Finished Pics - Alembicesque Bass in need of serious attention

Andyjr1515

nutbox said:

Well they say "you can't polish a turd" you have just proved them wrong.
Well done buddy

)

Mick has called this the Silk Bass, based on a conversation we had at the beginning of the adventure of whether you can make a silk purse out of a pig's ear  

Andyjr1515

I think my favourite pic was this one;

Just seeing how that Walnut sprang to vibrant life with a bit of a finish on it.  I should really use some walnut.  I should really do anything at all ...

Figured walnut is such a nice wood - especially when it's oiled or varnished - that I've always thought it would be sacrilege to stain it.

  I'm certain now that it's anything but and might try some more colours with some other panels I've got.  Well pleased how this one turned out - couldn't believe it when I first put the orange on.  

WezV

Whenever someone mentions they may stain walnut I always suggest purple.   Sounds odd, but it can really work well on walnut..   The wood takes colour better than you would think

Andyjr1515

Shark_Eyes said:

Nice Cameo there Andy.

Sounds great, what do all the switches do?

Coil split for each pickup? Active / Passive?

Thanks, @Shark_Eyes

It's an interesting pickup.  Each is made up of 4 coils - two banks of two.  This means that as well as full humbucker (all four on) and single coil (two of the side-by-side coils on in one of the two banks and the second bank off), there is also what Nick terms the 'split coil' which is, in effect an offset P-bass shape - one coil on from one bank and the diagonally opposite coil from the other bank.

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

Whenever someone mentions they may stain walnut I always suggest purple.   Sounds odd, but it can really work well on walnut..   The wood takes colour better than you would think

I may try that - I've got loads of inks.  I'll post a few examples when I've tried a few.

WezV

Andyjr1515;1119857" said:

WezV said:

Whenever someone mentions they may stain walnut I always suggest purple.   Sounds odd, but it can really work well on walnut..   The wood takes colour better than you would think





I may try that - I've got loads of inks.  I'll post a few examples when I've tried a few.

Try it as a stain and sand back before clear... That's my favorite.

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

Try it as a stain and sand back before clear... That's my favorite.

I'll try that, @WezV  

Shark_Eyes

@Andyjr1515 Oh wow, super cool. Such an obvious / clever idea really. Thanks for explaining.

Always enjoy your threads.

randella

That's some amazing work, thank you for sharing.  Really inspiring read, I think I'd have teetered on chucking it in the bin but you've made a fine-looking instrument live once more.

And you were right about the walnut, I wasn't expecting that.  It looks fantastic.  I can see why the owner was pleased!

Andyjr1515

Thanks for the encouraging feedback, folks 

If anyone is interested in some more details of the SimS Super Quads, I've posted some more details of the functionality and fitting in the Bass section of the forum here.

Andy

KingNothing

Awesome job Andy, it was a good read.

JudasVigilante

Looking amazing Andy. I always love your project diaries. I haven't been on here in a while. Personal stuff. Good to be back. Can't wait to see how this ends up.

Andyjr1515

JudasVigilante said:

Looking amazing Andy. I always love your project diaries. I haven't been on here in a while. Personal stuff. Good to be back. Can't wait to see how this ends up.

Good to see you back, @JudasVigilante

PhilKing

It looks great, reminds me of a Wal.  Just out of curiosity, why did you put the stop so close to the bridge?  Was it for a sharper break angle on the strings?

Andyjr1515

PhilKing said:

It looks great, reminds me of a Wal.  Just out of curiosity, why did you put the stop so close to the bridge?  Was it for a sharper break angle on the strings?

Well spotted!  

No - it was to accommodate one of the owner's very strong preferences.  You hear on the video Nick enthusing to Mick (the owner) about the strings.  Mick fits them on all of his (7-8) basses (and presumably has a private stash based on the video conversation) but they are all medium scale strings fitted to long scale basses.  

On a fixed bridge, that would have been no problem, but a stop tail needs extra length.  The only way that they would fit without the headstock end narrowing before it got to the nut was to bring the stop-tail forward and adjust the height to prevent too big a break-angle.

Clearly, things would have been much more straightforward if Mick had been happy with a standard 'flat' bridge...it is undoubtedly what the bass was originally built with, otherwise there would have been a neck angle built in.  But this was a very experienced player who knew exactly what he wanted and why.  As discussed earlier, as a hobbyist I had the luxury to put the time in to try to be able to achieve that.  A commercial luthier / modder would probably have had to walk away from the job or risk it becoming cost-prohibitive. 

Deadman

Holy schmokes Andy, that looks amazing. One of the nicest things I've ever seen in fact.

Andyjr1515

Deadman said:

Holy schmokes Andy, that looks amazing. One of the nicest things I've ever seen in fact.

Blimey....thanks 

DartmoorHedgehog

Andyjr1515 said:

as a hobbyist I had the luxury to put the time in to try to be able to achieve that.  A commercial luthier / modder would probably have had to walk away from the job or risk it becoming cost-prohibitive. 

That's very true of lots of things that are "worth" doing out of enjoyment or interest that would be far too time-consuming to make money from (or have to be stupidly expensive).  I was thinking about the time it took me to build my silly five-string thing I've just finished - it's a usable instrument and I really enjoyed building it, but must be worth a fortune if I included my time, certainly far more than anybody would pay for such a thing :O  (although an experienced builder with more appropriate tools could have made it faster than I did)