Meet my Schlauholz LP ...

[uwe]

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:

[Chris P.]

Nice one! Congratulations! At the lower pic the colour almost looks like Ricky Fireglo, but I guess it's darker and more yellow-ish in real life?

Uwe: More Autumnglo than Fireglo.

[ramone57]

looks really nice, congrats!

[Barklessdog]

Congrats on your Sgt. Schlauholz bass. So the bass is not pinkish like the fisrt pics and more orange like the second ones?

I like the fret board.


I can't wait read how Sgt Schluholz sounds.


HOGAN!!!!!

[uwe]

I think the second pic is closest to real life color, the orange is not as prominent as on the glaringly lit auction pics, overall the bass is brownish-reddish, yup, maroon, that's it! My Maroon 5 bass.  

Visuals aside, at the end of the day this is a maho bass with a peroba top and curupay fretboard plus barts and what looks to be the standard TCT active circuit notorious from the mid-nieneties LP DeLuxe. But it sounds different. None of the harshness usually associated with that combination, the bass sounds dense with dark mids and very little overt brightness except a little on the G string. It's certainly not raunch & roll, but not Mark King either, lovers of active sounds might even criticize that the bass doesn't sound that transparent and clear at all, but rather thick in the low mids and subdued in the highs plus no artificial subwoof. I have no idea whether the top and fretboard wood account for the difference in sound (my hunch is that the curupay board probably has more to do with it than the peroba top though) to my rather harsh-sounding 95 tiger stripe LP DeLuxe five-stringer, whether it's the coated Elixier strings I used (in that case I should perhaps use them on all my active basses) or whether the TCT electronics were tweaked a little when this bass was built in 1997. I'm pleased with it in any case.

And the B string, it doth thunder, mutilate and level to submission!  

[Chris P.]

Nice explanation again. Yes, on the new pics you added it's more autumnglo.

[ramone57]

it would look even  better with black hardware, wouldn't it?   

[TBird1958]

It looks great!


Stuffed and mounted at the office already 

[uwe]

Muddled instructions, my dear, shouldn't it be "Mounted and stuffed in the office"? 

With twenty year in this office, I have never had an office affair. 

[TBird1958]

Yes of course Herr Moderator!

Stuffed and mounted in the orofice.............oops 

[Basshappi]

Very nice Uwe, congrats!

Here is some info on Peroba Rosa wood;
http://tropicaltreefarms.com/htm/tropical_hardwoods/peroba_rosa.htm

[uwe]

Thanks! It might be smart, but it's kind of unremarkable looking, ain't it?  Zebra wood is then probably dumb wood.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I'm happy to hear it overcame what was crippling pickup/preamp combination for others of its kind and actually sounds good!

[doombass]

Congratulations Uwe!

Seems like a nice fiver. I wonder what type of bridge is on there. Looks like a custom job in in the style you would expect on a
homemade bass, and the builder let the local machine shop make the metal parts.

[Hornisse]

The back of my '76 Series 1 is Peroba Rosa wood.  It looks pretty nice in natural finish with a few years of aging.



Congratulations Uwe on your Schultz, er.....Schlauholz LP bass!