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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
I haven't been on here in a long time. Cool to see some of the old names still around.
Earlier this year my band rebranded and released our first album Posthumous on surusband.com. doesn't sound to bad for something recorded and Mixed in my machine shop. Unfortunately my bassist and I had a falling out recently so me and the drummer decided to just go for a two piece. I bought a bass vi and I'm working on some pretty cool signal pathing. I'll update on that later once I'm closer to having it finalized.
Earlier this year my band rebranded and released our first album Posthumous on surusband.com. doesn't sound to bad for something recorded and Mixed in my machine shop. Unfortunately my bassist and I had a falling out recently so me and the drummer decided to just go for a two piece. I bought a bass vi and I'm working on some pretty cool signal pathing. I'll update on that later once I'm closer to having it finalized.
I had one of these Ventura ripper copies a long time ago in maybe 02-03 that was stolen in 04. I kept the case and last year another popped up-the only one I'd seen in 20 years. I knew immediately it wasn't the same one but I had to have it anyway and suitably overpaid as it was completely unplayable.
1. Siezed/mangled truss rod nut. I was able to break it loose and get it out with an EZ Out. Then I found it had a larger truss rod than most and was able to drill/tap a new nut to M6 threads. What a mfn pita that was...
2. The original (big single coil fake muddies) had been replaced with Artec clones, neither of which was grounded to anything in any way. Once I fixed that, there was still the issue of volume drop on the E and G strings. I pulled the pole screws and replaced them with a 1/4" square steel rod that runs the length of the covers to hopefully widen the field a bit. I also put wide sheet steel plates on either side that run out past the magnets, all of which are now ceramic and correctly oriented. This *improved* the string balance but it still isn't perfect. I also made some spacers for underneath the pickups to act as spacers for height adjustment. That took some trial and error. I do very much dig the woofy neck and the bridge alone does have a nasty snarl to it.
3. The 4 way varitone was wired up as a normal rotary pickup selector with a kill position (off-neck-both-bridge) and I just left it that way for simplicity's sake. I'm playing in a stoner/doomy band. I don't need anything more than thundermud. The kill position is convenient, as well. I think I want something like that on all my basses.
4. Unlike a real Ripper with a 3 point bridge, it had the earlier EB-style 2 post tuneomatic with nylon saddles. It had warped and completely collapsed but fortunately it was an exact clone for the Gibson version and a Hipshot Supertone 2 point fit right on. Even the anchors had the same knurling on the outside. It blew my mind. That could not have gone smoother and they even made me an aluminum spacer plate for free when I emailed and asked. Hipshot is aces in my book.
5. The frets are shot but I managed to spot level a few nasties and it plays pretty good. It will need a refret before too long and I'm not looking forward to that. Remember when they were like $100?? I'm sure it will be even more spendy as the fretboard edges are HEAVILY rolled from the factory. It does make it incredibly comfortable to play but it will make dressing new frets difficult...as will the finished board.
6. The great big knob (lol) is from lovemyswitches.com as are the smaller ones. I love those old 70s stereo knobs.
7. Nut slots hogged out and it's set up .065-.130 stainless Elixirs in C standard. Plays good, sounds big.
THIRTEEN AND A HALF MFN POUNDS.
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Man, Red Fang is one of my top 5. I don't understand how they haven't caught on, aside from maybe the overall dark-ish feel of most of their songs. They have hooks on hooks on hooks and there is nobody that sounds like them. Fantastic band.
Well, hello. I changed my handle to Kaa from Kawai-chang, but kept Sam the Eagle.
Change out the tuners, it'll only be 13.35 pounds then. Feels like a feather! Also thanks for the descriptions on the mods, I find these types of things interesting.
Hey man, I made the assumption due to the avatar.
Here's what the current pedalboard diagram is right now. I had the first practice with the bass vi and this board layout yesterday. It sounds massive through the 3 amps.
I'm still waiting on some of the parts like the quartz and the vc-500. But it still sounds big for a 2 piece.
I agree with Formula. That's a lotta cables, lol.
First pedalboard I've needed to draw out a diagram for lol.
Basically I'm splitting my neck pickup out and sending it through a density hulk which is like a dod meatbox which boosts the subharmonics of the signal. Then into a looper which I can control using the remote switches from the gig rig so that I can turn on the bass side effects with just the one foot switch on the gigrig. Then it goes out to a di and a verellen meatsmoke bass amp with a dually 2x15 cabinet.
Then the bridge and middle pickups are sent through a seperate signal chain with alot of bass rolloff to get the guitar sounds. Then out to an orange rockerverb 100 and a verellen loucks with a Marshall 4x12 each.
I also wanted to be able to control our lights from the gigrig, but it only sends patch change midi, so to control the lights I needed the quartz to convert patch change midi to notes for our light controller.
I figured while I was doing that I'd like to also be able to control my vocal effects so I'll chain the vc500 from the quartz midi as well.
It's complex but hopefully when it's fully assembled it'll make singing/screaming, playing guitar and bass parts, and controlling all the effects alot easier. The more simple I can make the extra stuff the easier it should be to play well right? Lol.
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It sounds great but (and I'm a caveman so this is all magical and frightening to me) any of that going bad in the moment would give me a shaging stroke lol
Yeah it also makes me anxious, but it's the easiest way I could think of to run split processing for my bass signals and guitar signals and still be able to perform without crazy tap dancing. I'm a heavy dude so my balance isn't all that good for all the one legged shenanigans.
I used to play a Kawai RB105, so that's where the name began. Sam the Eagle reflects my disapproval of humanity.
It was(is) a great bass, I just had to shift to short scale as my shoulders are starting to go downhill and the 34" reach to the money frets was causing me serious pain.
