Show Us Your Non- Warwick Bass Then!

i have a vigier passion III, it has 2 carbon bars in the neck, making it very stable (no trussrod).
plays very nice, is lightweight, has a slim body and a very punchy tone...





and i have a basslab l-bow cut. this is a custom one, there is no other l-bow with the bow cut off.
it's completely hollow, made of composite, it's so light that it actually doesn't feel like a bass (in a good way), it has very long sustain, and a beautiful tone.
no trussrod either. it's so stable, that i can stravel 1300km from a hot place to my cold hometown and it is still perfectly in tune...
 
Gumby!!!

First take a bunch of flowers, then arrange them in a vase!
 
I like the Vigier.They make some good basses.
The Bass Lab's construction sounds similar to what Parker do with their cellulose/resin mix injected into a hollow body design.
I just dont trust basses without truss rods.What do you do if you want some extra bow in the neck?
 
bassplayer said:
Is there anyone who played/tried this beast?
Any feed-back?...



URL:

THX!
Click to expand...

This guy has!! [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-9-EDCH8oU&feature=related]YouTube - Steve Bailey playing TC Electronic RH450 live at NAMM '09[/ame]
 
Don't know. honestly not impressed with the sound quality of the TC for what it costs-- 999.00 for the head alone-- based on youtube demos. Mind you it may have something to do with the video recording equipment.
 
James,Please dont judge amps by what you hear on youtube.Ya really have to try them out for yourself to get an honest impression.The new TC head & cabs sound excellent & from the albums I have with Steve Bailey playing that bass on I think the amp does his bass justice.
 
Greg said:
I like the Vigier.They make some good basses.
The Bass Lab's construction sounds similar to what Parker do with their cellulose/resin mix injected into a hollow body design.
I just dont trust basses without truss rods.What do you do if you want some extra bow in the neck?
Click to expand...


well, it's right: if i suddenly feel like changing the bow of the neck, i can't.
but i'm not the guy who wants to change the bow every day. in fact, i'm adjusting a bass as often as it needs until i get to the final setup, that i want to keep. from that moment on, i have to use the truss rod only when the neck bows from humidity or such influences.

now, if the instrument is quality build, it's already in the "final setup", and won't change. that's the case with the basslab. the neck is just perfect. i never had the need to change something, even when going from light to heavy gauge strings.

i thought parker has guitars made of very soft basswood, which are covered in a stable core of graphite ?
that's what i understood when i watched the factory tour video.
 
Thanks fer the info dude.
There's another make of bass with no truss rod & adjustable neck via a small screw in the body at the pocket.It employs a design where the neck isnt under tension.I forget the name,any ideas?
I might have Parker mixed up with some other builder.
I forget who does it but there's a company that does what they call a 10/90 ratio wood to graphite material they make themselves by pulping the woodinto a sawdust like texture,then they mix it with the liquid graphite or resin/plastic material & use an injection molding kinda technique to shape the instrument.
 
Greg said:
Thanks fer the info dude.
There's another make of bass with no truss rod & adjustable neck via a small screw in the body at the pocket.It employs a design where the neck isnt under tension.I forget the name,any ideas?
Click to expand...

that would be henman-bevilacqua

Greg said:
I might have Parker mixed up with some other builder.
I forget who does it but there's a company that does what they call a 10/90 ratio wood to graphite material they make themselves by pulping the woodinto a sawdust like texture,then they mix it with the liquid graphite or resin/plastic material & use an injection molding kinda technique to shape the instrument.
Click to expand...

I know some builders are using a material called Diamondwood which really sounds like your description but never heard of a complete bass made out of it.
 
Greg said:
Thanks fer the info dude.
There's another make of bass with no truss rod & adjustable neck via a small screw in the body at the pocket.It employs a design where the neck isnt under tension.I forget the name,any ideas?
I might have Parker mixed up with some other builder.
I forget who does it but there's a company that does what they call a 10/90 ratio wood to graphite material they make themselves by pulping the woodinto a sawdust like texture,then they mix it with the liquid graphite or resin/plastic material & use an injection molding kinda technique to shape the instrument.
Click to expand...

i don't know which bass you mean. but it's impossible to have a bass without tension on the neck ?!?! since there are strings, there is tension.
what you mean is no tension on the TRUSSROD.
i heard of that, too. there are stiffening bars in the neck, that make the neck hard enough so the truss rod doesn't need to hold the tension any more, but just has the function of bowing the neck if needed.

my vigier has what they call the 90/10 neck:
90% wood, and 10% carbon, but it's not the woven graphite, but quite pure carbon composite. and the 90/10 neck is said to be even stiffer and the neck completely made of woven graphite. interesting, isn't it ?!

sawdust with phenolic resin is what you mean, greg.
some call it phenowood.
the fretboard on vigiers is made of it, on cort curbows, on the fretless squier basses (they call it something different, ebonol i think)...
also, zon uses that technique, and some (like e.g. greg curbow) used to impregnate wood (without making it wood dust) with phenolic resin. that's what was called rock wood.

phenolic resin is mixed with wood dust or wood particles (or soaked into wood), then baked at high pressure and temperature. doing that, the phenolic resin hardens, and stabilizes the wood fibres (or the wood particles, depends on what you are using, wood or wood dust). that makes a very hard, durable material. some say that wood soaked with phenolic resin still sounds like that wood, but is a lot harder.
i don't believe that it still sounds like that wood anymore, but i can't tell by experience. i do know that graphite or composite sounds very nice though. depending on how it is used.

anyway, that's a long descussion about the use of non-wood materials... i find it quite interesting.
are there people in this forum to like not only the sound of wood, but also the sound of advanced chemistry ?
 
One of the reasons I wuz interested in the Squier FL Jazz is the Ebonol fingerboard. Evidently stands up like ebony. And not expensive. Still thinking of one of those.
 
Greg said:
............

There's another make of bass with no truss rod &
adjustable neck via a small screw in the body at
the pocket.It employs a design where the neck
isnt under tension.I forget the name,any ideas?

..........
Click to expand...



Thaz a perfick description of a Dave Bunker or PBC
bass [same company]. The real neck, the one that
carries the string tension, is high strength steel.

The wood that carries the fingerboard "jackets" the
real neck, but carries no string tension. There is a
adjuster screw that can flex the wooden jacket to
set relief to a player's preference, so there is that
slight tension on the wood to flex it, but the wood
is NOT bearing the string tension, so compared to
steel-reinforced-wooden-necks, it IS tension free.

The Bunker neck is NOT a steel-reinforced-wooden-
neck. That would imply that the wood, aided by a
truss rod, bears the string tension. The REAL neck
on a Bunker/PBC bass is the hidden steel one. You
could tune up such a bass, whittle away the whole
wooden jacket and FB, and the open strings will
still be in tune ! The wood is not "at work".

So ... "the neck" really IS under tension, but "the
wood" [incl FB] is NOT. I've owned two of these,
a headless 5-string and a Bunker/Ibnez ATK. It's
one of those "solutions-looking-for-a-problem-to-
solve" things. While it's flawless in its execution,
it's also pointless in terms of what you can hear.
Both have gone on to new homes.

Pic attached of my PBC. Can't find any of the ATK.​
 

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iuserneim said:
and i have a basslab l-bow cut. this is a custom one, there is no other l-bow with the bow cut off.
it's completely hollow, made of composite, it's so light that it actually doesn't feel like a bass (in a good way), it has very long sustain, and a beautiful tone.
no trussrod either. it's so stable, that i can stravel 1300km from a hot place to my cold hometown and it is still perfectly in tune...
Click to expand...
A guy came at Frankfurt with one like that, and I've tested it a little :-) They look nice in pictures, but they look and feel like a 10 liters plastic water bottle to me, in real life. Don't kill me, it is just my feeling, I am sure they are nice basses :-)
 
After reading the description on the Basslab site I'm not sure I see the point of an l-bow without the bow. Seems like the bow is whole point to that model.
 
Florin said:
A guy came at Frankfurt with one like that, and I've tested it a little :-) They look nice in pictures, but they look and feel like a 10 liters plastic water bottle to me, in real life. Don't kill me, it is just my feeling, I am sure they are nice basses :-)
Click to expand...
that was mr. hoepfinger, the founder of basslab. it was a different model for sure, maybe the std, since this cut l-bow is unique.
anyway: at the beginning, it feels strange to not have all the weight, but after a short time of playing, you accommodate and it feels very good to not have to cary the weight...
didn't you like the sound of the bass, florin ?


Doog said:
After reading the description on the Basslab site I'm not sure I see the point of an l-bow without the bow. Seems like the bow is whole point to that model.
Click to expand...
i thought about that, too.
i don't know how much low frequencies the l-bow WITH the bow has, but mine (having the bow cut) still has a lot of low end, even when slapped.
the good thing (for some people) is, that it doesn't have that weird bow above the fretboard.
 
iuserneim said:
....... at the beginning, it feels strange
to not have all the weight, but after a
short time .......
Click to expand...


So one reason that the pix of my Wendler
[about a coupla dozen posts back in the
thread] are pix from the builder is that I'd
just ordered it when I posted that.

Now it's here ! Wendler says it's made of
red cedar and such, but I swear it's really
made of helium. I am just blowed away by
what this ax does NOT weigh.

Does it feel strange ? For shuuure ! ! !
I feel like Neil Armstrong musta felt when
he walked on the moon. Suddenly he could
leap 10 ft high with little effort and whack
a golf ball a mile with a putter ! ! ! I think
my car & house keys are now weighing me
down more than my bass.

The only "getting used to" involved here is
gonna be learning to realize I'm wearing it
so I don't go walking over to the bar when
I'm still wired to my rig ! ! !

BTW, it also happens to sound real cool. I
have many basses, including a number of
piezo-mag hybrids, and this is one more
hybrid. While it's a very desirable voice to
have in my bass 'choir', it's not really so
very different from some voices already in
'the choir', so I would not presently be so
happy to pay $1K just to add a redundant
voice. But .... I am waaaaay happy to pay
to get that voice from a bass that weighs
about the same as cotton candy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weird enuf, the mailroom dood comes over
to my digs here at work and tells me I've
had a package in the mailroom for a coupla
days now. Huh. Well, idiot that I am, I did
leave the house without my intended bass
for tonite's gig ... so how did I know it was
time to put the Wendler to work ... when I
didn't even know it had arrived ?

Having forgot my gig ax, I was gonna play
this 11lb Wick that just hangs out with me
here at work [practice ax]. I suddenly feel
like I have wings ! ! ! I might even order a
second Wendler ... just so I can feel twice
as light. This is like long wavelength crack.

Sprachtingen of wavelength, this ax has no
EQ and neither does the amp I'll be using
tonite. Fingarz .... dew yore stuff ! ! !

Yes, I know I keep using triple exclamation
marks. I'm showing restraint. Gimma some
slack here.
​

 
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