This week’s BotW comes from across the pond in the UK, where John Writes: Finally got round to taking a few pictures of my custom build bass. It was built for me by a friend a few years back now. We came up with the design together and at the time I was more sure … Read more
Something new and cool in the BBG shop is the Nordstrand Dual Blade 5 Neo pickups, which are available for the bridge, neck or as a set. What makes the DB5Neo pickups cool? It’s a dual coil blade configuration along with neodymium magnets (meaning you don’t have to worry about pole spacing,) and is optimized … Read more
GAS is an acronym (sort of) that doesn’t refer to fuel but is a word that every dedicated guitar owner eventually learns; it’s Guitar (or Gear) Acquisition Syndrome. You’ll note that I said guitar and not specifically bass guitar, because when you’ve got GAS, well then, you can’t just stop at bass guitars, can you? … Read more
Something the internet brought about that didn’t exist before it is this thing called the virtual band. It’s when a group of people living in different parts of the world put together a song, mix it all down, and you get something like this: The above is one of the better examples of a virtual … Read more
You may have noticed on products such as the Seymour Duncan Antiquity Series that part of its selling point is this thing known as “scatter wind” manufacturing process. What is scatter winding? When wire is wound into coils on a pickup, the most basic definition of scatter-wound means “non-uniform.” Imagine a spool of thread that … Read more
See Geo’s business listing here Take a design, make it better; that’s exactly what reader Geo did with his custom build. Geo was originally inspired by the Fender Performer Bass; a very short-lived mid-1980s design that was made in Japan which is quite the collectible these days (assuming you can even find one.) Geo’s “Supersonic” … Read more
First in a series of articles about tools in the small builder’s workshop, this is a brief overview of the larger power tools commonly used in a shop. Later articles will cover smaller power/hand and luthiery tools, as well as specialized jigs used in instrument building. To a large degree, bass (and general instrument) building … Read more
Victor quit the bass? He sure did, so we did an exclusive interview to find out why he would do such a thing when he’s such a well-known bass player. We called Victor a total of 27,745 times to get the scoop on this. He sent us a cease & desist letter instructing us to … Read more
You’ve heard the phrase, “built like a tank,” and understand what that means. There was (or possibly still is, not sure,) a bass guitar made in Russia where the brand name was “Ural.” Do they play well? Sort of. Did they ever sound good? Not really (it’s been said that it ‘sounds like a detuned … Read more
Some bass players hate guitar players – with a passion. My first response to that is that you probably hate bad guitar players, as in ones that always play too loud or are way too flamboyant when playing, or have a poor sense of rhythm, etc. The unfortunate reality is that there are a ton … Read more
