Getting to be that time

[bsee]

Well, there are about three weeks left until the price increase hits.  Time to get those orders in, people!  Some great new developments have come down the road of late.  You have to love the bevelled headstock and the omega crown.  What else are people thinking about?
 
I am currently contemplating two possible basses.  I hope to order at least one of them, but we'll see.  I sent a million questions to Mica and Valentino over the weekend, and the answers will tell the tale.
 
Bass #1 would be the working-man's version of the SC 30th anniversary bass.  I'd love to end up with the following:
 -SSB with SC-spec neck dimensions
 -ebony neck laminates, abalone inlays and side LEDs
 -cocobolo top
 -chrome or gold hardware with matching logo
 -S2 electronics (if I can figure out how to pay for them), or Anniversary if I can't
 -heavy body for balance, maybe vermillion?
 -neck pickup moved closer to the neck
 
My only problem with this bass is that I'd still like to have a warm tone.  I feel like the ebony is necessary to get a big bass tone out of a short scale, but will it be too modern and clinical, or will it still have the warmth?
 
Bass #2 would be my ultimate five.  This is the practical bass that should be the one I order if I only get one.  I have to say that my heart wants the SSB, but this is the one that I would probably gig with.  
 -medium scale with string spacing extrapolated from the SC anniversary bass
 -Valentino-like body shape (or balance K if it's too expensive)
 -All woods, features, and tone concerns are the same as for the SSB.
 
We're in the home stretch, let's get those ideas worked out and the orders in!
 
-Bob

[David Houck]

Off the top of my head as I head out the door.
 
Would Walnut add warmth?  For instance, a 7 piece neck with 2 Ebony, 2 Walnut, and 3 Maple laminates.
 
As for adding weight to the body.  How about an extra large brass bridge block.  (I recall seeing a thread where a member ordered a bass with an extra large block.)  It would add extra weight and have the added bonus of adding sustain.

[bsee]

Thanks, Dave.  I was thnking about the possibility of using mahogany or vermillion between the ebony lams in the neck for warmth.  I just wonder if combining ebony with lighter/softer woods would be an advantage.  Do yo uget the best of both worlds, or do they cancel out to bring you back to where you started with PH and maple?  
 
The body weight may actually not be an issue with such a tiny neck.  It may balance perfectly already, but I definitely want a bridge block in there.  I think that's part of the difference in tone between the two basses I have now.

[jagerphan84]

Y'know, when I spec'ed my custom, I had never knowingly seen vermilion neck lams in any instrument, and now they seem to be popping up all over, in both basses & guitars.  I would have to guess that you get the best of both worlds with ebony & vermilion - I doubt that a lighter/softer wood can cancel out the additive effects of the ebony, but it could certainly add its own flavor to the sound (There we go again with those mixed metaphors..).
 
And for the bridge block, maybe an alternative to being extra-large would be for it to be extra-deep, so the outward appearance is the same, but with extra mass and sustain.
 
Just my $.02!
 
Adam

[bsee]

Thanks Adam-
 
I think the regular size bridge block should be fine.  I suspect that the tiny neck and K crown headstock will reduce neck weight so that it will balance very well without major concern for body weight.  One concern I would have with a larger block would be the reduction in neck mass associated with it.  Wouldn't too much of a bridge block eliminate some of the benefits from the neck woods by reducing their presence/contact at the bridge?
 
Well, everything I have read about vermillion says that it has properties similar to mahogany, but maybe a little denser/tighter/heavier.  That should put it somewhere between mahogany and purpleheart.  Mahogany has been a choice neck wood for ages, so I would think vermillion should work just fine in that role as well.  I wouldn't go for anything that was on the other side of mahogany from a tonal perspective, but going in this direction might just work.
 
I have this gut feeling that woods do not add anything to the tone, only take away.  Materials like graphite absorb very little of the vigration energy, so they take away very little.  Ebony is closer to that side of the equation, where I would suspect that maple absorbs lows and mahogany absorbs highs (or maybe just more evenly across the spectrum).  From this view, ebony + maple would transmit more lows than solid maple while leaving the rest of the spectrum alone.  If I went with maple + ebony + vermillion/mahogany, wouldn't that just absorb a little more of the energy?  I believe that we experience this as the coloring of the tone and that it is a form of 'natural' EQ.  I also believe that similar effects could be achieved by judicious use of electronics to shape the tone to our tastes.
 
This is a tough call.  The perfect bass would be something that people might call cold.  It would precisely transmit the energy of the string to the pickup and then the preamp.  From there, you can create any tone you want by subtracting a bit here and there, but you have to EQ it to get pleasing tones.  By making the compromises that give the bass character, you take away from its versatility but create an instrument with a voice that speaks to the artist without all the knob twiddling.  
 
I'm getting too philosophical here.  I'll stop...

[bsee]

Here's one more tonal/wood thought.  Alembic uses a pretty thick slab of ebony as a fingerboard.  Could a thicker slab of ebony substitute for use of ebony laminates in the neck?  On a bass like an SC signature model, a thinker fretboard could also give you a little more slap/pop room between the strings and the body.  Is this a crazy idea?  What if it were two slabs of ebony, with a thinner one under the actual fretboard, and the thin one faced the neck all the way to the end?  This has to be a crazy idea...

[David Houck]

Don't forget that you are now adding to the overall thickness of the neck.

[bsee]

Yep, Dave, I considered that.  I understand that there are some people that get shaved necks to flatten out the profile, and I would opt for that to compensate with either radical design.  The overall neck thinkness would be exactly the same, I think, as if the ebony weren't present.  Instead of say, a 1 thick piece of laminated maple/PH, you'd have a 3/4 think piece of laminated maple/PH with a 1/4 ebony cap.  Maybe 7/8 and 1/8.  I think the ideal thinkness for the ebony would be an exact match for the thinkness of the top, whatever that is, so they'd line up below the bridge at the bottom of the body.  I thought it was 1/4.  
 
A full-length ebony cap would give you an approximation of bookmatch-to-center in that there would be no neck showing through the front without the careful hand-fitting of the top that option usually requires.  It would also give you more ebony in the neck which might further reinforce the fundamental and sustain.  Finally, it would give you a really cool look down the middle of the bass with the solid black center and pickups sticking out a bit further here and there.  It would probably be really impressive with a flamed or quilted maple top, though I prefer darker top woods.
 
The questions are:  Would the neck be strong enough with the laminated pieces made that much shallower?  Would it be cost-prohibitive?  Would it add to sustain and fundamental the way ebony laminates do?  Would Alembic do it, or better yet, have they ever done it before and what happened?
 
That's if you ran the ebony end-to-end as a cap for the neck.  If you just thickened up the fretboard, you could probably shave the back of the neck a bit to compensate as well.  The thickness of the ebony there would be less of an issue since it wouldn't have to mate up with any other laminates.  Here's where you get the slap advantage by raising the fretboard a bit higher relative to the top.  I doubt this would provide as much an advantage in tone versus a full length cap, though it still could do something.
 
In either case, I wouldn't want to compromise neck stability.  I enjoy fiddling with setup from time to time, but not on a nightly basis.  I still want enough meat to the neck for it to hold a setup.