Chowny SWB-1

[Alanko]

I bought this white Chowny SWB-1 earlier this week. These are the brainchild of Scott Whitley who plays, or has played, for the Animals and Big Country. For a long time he was the lone visible proponent of shortscale basses online, running a website that collated as much shortscale info as possible. The original SWB-1 bass was a ritzy custom bass that Scott commissioned. He then developed a production model and, at some point, Chowny took over production. Mine must be a later model as it has individual bridge rails. I also don't think too many white ones were built. I actually reached out to Stephen Chown at one point to get one of these basses built and finished in 'Chris Squire cream'. We got the ball rolling, but I think the delivery time was going to be upwards of six months and I found a Mustang bass in the interim. Perhaps that cream bass is out there somewhere?



I have a thing for white basses. Next to my P bass you can see just how shrunk down the SWB-1 is.



I can understand Scott's motives. When I first wanted to look at shortscale basses, the options were mostly limited to vintage or retro designs. Floating bridges, huge hollow bodies, pickups mounted right at the end of the neck, etc. A little too much period charm! Scott's vision is to provide a bass with modern performance and ergonomics, and I think he pretty much achieved this.

Ultimately however this is a budget instrument so some mods are required. I'm upgrading the very weak stock pickups to Dimarzio Model Js. At the same time I'm applying a good quality shielding paint and building a new wiring harness. The factory shielding paint has no electrical continuity going on, and the paint in the pickup cavities isn't connected to ground (not that it makes much difference).



The headstock outline appears to be a straight lift from Hofner! I'm going to make a red tortoiseshell trussrod cover to give the headstock a bit more contrast.




The frets would benefit from being leveled and the fretboard has a weird blotchy issue that I'm going to try and rectify.

[4stringer77]

The Animals had a bass player after Chas? Good luck and look forward to seeing your end results.

[Alanko]

This is a really recent iteration of the Animals, so probably one original member or something like that.

Its a funny wee bass. I've installed Dimarzio Model Js which have definitely kicked things up a notch.

[ilan]

Looks kinda like a poor man's Alembic Stanley Clarke Signature... also a 30.5" scale. Probably better balanced with its bridge further down body (shorter overall length) and the strap button over the 17th fret.

[Alanko]

Scott Whitley has mentioned the Alembics as one source of inspiration. The body also slightly reminds me of Matsumoku basses from the '70s. It isn't contoured and is quite a deep slab. It looks like the bass should neck dive but it doesn't.

Part of me just wants to route the shite out of it and fit different pickups. Even the Model Js seem a bit indistinct and gutless sounding in a shortscale bass.

[ilan]

Part of me just wants to route the shite out of it and fit different pickups. Even the Model Js seem a bit indistinct and gutless sounding in a shortscale bass.

They remind me of Glover's mod

[Dave W]

Scott Whitley has mentioned the Alembics as one source of inspiration. The body also slightly reminds me of Matsumoku basses from the '70s. It isn't contoured and is quite a deep slab. It looks like the bass should neck dive but it doesn't.

Part of me just wants to route the shite out of it and fit different pickups. Even the Model Js seem a bit indistinct and gutless sounding in a shortscale bass.

You need a mudbucker. Indistinct but never gutless.

[Alanko]

I have a couple of cheap soap bars that I will route through body to accept. The pickups being angled makes things tricky!

I'm starting to think my love/hate relationship with Jazz basses stems from the pickups. There just isn't enough area of string sensed by the coils for my tastes. Great for brittle trebly stuff but a little lacking in thump.

[Rob]

I have a couple of cheap soap bars that I will route through body to accept. The pickups being angled makes things tricky!

I'm starting to think my love/hate relationship with Jazz basses stems from the pickups. There just isn't enough area of string sensed by the coils for my tastes. Great for brittle trebly stuff but a little lacking in thump.

I like your thinking!

[Alanko]

All soaped up and nowhere to go...



I think the current wiring setup is too guitar-like, so I might try a blend control. I'm also thinking about deploying more black hardware....