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Warmoth build starts TODAY
- Thread starter Lonnybass
- Start date
Well, the good news is that, as of three days ago the bass is DONE! 
I had an opportunity to take it for its first test drive at a gig on Friday night.
Due to a weekend of essentially nonstop wedding planning, football spectating, house-hunting and other stuff, I have had absolutely zero time to take completed quality photos of the bass which I know most of you are dying to see! Hopefully tonight things will have quieted down sufficiently for me to be able to snap off a bunch of shots and a review of the instrument.
Lonnybass
I had an opportunity to take it for its first test drive at a gig on Friday night.
Due to a weekend of essentially nonstop wedding planning, football spectating, house-hunting and other stuff, I have had absolutely zero time to take completed quality photos of the bass which I know most of you are dying to see! Hopefully tonight things will have quieted down sufficiently for me to be able to snap off a bunch of shots and a review of the instrument.
Lonnybass
Not even married yet and your priorities are already off-track...
I know!!! But on the flip side, she did see the finished product for the first time on Sunday afternoon before the Bears game and said to me (completely unprompted, I might add) "You know, the guitar came out looking really good!"
Lonnyb
So, are you taking orders?
Yep, he'll be taking orders after the beginning of November, but not for guitars (oops, I mean basses).
Let's review the complementary acceptance of tools of one's musical endeavors it in a couple months...
And now, ladies and gentlemen...(better photos coming when I have time to shoot the bass in soft direct sunlight). Unfortunately the color of the flamed bubinga doesn't come through completely here - it's really a wild alternating scheme of reds and browns that shifts depending on the light. Review and good pictures coming in a new thread now that the instrument is completed!!!
It sounds AWESOME. A more detailed review coming shortly...let me just say once I plugged it in, it became immediately clear to me why so many TV and live players go after the Sadowsky preamp....we're talking CRYSTAL CLEAR note definition, punch and authority - up and down the fingerboard.
Lonnybass
- Feb 2, 2001
- 12,719
- 1,291
- Disclosures
- Builder: Valenti Basses
- Jun 25, 2007
- 4,531
- 135
- 63
- Disclosures
- Artist:TC Electronic RH450 bass system (original test-pilot)
I've never been a huge J-bass fan, but after seeing this and Nino's work, I'm jonesing! Great job! The DR Red Devils really compliment the bubinga.
BTW, since you went with gold hardware, why didn't you use gold control knobs?
BTW, since you went with gold hardware, why didn't you use gold control knobs?
Well, the bass is finally completed and I have taken it on its first official test run as of this past weekend.
SPECS:
Body: Mahogany with AAAAA flamed and bookmatched bubinga top lamination
Neck: Birdseye maple with abalone inlays and pearloid binding
Electronics: Sadowsky preamp with VTC and quick-release 9v battery
Pickups: Sadowsky humcancelling
Finish: Body - 10 coats each of handrubbed Danish Oil and Polyurethane
Bridge: Gotoh 201 (gold)
Tuners: Schallers (gold)
REVIEW
Well, considering that I have spent the last 5 or 6 weeks finishing and constructing this bass, I will do my best to keep the review completely impartial and unbiased. That being said, this bass just plain ROCKS!
Far and away the most time consuming aspect of the build process is finishing, and I am quite pleased with the end result. I wanted to bring out the wild bubinga figuring without it looking like plastic, and the alternating wetsanding, polishing and buffing seems to have paid off quite nicely. The figure looks EXTREMELY deep (I'm going to try and take better photos this weekend) and the rays really seems to shift with the light. It's like the top is alive. A very cool effect.
The mahogany body wood under the mahogany has taken on a very nice warm golden sheen, which I am similarly quite pleased with. It's like two basses for the price of one!
The neck and fingerboard received approximately 8 coats each of handrubbed Danish Oil and the headstock was topcoated with 4 coats of polyurethane to seal the decals. The entire neck was then waxed. End result, a very smooth, medium-sheen neck that isn't overly heavy. With a Comfort Strapp, I have not detected any neck dive (total weight of the bass is approximately 8 3/4 lbs).
The neck pocket is completely 100 percent tight on both sides, with zero gaps whatsoever - Warmoth quality control really hit it out of the park with this one. The instrument did need a slight adjustment to the neck heel so that the left and right side of the fingerboard are completely level to the bridge (the G string side of the neck was a little high).
The bass literally SINGS through my Alembic F-1x tube preamp...huge, massive fully fundamental notes just radiate from this thing (and with a fairly low action). As I may have mentioned in a previous post, after playing the thing for a few minutes it became quite clear why TV guys like Will Lee and Ricky Minor dig the Sadowsky package - there's an absolutely unreal amount of clarity and depth to each note. It's like hearing your voice through a really high-end mic preamp in a studio - the level of detail is absolutely amazing. No wonder these things sound so good (even through TV speakers!).
The EQ is extremely powerful...that bass boost especially! - and there is a wide range of tonal variation between the bridge and neck pickup. Like a really good jazz bass, only with much more refinement and versatility.
Basses I've owned in the recent past that didn't hack it for me tonally included both a Fender QMT Deluxe and an MTD Z5. Compared to the Fender, this bass is much more "alive" sounding, warmer and more distinctive. And compared to the MTD, it's much more "full" and fat-sounding (and generally more versatile).
I'm still getting the hang of the Sadowsky electronics, especially the concept of blending of the VTC with boost-only bass and treble to nail specific sounds, so I'm expecting to spend time getting the hang of it over the next week or so.
All in all the bass sounds like a million dollars and I'd definitely recommend looking into Sadowsky! All in all, this construction process has been a complete success and I am thrilled with the end result. Better photos to come!
SPECS:
Body: Mahogany with AAAAA flamed and bookmatched bubinga top lamination
Neck: Birdseye maple with abalone inlays and pearloid binding
Electronics: Sadowsky preamp with VTC and quick-release 9v battery
Pickups: Sadowsky humcancelling
Finish: Body - 10 coats each of handrubbed Danish Oil and Polyurethane
Bridge: Gotoh 201 (gold)
Tuners: Schallers (gold)
REVIEW
Well, considering that I have spent the last 5 or 6 weeks finishing and constructing this bass, I will do my best to keep the review completely impartial and unbiased. That being said, this bass just plain ROCKS!
Far and away the most time consuming aspect of the build process is finishing, and I am quite pleased with the end result. I wanted to bring out the wild bubinga figuring without it looking like plastic, and the alternating wetsanding, polishing and buffing seems to have paid off quite nicely. The figure looks EXTREMELY deep (I'm going to try and take better photos this weekend) and the rays really seems to shift with the light. It's like the top is alive. A very cool effect.
The mahogany body wood under the mahogany has taken on a very nice warm golden sheen, which I am similarly quite pleased with. It's like two basses for the price of one!
The neck and fingerboard received approximately 8 coats each of handrubbed Danish Oil and the headstock was topcoated with 4 coats of polyurethane to seal the decals. The entire neck was then waxed. End result, a very smooth, medium-sheen neck that isn't overly heavy. With a Comfort Strapp, I have not detected any neck dive (total weight of the bass is approximately 8 3/4 lbs).
The neck pocket is completely 100 percent tight on both sides, with zero gaps whatsoever - Warmoth quality control really hit it out of the park with this one. The instrument did need a slight adjustment to the neck heel so that the left and right side of the fingerboard are completely level to the bridge (the G string side of the neck was a little high).
The bass literally SINGS through my Alembic F-1x tube preamp...huge, massive fully fundamental notes just radiate from this thing (and with a fairly low action). As I may have mentioned in a previous post, after playing the thing for a few minutes it became quite clear why TV guys like Will Lee and Ricky Minor dig the Sadowsky package - there's an absolutely unreal amount of clarity and depth to each note. It's like hearing your voice through a really high-end mic preamp in a studio - the level of detail is absolutely amazing. No wonder these things sound so good (even through TV speakers!).
The EQ is extremely powerful...that bass boost especially! - and there is a wide range of tonal variation between the bridge and neck pickup. Like a really good jazz bass, only with much more refinement and versatility.
Basses I've owned in the recent past that didn't hack it for me tonally included both a Fender QMT Deluxe and an MTD Z5. Compared to the Fender, this bass is much more "alive" sounding, warmer and more distinctive. And compared to the MTD, it's much more "full" and fat-sounding (and generally more versatile).
I'm still getting the hang of the Sadowsky electronics, especially the concept of blending of the VTC with boost-only bass and treble to nail specific sounds, so I'm expecting to spend time getting the hang of it over the next week or so.
All in all the bass sounds like a million dollars and I'd definitely recommend looking into Sadowsky! All in all, this construction process has been a complete success and I am thrilled with the end result. Better photos to come!
BTW, since you went with gold hardware, why didn't you use gold control knobs?[/QUOTE]
I thought about this and may switch them out for gold knobs at some point - when I was experimenting during the construction process, the black Sadowsky ones just seemed to be a better match in complementing the angle of the flamed bubinga without overpowering it, whereas the more visible bridge seemed to fit with the wood flame angling around it.
Lonnybass
I thought about this and may switch them out for gold knobs at some point - when I was experimenting during the construction process, the black Sadowsky ones just seemed to be a better match in complementing the angle of the flamed bubinga without overpowering it, whereas the more visible bridge seemed to fit with the wood flame angling around it.
Lonnybass
Very nice!! but as stated above, I would go for the gold knobs... and the strings look a bit weird(I know they are supposed to be coloured) I would go for standard or gold string... but that's just me
But it still looks like a very nice bass!
But it still looks like a very nice bass!
