1986 Yamaha Motion MBII bass [8.0 lbs] :: setup

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I'm lucky to have a great bassist that is always bringing me interesting basses he picks up.  Here is an 80's Yamaha 4 string in for while-you-wait setup.  The player likes super-low electric guitar action so it's always a fun challenge to see how low you can go.  Working with this player has made me totally rethink my approach to bass setups.

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Check out the round over on the treble-side horn - the pearl white finish flashes slight pink in certain light.  Really subtle and very cool.  Also the bridge is a unique design that I have not seen before, but the head stock really got my attention.  I don't know why, but this folded head stock looks killer!

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#eb3mystery Semi-restoration :: 1970s Gibson EB-3 [7.7 lbs]

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A poor 1970's Gibson EB-3 that was crudely modified at some point.  The mods included adding a P pickup, active preamp, moving the rotary switch, plugging some of the controls, etc.  I ended up removing the preamp and rewiring the guitar as close to stock as I could.  The rotary switch was returned back home along with adding back one of the volume controls.  The tone choke was also long gone so I replaced it with one courtesy of Curtis Novak.  The original 2 point bridge didn't allow enough adjustment to lower the action, so a new Hipshot 2 point Supertone bridge was installed.  I will eventually group this project into one blog post, but in the meantime you can follow up here:  #eb3mystery

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Tweaking Nuts :: 2010 Alan Carruth 11 String Harp Guitar

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Tweaking Nuts :: 2010 Alan Carruth 11 String Harp Guitar

This harp guitar belongs to Ken Bonfield and he brought it by the shop when we shot some video demos on the latest builds.  Ken is always experimenting with string gauges to find the best tone, tension and feel for his various alternate tunings.  He recently upped the gauge on a few of the subs (low-register bass harp strings) so the nuts were sized to improve the tone and tuning of the bigger strings.  This thing is a monster and Ken just so happens to have another Alan Carruth harp guitar coming soon.  I'm definitely looking forward to checking it out.

Custom bridge for an underset neck :: 1961 Guild M-65 3/4 CW [4.7 lbs]

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Custom bridge for an underset neck :: 1961 Guild M-65 3/4 CW [4.7 lbs]

A long time ago, someone sat on this guitar at a party and broke the neck joint.  The owner decided to repair it himself, but under-set the neck slightly.  The bridge I am replacing here is a tuneomatic that was too tall to get the strings down enough for decent action.  A new low profile rosewood bridge was fabricated to compenste for the low neck angle. I ended up inlaying a carbon fiber beam though most of the bottom of the new bridge for rigidity. The single P90 on this guy is nasty (i.e. awesome). And yes, another unfortunate casualty of the hardware store refinisher.

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New saddle, bad pickup & no relief :: 2008 Kinal Kompact Bass [4.5 lbs]

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New saddle, bad pickup & no relief  :: 2008 Kinal Kompact Bass [4.5 lbs]

Here's a 30" short scale acoustic bass that came through the shop recently for a setup.  The low E was having some low-output issues that I tried to correct with a new properly fit bone saddle (the original was way too loose).  I tried every trick I know but ultimately could not improve that string's output.  Ultimately I found that the B-Band undersaddle pickup was damaged under the E string (pickup was delaminated) and needed to be replaced.

The player strung this bass with super-low tension Thomastik-Infeld Acousticore strings #AB344 (0.041" -0.086").  These soft-feel strings did not have enough tension to pull the neck into a favorable forward bow (relief) and the neck needed to be heat-pressed into relief.