See the business listing for this bass builder here
The feature bass this week is a 32-inch scale fretless with a nice selection of woods and gold hardware.
(Note: There is a video demo below so you can hear this bass.)
Builder Rob Darby writes:
Twenty years back, I bought two blocks of maple and a slab of ebony and, after reading a number of books on guitar building, fashioned them into a somewhat crude bass that would not come to its full bloom until 2016. This was the year of radically reshaping the neck, giving the fingerboard a 10″ radius, and taking care of other design errors. From the beginning, I had several specifics in mind, all of which are found on the finalized project. First, I wanted a 32″ (medium) scale fretless. This scale length reduces the finger stretch, increase the harmonic richness (at least to my ears), and it isn’t so short that intonation becomes difficult. I also wanted narrow string spacing–similar to the spacing on my former Aria 5-string. The end result is a 1.5″nut with 1 1/8″ string spacing and 2″ string spacing at the bridge. As the neck is rather narrow, it needed to be a bit thicker front-to-back, making for a somewhat different, but very comfortable feel. Much serious pondering led me to EMG active pickups, with a J-style in the middle position and a Humbucker at the bridge. I refinished the bass this year, giving it a two-tone wood grain look–a sort of homage to the Arias and Alembic basses of the late 70’s/early 80’s. Then I topped it off in clear polyurethane. Gold hardware made a nice compliment to the wood grain and brought closure to my project. This instrument is as imperfect as its builder, but if feels great, and it has a sound very similar to a Warwick at a small fraction of the price. This is likely to be a one-of-a-kind bass because, if I were to start on a new one today, it probably wouldn’t get finished until I was in my 70’s! Still, it was a great experience, and I’ve gained great respect for the professionals.
Video
Well done!
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nice. No before shot?
That is some beautiful work. Gives me inspiration to maybe try my hand at something like that!
Thank you, and…Go for it! There’s a lot of helpful building information online these days. I’m not looking at building another bass, but I did just build a 2-octave chromatic, cross-strung plucked psaltery. There’s something very satisfying about making an instrument from scratch.
What a nice bass! Great tone!
Very nice bass, you did outstanding job and thanks for sharing.
Very Nice ….. How much does it weigh ????
Reminds me of an update of my ’69 Gibson EB-1. I;d imagine this sounds a whole lot better. Great work.
And nice selection of a Jack Bruce bass line for the demo!
Thank you all for your encouraging words! I want to see your basses, too!
Very nice looking bass. Very sexy. And it sounds just killer. Great job. If you ever decide you DO want to sell it, give me a holler!
Congratulations on the finished bass! Nice name, too!
Nice story, great looking bass, and most of great sounding! Congratulations! Oh and almost forgot great name.
Sorry left word out of my comments should be most of all
Been a player for 20 plus years off and on..(More off than on..LOL) But 5 years ago became serious about it. Since then, I’ve done several repairs for my self and other friends, Even a cracked neck repair on an old 5 string-set neck-double truss rod, Washburn bass. With that being successful, I decided it was time to try my hand at building one, because I can’t find one that has everything that I want all in one package.. I really like your choice of body shape on your build, reminds me of the old Beatle bass Hofners.. And it sounds fantastic.Great work…
Incredibly cool — beautifully done! 20 years to build? I SO understand! I’ve got assorted projects that are, uh, ten years in the works!
very nice
Just exquisite, Rob! A truly beautiful job 😀 (I also got a big kick out seeing your vintage CS1x in the background – I still love mine too!) – Cheers!
Kudos on a beautiful bass!