Adam Fogo
Home |
Bass Guitar |
Video |
Valiant |
MusicMan |
8 & 12 String Bass |
Ultralights |
MISC.
8 & 12 String Bass
12 String Music Man bass
It's done!!!
The bass started its existance as an OLP MM3 MusicMan copy ($180 on eBay). My aim was to incorporate the following elements:
- lots of pearl, in the style of the Chandler Royale 12 string bass
- "StingRay5 meets Music Man Sabre" vibe
- 5 way switch and stereo outs for versitile sounds
My one concern was the greatly increased tension on the stock OLP neck. As a result, I decided to tune the bass down one full tone, Ddd Ggg Ccc Fff. The truss rod needed a small amount of tightening, but it is stable. I often drop the low Ds to C for C-G-C-F tuning.
The white pearloid StingRay5 pickguard came from DazBootMan. I hacked out the holes for the pickups myself. I will probably have him make me a proper one now that I know where the pickups go.
My Grandfather made the maple plugs for the original headstock holes and drilled the holes for the new tuners.
The brass nut was made for me by my uncle Alex.
I covered the headstock with a piece of pearloid acetate from Constantine's in Florida.
The neck witdth at the nut is 1 3/4", which is 1/16" narrower than most 12 string basses. The bass is extremely comfortable to play (a huge change from my Galveston) and there is no neck dive.
The pickups are offset a bit -- the bridge pickup poles are centred under the fundamentals, the neck pickup poles are centred under the octaves.
The bridge is a Schaller, ordered from Warmoth.
The tuning machines also came from Warmoth.
The string retainers and fancy pearl knobs came from WD Guitar Products.
The electronics consist of a 3-band EQ/preamp borrowed from one of my "real" Music Man StingRays. The pickups are Music Man copies from Custom Shop Parts in Florida. I painted the covers with white Krylon Fusion plastic paint.
The bridge pickup is in the "StingRay" position. I re-wound the coils to match the DC resistance of the real Music Man pickups. The neck pickup I arbitrarily placed halfway between the bridge pickup and the neck.
The bass has 2 outputs so I can run two amps. My basic setup has the bridge pickup running through the onboard preamp to a clean amp to get the "StingRay sound". The neck pickup runs directly out the second output to some sort of distorted amp. This routing is modified by the switch, which is a 5-way "Super Switch" from Stewart-MacDonald. It operates as follows:
(switch position 1 is closest to the bridge, 5 is closest to the neck -- coil 1 is the coil closest to the bridge, coil 4 is closest to the neck)
| Position | Out 1 | Out 2 |
| 1 | coils 1+2 | coils 3+4 |
| 2 | coils 1+2 | off |
| 3 | coils 1+2+3 | coil 4 |
| 4 | coils 1+2+3+4 | off |
| 5 | coils 3+4 | off |
Notes: Coils are connected in parallel. Any signal coming out of output 1 goes through the onboard preamp first.
The sound I am going for with this bass is like Big Sugar's Garry Lowe and Gordie Johnson playing at the same time. However, I usually use it in mono with a completely clean sound for most of the artists I play with.
The octave strings are quite harsh with just the "StingRay" pickup. Switching coil 3 in mellows the sound significantly. All four coils together sound very smooth and bassy. Coils 3 and 4 together sound very P-bass like.
Music Man 8 String
I finished it just in time for the Wax shows.
It turned out great (except the headstock lacquer, which I didn't let dry long enough -- if you look closely you can see the checking, and some chipping).
It is "none more black". It sounds amazing.
The bass started its existance as an OLP MM2 MusicMan copy.
The bridge is a Schaller, ordered from Warmoth.
The tuning machines I stole from my Galveston 12ver.
The gloss black StingRay pickguard came from DazBootMan.
The brass nut and string retainer bar were made for me by my uncle Alex.
My step-grandfather made the maple plugs for the original headstock holes.
Here's a clip from a demo Ashley and I did:
Beyond A Shadow (instrumental mix) (1.7 MB .mp3)
Home |
Bass Guitar |
Video |
Valiant |
MusicMan |
8 & 12 String Bass |
Airplanes |
Photos |
MISC.