Official Luthiers Forum!

We don't do too many of this model as the details really slow us down. They sure are fun to string up though.

Wow! That is extremely cool. I bet you'd be happy to see strings on it. Really nice.

sheldon,
that really is stunning.
i had the pleasure of touring your shop about 5 years ago and was blown away by your whole set up. the product in the picture reflects your thoughtfulness and attention to detail (even veneer on the pickups!).
i also had the pleasure of recommending your basses to a jazz guy a few weeks ago and i hope he takes me up on it.
phil

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

That gives a new definition to style!

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

That's really cool, but I don't think I'd want to fall on it!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Very, very cool. I especially like your bridge, and the double screw string height adjustment mechanism. Did you fabricate that yourself? The jack mount is also very nicely done. I was considering using one of those same locking jacks myself, but I found them too large. Your solution is very elegant. What's the little concave rout to the left of it about?

It's smokin Sheldon and everything about this bass contributes very well to a very cool guitar. VERY well thought out my friend and superb execution!

Very very nice Sheldon.
I'd also be interested in knowing a little more about the bridge.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I just noticed the fanned frets... AWESOME !!

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Reguards,

Ken H

That's impressive!

John

Wow....I have not enough fingers to count the ways that instrument is really fine. But I'll bring my favorite....I am a sucker for sapwood on a fretboard!

Great to see you here Sheldon, I have always admired your work and really look forward to having you around. This is a pretty unique forum in my experience, with the way that seasoned pros drop in and offer their wisdom freely. I'm sure I'm not the only one jazzed at the idea of having the occasion to pick your brain.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

That is AWSOME!
I never wanted to play a bass until today.
Sorry... I had to right click and save a picture of this beauty

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Rick Hubka
Chemainus BC Canada

Great bass! I am curious how does the fanned frets (Novax?) compare to a traditional fret system?

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Brad
Avon, OH

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

Phil, nice to hear from you. I'm interested to see what you've been up to.

The bridge plate we make in-house or at least used to - I just took a shipment of outsourced plates this week. The saddles are aluminum with stainless hardware. The riser screws are a 6-32 meaning that one turn of each screw adjusts the action at the 12th fret by 1/64". If you're using an imperial ruler, this really speeds setting the action. The screws are stainless and will wear forever. Should they ever need replacement, you could either spend the $.50 or just swap the mounting screws as they are the same screw. The balls slide onto pins. No real advantage other than it's simple and keeps things nice and neat.

I have my friend Byron Olsen make these for us. He's a real metal/manufacturing guy. They're made with basically a drill press, pin router, one custom slotting saw, bandsaw, belt sander and some tricky use of pneumatics. He's the most fearless and capable mechanical engineer I know.

The concave next to the jack is the thumb recess to allow you to press the un-locking button. It could have been a simple semi-circle, but I wanted it to flow with the edge roundovers that fade from a full roundover to zero at the end of the re-curve to make room for the jack.

The Novax fanned-frets are a bit of a tough sell due to the conservative nature of musicians. Oddly if you close your eyes and play (especially in the 1-12 fret area) you won't feel anything different. Above the 12th fret it's a different story, but not overly difficult to adapt to. The real difference you'll notice is that the string to string tension is nearly perfectly even. On a parallel fret bass string to string tension can vary by as much as 20 lbs. The other thing you'll notice is that the string to string tone is much more even, the tone up and down the neck is much more even, the B-string is playable/audible/pitch-steady past the 12th fret. Most B-strings on parallel fret basses don't see a lot of play above the 5th fret. Lastly there are huge gains in clarity when you go longer on the bass strings.

Thanks for posting this, Sheldon. Very inspiring.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

You have really got me thinking on this one (since I am a bass player). Everything you said makes lots of sense. What is the scale length of the Low B String compared to the high G?

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Brad
Avon, OH

Not to speak for Sheldon, but I'm 99.9% certain he doesn't use the scale layout method described in the Novax patent.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Fantastic instrument, Sheldon.
I appreciate your use of "Angelwing" maple.
I'm building an acoutsic now of the same stuff. The supplier called it "Stairstep Maple" once, then "Angelstep Maple" another time, then "Stairway to Heaven" maple yet again. Those names are fun, if not entirely accurate.
Can you share your source for the material...whatever one calls it?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

To be truthful I made up the name on the fly as that's what it looks like to me. If you're sourcing quilt it's best to see a photo of it. I can't remember where I picked up that particular piece but probably Gilmer.

The detail of the wavy joint between the body woods is very tasty - presumably done with a special profiled shaper cutter. I can see why the details would slow you down, there's a lot of cool little things crammed into one instrument!

Great to see you here, Sheldon! Your work was some of the stuff that inspired me to get building, back in the rec.music.makers.builders heyday. Gorgeous detailing, down to the (very sexy) hardware.

I'll be building my first bass soon (not a fanned fret...but I'm building a fanned fret headless guitar...). Better late than never.

That sounds cool. What are you going to use for hardware? Isn't ABM out of business?

Sheldon
Thats some top flight work! stunning!
Man o man, that will truly make some bassist happy!
Cheers
Charlie