{"id":7699,"date":"2015-08-26T12:08:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T17:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=7699"},"modified":"2017-04-28T16:13:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T21:13:01","slug":"bass-of-the-week-mavourneen-solidbody-strings-heppcat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/bass-of-the-week\/bass-of-the-week-mavourneen-solidbody-strings-heppcat.html","title":{"rendered":"[Bass of the Week] Mavourneen Solidbody Strings Heppcat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This week’s feature because is a nice “update” take on the classic Jazz Bass design.<\/p>\n

Builder Brian A.C. from www.MavourneenStrings.com<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

\n

The Heppcat bass is the distillation of everything we’ve learned in many years of repair and building work. It is our take on Leo Fender’s classic ‘J-Bass’ design, although we use that model as a starting point to work from rather than an end target. It’s a classic, familiar profile that we apply some updated ideas and parts to. We think it’s beautiful to look at but nearly every engineering and design decision was made putting tone and ergonomics first — it’s a form that follows function. <\/p>\n

BODY: Bookmatched ash top and back with an alder core and a contrasting layer of walnut to make a strip around the edge. A deep-set six bolt neck joint increase contact between body and neck to better convey vibration. <\/p>\n

NECK: Three piece quartersawn maple with rosewood fingerboard, unbleached bone nut, and double action truss rod. Asymetric contour on back of neck leaves the treble side slightly thinner than the bass side. Shorter headstock design and ultralight tuning machines to promote an instrument that balances well on the player (no “neck dive”). <\/p>\n

ELECTRONICS: Pickups ~ Seymour Duncan<\/a> 1\/4# Jazz (I started out with something more ’boutique’ in this instrument but it was a little too clean — the pickups always bring the Grrrr!!) Knob #1 ~ volume for front pickup & pull up to run pickups in series. This makes the two pickups work as one big humbucker and moves tone into “Precision” territory, with higher output and more presence in the mid and low frequencies. Knob #2 ~ volume for rear pickup & pull up to bypass preamp and run pickups in passive mode. Use for classic vintage tones or as ‘plan B’ when the battery dies. Knob #3 ~ Concentric Blackouts two band preamp with selectable treble frequency. <\/p>\n

HARDWARE: Hipshot ‘B’ model brass bridge<\/a>, utralite tuning machines<\/a> with cylindrical posts. <\/p>\n

AESTHETICS & ETHIC: We favor the classic “three knobs and a jack” configuration around here. Too many knobs and switches just clutter up beautiful wood cut with classic lines. For this reason, push\/pull switching pots and the concentric tone controls were employed rather than four knobs and two toggle switches. This configuration makes for an instrument that is very flexible in the tone department, but all in very useful ways: Parallel (Jazz) or Series (Precision-ish) wiring that can be run either passive (vintage) or with an active preamp (modern). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Well done, Brian!<\/p>\n

Want YOUR<\/i> bass to be featured for Bass of the Week?
Submit yours now using our easy web form<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature because is a nice “update” take on the classic Jazz Bass design. Builder Brian A.C. from www.MavourneenStrings.com writes: The Heppcat bass is the distillation of everything we’ve learned in many years of repair and building work. It is our take on Leo Fender’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[29,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7699"}],"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=7699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}