Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 (edited) Well, I've completed my 8 string bass, with the exception of part of the electronics which are giving me some problems. Anyway, here it is. The specs are: 8 String fretted bass B E A D G C F A# tuning 35" Scale 24 frets 16.5 mm string spacing at bridge (about 21/32") 70 mm nut width (2.75") 108 mm at 24th fret (4.25") Paua Abalone front and side dots 3" thick semi-hollowbody Curly bubinga top and back Wenge accent layer White Limba body 7 piece maple/wenge neck Dual truss rods with 3 graphite reinforcement rods Lacewood/wenge/padauk transition block Matching wood pickup covers Matching Wood Control Cover Nordstrand Fat Stack 8 Pickups Aguilar OBP-3 Preamp with passive treble roll-off ETS Tuning Fork Bridge Sperzel locking tuners The top and back wood. The fretboard and neck with graphite and truss rods. The body is almost ready for the neck to be glued in. Edited November 21, 2005 by Geoff St. Germaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Here are some more progress shots. Test fitting the neck. Getting the neck depth correct. Contouring the neck joint. Rough contoured neck joint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 A few more progress shots. Neck glued in front view. Neck glued in rear view. Checking the pickup covers. Looks pretty close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 looking very nice! Keep it up mate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Some shots of the finish. Oiled from the front. Oiled on the back. Waxed with the hardware in test fitting mode. The finished neck with strings. A picture showing the thickness of the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 How thick is that bass anyway? Its very very nice, i like it, especialy the cavity cover, for some reason its my favorite part of the bass, probibly just how its done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Some completed photos. Full shot. Testing it out at a show. Thanks for looking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 How thick is that bass anyway? Its very very nice, i like it, especialy the cavity cover, for some reason its my favorite part of the bass, probibly just how its done. ← The bass is 3" thick. It is quite hollowed out and the top and back actually weigh quite a bit more than the more does. I need to get a bathroom scale to weight it, but I would guess that it is something like 4.5-5 kg (10-11 lbs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyd Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 wow that thing is a monster! how heavy is it? it looks GREAT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Wow, thats thick! Can you tell us about your electronics, you have an awful lot of pots there, what do they do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Wow, thats thick! Can you tell us about your electronics, you have an awful lot of pots there, what do they do? ← Well, what they're supposed to do and what they do are two different things. Anyway, here is what it is supposed to be: Two channels of volume/blend. The switch switches between the two. That takes care of the 4 big knobs. Both volumes are push/pull pots for coil tapping. The four smaller knobs are, from top to bottom: passive treble roll-off, bass, mid w/ push-pull mid frequency (400 Hz and 800 Hz), and treble. The problem I'm having is that I can seemingly only get one side of the volume/blend to work at a time. The switch is a 4PDT and it is wired so that it switches the hot pickup output to the correct volume/blend side and switches the outputs of the volumes to the passive tone control which then feeds into the preamp. For some reason when I have it wired up this way I get a ton of noise and the volume on one of the channels will not work (doesn't turn anything down). I've checked the pot and it isn't defective so I'm not sure what the problem is. I probably have to gut it and try redrawing the wiring and then rewiring it. Right now only one volume/blend are hooked up and it is working fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 I love the way your neck laminations look with those pickup covers. Top notch job. Sorting out the electronics is the fun part . peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ledzendrix1128 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 what i wanna know, is where do you guys get all your hard ware when you build these basses with 6+ strings. I havent seen many places selling 4x4 tuner sets and 8 string bass bridges. Im curious to see how expensive they are too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 what i wanna know, is where do you guys get all your hard ware when you build these basses with 6+ strings. I havent seen many places selling 4x4 tuner sets and 8 string bass bridges. Im curious to see how expensive they are too. ← My tuners are just two sets of 2+2 Sperzels. My bridges are monorails, so I can just buy however many I want. The company I get my bridges from, ETS, also custom machines bridges if you provide a .dxf image and their prices are very reasonable for that. Pickups are the tricky part. For this bass I was able to get Carey Nordstrand to build me a set of his fat stacks for 8 strings, but when I emailed Aero and Seymour Duncan they wanted $800-$1100 for a pair of pickups. The Nordstrands were $350. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Very nice bass Geoff, i like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slabbefusk Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Very nice wood and craftsmanship but I gotta tell you this, that is a sickly wide neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Very nice bass Geoff, i like it! ← Thanks Phil. I love your fretless 6! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 I hope you get your wiring troubles sorted out, PM Lovecraft, he should be able to help you out with it. Im loving all these bases with huge amounts of strings, i love playing 5 and 6 stringers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Yeah...that's the one Geoff. Nice job! Now you just need someone to help you fret it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 that thing is absolutely rediculous. i dont mean to sound like a jerk, but i never understood wha t point of having a bass with more than 5 strings was...it's just overkill to me. but other than the complaint of the strings, it looks great! very sweet looking bass, but i'd much rather see the same thing in a 4 or 5 string verion. looks like quality solid work though, and i love the pickup covers matching the neck laminations...pretty sweet deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 that thing is absolutely rediculous. i dont mean to sound like a jerk, but i never understood wha t point of having a bass with more than 5 strings was...it's just overkill to me. ← Just because you can't fathom utilizing all those strings doesn't mean others can't! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 Im suprised no-one has said it yet. GOTM! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff St. Germaine Posted November 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 that thing is absolutely rediculous. i dont mean to sound like a jerk, but i never understood wha t point of having a bass with more than 5 strings was...it's just overkill to me. ← Then you won't like the 10 string I'm starting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flood Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 that thing is absolutely rediculous. i dont mean to sound like a jerk, but i never understood wha t point of having a bass with more than 5 strings was...it's just overkill to me. ← Then you won't like the 10 string I'm starting. ← darn, i can't wait. that's some beautiful work there. how does it sound? i dream to build an extended range touch-style instrument, buy have no experience whatsoever in building guitars... excepting the squier strat modification i'm working on (fretless after 5th fret - sustainer - veneer "top" - whole new paint job) and this no-name bass i've taken apart totally to mod to fretless, possibly one more string, individual piezo pickups per string with individual preamplification and stereo panning controls, with a sandwiched top and back. also, i'm a student, so getting my hands on machinery is difficult. not impossible, but difficult. i suppose you've built a lot by now... any tips for a noob who wants a 10-12 string stick clone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 For the 12 string, are you thinking about graduated string spacing? It appears that the string spacing on this bass is more or less uniform(it looks to be slightly graduated). You might be able to substantially reduced the fretboard width if you play around with the string spacing. On a 10 string, I imagine it's pretty important that you watch how wide you're making your neck. peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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