Marc's "Simple" Bass

[mica]

Your Ebony neck laminates are in the stack on the left:  
 
 
These drying racks serve to secure the laminates if they're still a little wet at the center when we slice it. These were at 12% when cut, still a little wet for us. We keep them under pressure while they finish drying.  
 
I wasn't too impressed with the Bird's-eye I saw last weekend. I've got a request in with our favorite wood supplier for the right Ebony for the top. He should be back in touch by Thursday.  
 
In the meantime, we will make the inlay artwork and get that part of the project finalized.

[mica]

First stage of the neck:

  and up so close:

  The Mahogany looks lighter in these pictures than in real life.

[palembic]

Okay ...let me refrase this: you call a bass with ebony laminates and an ebony top a simple bass. Now ...simple ...huh ...maybe .. but defintely not modest.
 
I'm really curious how simple this is gonna be.  
 
 
Paul the bad one

[mica]

Buncha new Ebony going up over in the wood bank (you've got pick of the litter on those new posts). Sorry I couldn't email you - we've been working on all the computers here and I don't have email access at the moment.  
 
I'll be in the office very briefly tomorrow and then I'll be back on the 21st. I may come home with more Ebony, so we'll go over your selection at that time.

[marcm]

hi mica
 
that's nice macassar! i particularly like 3138 'bars'
 
may i please see 3138 with the template outline on the boards, and also flipped around, outside-edges in, with the template outline?   are the boards long enough to get btc peghead-veneer slices from the top center?
 
is there any gabon to look at?
 
questions, questions, questions . . .
 
 
thanks, and best regards
 
 
marc

[valvil]

hello Marc,
 
welcome to the club.
 
Mica is not in the office at all today; her post was made Wednesday/Thursday night, so she meant that Thursday she was going to be in briefly, not today; she'll be back on Tuesday, so she wont' be able to satisfy your requests until later next week.
 
Valentino

[mica]

I'll get the pics done up for you as you've asked. You can check in later tonight for them. I stopped by my main wood supplier's place on Monday. He said everyone is moaning at him for Ebony, and he hasn't seen a new shipment in over a year. I bought a bunch of Macassar from him (pretty much what he had left), and that will be up here by mid February, but it's not darker than the selections I have right now.

[mica]

Here's the 3138 reversed:  

  and with a touch of the acetone to get a feel for its darkness:  

  We need to go over the enlarged baby bass design with you. Here's Kris' full scale cartoon of the design:  

  and also superimposed on the wood at close to the proper scale. Without a template yet, an outline would be a tall order.   Anyway, after you digest all this let me know what you think.

[mica]

Oops - here's that superimposed jobber:
 

[marcm]

hi mica
 
thanks for the new images.  i have a couple of observations
 
3138 did look better with the numbered board on the right, compared to the way we have them now.  if we go with 3138, i'd like the boards the way they were in the original image
 
in regard to body shape, kris's design has a different bottom shape, and it seems 'hippier'than the original EvH 'baby bass':
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/3287.html?1067286141
 
i understand that there are several issues involved in scaling a design to a larger body size.  if possible, however, i'd like the bottom cut to be identical in shape to the original:  a graceful double-scallop cut with a 'minipoint' on the centerline, rather than two dimples with a round bulge on the centerline as it is in kris's 'cartoon'
 
the shapes of the horns are perfect, but i'd like the horns and the hips to be more symmetrical in size, as in the original baby bass:  either bigger horns or smaller hips.  could you try moving the waist a little further toward the bottom?  that would take same mass away from the hips
 
if kris could work a bit more on those two aspects of the design, i'd appreciate it
 
since i can't have a gabon ebony as i had hoped,  i need to think some more about the top wood.  once again  i'm considering a figured purpleheart, as i mentioned in a recent message.   do you have any figured (flame or otherwise) purpleheart in stock?
 
i'll try to call you in a little while
 
 
best regards
 
 
marc

[mica]

Nice to speak with you this morning. Took some acetone to your neck and that wacky wood so you could see them together:
 

 
We'll post the next revision of the body shape tomorrow. I think we're on the same page as far as the lower shape and the slope of the hips. The horns on the baby bass aren't particularly symmetrical to my view. I think on the scale dup version they're pretty much spot-on to the baby bass. Once we get the rest of the shape nailed, I'm sure it will all blend in well.

[mica]

Oh yeah, check the wood bank for the acetone over a slightly larger area on the top.

[marcm]

 
 
(Message edited by marcm on January 22, 2004)

[marcm]

hi mica
 
i checked out your new postings; thanks!  503 'wacky walnut' is now the prime suspect for my top, but i'm taking another look through the wood bank to see if anything jumps out and grabs me
 
ok, here's what i found:
 
the boards i like best are: superb walnuts 242 'melange' and 236 'high contrast radiating flame'; redwood 1701 'dense burl with flame' (which is probably actually too red for me, though i can't tell from the image); and the cocobolo 3121 'dark & unusual color'
 
if i went with 236, i'd want the boards to be upside-down relative to their orientation in the image, so that the little 'pouch' of interesting figure that is presently at the top of the image would coincide with the 'baby's bottom' of the body.  the nice figure at the opposite end, presently at the bottom of the image, would make a beautiful btc peghead
 
if i went with 3121, i'd want to keep the sapwood.  as in 236, there's a great btc peghead just waiting to happen, at the top of the image.  ah, now i see that half of 3121 got used for the back of courtney's beautiful tribute.  i guess that rules it out
 
so the two 'most probables' for me are 503 'wacky walnut', actually myrtle; and 236  'high contrast radiating flame', upside down.  242 'melange' is also a possibility
 
about the horns:   i love them exactly the way kris drew them, which looks just like on tania's bass.  by more symmetric, i was referring to a desired symmetry between the width across the horns and the width across the hips:   i'd like the bass to be somewhat less steatopygous.  we'll see what kris comes up with tomorrow
 
and then let's talk
 
thanks, and best regards
 
 
marc
 
p.s.  one more thing:  i know that sometimes you fill in voids in boards.  if the smallish voidy-looking things are in fact voids, could they be filled with ebony?

[mica]

Added some pics in the wood bank. Try 1322 and 1505 for the Maple Burls we were discussing on Friday.    Here's that w-i-d-e piece of Bloodwood:  

and with a closeup:  

    The voids in Myrtle are frequently filled with Ebony.   (Message edited by mica on January 25, 2004)