[Bass of the Week] Scott Sampson Big Sammy

The feature bass this week was the builder’s first attempt at fretting a neck, which ended up being successful along with the rest of the instrument.

Builder Scott Sampson writes:

This bass was started as a project by an unknown person to me. It came to me with nothing done except the fret slots were cut. This was my first attempt at fretting a guitar, and all but one went in properly! I chose Grover Titan Bass Guitar Tuner Chrome GV-145c tuners. The fretboard is flat… no crown, which is remarkably comfortable to play, and provides a very even response across the strings at the pickup. I chose a Kent Armstrong MM4 HBMN1 MusicMan StingRay 4 string bass pickup due to the compact nature of the pickup, and the great variety of wiring possibilities. This pickup is awesome… huge sound. It’s wired through an on-on-on DPDT switch, to a Babicz FCH-4 bridge. This is my second Babicz bridge… I really love the adjustability and sound from these bridges. I finished the body with 5 coats of wipe-on Poly, knocking it down with 0000 steel wool between coats. I didn’t want a glossy finish, as I find the reflection of light takes away from the nice woods. The one noticeable adaptation I made was no pots. No Volume/No tone. This is my reasoning: I only play with my volume full on, and turn it full off between sets. I adjust all my volume through my pedals or the amp. So why bother with a volume Pot? Just put a kill switch in line to turn the guitar on or off. I always play through a SansAmp bass pedal, and all of my volume and tone is shaped through the pedal, so a tone pot is redundant. When I routed out the control cavity I left room for pots if I discover later down the road that I need ’em… but so far, it’s magnificent as is!

Well done!

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