Show Posts
406
Gibson Basses / Meet my Schlauholz LP ...
« on: March 10, 2010, 04:20:07 AM »
Schlauholz is smart wood so you don't need to dig for your German-English dictionaries.
It arrived on Monday and I restrung it yesterday, cleaned it up a little (there wasn't much to clean off).
Some Blackblurry pics:
The top is made of "peroba" wood, whatever that is, looks like a slightly pinkish/purplish bastard of maple and ash to me.
The fretboard wood - curupay, a Bolivian renewable wood frequently used for parquet floor tiles and sometimes called Brazilian tiger mahogany - is more interesting though, it looks really different with that swirled grain it has, quite a looker!
Two more pics from the auction though the color on the Blackberry pics does the original more justice:
It arrived on Monday and I restrung it yesterday, cleaned it up a little (there wasn't much to clean off).
Some Blackblurry pics:
The top is made of "peroba" wood, whatever that is, looks like a slightly pinkish/purplish bastard of maple and ash to me.
The fretboard wood - curupay, a Bolivian renewable wood frequently used for parquet floor tiles and sometimes called Brazilian tiger mahogany - is more interesting though, it looks really different with that swirled grain it has, quite a looker!
Two more pics from the auction though the color on the Blackberry pics does the original more justice:
or because of some inner voice commanding me to do it, I conveniently gouged out the trussrod nut when I tried to remove it to enlarge the needlessly tight cavity. That is when I learned the hard way 
that 1. Money basses feature a biflex trussrod that goes both ways (utter nonsense if you ask me, as if a long scale mahogany neck bass without any strengthening hard woods - like on the early WALs - could ever be too straight under the pull of bass strings) and 2. the nut of a biflex trussrod is welded on to the thread and cannot be removed. But you can sure mess the allen cavity up nicely while trying, jawohl mein Herr!!! 
aside, he was good enough to not only put in a regular one-way truss rod, but also cover it up with a toothless piece of his sacred stock of Brazilian (Rio) rosewood which he secretively hoards. And here are the results (and yes, it does sound great, all blurry but with tonal focus and a double ocatve neck to do silly things with):
At least that is what he says in an interview in the current issue of German Bass Professor where he talks about his endorsements in the past and future. Until recently, he played Manne basses by the Italian boutique, but didn't like how they would not sound well with effects. Currently he is playing a Yamaha one-off made especially for him (looks a bit like the Michael Anthony Signature), but that is not intended to become a series. But then he says in the interview: "But it looks like I will be changing again soon. I was in Nashville and Gibson senior management offered me to build a signature bass to my specifications that will become a regular model. It is even going to be called the "Burn Bass". Don't know about the timing of the project though."