The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs => Topic started by: Basvarken on May 13, 2017, 12:29:23 PM
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A new bass was born today!
I built this one on assignment for a bass player in The Netherlands.
Body and neck are mahogany
Fretboard is rosewood
Transparent black finish with pearloid binding
Seymour Duncan SRB-1B (rickenbacker replacement humbucker)
MEC on-on-on toggle (series, single coil, parallel)
Volume pot CTS
Babicz bridge
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-ebrbl-body-outdoors1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-back1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-body1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-head-2-1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-controls-outdoors1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-trussrod-cover1500_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-eb-rbl-in-case_orig.jpg)
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Very nice bass, minimal but not boring. Truss rod access is on the heel under those two screws I get? Any soundclips?
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Truss rod access is on the heel under those two screws I get?
Correct. I used a spokewheel truss rod (MusicMan style).
No soundclips yet. Tomorrow my customer is picking it up. I'm sure he'll record some soundclips.
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That is smok'n hot!
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Beautiful!
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That's beautiful!
34" scale?
On the SRB-1B, it looks like you had to modify the base plate and create a new ring.
Is that correct?
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Thanx guys.
Yes it's 34" scale.
And yes it's the SRB-1B . And yes I cut off the "ears" and made a pickup ring for it
Here's a pic of the pickup before I modified it
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/seymour-duncan-met-oren_orig.jpg)
I chose three ply pickguard material(b-w-b) for the pickup ring. The white line is a nice little detail that goes well with the pearloid binding on the all black bass. And I even changed the height adjustment screws to black ones 8)
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Really nice.
I would be temped to swap out the truss screws for chrome or paint those back.
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8)
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A Gibson may be good enough but a Brooks is better. Feel free to take that. Nice bass. I bet Gene Simmons would dig it too.
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Beautiful!
I'm usually not a fan of binding but that pearloid looks great with the black.
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Looks great. How's the balance?
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Thank you guys
How's the balance?
Perfect. The body is slightly oversized and the tuners are Schaller lightweights. No neckdive at all!
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looks great, Rob! very nice!
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I was already drooling over the instagram pics. How great!! great job!!
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Fantastic, Rob! Raising the bar.
My only quibble is the TRC screws. They look like common black oxide drywall screws. Paint 'em, black!
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Thank you guys
Perfect. The body is slightly oversized and the tuners are Schaller lightweights. No neckdive at all!
Impressive.. You've done a really good job oversizing it while keepeng the looks intact.
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Fantastic, Rob! Raising the bar.
My only quibble is the TRC screws. They look like common black oxide drywall screws. Paint 'em, black!
Thank you.
I think the close up picture may be a bit misleading. They are very tiny all black pickup up ring screws.
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Very cool bass. Very odd choice of pickup. Customer request I'm assuming?
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Thank you.
I think the close up picture may be a bit misleading. They are very tiny all black pickup up ring screws.
:thumbsup: I should have known that!
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Very cool bass. Very odd choice of pickup. Customer request I'm assuming?
Thank you Tom.
The customer wanted a humbucker.
I tried a Strat dual rail humbucker in single coil format first. This way I could maintain the fifties single coil look. But the string spacing of the guitar pickup was just a bit too wide to take the risk.
To avoid string spacing vs pole piece problems we went on a search for a (black) bass humbucker with blade magnets. Several options came up, such as Nordstrand and JBE R-4000.
Eventually we chose the Seymour Duncan pickup. The sound clips that I heard were very convincing.
Cutting off those ears was never a real threshold. (they look pretty silly to me anyway).
Neither was the fact that I had to make the pickup ring myself.
I hope the new owner will make sound clips soon.
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Very nice work. :toast:
I look forward to hearing some sound clips.
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That's killer, Rob.
All black hardware, I see... Is your client a German lawyer? :popcorn:
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Haha, no a Dutch website builder.
He plays in a Volbeat tribute band.
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The ears are there to fit the Ric bridge pickup mount. No reason for you to keep them.
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The bass was picked up yesterday by the guy who I built it for.
He immediately changed the black speed knob for an oversized volume knob from an Orange amp. This was all planned. I just put the speed knob on for the photographs, because I didn't have the Orange knob at hand.
Anyway, here is the bass with the new knob, like my customer intended it.
I think it suits the bass pretty well!
(https://scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18446659_10212787056456283_3072792048411554228_n.jpg?oh=1cea1ae27ce843bb6a3640d8804d7464&oe=597E6A0B)
(https://scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18485609_10212787056416282_7994642357410432549_n.jpg?oh=c2165308a2ab93202edf54903c59937b&oe=597597E7)
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That is an awesome guitar.
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Absolutely beautiful. Very sharp.
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Ditto that- beautiful work! 8)
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WOW! When do you start shipping to the US?! ;D
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WOW! When do you start shipping to the US?! ;D
He's always shipped to the US. Get your wallet out! :)
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I do!
And the Brooks EB-PL is up for sale, because the original buyer never showed up with the money.
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-ebpl1500_orig.jpg)
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That bass is abso-fuggin'-lutely pure beauty! Abso-and-so-on!
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Rob, you been up to some great things, bud. Just don't start making any shorties; I don't need the temptation.
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When I had just finished the Brooks EB-RBL my customer wanted to use it for a gig at a festival straight away. I had not done a proper fret levelling et cetera.
Last week it came back to get a proper set-up. And now it's finally really ready to rock.
I took the opportunity to record a little bit with it. Nothing fancy, just straight into my iMac with Photobooth using the built in camera.
So here it is:
https://youtu.be/xydvvT1U7t4
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Real nice bass. I like single coil mode the best.
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Hot bass. Do you plan to build many of these? Any takers on the red one yet? Maybe put it on the classifieds here if you still have it. I'm curious to know what you're asking for it.
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Yes, the idea was to build a small series of this model. But with different configurations.
As we speak I am working on a new one that is going to feature the QuarterPound Single Coil again. But this time a little bit more towards the middle.
The bass will have a checkerboard binding. Matte black top and high gloss tranparent black sides and back. All black hardware.
I call it the EB-PL Noir (after the Rickenbacker Noir series)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/20245609-10213589988889092-9088779795770765115-n_orig.jpg)
(http://www.enkoo.nl/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/19601133-10213349479436506-6160752201959167271-n_orig.jpg)
The Red one is still here. But I haven't put much effort in to get rid of it.
It is for sale for €1500 (case included)
So far I've been kid reluctant to put it up here because shipping won't be cheap (€ 180).
And the bass has a rosewood fretboard, which may cause trouble with customs because of the CITES crap.
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That's pretty reasonable for a one man built Honduran mahogany set neck bass, even with the shipping.