The Last Bass Outpost

Quote from: Dave W on August 31, 2018, 12:15:19 AM
That leaves a lot to be desired at any price. You're more than qualified to fix the issues, but most buyers would need to take it to a tech, and too often they don't even realize that they need to. Badly setup instruments are one of the big reasons people stop playing. They don't know better.

That's an excellent point. You are correct.

I brought up the problems but they did not respond... which is indicative of who we are dealing with.


Moonshine           

Quote from: Grog on August 28, 2018, 07:43:55 AM
It will be interesting to see what you think of it after you've had time to try it out. I've been eyeballing a double neck guitar & bass with the bass on the bottom. These keep popping up.

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/custom-shop-sunburst-Headless-guitar-Double-Neck-4-string-bass-6-string-Electric-Guitar/4202029_32879883092.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.88.10fd30absu57Fv&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10130_10547_10546_10059_10548_315_10545_10696_100031_10084_531_10083_10103_10618_10307,searchweb201603_16,ppcSwitch_7&algo_expid=0e2e47fd-9a01-4287-99c5-37cee8f2b5c2-14&algo_pvid=0e2e47fd-9a01-4287-99c5-37cee8f2b5c2&priceBeautifyAB=0

It's not a ton of money & I don't know if I want to spend a lot not knowing how much it would be used...................

I've spent some time with it now...

While it is a really nice bass it did have a couple of issues; first the slots in the bone nut were too shallow, especially the E string slot which was also too narrow (the string kept popping out of the slot). In the end I removed the nut and put a 1/16" mahogany shim under it. This allowed me to cut the slots to the proper depths.

The other problem was the fretwork; I had to tap and glue several frets and then I did a proper level and crown...

After the repair work I set up the bass (I swapped the stock strings for a set of Kala Pahoehoe strings)... It totally rocked! To be honest, fro $325.00 it should of Rocked out of the box... But what the hey... It is a really cool little bass.

I am happy that I pulled the trigger.



Moonshine       

Quote from: Pilgrim on August 17, 2018, 10:57:58 AM
If nothing else, that is one really good-looking instrument.

At $325. (USD) it is fairly expensive, which puts it in Kala territory...  But to be honest, the build quality (arched back/sides) is above Kala... Not putting down Kala at all. It is made of nice woods and the build quality is good.


Moonshine           

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   

Quote from: Dave W on August 01, 2018, 03:47:07 PM
I agree. From this distance, that one looks like a Babicz.

I'm with Dave, looks like a Babicz to me.




Moonshine

What a cool Bass! I have seen it before, nice job...

Many years ago (1995/96?) I was working at the main plant for Gibson USA. I was working night shift mainly because they were trying to get me into management and I knew that it was the kiss of death. Back in those days it was a great place to work, mainly because of the workforce... Great people who took what they did very seriously, Management? That was a whole nother matter.

I had been there since 1989 and I had worked hard to get involved wherever I could. This led to me pretty much having the run of the place, I worked in several departments trying to lean as much as I could from the old timers.

I knew the guy from the custom shop that had designed the Nighthawk guitar (Dave many brain cells ago...), it was a cool design with a definite nod to Fender (scale length). Some people loved it while others couldn't stand it. I thought it was different for Gibson, but kind of cool.

One night after getting caught up with work I was wandering around the plant and I started looking at Nighthawk bodies; I started thinking about  at the possibility of making a Nighthawk bass, I took a body off of the line and grabbed a Les Paul bass neck (it was the flat top body model, not a Standard). It didn't take long to fit the neck to the body and I had it glued up. The next evening I added hardware and set it up (no finish, raw wood or whitewood as we called it with two Bartolini humbuckers and passive controls; Vol/Vol/Tone). There was a slight neck dive but nowhere near as bad as a TBird. I thought it came out really well so I showed it to a friend that was a bass player and worked on day shift (night shift was far removed from any of Gibson's management. As far as they were concerned we didn't exist, which was fine with me)... He dug it and he said he would show it to the Gibson Brass. Cool.

After a few days I started hearing about my friend and his idea for a new Gibson Bass... The Nighthawk Bass! I had given him the bass I put together and he decided to present it as his own...

After he presented it to Gibson Brass they took it and decided that the body was too small so they increased it by 10% Then they added TB+(TBird) pickups as well as other small changes. it started looking weird and eventually it was locked awayi n the safe with all of the other prototypes that will never see the light of day.

I've been in that safe...

"That works very well. Are you going to stain the ebony jet black or leave it as is?"

Thanks. I am leaving it as is.

"Wow!  One of the nicest pickup retrofits I have seen, and the ebony is a great accent as well."

"I like it!  Got a bit of a Ibanez ATK vibe but wood vs metal."

Thanks!

Here are pics of the previous incarnations...

Next I cut/sanded the ramp down tom match the radius of the pickup...



Once sanded I used double stick tape to temporarily mount the ramp (I will use screws to permanently mount it).

Reassembly then a set up and it was ready to go (I put a set of D'addario XL's on it).




I'm totally digging it. Everything I was expecting and more.



Moonshine

While I had the bass apart I cleaned up the fret ends and dressed the frets.


I wanted to make a ramp to go in between the pickups, at first I was going to use rosewood tom match the fretboard  but I decided that ebony would be better (matches the pickups). on a side note I have a lifetime supply of small pieces of ebony; it came from my previous life working at a major manufacturer of musical instruments, I would cut up pieces of pieces of ebony that I found in the dumpster and put them in my lunch box (only if it was in the trash to be thrown away). I ended up with hundreds of pieces of beautiful black ebony.




Moonshine

Yes. these are from the earlier model. I've had them for awhile.

Honestly I had forgot about them until I rummaged through my miscellaneous pickup box looking for something different to use...

Great sounding pickups.

Here is how it looks now...


I had already matched a piece of ash (as close as possible) to the body so I could use it as a pickup ring. Now that I had the pickup cavities I could now cut out the pickup routes on the ring.


Next is final shaping and sanding...




Moonshine       

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

I had an Aria version of this (with frets), it was a great bass.


moonshine

I love these basses. The price is a little high but at least there are no major modifications.

It would be a cool restoration project.

If I had the extra coin, I would of loved to own it.




Moonshine