Andyjr1515

Well, they do say in certain circles that you can never have too much popcorn Admittedly, those are usually popcorn producers' circles.... This one does have an anchor block, thankfully. Mind you, the fixing for the bridge itself is a little unconventional - bolted from the back - so I may need to shorten those bolts if I go ultra-slim or do a concave carve again to the back...

Hmmm...I haven't bought much since he move to his new premises, so I'm not sure what his finishing processes are nowadays. Generally, I would have said not quite. You can see the machining marks in the camphor laurel above so that is definitely not. The amboyna, on the other hand, definitely is. It's spot on thickness and smooth as the proverbial... If. you are interested in buying anything, it's worth dropping Kirk an email and asking him. You'll get a straight answer - he's a good guy.

Yes - Kirk at exotichardwoodsukltd.co.uk. He used to be at Chapel-en-le-frith but now is nearish Stoke. The only issue is that it is as holey as swiss cheese so will need a lot of black resin to fill. I'll let you know how it goes....

Hi Now that the ultra-modern bass is complete, it's back to my first love...6-string electrics. And I'm building two of them! The first, is an Alembic-esque build for a long-standing member of one of the UK-based forums. It won't be a clone but will have a passing nod to the '80s look of the original Alembic 6-strings. The top will be a nice piece of bookmatched Camphor Laurel: It will have a fully chambered mahogany back - basically a semi acoustic without the 'f' holes. The 5-piece through neck (visible from the back only) has been laminated - maple / purpleheart / mahogany / purpleheart / maple: ...and turns out to be birdseye Tim, who I'm building it for, has just sent me this lovely looking Schaller piezo bridge: The other build is going to be similar construction, which is one of the reasons I'm going to build two in parallel. It is going to be a 6-string electric version of Pete's Piccolo Bass: The reason is that I want to see if the advantages of the above design translate fully to a 6-string electric - very light weight (c 6lbs) and super-slim neck to body transition. This is the top - a nice piece of amboyna: ...and the through neck cut from the same beam as Tim's Alembic-esque above Should keep me off the streets for a couple more months, which will please the local constabulary

A very well deserved win on GOTM, @2.5itim Excellent!

I did quite a few experiments on this for my fully hidden pickups on the recently finished ultra-modern bass. The answer is broadly yes, but with some provisos. First of all, if you are going to add longer slugs, it would be better to get hold of some longer slug screws and simply replace the stock grub screws with some longer ones for the maximum magnetic flux. However, variations in the distance that the coil is from the string has more impact than variations in the distance that the slug is away from the strings. So, yes - there will be a better volume with every mm closer to the strings you get with the slugs, but there will be disproportionately better volume improvement (and tone) for every mm closer the coil itself can get. Hope this helps makes sense and that it helps

That looks a LOT better

I don't know if it is of any help, but the thread on my own refinish of a white LPJ is here. Many members use my threads to determine what NOT to do

Yes, I also agree with @Mr Natural and @StratsRdivine . Just a case of sanding a bit further. I tend to avoid mechanical stuff because I've 'dug in' too many times, so I would personally hand sand using 80 grit with a block and then use finer grit when all of the previous finish is gone. I refinished a white lpj last year - I'll try and find the thread....

Well, this - now named the Psilos Bass from a name competition held on basschat - has gone to Mick and I'm delighted to say he is delighted with it Here it is adorned with the DR Neon strings he sent me: This was a little back support I added to keep the bone saddle upright - because the strings are tightened from this side, I was concerned they might over time drag the saddle out of square and enlarge the slot. This works great And, if you forgive the poor quality of the recording off my phone, here are a couple of video clips of Mick's first touch yesterday. On the strap: https://youtu.be/84asdOSV34g And over the knee: https://youtu.be/J_U9VkTxXos

Watching with interest

I think the final dots are going to be very effective Interesting to see the development of your techniques.

Some great entries - all of them. As I've said before, I usually vote based on which one I would want to take home with me...and I'm a sucker for purple guitars...especially stupendously cool purple ones (and, as presumably no one can see this unless they have already voted so it's not going to influence anything, to answer your question @Prostheta , the Psilos sits wonderfully well, on strap or over the knee. It's actually one of the nicest basses I can remember playing. Total fluke, mind you...I couldn't be sure at all how it was going to end up )

Thank you very much, Scott - it means a lot

Thanks . I fully accept also that it is a 'like it or loathe it' kind of shape. When we started, I was in the latter camp from a personal point of view. Loved the challenge but would have been the last thing I would personally go for. But now? Well, it FEELS so great and it sits so well and it plays so nicely....hmmmmm....makes a difference.

OK - time to throw down the gauntlet. And yes - it doesn't have the awesome dozens of strings and slanted frets of Knightro's Exploder; it doesn't have the heart stopping effect of StratsRdivine's John Blazy; it doesn't have the beautiful finish, colour or photo of beautiful lady holding it of 2.5itim's N12; nor does it have the stupendous back of boroducci's Axim Alpha; it doesn't even have the ash-ridden loveliness of verhoevenc's Model1 bolt-on.... ...but, ladies and gentlemen, it does, surely, have something.... Love it or loathe it - but you certainly can't ignore it, I present the Psilos ultra-modern bass It is a custom build for a member of the UK-based Basschat forum, Mick. His concept, my interpretation, lady luck's blessing and Einstein's unsolved paradox. Spec is: Scale: 34" Woods: Sycamore / Maple / Ebony Pickups: Under-saddle piezo + hidden magnetic coils (one per string) through an East UK pre-amp/mixer Controls and Tuners: Headless tuner system and full suite of controls fully accessible but hidden from front view Finish: Osmo Raw 3044 Weight: Just a touch over 7lbs Sounds wonderful; sits just right on the strap; sits just as comfortably over the knee Like it or maybe think it's just downright weird, you just know this deserves your vote.... Andy

Wow....I'm very flattered. Thank you very much for the kind words

Well as it took twice as long as the previous one, I reckon it warrants two rounds. My round first, yours second?

Thanks, Matt

Someone asked earlier in the thread how this would sit on the strap. This clip of Chris playing it gives a decent idea - it sits well, with the tuner block wrapping round an inch or two away from the player. It's VERY comfortable It also probably gives a better idea of the sound, even through my rubbish phone mic

And the 'as near as makes no difference finished' shots. Forgive the self-indulgence:

Well - this is pretty much finished I've got to drop the action a touch and finish the finishing on the two hatches but, before posting the finished-ish pics, here's a quick update: Got the electrics and preamp/mixer in: Even with the attenuation shunt in place and the gain at minimum, the piezo was still much louder than the fairly meaty magnetic signal. To further attenuate, I added the extra trim pot you can see in the above picture (blue). Next was to get it to someone with a proper bass rig to balance the volumes of the two sides and to work out how much gain I could add to the magnetics without picking up too much background buzz. Here's a very short clip of Chris - a bass playing pal - running it through his rig. In this clip, everything is at neutral I have a clip somewhere of the difference between the piezo and magnetic. I will post it if it is a decent enough rig. Whatever, Mick - who this is being built for - will have a huge sound pallete to be able to tweak to his exact needs and rig And then, barring the final tweaks mentioned, it's done! I'll post some shots shortly

Their normal pickups are much less diy and include Wal type multi coils inside a standard humbucker casing plus other interesting stuff. These were done for me while the founder was in the middle of moving his workshop. Quite clever in terms of the use of the neodymium magnets - I even have the option to lever one of them off to adjust the flux! Now that really IS DIY

There are actually very few jobs to finish off. So, will it be finished very soon? Well, not necessarily! The remaining ones are going to take considerable care and lots of fiddling about. Not least the pickups. Here are the Herrick custom coils: They are wound individually with different resistances to balance the output of each of the strings. The pole pieces have been put in so that they can be adjusted from the back. And, by golly, this is a delicate, wibbly-wobbly, highly magnetic assembly! "Be careful with the blue wires - they are very delicate", Martin Herrick wisely advised... So probably Martin has to look away at this point - because the first thing I needed to do was get the soldering iron out and desolder the one stable thing on the assembly - the stiff copper earth wire running across the four coils. Why? Well, these coils have to go down into separate chambers so what I will do is solder 4 individual earth wires from the shields to hook up with the collective earth on the output cable. I did a trial fit and marked the position of the cable runs to rout some slots for them to slot into and the join up to the pre-routed cable channel that's sitting under that ebony strip. Out came the router and soon we had some slots: Then I added the four earth wires to the coil shields and attached that to the hook-up wire: Then a quick try, directly linked to the jack, before I start messing about with the piezo and WOW - it works Not balanced yet, but every string is ringing out like...well....a bass

These three or four simple photos below hide a good few hours of toil First of all, earthing the tuner block. I don't know what other people do, but generally I solder my earth wire onto a small patch of copper shielding to get certain and decent connection without the risk of a lump under the bridge! : Then it was the turn of the battery clip and pots. Here's a shot with two of the pots installed and the slimline stacked pot still to do. These first two were the ones with very small threaded areas - the suggestion from one of the other forums to tap an internal thread in a couple of spare machine head bushes worked a treat: And here we are with all three pots installed. Still have to finish the relief carves for the knobs and install the jack socket but you can see here that, from the back, everything is easily accessible. The pot knobs are very easy to use in this position - even the stacked knob: ...but from the front, everything remains hidden: