Bass Finished (now has sound clips)

Micahbell

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I wasn't sure if this was a j-bass, p-bass or if it should go in misc, so I figured I would post it here and a mod could move it where they saw fit.
The bass has been finished since Wednesday, but I didn't have a camera so I have been waiting to post about it, but I just went and borrowed my neighbors camera, so here it is.

Neck is a j-bass neck, made from macassar ebony on canary wood, with a bone nut and Schaller tuners.
The body is jazz style as well, with a spalt maple top on alder.
The pickups are one custom made Lindy Fralin single coil p-bass pickup and a Duncan alnico Musicman pickup.
The control system right now is volume, volume, tone, tone, then a 3 way selector for the MM pickup (humbucking, single coil and out of phase) but I will soon be changing it to volume blend tone tone.

As to the sound, this bass kicks hard. It is very, very beefy sounding, perfect for about any style, but it has a fantastic funk tone, better then I have ever played.  Until now I have been mainly playing rock stuff, but after having this bass for a few days I have a massive blister on my middle finger from popping too much.
I don't like talking too much about tone because I am terrible at describing it, so I will just say that this bass is fantastic sounding and hopefully soon I can get up a sound clip or two.
The last thing I will say, is that if you haven't been playing your instrument as much as you would like to in the past while, get a new one that you love. I have not been able to put this bass down since I got it, and have probably played it more in the last couple days then I have played in the last few weeks on my old bass.
 

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Now, THAT is interesting! Unusual mix of pickups, I like it.

More pics, please!
 
This is really delayed, but here are two more pictures - this time the bass is in action.
As for posting sound clips, I will do this soon. My home recording system has pretty much died, but I will be recording soon and I'll post when I do
 

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Also not shown in the picture is my ebony thumb rest. I am not used to playing a Jazz bass body so I am still adjusting. Also, I find some of the best tones I get are when I play right above the single coil p-bass pickup, but I can't rest my thumb on it because it rocks.
So, the guitar tech I use made me a thumb rest out of ebony from an old broken piano. I have been waiting to get it put on, but I work during same hours he does and I never want to leave it over night because I use it all the time.
My current set up is
Bass > Diamond Fireburst Distortion > Diamond Compressor (mild compression, eq set to about 2 o'clock, mild volume boost) > Diamond Memory Lane delay > BBE Sonic Stomp > Markbass Littlemark II amp > mark bass back ported 4x12 cab
man, this set up kicks hard. The Sonic Stomp and compressor are always on, the delay is used in the intro to one song (where I have been using a beer bottle as a slide) and the distortion is used a couple times througout the night.

The only problem I have is I usually have a really tight, punchy sound using the MM pickup in single coil mode and the pbass pickup both full on, but I switch to just the humbucker full on every once in a while to get some nice deep lows, but when I do this I get a really big volume boost. I am trying to even it out with compressor settings but so far I have just had to deal with it.
 
That is such a classy bass! A beauty and a beast in one, great build.

Are you as big a fan of the badass bridge as I am? Just replaced my old with a badass bridge and in my ears it's a great improvement. (i replaced the pickups too so... yeah)

J
 
neilium - what is wrong with the monitors? my computer monitor is really dark so I can't see how they were. However, that night was a night of three bands playing with very little sound check in-between. They were set up that way for the first band and if I remember, we were just too lazy to move them.

Jorundr - Honestly, I don't know. I put it on due to great reviews. This bass is only my second bass (my first was an Ibanez SR405 with it's original bridge) and the badass was the only bridge I put on the new one. So I don't know how much the bridge affects the tone. As far as setting up intonation, it is MUCH better then on the ibanez.
 
Note to self...never post picture of female on internet ever again...

anyway, I fixed my recording problems and recorded a couple clips. Each of the clips is about 19 seconds long playing the same riff (which is a slightly funkier then original version of a bit of Sexx Laws by Beck). Please note that there is no amp modeling involved or EQing - this is directly from bass into MBox into Acid, but most of the people here are pretty serious players and you can imagine what it would be like with a decent system.
Also note that I have not played this line in a long time so it is sloppy, it is a bit incorrect (i think, anyway) and a couple nights ago I left my bass in my car over night by mistake, so there is some fretbuzz that should not be there. Oh well.
Click each of the following to hear the clip
music man
tapped music man
single coil p
single coil p and music man
single coil p and tapped music man
 
Yeah, I know, you hear all kinds of thing about the importance of bridges when it comes to the sound of the instrument. Anyway, I believed the hype too :icon_biggrin:. Plus it just looks like business and, like you said, easy to set up properly.

now i'm gona lay some smoke and pass out, too much beer! (is there such a thing?)

J
 
Micahbell said:
Note to self...never post picture of female on internet ever again...

Correct, especially a wife or girlfriend.

Another internet maxim is that you NEVER have to say "Correct me if I'm wrong..."
 
I would love to see some more pictures...If you could be so kind.Looks really cool,just need some more detail for these aging eyes :laughing7:

Thanks,Cheers :eek:ccasion14:
 
instagator said:
I would love to see some more pictures...If you could be so kind.Looks really cool,just need some more detail for these aging eyes :laughing7:

Thanks,Cheers :eek:ccasion14:
Yes, I totally agree... especially the legs
 
Alright, I just got my thumbrest installed, so here are some more pics.
The second picture's colour is off because I modified it a little bit to make the grain stand out a little bit more.
Also, due to file size I will post some more pics in following posts
 

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