These arrived just recently. Gecko 5 narrow. Body is black korina with tobacco burst on the front and back. Neck is wenge with a ziricote fingerboard. I've acquired all the hardware and have dropped it in to my luthier for assembly. It'll have Bartolini electronics (dual MM quad coils) and all black hardware except for the bridge which is chrome.
Gecko 5, black korina tobacco burst, wenge/ziricote neck
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Nice stuff. I have three Geckos now with another on the way. two of the necks are Wenge / Ziricote as well. The other is Wenge / Pau Ferro. The new one coming is Wenge / Ebony. See the pattern here? I really like the feel of Wenge. It stays slippery. The Ziricote is really smooth. Love them. You will love your Gecko. I like the figure in that fingerboard. Looks like clouds. :laughing7:
Well. Just brought home the finished product (not sure if there's another sub forum for finished projects??).
I am super happy. This thing sounds amazing and has confirmed for me why Warmoth has such a good reputation.
I've never named a bass but I've called this the "ThumbRay".
My inspiration to build this was two basses I have previously owned (and since sold) but was always frustrated with.
I had a MusicMan Stingray 5HH. Loved the idea of the HH config and love those fat humbuckers but the neck p/u is too close to the neck and makes it very awkward to slap. Sonically, I really don't think it needs to be that far up anyway as the sound is too flabby.
I traded this for a Warwick Thumb NT4. Great sounding bass and I love the look. But it has some neck dive and it was missing the 5th string.
So I sold the Warwick and set out to design a bass that took what I loved about each instrument and omitted that which annoyed me.
The colour scheme (brown woods with black hardware and closed p/u covers) is inspired by the Thumb. The dual MM humbuckers and 17.5mm spacing are inspired by the Stingray. My own touch is really the position of the pickups (neither is in the stingray sweet spot) and the pickup switches. Each pickup can be switched "neck coil / series humbucker / bridge coil". This gives me around 12 different coil combinations. Admittedly though the best sound is with both humbuckers.
You can get pickup configs a bit like:
- Jazz bass: 2 outer coils
- MM sweet spot: 2 inner coils
- Thumb 4: Neck pickup set to bridge side coil, Bridge pickup set to bridge side coil
- Thumb 5: Bridge humbucker
- P bass: Neck pickup set to neck side coil
Specs are:
Body: Gecko 5 small, black korina, tobacco burst
Neck: Wenge with ziricote unique choice fretboard
Bridge: Takeuchi
Pickups: 2x Bartolini MusicMan quad coils
Pickup switches: wired "bridge coil / series humbucker / neck coil"
Preamp: Bartolini NTMB - volume (pull passive), blend, stacked bass/treble, mid (pull freq switch)
Tuners: Gotoh GB7
Strings: DR Fat Beams 45-130
Strap buttons: Dunlop dual design straplok (note the bottom one, offset to ensure perfect balance)
I am super happy. This thing sounds amazing and has confirmed for me why Warmoth has such a good reputation.
I've never named a bass but I've called this the "ThumbRay".
My inspiration to build this was two basses I have previously owned (and since sold) but was always frustrated with.
I had a MusicMan Stingray 5HH. Loved the idea of the HH config and love those fat humbuckers but the neck p/u is too close to the neck and makes it very awkward to slap. Sonically, I really don't think it needs to be that far up anyway as the sound is too flabby.
I traded this for a Warwick Thumb NT4. Great sounding bass and I love the look. But it has some neck dive and it was missing the 5th string.
So I sold the Warwick and set out to design a bass that took what I loved about each instrument and omitted that which annoyed me.
The colour scheme (brown woods with black hardware and closed p/u covers) is inspired by the Thumb. The dual MM humbuckers and 17.5mm spacing are inspired by the Stingray. My own touch is really the position of the pickups (neither is in the stingray sweet spot) and the pickup switches. Each pickup can be switched "neck coil / series humbucker / bridge coil". This gives me around 12 different coil combinations. Admittedly though the best sound is with both humbuckers.
You can get pickup configs a bit like:
- Jazz bass: 2 outer coils
- MM sweet spot: 2 inner coils
- Thumb 4: Neck pickup set to bridge side coil, Bridge pickup set to bridge side coil
- Thumb 5: Bridge humbucker
- P bass: Neck pickup set to neck side coil
Specs are:
Body: Gecko 5 small, black korina, tobacco burst
Neck: Wenge with ziricote unique choice fretboard
Bridge: Takeuchi
Pickups: 2x Bartolini MusicMan quad coils
Pickup switches: wired "bridge coil / series humbucker / neck coil"
Preamp: Bartolini NTMB - volume (pull passive), blend, stacked bass/treble, mid (pull freq switch)
Tuners: Gotoh GB7
Strings: DR Fat Beams 45-130
Strap buttons: Dunlop dual design straplok (note the bottom one, offset to ensure perfect balance)
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TBurst Std
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Awesome looking bass!
Here is video demo of the abovementioned bass. I'm loving it! Sounds great, love the 35" scale length and the pickups/electronics make it really versatile. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9mehewuME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9mehewuME
Here is my other video where I go through the design process and components choices 
http://youtu.be/nQgvspRZKOM
http://youtu.be/nQgvspRZKOM
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