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A 5-string that can handle G standard tuning? This feature bass of the week has you covered. 🙂
Builder Steven Davis from Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery writes:
This 36-34″ fanned fret neck-through wenge monster was built in collaboration with Johan from the Swedish progressive metal band Vildhjarta.
As a group they are trying to explore the depths of low frequencies so he implored me to build a bass that can handle G standard tuning and below.
The massive .185″ gauge string for the low end looks like a suspension bridge cable!
What woods is it made of? The neck-through portion is made of five piece Wenge/flame maple with carbon fiber reinforcements for stability through different touring environments. The wings are made of Swamp Ash, and viewing from the front it appears to be all Wenge. I love dense open-pore woods for tight high-end and resonance.
Pickups and electronics being used? The pickups are a calibrated set of Nordstrand dual blade soap bars in a p-2 size housing which was a recommendation by one of the professionals at Best Bass Gear.
Vildhjarta uses the word Thall to describe their unique brand of musical Tourettes, so I had it laser engraved onto the pickup covers for Johan.
And the pre-amp is a Bartolini HR 4.6 AP/918 for full tone shaping capabilities in Active 18v mode.
Steven shows off his patented “Paint Cam” technology. 🙂
Well done, Steven!
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So is the tuning G, C, F, Bb, Eb or is it G, B, E, A, D?
Wondering the same! It’s hilarious that the Thall thing is still a namesake of the band…love the humor and their music!
Very nice bass! I like the understated, elegant look. Well done, sir!
E.
I think the axe is the easy part – what about speakers for low G? I made the only low-B sealed box I know of (30Hz), it has 2 liters of acoustic output; and I have a Lambda Acoustics low-B passive radiator cab that pumps more. A vented box is not going to cut it here, unless it is tuned below G; and Musical Instrument speakers don’t move enough air.
For speakers, I run I biamped setup: a Ciare 1×10 and Beyma TPL-150 top cabinet with two Pioneer TS-W3003D4 subs in 1.5 cubic ft cabs. They reach the low 20’s, no problem.
Is it only me or the bass on the 5th picute is not the same bass of the above pcitures? Anyway, AWESOME job!
No omega inlay on the headstock, or trussrod cover. And, yes, great work.
About the speakers:
Interestingly enough, humans don’t really need to hear the fundamental of a note to recognize and “hear” that note. A big part of how we hear and recognize sounds is based on the overtone series. So even if the cabinet isn’t reproducing much of that low G, it will be producing all the upper harmonics that tell our ears and brain that it’s a low G and it will still sound good to us.
That being said, I’d love to see them design a cabinet/speaker combo optimized for such a low frequency. That would be monster.
I’ve installed a string like this on a bass. F# below that G. You CAN’T hear it. It’s all muddy overtones. And even the overtones are low enough to destroy your average box at gig volumes. You’d need huge servo driven subs driven by even bigger amps.
That’s a nice bass, but sadly that string is just an expensive decoration.
Very similar to a Dingwall Afterburner II. The AB II is 37″to 34″. Even the headstock is very close.
Good point & a great topic for further discussion. I had a standard 4 string running through an 18″ (Sunn) sub-woofer. You had to crank it up for it to sound decent (it needed to pump some air),
that bass is killer, and the band is pretty good too. I’m diggin’ it.
Are there any samples of this bass?
I’d also love to hear this bass!
A work of art! Beautiful. Come on though! Name us some bass cabs that can handle a Low G! (Highly unlikely.)
Meh…my six string has a low F#.
Meh…my six string has an F#
You have to go with a much longer scale length to get any articulation down that low. My low F# uses a 39″ scale with a Cirlce K .158″. It sounds fine, and the pitch is clearly audible.
Clearly audible through what? That’s 20hz or there abouts.
Very strong 2nd, 3rd, & 4th harmonics due to the high aspect ratio, plus my rig goes down to around 23hz (low F#). However, due to the strong psycho-acoustic affect provided by all of the harmonics, it’s not a must that I use the subs.
I don’t like the WENGE wood too porous and very hard to clean from sweat dirt and, etc.
The Wenge on that BA’s was sanded smooth and has a lot of tung oil coats that have been sanded and buffed, that Bass is totally smooth, look at it from an angle in the light, flat and smooth.
That Wenge wood Bass has a smooth surface.
Some anonymous butt pickers in this bunch just gotta throw ‘got ya’s’ to the choir! Fkn shut yer pie hole, hater! If nothing else, tune it up a step or 3.
Just laying out a fan fret job & indi bridges can be a given nitemare… beautiful work there; style, hardware, p’ups & pre, all solid choices. BBG can bring the noise of champions & looks like you have a winner.
Respect.