My wife was in the studio the other day and we were talking about all my basses, she prompted me to really think about what basses I really need here versus the ones that are wall hangers. Here are two more wall hangers - they are REALLY nice wall hangers, but I have other basses that are five stringers that sound as good as these. If I have a choice between four and five, I'm going to pick five every time.
First up is my PRS 25th anniversary "copy", I put that in quotes because I started with that design, but I did some pretty serious edits. The refinish on this one pretty much just entailed a reshape of the neck profile and fret job. I took a lot off the neck and made it way flatter/thinner. This remains one of my favorite basses from a looks perspective. In going back through this one I didn't find too many spots where I could see rushing (I can see that in some of my builds). I have improved greatly on dressing frets, funny I wouldn't have said that, but looking at the fret job on this one before and now, it's way better, now it's smooth and consistent, it was neither before. I also swapped the flat wounds to round wounds. I like flats but they really do limit the sound possibilities, for a fretted instrument I like round wounds way better. And I see in the pic I forgot to put the truss rod cover back on.
Next up for refinish is a four string fretless. This one has a neck on it that survived my house fire, I had to throw the old body away, so I built this one to replace it. In a recurring theme I thinned out the neck considerably. I buffed out the fingerboard, but it was dead flat. This one sounds just so good, but I've got a five stringer that sounds just as good, so I never play this one. As you can see it has no controls, it's got Ghost piezo saddles and a buffer, I added a volume control inside the control cavity, but nothing external. I'm sure this has a very limited audience of people who might like it, but I'm leaving it as is for now. Tapewounds and fretless create that super mwah-y sound, some hate it, and frankly I'm not a huge fan, but if you want mwah, this is the way to get it. This neck was built before I figured out side lines on the fretboard and has lines all the way across. I actually have a harder time playing this one as the lines on the side of the neck are hard to see.
I'm working on a five now when I get a minute and have a four upstairs that I haven't even started looking at yet.
First up is my PRS 25th anniversary "copy", I put that in quotes because I started with that design, but I did some pretty serious edits. The refinish on this one pretty much just entailed a reshape of the neck profile and fret job. I took a lot off the neck and made it way flatter/thinner. This remains one of my favorite basses from a looks perspective. In going back through this one I didn't find too many spots where I could see rushing (I can see that in some of my builds). I have improved greatly on dressing frets, funny I wouldn't have said that, but looking at the fret job on this one before and now, it's way better, now it's smooth and consistent, it was neither before. I also swapped the flat wounds to round wounds. I like flats but they really do limit the sound possibilities, for a fretted instrument I like round wounds way better. And I see in the pic I forgot to put the truss rod cover back on.
Next up for refinish is a four string fretless. This one has a neck on it that survived my house fire, I had to throw the old body away, so I built this one to replace it. In a recurring theme I thinned out the neck considerably. I buffed out the fingerboard, but it was dead flat. This one sounds just so good, but I've got a five stringer that sounds just as good, so I never play this one. As you can see it has no controls, it's got Ghost piezo saddles and a buffer, I added a volume control inside the control cavity, but nothing external. I'm sure this has a very limited audience of people who might like it, but I'm leaving it as is for now. Tapewounds and fretless create that super mwah-y sound, some hate it, and frankly I'm not a huge fan, but if you want mwah, this is the way to get it. This neck was built before I figured out side lines on the fretboard and has lines all the way across. I actually have a harder time playing this one as the lines on the side of the neck are hard to see.
I'm working on a five now when I get a minute and have a four upstairs that I haven't even started looking at yet.
