Well 29 actually. But as it is fretless I suppose they are technically
not frets. Joe has a very light touch and plays in ways I have not
seen before so it was not a surprise that he had special needs when
he ordered his 5 string bass. Firstly he wanted access to all 29
fret positions so the 5B body had to be modified with a special
cutaway to enable this. To help with his slap technique at the end
of the fingerboard there is a brass plate. Despite the way it looks
there are just two magnetic pickups - a standard Chris Larkin/ Armstrong
humbucker at the neck and a Neophyzix humbucker at the bridge. The
middle pickup is a dummy made from the same mould as the bridge
pickup and Joe uses this as a ramp. As the ramp is fitted using
the same system as the bridge pickup it is easy to adjust the height
as required. A word about the Neophyzix. The magnets are neodymium
rather than the usual ferrite, ceramic or alnico types and the coils
are side by side facing each other rather than vertical. It has
nice clean articulation and blends well with the bridge pickup.
You can also see the Hipshot bridge has RMC saddles which provide
a piezo output but also drive the built in RMC Polydrive 1 that
sends a MIDI signal out via a 13 pin din socket to a pitch to MIDI
converter.
The longer fingerboard allowed me to make the neck tenon shallower
than normal so I was able to do extra contouring around the neck
joint to help improve the access to the fingerboard end.
Other construction details. The body core is alder (which has developed
a beautiful honey colour with the silk lacquer) and is topped with
a pretty wood called pau rosa about which I know almost nothing.
Some time ago I ordered some exotic wood from a timber yard in Holland
and I asked them did they have anything else unusual that might
be suitable for instruments and they send me this one piece of quartersawn
pau rosa (red wood!) about which they knew nothing either. It seems
to be like padauk but does not darken with exposure to light as
padauk does so it probably isn't padauk! Neck is laminated from
maples with veneer details and has carbon fibre inside and an ebony
fingerboard with maple lines at the edge on the fret positions.
Strings are very light (90 - 35 for the regular 4 and .028 for the
high C) which would not suit everybody but Joe has the light touch
and original technique and it was made for him.
So you have a great looking, easy to play, high C, fretless 5 string
with all the magnetic sound you could wish for plus the legendary
RMC piezo tones that can be used alone or mixed with the magnetics
and the MIDI option to enable playing of any other voice a synth
can create.
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