Ramps ready made

Gotta get those made to fit. I'm trying to get one made for my Zon right now, and it's gonna be March or so before they can do it..

 

I have a friend in the automotive industry who is also a guitarist. He manufactures the interior wood trim on Aston Martins and Jaguars. He made me a custom finger ramp for my old fretless Jazz. He's now making one for my Pedulla Buzz.

He's currently taking measurements of some classic basses (regular Jazz, 70's Jazz, Stingray, etc.) and will start producing ramps in his factory. There will be many, many wood and finish options. Exotic wood veneers, carbon-fiber, etc. will all be available. Price should be in the neighborhood of $50 for a wood ramp with basic hand-applied finish.

Would there be interest in this kind of thing? I can set up a group buy or something.

No affiliation, blah blah blah.

 

Sounds like a great idea if possible. But wouldn't there be to many different factors with the right radius and stuff?

 

That's why he's going to limit himself to some classic basses at first. As you noted, there are too many variables involved.

Radius and pickup spacing are easy. Thickness is tricky. If you remove a pickguard, for example, that makes a significant difference in how near the top of the ramp is to the strings. Then there's set-up:

Let's say you have one guy with a fretted Jazz Bass using heavy strings and a high action who plays with a heavy touch. Then you have another guy with a fretless Jazz Bass using light strings and a super-low action who plays with a light touch. Each player would have very different needs in terms of ramp height ... even if the bass is the same.

Still, most of the players who want ramps are guys who like very low action and play with a light touch. Their set-ups probably won't be wildly different from each other. Fretted vs. fretless and pickguard vs. no pickguard are probably going to be the single biggest variables. You should be able to get away with offering 2 or maybe 3 different thicknesses for each bass.

 

I'd by one!

 

I'm going to follow up with him this week.

 

i made one out from plastelina, its modeling clay that you put in the oven so it can harden. Works as a charm

 

Doesn't pickup height also effect ramp height, and isn't pickup height to one degree or another an individual preference?

 

Any news yet...I'm very interested!

 

I'd love to see someone make plexi ramps for Fenders which fit like the ramps on the RBIV, onto the pickup mounting screws. I'd love to have one for my RBV, and I'd snap it up in a minute.

 

We've already discussed it. It's in the works. I'll keep you guys posted.

That's very easy to do. The ones my buddy is working on are made of exotic hardwoods, regular wood with exotic wood veneers, or regular wood with carbon-fiber veneers. Plain old plastic is easy.

 

OK, guys. Here's the first prototype. The bass is a Squier VM Fretless that I donated to the cause...









Sorry for the lousy photos (taken with a BlackBerry). As you can see, he routed under the pickup screws so that the ramp would be flush with the pickups. I think this looks much cleaner overall.

As this is just a prototype, there are some issues. The big one is that the radius is wrong (you can see that in the 3rd pic). But that's easy to correct. The other thing is, the ramp is a bit too thin, so I installed it with 2 layers of double-sided 3M foam tape. Doesn't look too great since you can see the tape peeking out from underneath.

Also, ignore the cosmetics: this is just a piece of scrap wood (maple, I think) that's been painted over with a satin automotive paint. Production versions will have proper lacquer finishes.

Anyway, please tell me what you think. Is this the kind of thing you guys had in mind?

 

Looks very nice indeed. You say its to thin. But making it thicker might be worse, because it will lose some adjustability. I had a problem with a ramp i tried.
When I slapped, the string would hit the ramp slighty. And couldn't lower it more since it was a little to thick.
Just something to think about if it going to fit many different setups.

It also has to follow the strings incline. Meaning that it has to be lower at the front PU than at the bridge PU. This would also be different for different setups. But this must be very easy to adjust for with different layers of tape.

But again this means there has to be space for the tape, so ramp can't be to thick.

Hope it makes sense. Just my 2 cents

 

New to the ramp idea:
* Will double sided tape hurt lacquor finishes?
* Any interest in just a thumb rest from pup to pup as my style doesn't recquire anything below the top string; perhaps this is just for looks?

 

I was never too fond of the ramp idea. It wasn't attractive in my opinion. Now that I've got a Brice 6 string coming, I've started to reconsider. I was looking at some basses with ramps and they look awesome.

If I have it refinished to a darker cherry color I will likely consider having a ramp made, stained in a slightly darker yet color. It'd look great and I'd finally get to feel what all of the buzz is about these things.

 

The radius can be anything you want. He measured the radius off of a buddy's Fender Jazz. Evidently, it was different than the one on my Squier VM Fretless, which I donated to him as a test bass. So, it's not a matter of not being able to do the radiusing properly (this is trivial), simply a matter of matching the radius to each bass.

This was mostly a "proof of concept" type thing. He had one of his woodworkers come up with a few designs. I liked this one the best, since it hides the pickup screws. I'm not a huge fan of designs that simply cut around the screws. Here's an example of what I mean from Hadrien Feraud's Ken Smith Burner:



Nothing wrong with that in terms of function. But I'm not crazy about the cosmetics. I prefer a cleaner/sleeker look.