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Show your Spalted basses. :)

#21
Cliff Bordwell said:
That's a cool idea. Brad, do you know if that was air brushed?
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Thanks, I'll let him know.

I'm not sure about the specifics on how he paints with such detail, Cliff. What the pic doesn't really show in addition to doing bursts within the Spalt figuring is the red to amber burst he did in every fret position. Plus the back of the neck has a burst finish too. Trying to decide on whether to keep this one for the Winter NAMM show or not. It plays like my blackburst 6 (my favorite six). Here's a close-up of that one:

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Blackburst with what appears to be a grain enhancement. The fretboard is translucent Black Birdseye Maple. AFAIK it should be reviewed in the January or February edition of Bass Player.
 
#22
I believe the Brubaker is a Dyed top. Looks beautiful!!


Heres a few Maple Spalts

radam2.jpg


DSCF0026.jpg


ben1adg.jpg


Spalted Koa

bentad2.jpg
 
#24
Brian Barrett said:
I believe the Brubaker is a Dyed top. Looks beautiful!!
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Thank, Brian. Actually it's not a dye, it's paint. It's sprayed on but I'm not clear on what the specifics are as far as air brush vs. any other type of paint technique.

The cool thing about the way he does it is that it allows him to experiment. When I was at the finish stage for my first Spalted Xtreme I stopped by the shop and we discussed different finish options. He'd suggest a finish, for example Blackburst, go into the booth and shoot it and bring it out for me to see. He'd immediately bring up another option, remove the first finish and do a second one. And so on. The wild thing is how quickly he did this. Nothing like using the actual instrument as a sketch pad.Too sweet:D

What we ended up with at first was the finish as it is now on the front with a transparent Amber for the back of the Ash body (with a satin Black on the back of the neck). Later on when the removable preamp modules were installed we went with a gloss Black back. I loved the bass either way.

That's the process used to finish the six. He tries to really get into the figure of the wood and decide what will best bring it out. Obviously he sees stuff most of us wouldn't see. The Red/Amber/natural six took quite a while to do, the pic isn't bad but really doesn't do it justice, particularly the detail in the fades and burst he uses on the Spalt and the Maple board.


Here's a close-up that's been seen here many times;). What I've probably never mentioned before was that this is not completely the natural color of the Spalt. Very subtle stuff. Some of it is natrural... the darker areas determined the overall vibe of the top and he matched some of the lighter areas to that. OTOH the fretboard is all natural.

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Just for grins...




Great looking basses, Brian.
 

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