The featured bass this week comes from Jim Huckle Guitars and their short six fretless. Here is a bit about the build:
I’ve been wanting to build myself a fretless sixer for years, but had
never really settled on a definite design plan, so it kept being
shelved. Then I happened across someone selling a set of walnut
neck-through blanks at a price I couldn’t refuse, and the bass pretty
much grew around that.
The biggest conundrum was how to do the bridge – I knew it would have to
have the full 19mm string spacing, as I’ve never managed to get on with
the narrower bridges found on a lot of sixers, but I also wanted to
experiment with a piezo pickup, purely for the sake of trying it. If
money had been no object, I’d have bought a set of dedicated piezo
saddles, but that not being the case I decided on the next best thing –
taking the saddles from an existing bridge, and building a wooden base
with a piezo strip inside it. (More on this later…)
I’ve always liked the combo of walnut and padauk, so that with some
maple veneer pinstripes was the obvious choice for the neck, and the
body wings also being walnut dictated that there had to be a similarly
contrasting layer between them and the body. Finally, a bubinga
fretboard seemed an ideal choice in being a very hard wearing wood that
also visually contrasted the walnut well – and for the sake of
continuity, an offcut from the fretboard was used to make the bridge.
In the past I’ve gone for longer scale lengths, but having recently
played a couple of very nice short-scale basses, I decided to take
inspiration there and as a result this has an 800mm scale length, or
just shy of 31.5″. Inlays are made from 6mm aluminium rod for the front,
and white/blue Luminlay for the sides.
The rest of the hardware includes a set of Gotoh tuners, a Kent
Armstrong soapbar pickup in the scale equivalent of the “Stingray”
position, wired up to a series/parallel switch and an Artec 3-band
preamp (they’re cheap, but I find them surprisingly good and reliable),
Schaller strap locks and D’Addario NYXL strings. I’ve also carved a
thumb rest from an offcut from the neck.
The build took me just over a year, as although guitar building has
dominated my spare time for over 15 years, reality unfortunately
requires me to have a full-time job as well… The end result?
Definitely worth the wait! The shorter scale length definitely has me
converted; it’s so easy to play but the bass doesn’t lose anything from
it. The balance is ideal, it’s not too heavy and the soapbar pickup
works beautifully across the whole range of the bass. The piezo…works.
It’s not currently a particularly useful sound, but it’s proved what I
wanted to prove, and with a proper piezo buffer I should be able to make
it sound better!
This bass looks AWESOME!!! The only thing I’d (maybe) like to see is a wooden control cover, but that’s a minor detail.
BRAVO!!!
Looks very very nice!!
Masterfully crafted.
But, the sparkle pick guard material makes no design sense whatsoever.
Out of 100 points, I give it a solid 90
My favorite part is the padauk and maple in the neck. Very nice job.
So glad you kept the body size manageable instead of building an oversize body as some sixers have. It’s OK if the neck is proportionally a bit big in relation to the body. It still looks good, and the playability matters more than proportionality.
My only concern is the guide spacers between the bridge saddles. Given the grain direction, those thin slivers of wood look pretty fragile. Hopefully they won’t bust out since it’s bubinga. To reduce the fragility, perhaps the spacers don’t have to come up as high as the full thickness of the bridge and may only have to come up just high enough to make sure the saddles track properly and maintain their spacing.
What’s with the control cover? Black would have been nice and added a little class.
I am with Steve, on the back cover, but overall a killer looking bass !! …I bet it sounds great as well …and very glad you did not go overboard on pickups …and acoustic and one passive magnetic is perfect …after all it is a bass !! And most Bassists would be well served to develop their signature tone instead of having a lot of generic tones that you can not tell one bassist from another ! Great job on the build !!
Fantastic! I’m with Jon (above) though, it needs a wooden control cover. Easily done with your skills.
Nice build! A Pretty guitar showing you evident skill in creatingan instrument.
+1000 for the 19 mm spacing.
I will ask though, isn’t the short scale an issue for the 6th string – the low B? Doesn’t it flap around resolving into a ‘low end. mush?’
Wow Nice! Does it sound close to les claypool’s fretless carl. Yours is very nice!
The bass is beautiful. This being a fretless,. are you concerned about the NYXLs wearing heavily on the fretboard with their round wound steel?
SWEET!!! A fretted model would be even sweeter
Very nice, although it looks more like a guitar. But apart from that, really beautiful. I love natural wood.
Nice looking. I would prefer two pickups and a narrower String spacing , That’s a lot of stress on the hands.