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Topics - Basvarken

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Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Brooks multi-scale 10-string bass

« on: May 28, 2023, 11:21:47 AM »

Drrrrumroll....
Please welcome the Brooks EXB-MS-10.
A custom made multi-scale 10-string bass.

This is easily the most ambitious build I've done to this date.
Simply because there is no reference. As far as I know there is no other in the world.
I had to invent the wheel myself in some parts ;-)

But now it's ready. Thanx to my talented sister Pauline who made the bass plates for the bridges. Thanx to Lord Of The Strings who helped assemble a string set. And thanx to Sjoerd Smeenk who took care of the electronics part.
And a big thank you to Mark Schiele for his patience! he had to wait more than a year for this bass to be completed.

- Mahogany Khaya body
- Laminated Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in
- Candy Apple Red finish
- Checkerboard binding
- Ebony fretboard
?- Pearloid position markers
- Jumbo nickel silver frets
- 35-32" scale
- Buffalo horn nut ?
- Custom Brooks bass bridge set. Gold plated
Bridge base plates by www.paulinevandenbroek.nl
- Two double action trussrods
- One carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
?- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination
- Pure Tone output. Gold plated
- Volume and tone knob. Gold plated
- Rotary pickup selector switch. Gold plated chickenhead
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Gold plated
- Gotoh CXB-01 carbon guitar tuners. Black
- Custom set d'Addario strings
- Weight: 4.25 kg

Check https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/brooks-exb-ms-10.html for pics of the entire build process.

#brooksbassguitars #multiscalebass #tenstringbass #fannedfrets

Gibson Basses / Thunderbird II 2023

« on: March 21, 2023, 09:33:14 AM »

David Kiswiney shared these pics with me.
Gibson's master builder Jim De Cola built this beautiful Thunderbird II for him.

The neck is not a nine ply laminate. But three piece mahogany.
The machine heads are Hipshot Ultra-lites.
The pickup is DeCola's reissue of the historic 60's T-Bird Pickup. He made the bridge a little hotter than the neck pickup, so they would balance better. David Kiswiney's bass has the hotter bridge position pickup.
It also has the Rex Brown Active boost via a push/pull switch on the tone control.
At the request of David the lower strap button was placed off-center, for better balance

Gibson should be taking these into production! They'd have a real winner in their hands.

Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Brooks multi-scale five-string bass

« on: February 26, 2023, 02:05:08 PM »

This weekend I finally completed the build of the Brooks EBN-MS-5.
It had been waiting on the electronics to be wired since december last year.
The five position rotary switch appeared to be made of unobtanium. But this week it finally showed up.

Here are the specifications:

- Mahogany Khaya body
- Quilted Maple top and headstock face
- Three piece Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in
- Blue burst gloss finish on top and headstock
- Matte finish on back and neck
- Ebony fretboard
?- Mother of pearl position markers
- Jumbo nickel silver frets
- 37-34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut ?
- Babicz Solo Rail bridge. Black
- Double action trussrod
- Two carbon reinforcement strips in the neck
?- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination
- Pure Tone output. Black
- Volume and tone knob. Black
- Rotary pickup selector switch. Black
• 1. humbucker in series
• 2. neck side humbucker
• 3. bridge side humbucker
• 4. humbuckers in parallel
• 5. humbuckers out of phase. With cap to keep low end

- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black
?- Gotoh Extra large strapnuts. Black
- Dingwall strings
- Weight: 3.88 kg

This bass was not built on commission. But I just wanted to build it as a sort of prototype. To try out a few new things.
There are a few mistakes/flaws that annoy me

- I think the bridge is a bit too close to the edge. This because I set into the body a little deeper than I had originally planned. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough grip for the neck.
- There's a glued in piece of (the same) khaya on the side of the body. The router had slipped and I needed to repair that piece. But somehow I flipped the piece over and new it reflects differently under a certain angle. Making the glued-in piece pop out quite obviously.
- I am not that happy with the way the blue came out. Some kind of chemical reaction between the stain, the wood and the lacquer makes the color lose some of its intensity. Plus the are strange spots where it almost looks as if there are salt stains under the lacquer.
- The string-T was not something I had planned. But I guess a didn't make the top nut high enough to keep the string in the slots. So the String T was an after thought.

Still a pretty nice bass. But I keep seeing all the imperfections... I did learn a thing or two during the build though ;-)

Here are pics of the build process.
https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/brooks-ebn-ms-5.html

The Bass Zone / it's a bass. But not as we know it

« on: February 15, 2023, 05:17:50 AM »

I love it when someone thinks outside of the box

Build process:

The Outpost Cafe / Jeff Beck...

« on: January 11, 2023, 04:30:48 PM »

...passed away today.

RIP Jeff beck

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/12/legendary-rock-guitarist-jeff-beck-dies-aged-78

Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Brooks Quad Bass

« on: December 03, 2022, 02:50:16 PM »

Last summer I built a custom bass for a customer who immediately became so enthusiastic that he asked me to build another special bass; a remake of the legendary Hamer Quad Bass!
The original Quad Bass is a short scale twelve-string bass that was built by Jol Danzig of Hamer, especially for Tom Petersson. With a “quad bucker” (four single coil elements across) going to a built-in mixing console. And each with its own output. Quadrophonic!

I actually never build exact copies of basses. So I suggested doing it the Brooks way.
I would like to make it 34" scale anyway.
And instead of a built-in mixer I was going to put built-in effects in it: a SansAmp-like overdrive and a compressor. I was actually already brainstorming with BQ Music about the how and what of this.
Plus I would build the Quad Bucker with Nordstrand NM4 single coils because they have pole pieces that have exactly the right spacing for the bass string and the two accompanying octave strings.
The second pickup would be a Lace Alumitone.
The Quad Bucker and the Alumitone would each get their own output
Furthermore, I’d use an ETS bridge and tailpiece.
Plus Gotoh lightweight tuners (as on all 12-string Brooks basses).

Unfortunately, the customer announced today that his band (a Cheap trick tribute) is on hiatus for an indefinite period of time. So for now the custom Brooks QB has been held off.

But the design/idea is too nice not to share with you.
Who knows, maybe one day it will actually be built. I would love to do it.

Guitars Etc. / Brooks LP-TC Amalgamation

« on: October 24, 2022, 07:13:42 AM »

Drum roll....
Here's a new Brooks guitar!

The Brooks LP-TC Amalgamation

- Mahogany body
- Bookmatched Quilted Maple top
- Mahogany 3-piece set neck. Glued in
- Wine Red stain
- Ebony fretboard with abalone inlays
- Jumbo frets
- Checkerboard binding
- 24 3/4" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- Telecaster style bridge. With compensated saddles. Black
- Double action spoke wheel truss rod
- DiMarzio The Chopper T (DP-384) humbucker
- Gotoh SG-381 locking tuners. Black
- Push-pull Volume knob for parallel-series switching
- 250k Tone knob
- Black knurled barrel knobs
- Mallory Mustard Tone capacitor
- Weight 3.25 kg

Serial number: 2022006

With a special Amalgamation logo on the headstock and Starman logo on the custom pick guard.

How does it sound?
Like this!

Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Made some Brooks family pics

« on: October 22, 2022, 01:27:53 PM »

I moved my site to a new domain www.brooksbassguitars.com
And decided to add a family pic part 2 on the opening page

And while I was busy making all those clipping paths for all those shapes, I just kept going and made some more:

Brooks 12-string bass guitars

Brooks EB bass guitars

Brooks EXB bass guitars

Brooks EBN bass guitars

Brooks Bass guitars with T-bird characteristics

Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Brooks EXB-MS-5

« on: July 30, 2022, 01:17:08 PM »

On my birthday I completed the build of a new bass:

The Brooks EXB-MS-5

- Mahogany Khaya body
- Quilted Maple top and headstock face
- Three piece Mahogany Khaya set neck. Glued in
- Blue burst gloss finish on top and headstock
- Pearloid binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Luminlay Blue position markers
- Jumbo nickel silver frets
- 37-34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- Babicz Solo Rail bridge. Black
- Double action trussrod
- Two carbon reinforcement strips in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar pickup combination
- Pure Tone output. Black
- Volume and tone knob. Black
- Rotary pickup selector switch. Black chickenhead
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners. Black
- Dunlop flush mount strapnuts. Black
- Dingwall strings
- Weight: 4.25 kg

Rotary switch options:
1. Both pickups in series
2. Neck side pickup
3. Bridge side pickup
4. both pickups in parallel
5. Both pickups. Out of phase with a capacitor to maintain the low frequencies.
Circuit and wiring by BQ Music.

Pics of the build process can be viewed here
https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-exb-ms-5.html

And I made a quick video as well.
Being a life long 4-string player I have no idea what to do with that fifth string!
But you get an idea of how she sounds.
(I'm quite sure the guy I built it for will put it to good use!)

The Outpost Cafe / Steve Morse quits Deep Purple…

« on: July 23, 2022, 06:44:45 PM »

Uwe, here’s some news
https://www.loudersound.com/news/steve-morse-to-step-away-from-deep-purple-permanently-band-pay-tribute

The Outpost Cafe / This returnee picks up the bass again

« on: July 14, 2022, 03:04:58 PM »

Right! Today I played with a full band for the first time in six(!) years.😲
After an "extended sabbatical" I get to do some filling in as bassist with my old band mates on guitars and organ! Together with new music buddies on lead vocals and drums.
I am replacing master bassist Rob van der Loo who is on tour with Epica.

The men of Purple Shade play Live In The Heart Of The City by Whitesnake live, plus some additional classics.
We were sweating like pigs in the rehearsal room. But the band was stomping and steaming like crazy!

On July 23, this returnee will return to the stage with Purple Shape. I'm excited

The Bass Zone / Fast neck nonsense

« on: May 25, 2022, 12:14:04 PM »

Someone came along on Facebook today who had sanded the neck of his bass with waterproof sandpaper until it was dull.
And he claims that the neck is now 10x faster.

I often come across such claims. And I think it's weird people think a matte sanded neck makes you play faster.
You'll see them quickly slide their hand back and forth along the neck a few times (without actually playing). And being surprised at how soft (smooth) it feels, they immediately conclude that it also makes you play faster.

I think that's nonsense.
Nobody plays in such a way that, when you have to slide from first position to -let's say- 19th position at lightning speed, it would make a demonstrable difference.
And, in general, at those extreme intervals, you move your thumb by taking it off the neck and putting it down a bit further.
And even if you would actually slide it, a matte neck would not provide a demonstrable speed gain.

How the neck feels is a matter of taste. Some like the feel of a matte sanded neck. And if you like that, I think a bass plays better for you.
Some people with sweaty fingers may not like a high-gloss neck because the thumb can't slide as quickly. I can actually only notice that effect when I squeeze really hard. And that is not the intention anyway if you want to play nicely.

What would make a difference?
In my opinion the speed of playing happens at the front of the neck, on the fingerboard.
If you want a significantly faster playing neck, you need to drastically lower the height of your frets. The flatter the frets, the faster the neck in my experience.
But you rarely hear anyone about that.

*end of sermon*

Other Bass Brands / Maruszczyk announces the Phoenix in their configurator

« on: May 07, 2022, 01:51:27 AM »

Maruszczyk has been building the Phoenix (=Thunderbird) for a while.
But now you can assemble your own online and then order it. Pretty impressive.

Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Brooks Thinline Telebird

« on: May 04, 2022, 06:32:14 AM »

A new bass is born!
I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird.

- Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow
- Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole
- 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard
- Sea Foam Green top.
- Artec Mudbuckers
- 34" scale
- Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome
- Pearloid pickguard
- Tortoise binding
- Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome
- CTS Volume pot
- CTS Tone pot
- 5 way super switch
- Chrome flat top barrel knobs
- Telecaster jack cup. Chrome
- Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105

Wiring by BQ Music:
• Neck humbucker in series
• Outer coils as humbucker in series
• Both humbuckers in series
• Inner coils as humbucker in series
• Bridge humbucker in series

Serialnumber: 2022001

PRICE € 1750

#brooksbass #thinline #TeleBird