{"id":5338,"date":"2014-02-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=5338"},"modified":"2017-04-04T16:53:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T21:53:17","slug":"bass-of-the-week-rumpza-rixplorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/bass-of-the-week\/bass-of-the-week-rumpza-rixplorer.html","title":{"rendered":"[Bass of the Week] Rumpza Rixplorer"},"content":{"rendered":"

See the business listing for this bass builder here<\/a><\/p>\n

This week’s Bass of the Week was built by Mike Rumpza who successfully attempted to combine the best of a Rickenbacker with an Explorer shape.<\/p>\n

Mike writes:<\/p>\n

\n

The heart of a Rickenbacker, the panache of an Explorer: I have made a few of my own electric guitars, starting back in my high school days, which is a bit odd seeing that I am a bass player. <\/p>\n

I purchased my first Rickenbacker 4001 in 1975 and have always loved its feel and tone, and never thought that I could top it, especially considering that my guitar making results were a bit mixed. But I got the bug and decided to give it a try. <\/p>\n

My aim was to make a bass that had the feel and sound of the Ric, but corrected a few of its flaws (the muddy low end, and intonation adjustment issues). <\/p>\n

I have always liked the look of John Entwistle\u2019s Explorer bass and thus was born the \u201cRixplorer\u201d I obtained the custom-built through-body neck from Doug Darling of Soulmate guitars; I did the rest of the work myself, with some wood working help from my dad. <\/p>\n

I carefully measured the dimensions of the Rickenbacker neck and Doug did a great job of producing a slim, narrow standard scale neck using maple with wenge accent strips and a pau ferro fingerboard. <\/p>\n

The body is made of limba, also known as \u201ckorina\u201d, which is the wood Gibson used on their explorers. <\/p>\n

I finished it with a slight amber\/yellow tinted lacquer to replicate the look of an aged finish. <\/p>\n

The hardware and electronics are Rickenbacker replacement parts. <\/p>\n

I used the Hipshot Ric replacement bridge<\/strong><\/a> and added a wenge block shaped to mimic the Ric bridge\u2019s mute compartment which I use as a wrist rest. <\/p>\n

The pickups are Bartolini Ric replacements<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

The electronics are Rickenbacker parts (passive). <\/p>\n

To keep the Explorer design of 3 knobs I limited it to one volume and 2 tone controls, and added a toggle switch to optionally bypass the Rickenbacker-like \u201cextra\u201d capacitor on the treble pickup. <\/p>\n

I also include a drop-D tuning peg for some extra bottom. <\/p>\n

The tone is absolutely fantastic. Rich and full for the entire range with the best sustain I have ever experienced (I actually have to be careful to not let notes ring too long). <\/p>\n

I have yet to bring this instrument into a new situation and not be greeted with a comment like \u201cthat is the best bass sound I have ever heard!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"00483_02_back\"<\/p>\n

\"00483_03_Rumpza-bassflat\"<\/p>\n

\"00483_04_headstock\"<\/p>\n

Fantastic melding of the two styles, Mike. Well done!<\/p>\n

Want to submit your bass for Bass of the Week?
Do it right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s Bass of the Week was built by Mike Rumpza who successfully attempted to combine the best of a Rickenbacker with an Explorer shape. Mike writes: The heart of a Rickenbacker, the panache of an Explorer: I have made a few of my own electric … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}