Brooks Grabbird

[Dave W]

Sounds great, especially in the neck position (I'm biased).

[amptech]

A P bass killer in the neck position and a Stingray killer in the bridge position. Great job. I can see a five string version working well on this platform too.

A Grabber killer in both positions

[Basvarken]

I am pleasantly surprised by the difference in sound between the neck position and the bridge position.
An often heard criticism about the Grabber is that the sliding mechanism is just a gimmick with little or no effect for the sound. This clearly isn’t the case with the Grabbird. 

[ilan]

a Stingray killer in the bridge position

I like it a lot but I don't exactly hear a Stingray there. What I perceive as a MM/J(bridge) tone is there about 2.5-3" from the bridge, at >4" it's gone. Like a real Grabber, the pickup doesn't go back enough for that.

[4stringer77]

I like it a lot but I don't exactly hear a Stingray there. What I perceive as a MM/J(bridge) tone is there about 2.5-3" from the bridge, at >4" it's gone. Like a real Grabber, the pickup doesn't go back enough for that.

That's probably why it's better. Bite without the honk.
As an aside, I'm proud nobody here has taken the opportunity to make jokes with the double entendre that the name Grabbird could entail. Stay classy outposters. 

[Basvarken]

Haha wait till Uwe chimes in

[slinkp]

Great work! I like it.

[BTL]

That's so cool...congratulations!

[amptech]

I am pleasantly surprised by the difference in sound between the neck position and the bridge position.
An often heard criticism about the Grabber is that the sliding mechanism is just a gimmick with little or no effect for the sound. This clearly isn’t the case with the Grabbird. 

Little or no effect would be stretching it a bit far. It's not as dramatic as in your Grabbird vid, but it is very useful. I used to think the bridge position was too aggressive on it's own, especially with stainless strings, and always kept it in neck pos. But live, if the stage sound became too muddy, it was nice to slide it down and cut through. Later I found out that Thomastik Rounds made it sound more organic (as organic as a Grabber can sound) and eventually it got flats.

But no matter what I strung it up with, I could never match the sound you get out of that sliding bird of yours - pretty impressive!

[FrankieTbird]

Very nice.  I like the truss rod nut at the heel end, makes the neck stronger.  Is this bass for your personal use, or to sell?

[Basvarken]

I built it with the idea to sell it.
I do think I’m going to have a hard time letting it go...

[Rob]

I built it with the idea to sell it.
I do think I’m going to have a hard time letting it go...

[wellREDman]

I am pleasantly surprised by the difference in sound between the neck position and the bridge position.
An often heard criticism about the Grabber is that the sliding mechanism is just a gimmick with little or no effect for the sound. This clearly isn’t the case with the Grabbird. 

that sounds great,
The sliding pickup really appeals to the mad inventor in me, can I ask how the mechanism works? Ive never been near a grabber, do you use the same principles or did you engineer from scratch ?

[Basvarken]

It's basically the same concept as the Grabber mechanism. The pickup is mounted on a plate that slides in a routed cavity and it is covered by a frame.

Here are some pics of the build process

I cut the parts for the sliding mechanism from the same nine ply centerpiece. I just used the part that was under the neck. I had to remove a lot of wood there anyway.



And I routed some slots for the pickup screws and the pickup wiring



I sawed a hole for the pickup in the part that was going to be the frame. Plus I routed the back side, so the plate with the pickup would fit in nicely.



The pickup is mounted into the sliding plate.


The pickup wire goes through the hole on the side of the centerpiece


This is how the underside of the mechanism looked like in this stage of the build


Had to work a bit on getting a perfect fit for the frame in between the routed gap in the centerpiece



Hope this helps?

[ilan]

Very nicely done.