A Tale of Five Basses

[HNB]

I know I said my Jazzy would be my last build, and it will be my final guitar build for myself, but I realized when I was asked by my family that I hadn't ever made a bass guitar. Considering that is what I actually took lessons on and played live in shows, I felt I would take a stab at making my own. I don't know why it took so long to be interested. I guess something about the size difference made it more intimidating in my head than making guitars. Good thing about my overbuilding of guitars is I learned I like white body guitars and allparts necks. I decided initially to make four basses like the four horsemen. Two p basses and two j basses and be done. I am sticking to that well other than I ended up with an extra neck by a misorder so am making. A fifth Jazzmaster IV bass. I will post pictures when I get home. So far two are finished. Mostly I am waiting on two MJT bodies to get made and painted. Here are the basses.

Thunderbass

I made this themed off of Cheetara from ThunderCats. It is a Jazz Bass with an ebony fretboard, hipshot lite tuners, spotted pickguard and strap, black hardware, dual pots for each pickup, toggle between, and Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups. The bridge is a Kluson KHMB4 B. I REALLY like this bridge for bass. No knotches and such, just slanted saddles. Sounds wonderful. I really like the higher output the pickups have. Setup is great. No rattles. Came together about as perfect as I could have hoped.

IMG_20200605_125940 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200605_130009 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200605_130036 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Carlotta Vladez Bass

This one was inspired by Vertigo and Harvey Danger. It is a p Bass that actually ended up with similarity to the movie. The first body and neck had to be returned because of flaws. The pickup route was too deep for my EMG Geezer pickups and the bound neck had a tinting issue on the binding. I got a replacement neck and body for it and a blonde bound and block allparts neck. (I can make you her! LOL) I used the same tuners and bridge. I am using a single ply white guard and Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder P Bass pickups. Custom Carlotta neck plate and awesome Gothic flower strap for it. Sounds awesome. A bit less treble to me than the J Bass version. Sounds heavier. Nice tonal variation.

IMG_20200708_203205 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200708_203218 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200708_203310 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Kraken Bass

This one is inspired by Mark from Blink 182. I have an octopus tattoo on my arm and I found out randomly he is into octopuses also. Body is a Warmoth Jazzmaster IV body with I Bass routs. I am doing dual pots again with a toggle. White pearl pickguard. I am finishing it myself doing the runny paint method Tom does on some of his guitars. Same Kluson bridge. Black hardware. This time I am going to install Seymour Duncan Hot Jazz Bass pickups. Neck is a maple allparts neck I finished myself. Octopus neck plate and custom decal I made. My daughter calls my octopus tattoo the Kraken.

IMG_20200712_120103 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200712_120113 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200712_120144 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Apocalypse Bass

This was my first I designed technically. It will be a tele bass with contours made by Warmoth. White blonde with a white guard. This one is a PJ style with three pot control plate. Pickups are those EMG Geezer ones I mentioned above. The neck is a PST Guitars one with a rosewood fretboard. Lite Gotoh tuners. Tusq nut. It is themed off of the character Rei from Evangelion. Custom Rei neck plate. I think the bridge is a hipshot one for string through. Waiting on the body to be finished by MJT.

IMG_20200622_093242 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200622_093305 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Pestilence Bass

Zombie theme. Red p Bass guard. Heavy relic white finish. EMG Geezer P Bass pickups. Zombie neck plate. Kluson bridge. Black tele knobs. It will have a black bound and block allparts neck and hipshot tuners. Waiting on the MJT body.

2020-07-03_05-23-55 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200709_183135 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200707_174341 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[beauzooka]

They sound awesome. Pics please!

[marqueemoon]

Covering all the basses I see.

Hopefully one will get flats?

[HNB]

I have been doing daddario strings so far. What is the difference with flats?

[tribi9]

Covering all the basses I see.

Lol

[beauzooka]

I have been doing daddario strings so far. What is the difference with flats?

A different old school tone. Smooth feel.
Check out some comparison vids on youtube.

[HNB]

Cool! I will have to take a sound listen. I am going to add pictures to the first post and then new stuff after this one.

[marqueemoon]

I have been doing daddario strings so far. What is the difference with flats?

A different old school tone. Smooth feel.
Check out some comparison vids on youtube.

Yep. Also a throatier sound when overdriven and plunkier overall if that’s an actual word.

[BoringPostcards]

I was expecting you to mention the bassist Thundercat for that Jazz Bass.
Do you know about him? He is a phenomenal bassist and has some really good music.
He does solo albums and has also played bass on tour for Kendrick Lamar and other big acts.
He has the Thundercat logo tattooed on himself.

Check out the songs 'Them Changes', and 'A Fan's Mail'.
A Fan's Mail is a song about his cat named Tron, and it's a funny and endearing song about being a cat.
He's worth checking out.

Good job on the builds.

Edit: How could I forget? He put out a single recently titled 'Dragonball Durag', a hilariously seductive love song about a guy with a sexy new durag.

[adamrobertt]

Flats are the only strings that should go on a bass, IMO. They feel incredible, and they sound amazing. You can do anything on them that you can with rounds, but they also do things that rounds can't do.

They're fuller sounding, less trebly, but with a more percussive and pleasant sounding attack. Also, if you use a pick, they almost completely eliminate pick scrape. Oh, and they basically last forever unless you break one.

[HNB]

Never heard of that bassist before. I will check out those songs.

My 15 year anniversary today so I will do some string listening and song listening later.

[dc]

Carlotta Vladez Bass

This one was inspired by Vertigo ... I got a replacement neck and body for it and a blonde bound and block allparts neck. (I can make you her! LOL) ..... Custom Carlotta neck plate and awesome Gothic flower strap for it.

IMG_20200708_203205 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200708_203218 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200708_203310 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

as a HUGE Vertigo fan, i think this is the coolest thing i've ever seen

[HNB]

Thanks! The fact that I had to replace the neck and body matches the story even more. Also the blonde block neck are like the actresses hair and she wore that white suit with black gloves. The bass body matches well. I picked the flower strap because of the small boquet she would leave at Carlotta's grave.

[HNB]

Also the Harvey Danger Carlotta Valdez song is pretty awesome.

[mbene085]

This thread is the most "HNB" thing I've ever read - "Well, after embarking on my last build ever, I figured why not build four basses. Also, four basses is now five basses."

I don't know how you're going to stop. I think partscasters are in your blood at this point.