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NBD: Wilkins 'Cayenne' (Roasted) PJ5

#61
Wilkins said:
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the posts about this white PJ5 bass that G now owns. There have been several questions regarding the roasting. Questions about why I'm putting colors on them too. Let me say that what I will say here is what I've been told by a couple of people that do the wood roasting and certainly not because I know anything at all about what happens when the wood is baked. Everything in theory makes great sense and in practical application I've found that it does work as it's been explained to me. First, when wood is baked/roasted it removes most of if not all of the moisture from the cells of the wood. That leaves each cell completely open and able to freely resonate. Multiply that several thousand times and now you've got a piece of wood that is resonating on a completely different level than anything you've ever experienced before. The result is extremely good in my opinion. I've found that the lows are clearer and deeper, the mids are more present and the high end has a nice warmth to it. Now again imagine all the cells being free of moisture and completely open. Without the moisture in these thousands of cells it stands to reason that the wood has to be lighter and significantly lighter. I've found that to be quite true as well. When the wood is roasted, as the moisture leaves the wood, it starts a process of carmelization, almost as if you put onions in a frying pan, add butter and cook it down. The wood becomes darker in color and the carmelizing process gets in to the fibers of the wood and strengthens it. I haven't had a neck twist or go bad since I've started using roasted wood. We've had some pretty extreme temperature changes this year and every neck that's out there is still working just as I set it up here at the shop. That in itself is pretty amazing. As far as why I'm doing painted finishes on them, I recognize that not everybody wants a natural wood (think hippie sandwich) bass. I personally love the look of natural roasted wood and my 2 main players are natural. The finishes that I put on my RoadTested bass are matte finishes and are extremely thin, almost nitrocellulose thin. A painted surface is really no different than a natural surface. There's just a coat of color before the matte clear goes on. Sonically there's no difference at all in my opinion. Since the gloss finish I use has been developed for musical instruments I've done a couple of gloss finished basses and the light brown sunburst, gloss finish bass was the first bass that was sold at Namm this year. Everyone said that was the best bass I brought to the show. I hope this begins to explain to you all why I'm so excited about roasting my wood before I build a bass and opens a dialogue that is constructive and informative.
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@Wilkins do you have any pics of a roasted bass body in natural finish? I'm curious about that. Thanks!
 
#62
JIO said:
And hardness, but maybe that depends on what you start with - I recently made a very lightweight roasted swamp ash body that was also very soft. It probably started off light and soft to begin or had way more moisture in it as compared to an old growth slab of ash that is inherently heavier with more, tighter lines. I also just sent Pat a body of roasted ash to be finished that doesn't 'look' roasted. It's light in colour and reasonably light in weight, and ash hard. Anyway, there is a full explanation of the roasting advantages by Pat in post #20 page 1.

Both roasted - the one on the right was much lighter in weight and soft. Maybe it came down to how long it was roasted.
View attachment 3099703
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Update - this body was made from the ash blank on the left - (1-1/4" thick) finished bass 7lbs/5oz - roasted is the way to go if you want a light, awesome sounding bass! :bassist:

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#63
G On Bass said:
The roasted bass is lighter, weighing less than 8 pounds. But The chambered one is not all that much heavier.

The roasted bass (which is now Shoreline Gold in my Avatar) has a Sadowsky preamp in it, so it is Vol/Blend/Tone/stackedTreb-bass
The Red one has an Aguilar OBP3 which is Vol/Blend/bass/mid/treb.

These are really the only 2 basses I've used live for the last several years. That is unlikely to change
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@G On Bass if you don't mind me asking was there a reason you didn't like the white bass? Is the gold paint on top of the white paint? Is the bass heavier now? Thanks!
 
#66
alaskaleftybass said:
@G On Bass if you don't mind me asking was there a reason you didn't like the white bass? Is the gold paint on top of the white paint? Is the bass heavier now? Thanks!
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Initially, I was going to get it stripped and go natural with it. But when I was in Pat's shop, he showed me a sample of the color that it is now and I knew I had to have it. He stripped and repainted so the weight is the same.
 
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