CURRENT CATALDO

[Nocturnal]

Looking good Carlo!!

[Rob]

That Phantom is really nice.
I like the neck too.  The only one I have ever played belonged to a friend in the late 60's early 70's and even for a C Neck Pbass played the neck was GIANT

[Dave W]

Sure looks sharp with that ebony board and black guard.

[dadagoboi]

Thanks, guys!  Originally the customer ordered it in black with white guard then changed it.  I agree with you Dave, ebony board really  looks good.  Especially since Allparts stopped using abalone dots on their ebony necks.

[drbassman]

Beautiful!!!!!

[Highlander]

Beautiful workmanship as usual... the Vox inst's have never been my cup of tea, mind you...

[gweimer]

Nice bass!  I love the humbucker in there.  My first bass was a gawdawful Vox MarkIV teardrop that sounded so bad, I chiseled out the route for the bridge pickup and put a Gibson mini-humbucker in.  It still didn't help the Louisville Slugger neck. 

[dadagoboi]

Here's the second Phantom clone and my original side by side.  They both weigh 9.2 lbs and balance great.  Steve of ThunderBucker Ranch made  the repro bridge cover.  Seymour Duncan single coil Precision pups are inside the covers I scratch built from modelers' styrene sheet.  Allparts rosewood board P width paddle head neck, hipshot ultralites.

The 'toilet handle' is connected to a blend pot, there's quite a bit of tone variation from it, much more than a 3 position switch.  The VOX has a 2 position switch, bridge OR neck.  On the one I played in the 70s I added 2 more pots and bypassed it.


 
Sound is pretty close to the original.  I have an old set of Bass Burners on the Vox and a fresh set of EXL170 on the clone so it's not a fair comparison.  The bridges are threaded saddle on both, VOX copied Fender but with narrower spacing.  I like the wider spacing on the clone, the strings on the Vox are really close to the board edge on the upper frets, there's very little taper to the neck.

[Nocturnal]

Looks good Carlo!! I like the extra touch of the "Cat" logo on the pickguard where it would have said Vox.

[Pilgrim]

MMmmmmmmm....tasty!

[chromium]

That is too cool.  Very nice work.

You're gonna make me cave if you end up building a Constellation or Stinger clone 

[dadagoboi]

That is too cool.  Very nice work.

You're gonna make me cave if you end up building a Constellation or Stinger clone 

Thanks!

You're safe, you can buy an original Stinger or Constellation for less than it would cost for me to build you one.  That would have been the same for Phantoms a few years ago but the Brit ones have gotten pricey.

[drbassman]

Nice work as usual! 

[dadagoboi]

Thanks, Bill!

Here's the three hour total time refin I did yesterday to a metallic silver Squier body for a long time customer.  Scuff sanded with 320/400, shot with arctic white ACRYLIC lacquer, 3 coats in 15 minutes.  Waited 30 minutes and shot with 3 coats of clear.  It was completely dry by this AM. No buffing or polishing necessary.  It will go out Monday.  That's the advantage of using modern automotive products.  Proper prep and good gun technique and it's done.



I'm pretty sure it was done the same way in the Indonesian Squier factory. The silver was high gloss but very thin over polyester primer. No buffing makes for a less labor intensive finish.

[drbassman]

Thanks, Bill!

Here's the three hour total time refin I did yesterday to a metallic silver Squier body for a long time customer.  Scuff sanded with 320/400, shot with arctic white ACRYLIC lacquer, 3 coats in 15 minutes.  Waited 30 minutes and shot with 3 coats of clear.  It was completely dry by this AM. No buffing or polishing necessary.  It will go out Monday.  That's the advantage of using modern automotive products.  Proper prep and good gun technique and it's done.



I'm pretty sure it was done the same way in the Indonesian Squier factory. The silver was high gloss but very thin over polyester primer. No buffing makes for a less labor intensive finish.

Nice, if I do a spray/solid finish, the auto stuff would be my choice!  Can't beat that!