Matt's Custom 4-string Bass

[mica]

I posted a bunch of new pictures of Coco Bolo in the Wood Bank, take a look and see if anything there is suitable for your project.  
 
I'm still not able to post the Burl Walnut photos -- they just don't look exciting at all, and the wood is really stunning. Oh well. I'm working on it.

[mica]

Also, the Amboyna pics you sent are really beautiful. As you said, they are a bit on the orange side, but from what I undersand, it's more typical than the yellowish one I posted in the Essence Showcase.

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Thanks Mica,
 
I'm actually torn right now. I'm thinking of getting swirly dark cocobolo similar to Growling Tiger or burl walnut like Rami's Walnut Bad Boy Series II (AMAZING).
 
I like the macassar as well but the figuring is too linear for me. You wouldn't happen to have any of that with more of a wild swirly kind of grain to it would you?
 
Thanks
 
Matt

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Also. For the body I'm thinking instead of the larger Valentino II, how about a modified Rogue (I really like the long upper horn) with a symmetrical bottom, and omegas on the sides. I'm not sure if the pistol grip horn would look right on this or not, but if you're willing to do some sketches I'll have no problem deciding.
 
Thanks again Mica

[mica]

I'm looking for a swirly piece of Mac Eb from Rami right now. I'll let you know if we find any. It's typically straight grained. The other option is Ziricote. I don't have a photo of that wood right now, but I can describe it as Macassar Ebony colors, grained like a slab of picture jasper - like rolling hills. It's stunning. The Stanley Clarke bass we made for Steve Jay (Weird Al's bassist) is Ziricote, you may be able to find a photo of him playing it.
 
The Coco Bolo pictures I posted in the wood section have a scale marked off in 6 inch increments. There's quire a few that will do the bookmatch to center.
 
The side omegas would need to be fairly small, as there isn't a whole lot of room between the edge of the bass and the pickups. I tend to agree with you on the pistol grip, but I'll bounce some stuff off my mom and Mike as well, they are creative enough to make it work if it can.

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Hey Mica,
 
How long before you can post some pictures of some Ziricote, and Burl Walnut. I saw that Gguitars has a Burl Europa but I haven't gotten a chance to go look at it. (He's a little over an hour away for me). His pics look a tad reddish, though that may very well be the lighting. If this isn't going to happen I'll have to order some samples of the wood so I can make the choice.
 
Also I was wondering if you could show me some sketches of the symmetrical rogue shape with the omegas.
 
Since the special this month is the same as last month I'm thinking I'll wait until after christmas to place my order so I can hopefully put most/all of the money together by the time I make the order. But I'd like to pick a piece of wood, and see the rough design prior to placing the order.
 
Thanks and I'll talk to you soon.
 
P.S. After the template is finalized, how difficult would it be to make a cutting board the same shape?

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Bump

[mica]

Nice to talk with you today. I added the first couple of boards to the Ziricote section in the Wood Bank. Check them out and see what you think.
 
Ziricote doesn't like to be stored in thinner bookmatches, so we leave it as lumber until we are ready to build. You'll have to imagine the bookmatch for these.
 
We dn't make cutting boards out of the same shapes as the instruments. We make similar shapes. As a one-off cutting board, you're probably looking at twice the regular price.

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Hi Mica
 
I gave Gguitars the downpayment on Saturday, hopefully Chris will be placing the order today!
 
I just noticed this on the alembic.de site. Is this an accurate representation of what burl redwood looks like after finishing? I had always thought of redwood as being more, well... red.
 

 
If finished redwood really is that dark and contrasting, I might decide to go with a piece of that over the burl walnut.  
 
Thanks for the help.

[mica]

Yes, that is typical of the Burl Redwood. I added a piece of Redwood Lace Burl to the Wood Bank last week that has a lot of similarities to the one on Station Music's website. The wood has a very reddish cast to it, but like many woods, is generally brown.  
 
All the woods get a bit darker with finish. I don't see a whole lot of contrast in any of the burls, including the one in your last post. They certainly have tons of action, but none of them have the light and dark contrast of Zebrawood or Coco Bolo.    
 
The Redwoods tend to give the isntruments a bassier tone, seeming to not encourage the extreme highs. If you've ever played a 1970s Alembic made from Schedua, the Redwood sounds very similar.
 
(Message edited by mica on January 13, 2003)

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Chris has the downpayment and should be placing the order anytime now.
 
Do you have any burl walnut that has as much action as the piece of redwood above? I definately prefer pieces that have very close heavy burling with no fade out, and no spots where the figuring changes form (ie, quilting or flaming). If you don't have any pieces like that I might go with a piece of the redwood. What's price difference for that?
 
Also do you know what your timeframe will be as far showing me some sketches for the body? I'm thinking a Rogue body with symmetrical bottom. Less pronounced waist to allow for larger side omegas. In keeping with the symmetrical bottom, no forearm cutaway. I don't really like the look of the laminate layers widening out on that part of the body.  
 
Thanks Mica

[mica]

Chris did place the order with me, so the process is officially underway. I'll get soome sketches of the body together you later this week.
 
You mentioned in your email about the side markers. They will be aluminum unless you specify otherwise. We recently changed to aluminum on all the models because the high contrast produces a more useful marker.  
 
We'll need to know before we start anything about the side markers, since the fingerboard is one of the first items completed, and the side markers are installed before it gets glued to the neck.  
 
For plated hardware, we'd like to know at the time of the finalized order, it makes all the scheduling go smooth. You can even change the hardware until the day we set it up, but your bass will be sitting around with everything done while we wait for the hardware to return from the plater.

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Great. Aluminum Side dots are fine.
 
How much is the Nickel Plating, and if I go with bronze hardware instead is it something I could replace or have plated later?  
 
One last thing. I notice that some basses have the Alembic name in gold on the pickups and some don't. Is that an option? Can it be done in a silver metal?

[mica]

Nickel and chrome are the same price, $400. The standard hardware is brass. It can be plated later, currently we charge $600 to plate later, as we need your bass here. This includes removing the hardware, prepping for plating, plating and setup.
 
The gold name hotstamped on the 4-string pickups with injection molded shells. You can opt to have the pickups cast in the traditional method like on Rami's fretless.  
 
It's possible to have the hotstamping done in any color the foils are available, including silver. I checked with our subcontractor, and he reports a $200 setup for a special order.  
 
You could also fill the engraved Alembic name on the traditional cast pickups with silver paint.

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Ok
 
1. How much are wood pickup cases? (And do they affect the sound?)
 
2. What's cost of wood knobs?
 
For both of the above they would need to either be figured or made of laminated strips like the doubleneck and his son.
 
3. Can I get CVQs or 3 position Qs instead of the 2 position ones? What's the cost for that?