The Knuckle Quake 39.5" Scale Bass Thread

[edbutler3]

Do tell...I'm very interested in hearing about your Knuckle!

Congratulations on the beautiful Quake.

OK, here's the deal with the stereo setup... It has a single TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) jack that can take either TRS cable for stereo operation or a regular cable for mono. There's a five position rotary switch that sends each pickup to either the tip or the ring or to nowhere (off). You can think of the tip and ring as left and right... So in mono mode, you can get neck, bridge or neck plus bridge, or mute as options -- and then in stereo mode you can also flip-flop neck and bridge between the two outputs if you want.

The point of this, which is not obvious if you've never played a stereo bass, is that the two pickups are slightly out of phase (visualize how the vibrations propagate up and down the string past the two pickup locations...) and this slight out of phase effect, even more so than the tonal differences between the pickups, creates a sense of "space" when you run a reasonably symmetrical pair of amps -- or for recording, when you pan each signal towards opposite speakers in your stereo mix. It sounds particularly dramatic when you play chords, but it's still quite apparently on single note lines too. I wish I had a home recording setup so I could post an example, but unfortunately I'm a little behind on learning that technology. Hopefully my band will do a recording in a few months so I can post something.

 

[edbutler3]

Ha ha, I bet. And your cab has two 36" speakers, no doubt!

Seriously, what kind of rig do you play that through?

I've got a lot of different stuff to choose from, but what I'm planning to use for the stereo mode initially is this:

1) Raven Labs Link Removed
2) Crest CA-9 power amp
3) Neck pickup: Dr. Bass 1260SF + 112LF
4) Bridge pickup: Dr. Bass 1580

I may have the speaker/pickup combos backwards, but I can quickly correct that once I set it up. Since my band is on hiatus until the guitar player's arm heals up, I've just been playing through the Raven Labs preamp and a good set of Grado headphones so far. Also, if I find I need more low end capacity, I've got a Berg NV215 I can use. But what I listed above will actually fit in my car, I'm pretty sure. For smaller gigs I can just run in mono so I don't need as many speakers.

 

[edbutler3]

Question: Last time I went to look at the Knuckle website, it was down. Was that just a glitch, or has Skip dropped the site, or what?


Edit: It's there now--must have been a glitch. Never mind!

He mentioned to me that his old web host had gone out of business, leaving him in the lurch. I just noticed the Link Removed has some new content. There are now 3 designs to choose from.

 

[TapyTap]

OK, here's the deal with the stereo setup... It has a single TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) jack that can take either TRS cable for stereo operation or a regular cable for mono. There's a five position rotary switch that sends each pickup to either the tip or the ring or to nowhere (off). You can think of the tip and ring as left and right... So in mono mode, you can get neck, bridge or neck plus bridge, or mute as options -- and then in stereo mode you can also flip-flop neck and bridge between the two outputs if you want.

The point of this, which is not obvious if you've never played a stereo bass, is that the two pickups are slightly out of phase (visualize how the vibrations propagate up and down the string past the two pickup locations...) and this slight out of phase effect, even more so than the tonal differences between the pickups, creates a sense of "space" when you run a reasonably symmetrical pair of amps -- or for recording, when you pan each signal towards opposite speakers in your stereo mix. It sounds particularly dramatic when you play chords, but it's still quite apparently on single note lines too. I wish I had a home recording setup so I could post an example, but unfortunately I'm a little behind on learning that technology. Hopefully my band will do a recording in a few months so I can post something.

Thank you for the explanation. What you say makes perfect sense to me. The stereo send should certainly lend itself to some interesting creativity. Brilliant!

Oh yes, while I am thinking of it, what gauge strings did you decide to have Skip place on that Quake? (I am assuming that you are using the new Circle K Hybrids.)

 

[coolrunner989]

Thanks -- but remember the GTG is Wednesday, not tomorrow! Hope you can make it.

Yeah, sorry. My mind is already thinking about what I have to do tomorrow, so "tomorrow" is Wednesday for me haha. I'll be there for sure.

 

[edbutler3]

...Oh yes, while I am thinking of it, what gauge strings did you decide to have Skip place on that Quake? (I am assuming that you are using the new Circle K Hybrids.)

The last time we discussed it, I requested:

6 String Set-Balanced Long 175 Low
Gauges .175 .125 .090 .070 .050 .035

However, they've revamped the Circle K site since then, and they no longer seem to have those exact gauges, so he might have gone with something similar, like .170 .130 etc. In any case, the "balanced set" concept Circle K offers works well for me, in either 35" or 40" scale. On 40" scale it seems almost a requirement, otherwise your D and G strings would be painfully tight. (No tight G-string jokes please... )

 

[Jjango]

Is there anywhere we can hear sound samples of this bass?

Edit: I mean other than the basstasters link in the first post. Any samples that really showcase the low notes?

 

[TapyTap]

Ed,

How's the new 6-string Knuckle treating you?

 

[edbutler3]

Ed,

How's the new 6-string Knuckle treating you?

I'm still enjoying the Quake quite a bit. I've gotten more adjusted to the low F# string, and I find myself dropping the low A (3rd fret) in quite a bit in the keys D, E, or A.

I realized after a while that I made a bit of a mistake in telling Skip that I like "high action". I guess I really like it slightly higher than the average player, but not really high. I had some trouble lowering the action on this bass myself. I emailed Skip and he let me know he had to use some shims under the bridge saddles to get the height up to where he thought it needed to be. I've been lazy about trying to work on it myself (plus I don't think I have the right size Allen wrenches or a file to grind down the shims) so I've let it slide for a while. Because of the extra long scale, the high strings have more tension than on a normal bass, so I actually want a lower action on the Quake than I would on a 35" bass. The low strings are perfect -- it's just the D and G strings (and maybe the A) that need to come down. Or else I need to go with extremely thin-gauge strings on the high side.

Meanwhile, my band had been working on a demo recording. We've been doing it a few hours here, a few hours there, so it's not ready yet, but I did really love tone I got with the Quake plus my old Demeter VTBP-201 preamp. One of these days I'll post some MP3s.

 

[TapyTap]

I'm still enjoying the Quake quite a bit. I've gotten more adjusted to the low F# string, and I find myself dropping the low A (3rd fret) in quite a bit in the keys D, E, or A.

I realized after a while that I made a bit of a mistake in telling Skip that I like "high action". I guess I really like it slightly higher than the average player, but not really high. I had some trouble lowering the action on this bass myself. I emailed Skip and he let me know he had to use some shims under the bridge saddles to get the height up to where he thought it needed to be. I've been lazy about trying to work on it myself (plus I don't think I have the right size Allen wrenches or a file to grind down the shims) so I've let it slide for a while. Because of the extra long scale, the high strings have more tension than on a normal bass, so I actually want a lower action on the Quake than I would on a 35" bass. The low strings are perfect -- it's just the D and G strings (and maybe the A) that need to come down. Or else I need to go with extremely thin-gauge strings on the high side.

Meanwhile, my band had been working on a demo recording. We've been doing it a few hours here, a few hours there, so it's not ready yet, but I did really love tone I got with the Quake plus my old Demeter VTBP-201 preamp. One of these days I'll post some MP3s.

Thanks for the update.

Glad to hear you are finding some use for that low F# string. When I eventually commit to a build with Skip, A0 will be my lowest pitched open string.

I'm sure you will get the action set the way you like it on the higher -pitched strings. Lower action just seems like it would be fantastic on a Quake...but that's me.

When you get an opportunity to post some audio, I will be eagerly waiting.

By the way, how much does that Quake weigh?

 

[edbutler3]

Thanks for the update.
By the way, how much does that Quake weigh?

I don't know exactly, but it is quite heavy. I'm a big guy so I've never cared much about how much an instrument weighs, but this is certainly the heaviest bass I've ever picked up. It would pretty much have to be, since it's physically larger than other basses, plus it's made of maple which IIRC is a pretty heavy wood. On the positive side, it balances perfectly with the neck rising at a 45 degree angle -- so there's absolutely no neck dive issue. This makes the weight easier to handle since you aren't having to support a heavy neck with your fretting hand.

 

[bryanspkr]

what do these various quakes weigh?

 

[Diogenes]

 

[Wh4len]

Sooo I'm in the first brainstorming phase with Skip.

My bass will be a 5string quake with Neckthrough.

Walnut body and Seymour duncan Basslines soapbars wired passive with V/T V/T for each pickup, stacked controls.

I'm in the process of selling 2 Warwick streamer stage 1's to afford this monster. Looking forward to get it

 

[TapyTap]

Very nice. What pitches will your open strings be?

 

[Wh4len]

Haven't really decided the open tunings will be.
Skip will be making me two nuts P) to change.

There will be the standard BEADG and F#BEAD.

Now, having second thoughts on the pickups.
I like Seymour Duncans, but I'm also leaning towards
Q-tuners.

I've seen both pickups in Quakes in this thread.

What would you go with to get at good, full, neutral sound?

 

[Rockin Mike]

Can you even get Q-tuners anymore? Their website store has been closed for ages while they're working on the 2.0 pickups.

 

[eyvindwa]

Soooo, for the guys who have owned a Quake for some years now: Do you still enjoy it? Do you keep it tuned to low (low low low) E, or have you moved up to a more traditional tuning?

 

[John D Harris]

Soooo, for the guys who have owned a Quake for some years now: Do you still enjoy it? Do you keep it tuned to low (low low low) E, or have you moved up to a more traditional tuning?

Seems like for a 5 string the natural tuning would be C#, B, E, A, D...?
That would be 3 half-steps lower than the 'low (low low low) E' you seem to be referring to.
Of course, DSFDF.

 

[Roscoe East]

Soooo, for the guys who have owned a Quake for some years now...

or, for the guys who only just bought theirs in the past couple years, why haven't you been posting in this thread!

Reading through the archives it seems like there was an awful lot of chatter about the Knuckle Quake on TB from 3 or 4 years ago, but then it gets really scarce. (and not just this thread, anywhere on TB.) What happened?