The feature bass this week is a modded MTD Kingston.
William Hill writes:
This started as a stock MTD Kingston series artist model. I had been playing one just like it with the addition of a Bartolini MM4cbc pickup. The artist was being discontinued, and I had a chance to pick up another from the distributor at a pretty nice discount. It was a see through teal color that never hit the catalogs. It was from a sample batch that was supposed to be a trans blue, but didn’t meet the specs. I ordered it. I knew I wanted a dual pickup version, but wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted. After some. brainstorming, I decided to call Michael Tobias himself and ask for his thoughts. He suggested splitting the single route in half, with the dual humbuckers (Bartolini MM4cbc) side by side, in the fashion of his “Super” series of US made basses. These later became a production bass in the Kingston series.
At this point I ordered the pickups, switches, some custom abalone capped knobs and pots. I also ordered a MM pickup routing template from best bass gear- that made life SO much easier. Along with the tonal upgrades, I wanted something to really identify the project. A quick talk with the luthier helping with the project, we decided on a 12th fret inlay – the only thing on the maple fretboard. I have always been a fan of Curtis Mayfield, and because it was being based on the super series pickup configuration – “superfly 4” was the label it would receive.
I used the stock 3 band active EQ, added a blend (pickup balance) pot, and switching to choose north, both (humbucker), or south coils of each pickup. Due to the route being split, by using the north coil of the bridge pickup, and the south coil of the neck pickup, I could still get the original pickup sound, as well as many other useful combinations.
With the splitting of the original route, there was an extra route left unused from the single dog-ear on the treble side of pickup cavity. W fabricated a piece of wood the same size, painted it with shielding paint and mounted it with a pickup height screw, problem solved.
For some added eye appeal the stock black plastic truss rod & control cavity covers were replaced with black pearloid versions.
When everything was finished, the end result was even better than expected. The tonal variations are very useful, the looks are awesome, and it truly is a one off custom, that really reflects my playing, personality and original concept. The next year the product version hit the streets, and became an instant hit among the MTD players, old and new. I love it when a plan comes together!
Well done!
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