but I don't think I've ever claimed I was done buying basses before. I'm sure my wallet (and wife) hoped I was though.

:laugh:

beautiful players you've got there, but i only see the fretless! :D

congratulations on your new instruments!:thumbsup:

It's a looker. The fretted will get more gig time because it works for more of the stuff I do, but I think I'm partial to the fretless too.
 
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Wow those are stunning. I bet they sound just as wonderful as they look. Congrats on the new toys may they serve you well. Can’t wait to get home from work, I have a CB bass getting delivered today so it’s NDB for me as well. Will make a post later when I get my hands on her. Cheers!
 
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Wow. Those are beautiful. Really beautiful. I saw the thread and was hoping that it was another Stammie - I recalled that you loved those basses.
I'm a little surprised that you didn't go with an ACG pre in the fretless. I just put an EQ01 into my Zon and it sounds great. Going to post a clip soon. But enough about me...

Play some great music on those beautiful basses, amigo!

I definitely thought about the ACG/East preamp. I had it on an earlier Stambaugh fretless (the early commercially available version with just one LPF for both pickups) and loved it. And I had it on both ACG basses that Alan built me. Fantastic instruments and the preamp is incredible.

I ended up going with the Bart because I thought it was a natural fit with the Bartolini pickups and because they also offer the Magnetic/Piezo buffer circuit so it was kind of "one stop shopping". But if I ever get the urge to mod the new fretless the first option would be another ACG filter preamp.
 
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Here is Carey Nordstrand and customer demoing a bass with Jared’s pickup configuration. It looks a bit odd, but if people hear it enough, it will become popular.


That video gives a good representation of the range of tones. It sounds like Dan Lutz either has lower action and/or plays harder than I do but otherwise I get very similar sounds.

What was really interesting to me is that even being an active, 5 string, neck through (with a hard ash neck) bass, if I roll to the P pickup and dial the tone back a bit, it sounds like a Pbass. Very cool.

And the BigSplitMan opens up a ton of other tones. One difference I think I've noticed between my bass and the one in the video is a touch less bite in the top in when using the bridge pickup in parallel. I think this is due to mine being a pair of Big Splits vs Big Singles.
 
Wow!!! Congrats!!!

Thanks!

Ahh, if I had a nickel for every time i've said those words. :D. Hopefully you are stronger than I.

Well, here's where I'm at today:

IMG_20180508_210129.jpg


As far as basses go I think I've got everything I need. Now I just have to fight the urge to add another one of those skinny stringed things.


Great story, and if both play half as good as they look then you must be very happy.

I'm trying to reserve some judgement because this is still very much the honeymoon phase, but given how familiar I am with the basses that Chris Stambaugh builds I think it's safe to say these are definitely keeprs.

Very nice. The only obvious thing I can see I would have added would have been some sort of an amber stain on the maple board to make those eyes really pop.

I didn't know the fingerboard was going to be birdseye. My original note was to do a very pale maple board to contrast more with the body and finish but Chris thought the birdseye was a better match. At that point it didn't occur to me to ask to tint it but I think you're right that it would have made the fingerboard more 3D.

Ooo LaLa !
Gorgeous Jared.

Thanks!
 
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I think what I'm digging the most out of these basses are the little details, some of which I didn't even ask for. I wanted chambered maple wings on the fretless and Chris used flamed maple. Marty Bell put a gloss finish on the birdseye maple fingerboard on the fretted even though it wasn't spec'd and it makes the grain (and the inlay) really pop. And it goes without saying that the knobs that Devin Cline did are amazing. Also, I did black and gold Hipshot hardware (on the bridge and tuners) and Chris took it upon himself to do gold for the flush mount Dunlop Straplocks and black and gold for the switch for the BigSplitMan pickup as well as the input jack. Very cool.

IMG_20180508_115331.jpg
 
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Ugh, seriously. I'm so bad at guitar but I almost have as many as I have basses. Just need a seven string and I should be done...

Tell me about it. Personally I've had to drop my ego and really go back to basics on guitar (picking practice, string skipping exercises, arpeggios, scales, practicing bends etc) to improve. I always felt frustrated that all my work on bass didn't translate better to guitar but while I still suck, I'm improving now that I am approaching things the right way.