Chickenwings
Alnico 6/8
Well its not totally finished yet, but ive got it to the point where it plays and sounds good. I had a pretty set idea about what would make my vision of a perfect bass guitar, so i set about putting this together from various parts that i like.
I was going to take photos of the build process but i got so excited when i started putting it together i forgot.
Anyways...enjoy the bass porn. This bass is going to be on an upcoming album so youll all hear soundclips soon enough.
Cheers!
1990 USA standard alder jazz bass body. This bass had been played a lot before the body came into my hands. Its nicely matured and resonantes warmly and easily.
New warmoth goncalo alves neck (i wanted raw wood and a dark resonant tone) with an ebony fingerboard. Ive oiled it with 4 coats of linseed oil. The ebony feels slick and fast on the front and the lightly oiled wood makes a satiny finish that lets my hand glide easily.
Gotoh bridge, schaller tuners. Bombproof.
Im still waiting on a pair of bartolini split 9j1 bass pickups. The 9js are split internally like a p bass pickup so you get a hum cancelling design (kind of a p bass sound in a j bass shape). This will let me use each pickup individually with no hum. Mostly j bass players leave both single coil units on together. The barts offer more bottom than the fenders, with fatter hum cancelling tone and more versatility. My apologies to Seymour on this choice, but ive wanted to put barts in a bass since i heard the improvement they gave my old bass players rig way back in the early 90s. I bought a standard fender tortoiseshell pickguard but it doesn't fit this year model (1990s are also known as longhorn or "boner basses"). I might get another one made up to fit but its like 55 dollars! The knobs are spare fender amp knobs. I reckon they are cool.
Flatwound strings will go on it in a few days, im letting the neck and truss rod settle for a few days with these old strings before i take them off to install the new pickups etc.
Sound? Ballsy and agressive. Resonates from strap button to the tip of the headstock. Ive done a few laps of arpeggios all over the neck and have not found any dead spots. Nice articulate snap from the ebony, but plenty of bottom from the alder body and goncalo neck. Sounds pretty good with the stock fender pickups and tbx wiring, but im looking forward to the bartolinis and new pots and caps - but that will only improve on a bass that sounds much better than i was hoping for already. Feels like a custom built high end sex machine. Ive been playing it almost non stop the last couple of days. I wanna grow up to be a real bass player!
I was going to take photos of the build process but i got so excited when i started putting it together i forgot.
Anyways...enjoy the bass porn. This bass is going to be on an upcoming album so youll all hear soundclips soon enough.
Cheers!
1990 USA standard alder jazz bass body. This bass had been played a lot before the body came into my hands. Its nicely matured and resonantes warmly and easily.
New warmoth goncalo alves neck (i wanted raw wood and a dark resonant tone) with an ebony fingerboard. Ive oiled it with 4 coats of linseed oil. The ebony feels slick and fast on the front and the lightly oiled wood makes a satiny finish that lets my hand glide easily.
Gotoh bridge, schaller tuners. Bombproof.
Im still waiting on a pair of bartolini split 9j1 bass pickups. The 9js are split internally like a p bass pickup so you get a hum cancelling design (kind of a p bass sound in a j bass shape). This will let me use each pickup individually with no hum. Mostly j bass players leave both single coil units on together. The barts offer more bottom than the fenders, with fatter hum cancelling tone and more versatility. My apologies to Seymour on this choice, but ive wanted to put barts in a bass since i heard the improvement they gave my old bass players rig way back in the early 90s. I bought a standard fender tortoiseshell pickguard but it doesn't fit this year model (1990s are also known as longhorn or "boner basses"). I might get another one made up to fit but its like 55 dollars! The knobs are spare fender amp knobs. I reckon they are cool.
Flatwound strings will go on it in a few days, im letting the neck and truss rod settle for a few days with these old strings before i take them off to install the new pickups etc.
Sound? Ballsy and agressive. Resonates from strap button to the tip of the headstock. Ive done a few laps of arpeggios all over the neck and have not found any dead spots. Nice articulate snap from the ebony, but plenty of bottom from the alder body and goncalo neck. Sounds pretty good with the stock fender pickups and tbx wiring, but im looking forward to the bartolinis and new pots and caps - but that will only improve on a bass that sounds much better than i was hoping for already. Feels like a custom built high end sex machine. Ive been playing it almost non stop the last couple of days. I wanna grow up to be a real bass player!
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