Road trip NBD

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  • JezWyndJezWynd Frets: 6021
    But, it’s a progressive hard. Low down the board and lower strings is easier than high up the board on higher strings.

    Weird, I find the exact opposite to be true. Getting a clean note on frets 1 and 2 on all strings is the hardest thing, while further up the neck it's easier. I put a clip on tuner on the headstock to check, it's quite helpful but getting it by ear is pref.
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  • martmart Frets: 5205
    mart said:
    ...
    Rickenbacker do make some fretless basses, you know. 
    Yeah and I bet they are about £6m
    And just how much did the Shuker set you back? :)
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    JezWynd said:
    But, it’s a progressive hard. Low down the board and lower strings is easier than high up the board on higher strings.

    Weird, I find the exact opposite to be true. Getting a clean note on frets 1 and 2 on all strings is the hardest thing, while further up the neck it's easier. I put a clip on tuner on the headstock to check, it's quite helpful but getting it by ear is pref.
    Might be my experience of fretless board instruments.. or maybe not. Dunno. I tell you what tho - I have a new appreciation of parallax error ;)
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    mart said:
    mart said:
    ...
    Rickenbacker do make some fretless basses, you know. 
    Yeah and I bet they are about £6m
    And just how much did the Shuker set you back? :)
    £5.99m ;)

    Seriously - just under a grand less than a new Ric fretted 4003, and about the same price as a secondhand fretted 4003 
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  • martmart Frets: 5205
    mart said:
    mart said:
    ...
    Rickenbacker do make some fretless basses, you know. 
    Yeah and I bet they are about £6m
    And just how much did the Shuker set you back? :)
    £5.99m ;)

    Seriously - just under a grand less than a new Ric fretted 4003, and about the same price as a secondhand fretted 4003 
    So maybe a bit cheaper than a fretless Ric. A few years back there was a guy selling one on basschat for ages, for a very decent price as I recall. 
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    mart said:
    mart said:
    mart said:
    ...
    Rickenbacker do make some fretless basses, you know. 
    Yeah and I bet they are about £6m
    And just how much did the Shuker set you back? :)
    £5.99m ;)

    Seriously - just under a grand less than a new Ric fretted 4003, and about the same price as a secondhand fretted 4003 
    So maybe a bit cheaper than a fretless Ric. A few years back there was a guy selling one on basschat for ages, for a very decent price as I recall. 
    Well, never say never I guess. @ICBM would never stop laughing tho!
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    wow...that finish!
    It’s surprisingly difficult to photograph actually!
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71957
    Believe it or not I don’t like fretless Ricks! I just don’t think the design works for it - I’m not sure quite why but it just doesn’t.  If I ever have another fretless it will probably be a Jazz, Aria SB, or even an Epiphone Rivoli - despite the short scale. I still have the old Rivoli body project in mind...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    ICBM said:
    Believe it or not I don’t like fretless Ricks! I just don’t think the design works for it - I’m not sure quite why but it just doesn’t.  If I ever have another fretless it will probably be a Jazz, Aria SB, or even an Epiphone Rivoli - despite the short scale. I still have the old Rivoli body project in mind...
    If you don’t hurry up and do something with that Rivoli body I’m going to drive up there and confiscate it from you ;)
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  • dazzajldazzajl Frets: 5653
    Huge congratulations. What a very beautiful thing to learn a new passion on. 
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    dazzajl said:
    Huge congratulations. What a very beautiful thing to learn a new passion on. 
    Thanks - it’s certainly inspirational!!
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  • GulliverGulliver Frets: 848
    That is lovely.  I need to pull my finger out and take one of my basses to Shuker to get the fingerboard replaces for one without frets.

    I expect to see some videos of you playing Liberty City by Jaco any minute now...
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  • valevale Frets: 1052
    edited August 2018
    ICBM said:
    I *should* hate it, because it's just about the perfect example of everything I don't like about 'modern' basses - apart from having the proper number of strings - but actually I really quite like it .

    I wouldn't want to own it, but it's really beautifully designed and made.
    this.
    but i wish it had a sort of bar-like bottom half that followed the outline of the curve of the body, instead of a full wooden lower body half, so you could get your fretting hand right up to the bridge.
    it just seems a lot of inviting and potentially interesting fretboard going to waste because the bottom half of the body is stopping your hand go all the way up.

    it seems to have a double bass neck on a bass guitar vibe that i really like. though probs weighs a f*ckton.

    but congrats to you for your NBD. i hope you have serious fun playing with it.
    hofner hussie & hayman harpie. what she said...
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    @vale - the upper board is surprisingly accessible as it is, and you sort of find yourself scooting your hand on top to get up there.

    Weight wise - I’ve not weighed it but it’s certainly no more than my 64 Precision and I would guess at about 8.5lbs


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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    Morning after the night before update.

    Had a play late at night when the house was quiet and got stuck into some proper tunes to play along to.

    - Intonation is going to take work, but it doesn't feel as impossible as I thought it would
    - Sounds wise, it's glorious. I love the sound. Not really doing much of the gliss thing, but a bit - and the expression/vibrato is better when subtle.
    - You can make it sound (largely) like a fretted

    - The Piezo pickup is immense. It's got such a good tone - it's got really strong lower and upper bass, some solid lower mids and a bit of treble - the boost control cuts a bit of bass and ups the treble and upper mids enough to give two really usable sounds in one. On it's own, I'd say it does a similar job to a P bass - fits most things

    - The magnetic pickup is clearly aimed to add some mids and allow a more mid-focused sound. I opened it up and the pickup is actually a hand wound Jazz pickup - so single coil. 
    - There is some noise on the magnetic only, and it is weaker than the piezo, but blended together it rounds the sound out to a colossal sound or can be tweaked to get a really full range of tones.

    - I'm torn on the single coil. I could swap it out for a split coil Jazz for noiseless - but I'd lose some of the sparkle and twang/grind that the single coil gives it. If live, I'd go piezo for noiseless - it's quieter than a hum bucker - in fact it is totally silent so I don't need to have a noiseless magnetic. Similarly, I don't want to lose the unique flavour it brings. I don't know if I'd get a split coil that gives as good a tone as the single coil that's in there at the moment. (Maybe @TheGuitarWeasel might have an opinion?) and if I swapped it, I'd want a noiseless Jazz that gives more punch, more output but still has the sparkle and twang/grind of a single coil.. Hmmmm

    Either way, it plays just beautifully, it looks gorgeous, and fretless really isn't the beast I thought it would be - it's massively addictive and I can see myself spending the majority of my playing time on it (certainly at home). 

    Next task - start recording myself. And I need to tweak my lefthand position a bit for accuracy.
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14321
    Is there any way to alter the circuitry to allow a discrete output per pickup? That way, you can gate the output of the magnetic single coil pickup. Obviously, doing this would require some means of recombining the two signals before they are amplified.
    Be seeing you.
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    Is there any way to alter the circuitry to allow a discrete output per pickup? That way, you can gate the output of the magnetic single coil pickup. Obviously, doing this would require some means of recombining the two signals before they are amplified.
     Not without some major surgery I suspect - tbh it’s not as big an issue as it seems and I’d be reluctant to do anything big for it
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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7732
    Thats fucking nice! Good score
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14321
    Bridgehouse said:
    I get what you are saying
    TFFT. Somebody understands what I post without throwing a hissy fit or resorting to personal abuse.  :3

    ICBM said:
    Believe it or not I don’t like fretless Ricks! I just don’t think the design works for it - I’m not sure quite why but it just doesn’t. 
    I dislike them too. I suspect that the construction of a 4001/4003 works against it for fretless. Too much top. Not enough midrange.

    I find the same with Stingray basses. Just the change from an alder body to an ash one spoils things. Alder is fairly even across the frequencies. Ash is too scooped. The thing that is most essential to a pleasant fretless bass tone is lacking. There is only so much that pickup design and active EQ can do to correct for this.
    Be seeing you.
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  • PolarityManPolarityMan Frets: 7273
    wow...that finish!
    It’s surprisingly difficult to photograph actually!
    Looks pretty fucking good in that photo!
    ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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