The feature bass player for this week is Stijn Deldaele from Belgium.<\/p>\n
Stijn is not only a good player but also good at bass guitar repair as well. He took a Cort bass that had been literally chewed up by a dog<\/strong> and turned it into something great.<\/p>\n What is the model of Cort bass seen in the video?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a bass from a student ,it’s a CORT action DLX 5.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n How badly damaged was the bass when you first received it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not very heavily, but his dog put his teeth in the lower horn of the cutaway and at the fore arm contour through the finish, so it was still playable, but my student had this as an present of his wife. So he was happy with the results afterwards. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What work was done to the bass to make it playable again?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sanding the finish off so i had a scratch blank body to work on, bye doing this we thought that i would also be great to upgrade this bass with better electronics and pick-ups. so went for it. The original hardware stayed on the bass.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What was the color of the bass before refinishing, and does it look better now compared to before?<\/strong><\/p>\n On the back it was totally black and on the front of the body there was some (tiger) print, i discovered that under the finish of the front off the body there was some clothing glued to the body to have this print. First time seeing this. I’ve sanded it off for about five hours because the black finish was quite thick on the body. The body was set to his natural color and is from agathis. I finished it off with a antique pine color dye which gave the bass a nice wooden character. It’s not only looking better now, it’s also sounding a lot better. The thick finish and clothing obstruct the wood to vibrate while playing it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Describe the pickups and preamp you used in the rebuild of this bass. Does the bass sound better now compared to before?<\/strong><\/p>\n It does sounds a lot better now, the bass has a nice open and pure sound as you can hear on the video. What you hear is the pure sound coming out off the bass itself, there is no other pre amp or plugin used to improve the sound. The bass features now a Glockenklang 2 band EQ preamp<\/a> with 2 Seymour Duncan SSB5<\/a> pickups. I’ve bought this on good luck not knowing what this combination would give, but it was a very lucky guess. I have already a lot of experience with Bartolini, EMG and Seymour Duncan but this was the first time i’ve used Glockenklang (but not the last time). I even bought now an Glockenklang bass art classic pre-amp that i’m using with great pleasure in my bass rig on gigs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Did the addition of the finger ramp help to improve the feel of playing this bass?<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m playing with finger ramps since I’ve bought my Gary Willis Ibanez bass in ’99, it took a while to upgrade my other basses with finger ramps but since the last 5 years all my basses features them now. It gives you more a relaxed feeling and you’re playing more effortlessly as you’re not digging to deep in the strings with your fingers. My students confirmed this feeling and he plays also a bit easier than before.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n How long have you been working on bass guitars?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well before i began my studies for music on higher education i’ve graduated as an mechanic worker, so i’ve had some skills in my hands to unleash back again some 5 years ago on my instruments. I’ve learned quickly how to set up the action on my basses and the intonation as well, but until there i went, i was not taking further steps to work on basses. It began with upgrading my squier 70’s jazzbass with real Seymor Duncan pick-ups and a Bartolini pre-amp. First i gave the work into the hands of a shop technician to install this, but he didn’t installed it properly.So i tried it myself and with trial and error (not that much), the set up worked properly and was great sounding. Next one was my Cort A5 which sufferd from bad electronic connections in the pre-amp and so i discovered Best Bass Gear. They had a few choices to pick to improve the bass, and i went for the Bartolini MK5 pick-ups and NTMB pre-amp. This bass became my favorite bass to use for studio recording because off the deep butt still clear sound coming out of it. Since then students have been asking to work and improve on their basses. It gives me pleasure to do this to make them happy and see them play and improving faster on a better instrument. Besides improving pick-ups and electronics, i did already also a lot of hardware improvements. I’ve did some little woodwork. Butt with the new feature guide how to make your own bass by best bass gear, i’ve started to make a bass body on my own, following these instructions. Thank you very much Best Bass Gear for the good service and tips. It gives you more confidence that there are things that you can do yourself if you’re a bit handy. Cheers!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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