So earlier this year, I bought a warped Ray35 neck from a lovely human who did not disclose that it was warped. After this lovely human disappeared, I decided I could turn that frown upside down and fix it with heat to make something useful. That is the renewal/rebirth angle - I am making something positively bitchin' out of this bum neck. I love the profile of the EBMM/SbMM five string necks.
This build is a partial build. Fix the neck and make a bitchin' bod with some cool H-Fi pickups and preamp. My drawing is based on a tracing of the OG Fender performer and the Ray35 neck:
The headstock is modified. The pickups are in the Hi-Fi bass positions. The block is the size of the blank I got from Keim.
All the stuff:
Specs are:
Body: Beautiful Real Mahogany one-piece slab from Keim lumber. My favorite basses all have poplar or mahogany bodies.
Neck: 34" scale warped Ray35 neck. It will be modified somehow other than fixing the warp.
Bridge: Schaller 3D5. Not pointy so no vibrato.
Tuners: Hipshot ultralites.
Pickups: two Lace Sensor Aluma bass bars in the Ken Smith Spots.
Electronics: Audere preamp. Not the one pictured, but a ProZ four band with volume and blend and switches and a LED. Crap. I forgot to buy a battery box.
Paint: Likely an oil finish to highlight the mahogony. This slab is ridonkulous. The crappy camera phone does it no justice.
Strings: ernie ball slinkys.
Cat: As always, Piggy will help move small things to the floor and test strings.
Motivation for the build other than the renewal theme:
As I get more into bass playing, I want different sounds/tones available (Unfortunately, it always sounds like me). I had a P-bass for lots of years and it worked for the Metal I played. As I got back into playing after Lemmy died, I started to think about having extra strings, extra pickups and all sorts of fancy pants stuff. I really love the basses like Ken Smiths and Peavey Cirri that sound Hi-Fi. But I don't really like their body shapes or the prices.
One shape I love, but is relegated to the dustbin of history and is only a four stringer, is the Fender Performer. Not the new ones, the one that was a funky/pointy jazz bass shape with weird shaped pickups. The headstock blows chunks, though. Mapleglo and (I think) JIO did performer builds in the past and they did a buzzard-beak kind of headstock that looked really good on a four string version of the performer. I never liked that bass until I saw their builds.
I have too many four string basses, but need a five string bass for walking bass lines and impressing everyone with how I can play more strings. Why get some tired old jazz or music man when you can get a super cool shaped bass with fancy pickups.
Oh, and just in case the neck heat treatment doesn't work (it has in the past), this build can turn into a scratch build. I also bought a beautiful quarter sawn maple board at Keim today. It has enough wood for four necks. Jezum Crow that place is amazing. They had a problem with the computer and gave it to me for $9, when the price tag said $38! Five thumbs up!
OK. Two weeks late and two entries! Huzzah!
This build is a partial build. Fix the neck and make a bitchin' bod with some cool H-Fi pickups and preamp. My drawing is based on a tracing of the OG Fender performer and the Ray35 neck:
The headstock is modified. The pickups are in the Hi-Fi bass positions. The block is the size of the blank I got from Keim.
All the stuff:
Specs are:
Body: Beautiful Real Mahogany one-piece slab from Keim lumber. My favorite basses all have poplar or mahogany bodies.
Neck: 34" scale warped Ray35 neck. It will be modified somehow other than fixing the warp.
Bridge: Schaller 3D5. Not pointy so no vibrato.
Tuners: Hipshot ultralites.
Pickups: two Lace Sensor Aluma bass bars in the Ken Smith Spots.
Electronics: Audere preamp. Not the one pictured, but a ProZ four band with volume and blend and switches and a LED. Crap. I forgot to buy a battery box.
Paint: Likely an oil finish to highlight the mahogony. This slab is ridonkulous. The crappy camera phone does it no justice.
Strings: ernie ball slinkys.
Cat: As always, Piggy will help move small things to the floor and test strings.
Motivation for the build other than the renewal theme:
As I get more into bass playing, I want different sounds/tones available (Unfortunately, it always sounds like me). I had a P-bass for lots of years and it worked for the Metal I played. As I got back into playing after Lemmy died, I started to think about having extra strings, extra pickups and all sorts of fancy pants stuff. I really love the basses like Ken Smiths and Peavey Cirri that sound Hi-Fi. But I don't really like their body shapes or the prices.
One shape I love, but is relegated to the dustbin of history and is only a four stringer, is the Fender Performer. Not the new ones, the one that was a funky/pointy jazz bass shape with weird shaped pickups. The headstock blows chunks, though. Mapleglo and (I think) JIO did performer builds in the past and they did a buzzard-beak kind of headstock that looked really good on a four string version of the performer. I never liked that bass until I saw their builds.
I have too many four string basses, but need a five string bass for walking bass lines and impressing everyone with how I can play more strings. Why get some tired old jazz or music man when you can get a super cool shaped bass with fancy pickups.
Oh, and just in case the neck heat treatment doesn't work (it has in the past), this build can turn into a scratch build. I also bought a beautiful quarter sawn maple board at Keim today. It has enough wood for four necks. Jezum Crow that place is amazing. They had a problem with the computer and gave it to me for $9, when the price tag said $38! Five thumbs up!
OK. Two weeks late and two entries! Huzzah!
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