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Bespoke Work 

Here you will find one off custom basses that fall outside of my model range. I offer the option for you to completely design your own instrument, whether an original design or based off an existing bass.

Status Kingbass Inspired Build 

Features Overview

Neck through,
32” scale,
Headless,
24 fret,
Custom inlay,
Ebony fretboard,
5 piece Maple/Walnut neck,
Figured Black Walnut top,
Mahogany wings,
Delano SBC pickups,
Delano 2 band preamp,
Pickup switches,
ABM hardware,
Schaller straplocks (3!)

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The customer was after a headless medium scale neck through bass in the style of the Status Kingbass instruments, except with a nice woody feel instead of the graphite neck usually found on the Kingbass. So in place of the graphite, we have a 5 piece Maple and Walnut laminate neck. The fretboard is Ebony and features a mother of pearl inlay of a W (the initial of the customers surname) in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired font.

The slim Yew body has some great character to it which is quite typical of Yew, with some knots here and there and great figure all over. It also features some nice flowing carves which not only look beautiful but also improve comfort. On the rear of the bass a wooden cavity lid of Walnut and Wenge compliment the neck woods nicely.

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Gold ABM hardware throughout gives a luxurious look, complimenting the maple and contrasting nicely with the black walnut.

The bass features two Delano pickups - a quad coil in the neck and dual coil in the bridge. Each pick up is wired to a three way switch which gives plenty of different options. The neck pickup can be split between series (all 4 coils), cross-coils and reverse cross coils, these cross coil options give a convincing approximation of a p bass sound. The bridge pickup can be split between series, single coil (for jazz like tones) and parallel. We also have the Delano Sonar 2 band preamp with active/passive push-pull and a passive tone control. All of these options make for a very versatile sounding bass!

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Wal Inspired Build 

As you can probably tell, the customer wanted a body shape which is inspired by a Wal MK II except with a slightly longer top horn. Rather than be confined to the Wal inspiration, I was keen to give it a bit of a Manton touch (with the customers approval) in the form of some of my favourite woods and some nice accents. 

34” scale
Bolt on with threaded inserts
24 Stainless steel frets
Richlite fretboard
Cuban Mahogany neck
Carbon fibre reinforcement
1pc Mahogany body
Flamed Shedua/ovangkol top
MEC pickups
Schaller 3D bridge
Passive-CTS pots

Features Overview

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The bass was specified with a narrower string spacing (17.5mm) and the neck has been kept to its minimum width up at the higher register.

 

The body is a single piece of Honduran Mahogany with a flamed Shedua top, again with black accent in between to give a clean contrasting line.
 

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The basses built around 76 had a different body shape from later years, in that it was more offset and featured a different cutaway. Also they were made with either a scroll (like this one) or more of a knob on the top horn like one of Les Claypools early basses.

Less is often more, so we have just 3 woods displayed in different varieties. On the top we have some extremely rare Flamed Honduran Mahogany, which is absolutely stunning and near impossible to get hold of. Then the back and central piece is plainer Honduran Mahogany with Zebrano for the highlights.

Wal Inspired Fretless Build

a fretless Wal inspired bass to match the fretted bass I built for same customer as above as he wanted a pair of matching instruments.

Features Overview

34” scale
Bolt on with threaded inserts
London Plane top
1 pc Honduran Mahogany back
Cuban Mahogany neck
Carbon fibre reinforcement in neck
Front and back headstock veneers
Richlite fingerboard
Binding material fret position markers
Luminlay side dots
Tusq nut
Passive CTS vol/tone/varitone
Schaller 3D bridge
Approx weight 8.5lb

 

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As mentioned above the body shape is inspired by the Wal MK II, except it features a slightly longer top horn. The fretless is very similar to the previous fretted bass in most ways except with a different top wood (London Plane) and chrome hardware instead of black. The neck and body were both cut from the same board as the fretted and the Cuban Mahogany neck was shaped to the same specs, which should make switching from one to the other feel quite natural. The fingerboard features some really smart looking position markers at the request of the customer which are actually made from binding. The neck also has Luminlay side dots for those darker gigs.

The controls on it are volume, tone then a Varitone…so lots of different tones are available from the single pickup.

CT 1976 Tribute Bass

Based on the 1976 scroll bass built by Carl Thompson with rare flamed mahogany top and Zebrano Accents.

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24 fret

34” scale

Cuban Mahogany/Zebrano neck

Titanium reinforcement

Ebony fretboard

Flamed Honduran Mahogany top

Honduran Mahogany body

Honduran Mahogany pickup covers/knobs

Armstrong jazz inspired humbuckers

Varitone

Kahler Tremolo

Hipshot tuners and extender

Schaller strap locks

Newtone strings

Features Overview

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The Cuban Mahogany neck was built in the same style as CT with a tapered central laminate and Zebrano binding which is both part of the fretboard and the neck itself. It also features titanium reinforcement, for added strength.

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