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Topics - moonshinegtrs

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Other Bass Brands / NBD! Aliexpress Uke Bass... Ordering a bass from China.
« on: August 16, 2018, 06:06:02 PM »
This is the second instrument that I have ordered from Aliexpress. Right off... Understand that (IMHO) any order from Aliexpress or similar sites is a gamble, but doing a little research and asking a lot of questions can improve your odds.

I have been looking at this little Uke Bass for over a year. It was also on ebay for awhile but I haven't seen it there lately.

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-brand-34-Ukulele-acoustic-bass-with-EQ-with-gig-bag/1837209_32767787281.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10152_10151_10065_10344_10130_10068_10324_10547_10342_10325_10546_10343_10340_10548_10341_10545_10696_10084_10083_10618_10307_10869_10868_10059_100031_10103_10624_10623_10622_10621_10620,searchweb201603_1,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=2d9af272-c992-432a-8536-a116399ba5c6-30&algo_pvid=2d9af272-c992-432a-8536-a116399ba5c6&transAbTest=ae803_1&priceBeautifyAB=0

One reason I was hesitating was the price, $325 is a lot (to me); I have owned two of Rondo's Hadean Uke Basses ($130-$170 USD)... I still own one (which will be going up for sale soon).  I also have a Hadean solid body Uke bass.

The difference in the two styles of acoustic ukulele basses is very apparent; The more expensive Aliex. bass has 14 frets clear of the body ans a cutaway. I was hoping it would be 24" scale but it ended up being the more standard 22" scale, which I am fine with. The neck is moved forward in the body and likewise the bridge is more "centered" on the (really nice looking) solid spruce top which makes the bass slightly longer; I think the smaller body/longer neck combination looks really nice. As mentioned, a solid spruce top and the back and sides are beautiful flamed quartersawn lacewood. The body is fully bound and it is arched... making the body fairly thin (I love it!).

I will get more into details of the actual instrument later (short story; beautiful, with a couple of set up issues... I am more than satisfied) but for now here are pics of how the packaging of a Chinese bass looks (they are well packed).




It came with a pretty nice gig bag...



Finally... Here it is!



I'm really digging the body shape (front to back).


I'll post more soon.



Moonshine   

2
Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Moonshine Custom: Builds, projects and ramblings...
« on: July 10, 2018, 05:41:23 AM »
Since I have have been put on "vacation" by another bass forum, I have decided that it is time to expand my horizons. I've been here for a bit but haven't posted much. Looks like that's going to change...

I am going to start with an ongoing project that is one of my personal basses, a double cutaway with a bot on 31" scale neck and a swamp ash body; this is the fourth pickup swap. So far it has had a: Peavey T40 (blade) (sounded killer, very aggressive). Hammond Darkstar ( my favorite so far... Fat, creamy, thick... why did I take it out?),  an OEM Ovation Magnum neck pickup (HUGE! 4 separate coils... I thought it would kill. I was so wrong.  What an odd sound..).

To fit the Ovation pickup I had to route a really big hole. I really didn't think about to at the time but it came back to haunt me when the Magnum pickup sounded nothing like I had thought it would, not even sure how to describe how it sounded... Hollow is the only thing that comes to mind, no mids and hardly any bottom...  Major Bummer.

The bass ended up in a gig bag; I loved this bass, it weighs under 6 lbs!!! It feels like an old pair of jeans... It used to sound Killer.

I've been thinking about what to put into this bass next; I had sold the Darkstar but I had several other options, I was mainly looking at a pair of (Gibson) Thunderbird pickups or Bartolini soapbars (mainly to fill the enormous hole on the bass).

I have been slammed (very thankful) but with the end of Summer NAMM I took a week long break to clean the shop and take care of some repairs that have been waiting. I also decide to take a look at this bass. Awhile back I purchased a pair of single coil Paul Reed Smith bass pickups. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with them at the time; they looked cool and I was sure I could use them at some point (the Grainger bass uses these as a humbucker which what I am using these as). They both registered above 7.60k.

At first I was going to install them as a standard humbucker (side by side) but then I thought about separating them and installing a ramp in between them; I'm hoping it will give them a slight tonal variety but I'm expecting to use them wired together in series, originally I was going to wire the bass that way only, but after thinking it over I decided to add a mini toggle for coil selection (or series/parallel/single coil).

Here is the cavity (canyon? Man, that pickup took up a lot of real estate!), I have already added a piece of ash to fill the original route for the T40 pickup. The depth of the route for the Ovation Magnum pickup is perfect for the single coils but O am going to add wood to close up the surrounding space.


Next I'm using a forstner bit to remove material on the treble side of the route, then I cleaned it up with a router.


Here is the route with wood added and cleaned up.


Finally I added a piece of ash to split the route.


Next I will be making a pickup ring to cover the now filled route...



Moonshine



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