|
After almost 25 years I have a new bass range! The idea for singlecut basses came from Joe Gershberg of Joey G Guitars. I had never liked the idea of headless basses for a number of reasons and seldom made through neck instruments either. But these have both and work really well. So why go to a Singlecut? The extended top bout of the body stiffens the neck and the whole bass then has a different resonance which seems to 'tighten' the sound. The carving at the back of the neck extends access to all the frets effortlessly and it feels as if the depth gets slimmer as you approach the body - very strange! The design makes for low weight and perfect balance when strapped up so this is a conforatble bass to wear for long periods. The pictures below are of the prototypes, one fretted, the other fretless, The final spec is not fixed at this stage but I am open to suggestions
The through neck is made from ebony, maple and walnut, the body core is alder and the wing facings are Irish burr elm. The fingerboard is extra thick ebony so that a section of it continues through to the tail. The controls are: master volume, three way selector for the magnetics, piezo/magnetic blend and passive tone. Two miniswitches control the coil arrangements for the magnetics. So how does it perform? The Chris Larkin/Kent Armstrong magnetic is deep and rich, the RMC piezo has wonderful clarity and a 'woody' acousticness. Lots of sustain. Even as a passive bass the range of tones is exceptional. It feels very compact (because it is!) and is so easy to play. I love it!
 This is the fretted prototype. Again 35" scale. Top is spalted beech with a rosewood fingerboard. The neck is flamed maple with cherry and Irish walnut laminations and the body wings are Irish walnut also. Pickups are LeFay single coils connected through an EBS two band active EQ with midrange switching. In this model the ABM individual saddle/tail units are fitted. This bass weighs about 3.5kg (under 8 pounds) and really growls with the EQ flat. The range of tones using the EQ is exceptional. 
Del's Coffee Pot Bass!   And what about this? A 'one off' Single cut that Del Palmer designed (he built a model of it in paper and plywood in the workshop!) and it shares some features with the basses above. It has a through neck, 35" scale, single magnetic pickup plus RMC piezo and Polydrive 1 MIDI. That is where the similarity ends. The headstock is elegant giving a straight pull on the strings, the body wings are hollowed out underneath the full width, bookmatched, facings and the ebony bridge has adjustments for intonation and height. The strings are fitted through the body and I had to get Malcolm at Newtone Strings to make a special longer than longscale set to make this possible. The 7 piece neck laminates are flamed and hard maples with walnut and there is carbon fibre buried in there too.  The Chris Larkin/Kent Armstrong magnetic is mounted in the 'sweet spot' and this, along with the different construction give this bass a sound of it's own and it is quality. The facings are Irish burr elm and the core is Irish sycamore (it is great to have such wonderful Irish hardwoods available) - the arrangement of the sapwood and heartwood on the front is very attractive. Del intends to use this bass in the studio to drive MIDI devices. Using an Axxon with a soundcard the tracking is excellent right down to the low B. It can get confused if you try to play like Steve Vai on the lowest notes! He has called it The Coffee Pot Bass. I don't know why! |
