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Rybski Basses?

#421
Con Trabajo said:
Hello everyone,


It's been a while since I posted here, but I just wanted to share some pictures of my custom Rybski bass that's in the works now. I first met Rybski a few years back at Wooten Woods, in fact I'm even in a couple of those videos he posted. As soon as I played some of the fine examples he and Anthony Wellington graciously let us test, I fell in love and knew that one day I'd purchase one. Fast forward a year or so, and Rybski managed to get his hands on some wood from Wooten Woods, and I decided that the time was right to plunk down a deposit and get the gears moving. Despite the beauty of that wonderful stressed box elder, I opted for the figured cherry root as my top wood.

I have to give major props to Rybski for putting up with all of the design changes I've asked for and my late payments, but here are the specs as they stand:

4 string
Wooten Woods figured cherry root top
Alder body
Ebony fingerboard w/ 26 frets
Hipshot detuners on all four strings
Hipshot bridge
18mm string spacing
Rybski pickups
Electronics TBD
Three or five position knife switch pickup selection with custom blend knob (TBD)
Custom inlays TBD
Body border with accent

Despite the fact that we haven't settled on some of the details, he's already hard at work cutting wood and a couple weeks ago, he emailed me some more pictures...

Rybski cutting my body out - alder with Wooten Woods figured cherry root top!
Rybski cutting my body

Rybski cutting my body

Wooten Woods figured cherry root top with alder body!

Here's the top wood before it was glued to the body. I insisted on this piece of wood despite the flaw.
Rybski Wooten Woods Cherry Top

Rybski Wooten Woods Cherry Top

Rybski sent this for my approval. He was concerned about the trouble spots in the center, but I...

Here's my neck being glued together
My Rybski neck being laminated

My Rybski neck being laminated

Is that 10 clamps?

Here's two pieces of fingerboard wood he sent me for my consideration. I chose the ebony on the left.
Rybski offers me fingerboard choices

Rybski offers me fingerboard choices

I went with the ebony on the left

Here's the neck after gluing and a rough cut and sand
My Rybski neck all glued together

My Rybski neck all glued together

Looks amazing!

Here's the 7 pieces of wood before they were laminated. Rock Maple, Vintage Bodok (Osage Orange), Purpleheart, Wenge
My Rybski neck before being glued

My Rybski neck before being glued

7 pieces! Rock Maple, Vintage Bodok (Osage Orange), Purpleheart, Wenge

Here's my headstock! I'm in love!
Rybski bass headstock roughed out

Rybski bass headstock roughed out

Wooten Woods figured cherry root top!


I have to say, this is one hell of a lot of work considering the small amount I've paid so far and what I still owe. I just made another payment recently and I can't wait for the next phase of this.
Click to expand...

Here's mine (recently finished). I'm loving it!
Body

Body

  • Media owner Lownote38
  • Date added
Finished Headstock

Finished Headstock

  • Media owner Lownote38
  • Date added
 
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#422
Chauncey1 said:
I like his work to, that's why I contacted him in the first place. His people skills are messed up. He kinda makes himself out to be a person that really cares about what you need sound wise and all, truth be told he could give a shot in a bucket about somebody's sound. Why would you tell somebody your building their instrument and then completly blow them off. He had me waiting for him for nothing. That really bothered me. He kept me waiting as if my time meant absolutley nothing. All he had to say was, I'll make it next year or I'll start in another couple of months. Instead I waited by myself in frozen hellish wisconsin for him to literally do nothing. I could have spent that time with my family in Florida or been anywheres else doing whatever I wanted. It was to much for him to level with me and be honest. That's three weeks of my life that I will never get back.
Click to expand...
I hear ya - people skills aren't my strong suit, either. I try to stay pretty cool online, but in person, I can be a huge jerk without really even knowing it. Sometimes it's just that two people just can't communicate, or maybe he just never took you seriously. Whether you two are just too different, or too much alike, perhaps a bit of both, to get along, sometimes it just doesn't work.
 
#423
Lownote38 said:
Here's mine (recently finished). I'm loving it!
Body

Body

  • Media owner Lownote38
  • Date added
Finished Headstock

Finished Headstock

  • Media owner Lownote38
  • Date added
Click to expand...


Wow, that thing is stunning! I really love maple, and I was really torn when it came time to choose my woods. But I was really certain about wanting the Wooten Woods cherry, so I stuck to that plan in the end. But man, I really am jealous! I see that's the new pickup design versus his classic. What do you think of the tone versus his original 'organic' style pickups? Have you had a chance to play the originals? They're the only ones I've tried so far (love 'em). What electronics did you choose? I'm still weighing my options....

Cheers!
 
#424
Con Trabajo said:
Wow, that thing is stunning! I really love maple, and I was really torn when it came time to choose my woods. But I was really certain about wanting the Wooten Woods cherry, so I stuck to that plan in the end. But man, I really am jealous! I see that's the new pickup design versus his classic. What do you think of the tone versus his original 'organic' style pickups? Have you had a chance to play the originals? They're the only ones I've tried so far (love 'em). What electronics did you choose? I'm still weighing my options....

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I chose an EMG pre-amp with lows, sweepable mids, and highs. I like the look of the pickups, and I had him put his logo and name on each cover (which he might include as an option now. My bass was only the second one he's done that to). I love the tone of them. They're extremely versatile! Much nicer sounding than the EMG pickups designed for that pre-amp. I haven't tried his organic style pickups. They cost more, and I had a budget to maintain.
You won't be jealous for long! Once you get yours, you'll love it. If something needs to be changed, he'll gladly do that for you too.
 
#426
Lownote38 said:
I chose an EMG pre-amp with lows, sweepable mids, and highs. I like the look of the pickups, and I had him put his logo and name on each cover (which he might include as an option now. My bass was only the second one he's done that to). I love the tone of them. They're extremely versatile! Much nicer sounding than the EMG pickups designed for that pre-amp. I haven't tried his organic style pickups. They cost more, and I had a budget to maintain.
You won't be jealous for long! Once you get yours, you'll love it. If something needs to be changed, he'll gladly do that for you too.
Click to expand...


I've always been a fan of EMG pickups, and I'm leaning in that direction. My Schecter (surprisingly one of the best feeling basses I've ever played) has the low budget EMG HZ pickups, but they still sound great. The preamp is a little noisy, but I suspect that it's an issue with mine in particular and not at all endemic to EMG. I do love the tone, and I'm a big fan of Victor, so of course that whole EMG sound is important to me. I am really set on having a knife or maybe even a Les Paul style switch as my pickup selection. I like blend and all that, but I find that 99% of the time I'm playing either full bridge pickup, both pickups full on, or sometimes full neck. The blended tones seem less useful to me and I'm leaning towards not having them at all so that I can have three tones I use always be there when I want them, and to make life easier on stage. I'm thinking it will put an end to needless knob twisting. After that, the EQ ought to take care of the rest, especially if I go with sweepable mids like you did. Is that an 18v system or 9v, and can it work passively or is it active-only?

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me. I may have a few more questions, and of course I'll keep posting the progress of my bass.

Cheers!
 
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#428
Double E said:
This Rybski complaint thread has apparently turned into the Rybski Club...

I guess we all have to come to grips that Chauncey is not getting his money back and has ceased fighting the fight.
Click to expand...
No matter how good his work might look, I could never do business with him after the way he acted towards Chauncey (not that Chauncey is entirely blameless in terms of communications going south, but he's not the one attempting to run a business and screwing his own customers).
 
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#429
Con Trabajo said:
I've always been a fan of EMG pickups, and I'm leaning in that direction. My Schecter (surprisingly one of the best feeling basses I've ever played) has the low budget EMG HZ pickups, but they still sound great. The preamp is a little noisy, but I suspect that it's an issue with mine in particular and not at all endemic to EMG. I do love the tone, and I'm a big fan of Victor, so of course that whole EMG sound is important to me. I am really set on having a knife or maybe even a Les Paul style switch as my pickup selection. I like blend and all that, but I find that 99% of the time I'm playing either full bridge pickup, both pickups full on, or sometimes full neck. The blended tones seem less useful to me and I'm leaning towards not having them at all so that I can have three tones I use always be there when I want them, and to make life easier on stage. I'm thinking it will put an end to needless knob twisting. After that, the EQ ought to take care of the rest, especially if I go with sweepable mids like you did. Is that an 18v system or 9v, and can it work passively or is it active-only?

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me. I may have a few more questions, and of course I'll keep posting the progress of my bass.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

With mine, the pre-amp is the only thing that's EMG. The pickups are made by Rybski himself, and I like them better than the EMG pickups (same pre-amp) I have in my other 5 string. My Rybski is 18 volt active all the time (it can be installed as a 9 volt system, though). I thought the pre-amp was noisy when I first got it (high level of white noise), but the noise was caused by the pickups having a low output which caused the pre-amp to cause the issue. Rybski put a signal booster between each pickup and the pre-amp, and that solved the problem. I like the pickup blend knob, but Rybski could put both that and a switch if you wanted him to. Plus, a switch for going to passive is another thing he can do.
 
#430
blowinblue said:
A careful reading of the original post shows that it started out simply as someone asking for information about these instruments...not a complaint thread. It quickly did the 'Talkbass thread morph'. ;)

M. M. :)
Click to expand...
I wouldn't really call it a morphed thread...the OP's post was an inquiry about Rybski and was virtually ignored, then the thread was dead for eight years before Chauncey chimed in with his experience...unfortunately the OP gave up on Talkbass some six years ago so he never got an answer to his question. The rest is history.
 
#431
Double E said:
I wouldn't really call it a morphed thread...the OP's post was an inquiry about Rybski and was virtually ignored, then the thread was dead for eight years before Chauncey chimed in with his experience...unfortunately the OP gave up on Talkbass some six years ago so he never got an answer to his question. The rest is history.
Click to expand...

You are correct. I missed how old the original post was. I usually pick up on that but this thread was so compelling it made me lose my bearings. Lol. The OP eventually did begin to get some answers with Chauncey's first post but six and half years is a long wait. The OP's last post was in July of 2009. Perhaps we've lost him. Hopefully he's still lurking.

M. M. :)
 
#432
blowinblue said:
You are correct. I missed how old the original post was. I usually pick up on that but this thread was so compelling it made me lose my bearings. Lol. The OP eventually did begin to get some answers with Chauncey's first post but six and half years is a long wait. The OP's last post was in July of 2009. Perhaps we've lost him. Hopefully he's still lurking.

M. M. :)
Click to expand...

Hopefully the OP has a nice Rybski bass like the rest of Rybski's customers (aside from Chauncey).
 
#438
Joe Nerve said:
That seems pretty antagonistic and unnecessary IMO. Did you have fun posting it?
Click to expand...
Not nearly as "antagonistic" as my recent posts. Unnecessary? We still haven't found the necessary words to get Chauncey his money back, so I would say everything must be tried until we find out just what is "necessary".
 

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