Custom bass almost done.

Doctor J

I almost cried when they put this up

http://www.hotwire-bass.de/basses/custom_model/seiten/custom_en.htm





They've just got to do a bit more work on the preamp and then it will be in my hands. Holy ****.

feylya

Aww, that fretboard! :eek:

Karl Hungus

Wow, that looks damn fine! Is the headstock meant to be unfinished?

Doctor J

It's finished, just not with a gloss, matte all the way baby

feylya

I thought you were getting a died ebony board on it? Either way, I'm having a go on it!

Karl Hungus

Doctor J wrote:

It's finished, just not with a gloss, matte all the way baby

Right you are so. If it were me, I'd probably have the headstock matching the body. I think some kind of veneer would look nice. That's just me though.

Ancient1

Damn! Your baby is famous, Doc!!

Just beautiful - almost too beautiful for your greasy kebab hands.

It must be torture to see her up on the website and not be able to play her just yet.

Doctor J

Ancient1 wrote:

It must be torture to see her up on the website and not be able to play her just yet.

Dude you have no idea

ferdi

'Doctor J - A player from Dublin'
i love the matte finish.
nice one.

feylya

Those Q-Tuners look great actually. Can't wait to hear them!

Doctor J

Yeah, it looks a little different to what I was expecting, but I can't say it's different in a bad way

Ancient1

That finish looks perfect, nice precision job.

So - I'm second in line after Fey then. We'll do some quality control and then we'll let you play it!

Quattroste

I'll second that fretboard. It's really nice. What wood?

John

That looks the sex. I'll make sure to ungrubby my hands before I take a place behind Ancient1

feylya

It's ebony I think.

ferdi

John wrote:

I'll make sure to ungrubby my hands before I take a place behind Ancient1

ROFFLE
sorry, i'm a fiend for a double entendre.

John

ferdi wrote:

ROFFLE
sorry, i'm a fiend for a double entendre.

Hehe, dirty fecker!

Eoin Madsen

Looking mighty fine, Doc.

Johnny Storm

Very nice looking, Doc. In what way is it different from what you expected?

Doctor J

Thanks gents. Johnny, I wasn't expecting the fretboard to be any way remotely as figured and I was kind of worried the q-tuners would look out of place on what is essentially a traditional styled instrument. I wasn't expecting fretboard dots either but I can let it go

It's fairly cutting edge, electronically, but it doesn't look like it

Eoin Madsen

The ash looks delish. Did they go with the ebony fingerboard in the end or what exactly? It looks more like figured Rosewood or something like that. Not at all ebony-like anyway.

Doctor J

That's what I thought too at first, I've never seen anything like it, but here ya go

feylya

TBH, most ebony isn't pure black anyway. Most of the stuff you get from wood suppliers needs to be died black. That said, I'm worried about my ebony board now :eek:

Doctor J

I think you're will be none more black

feylya

We can only hope

Doctor J

I think Ran know their strength is with the rock and metal community, none more black you shall have

What gets me is that, ok this bass cost a fair bit, but it still cost less than a 5 string stock stingray in Musicmaker, and I was able to get the body, finsh, colour, electronics, headstock, woods and electronics as I wanted.

When you get away from the big brand names, there are great options for musicians out there to get truly unique instruments for the same price (or less) than regular production models (which are great instruments, don't get me wrong).

John

Doctor J wrote:

It's fairly cutting edge, electronically, but it doesn't look like it

An elaboration if you would be so kind

Doctor J

John wrote:

An elaboration if you would be so kind

Okey dokey, q-tuner will blind even you with science , but the samples I've heard sound fantastic, there are some on talkbass.com too.

The preamp has three stacked knobs, vol & balance (this one is also a push-pull pot which engages the passive circuit), bass and treble cut and boost, mid cut and boost and passive tone control, but it looks fairly nondescript, there aren't an abundance of knobs and switches, all the gizmometry is fairly well disguised

feylya

Aye, you never were a fan of having a lot of knobs at your fingers...

Doctor J

I see what you did there, I get jokes

John

Doctor J wrote:

all the gizmometry is fairly well disguised

The Inspector Gadget of the bass world

Sounds interesting (and you're right about the science blindness!), I'm looking forward to hearing the results

feylya

Doctor J wrote:

I see what you did there, I get jokes

Excellent. We may have use for you yet...

fish-head

That page reminded me of my old Biology textbook... Neodyium whosafratsits and doo-whatchers. Fantastic looking bass Doc, I really love their headstocks for some reason.. and the matte finish is unbelieve.

John

I saw this and thought of the Doc waiting for his new bass:

Doctor J

I wish I had a Scorpions t-shirt

John

Wishes can come true...

smog

very nice ... and now to sell it

Doctor J

Sell it? Have you gone crackers, man?

It wasn't me!

Doctor J wrote:

I wish I had a Scorpions t-shirt

Should have come to Wacken so.

smog

Doctor J wrote:

Sell it? Have you gone crackers, man?

ohhh your misses is going to dance on your head

Doctor J

It wasn't me! wrote:

Should have come to Wacken so.

Should've got one when I saw them support Judas Priest

smog wrote:

ohhh your misses is going to dance on your head

Nah, she's known about this one for a while. It's cool. The V will require some skill though

Rustar

Doc, that's an A-number-one fantabulosplendiferous build job and a beautiful bass to boot.

Cheers to you, sir.

Patricide

God that colour is just so freakin cool, what type of pups are on there they look fairly different(but not in a badway its hotwire after all), How much did it set you back altogether ? and can comeone explain the q tner in lamens terms as i still dont have a cle what the hell its all about. is it a pickup in the bridge or is it the way the pickup is tuned or what im VERY confusted.

feylya

The pickups are q-tuners. Just check out their website.

John

feylya wrote:

The pickups are q-tuners. Just check out their website.

And have dictionary.com open in another window while you're checking it out

Doctor J

Essentially the main difference is that the coils lie on their side, in relation to standard pickup design. They're humbuckers but you can alter the tone of them by raising or lowering the three rows of pole pieces. They've a very clear, balanced sound. My logic was to get a brilliantly made bass from superb quality wood and use the clearest pickups around to electrify it. I wasn't too concerned with looks and didn't ask for fancy woods, so the fretboard was a very pleasant surprise.

As for the price, it cost a lot, but probably not as much as you'd think and a lot less than a Sadowsky

Here's some pics of a clear q-tuner which might clear things up or just make it worse

feylya

Pfft, cost a lot. Nonsence! It all balances out. You'd pay more trying to find the perfect bass.

Patricide

ahhh that pic, clears it all up for me thanks J, all i must say is you lucky lucky man it looks goregeous and will more than likely sound amazing.

Doctor J

Thanks man. I am just gasping to get my hands on it. When I talked to Hotwire back in March I said I wanted a bass for life, I don't want to get another bass after this and hopefully they've done the trick.

Patricide

as you have said to me before j, your never really done buying gear.Makes me kinda sad that my warwicks ****ED at the moment. it sounds great but the weight the fact that the neck is like a tree trunk and now this is making me really hate that company, the worst part is they dont even have the wireing diagrams for the corvette $$ up on there website i wanna play bass damm you!!!

feylya

Hopefully, custom made is the way forwards. I'm getting very jumpy at the moment. 2 more months and I'll have my Ran