Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Since the bass is on the panel for GOTM I might as well put a few pics up here too of the build and talk about it. there's not too much detail on it on the GOTM announcement page. This bass was my first comissioned work. Appart from the Wenge and Maple in the neck, all woods comes from Gallery Hardwoods. The top and headstock cap are Myrtle burl. The design of this bass is the same as my 6 string Olive topped bass and in-progress 5 string bass. It's just been slightly modified to fit the 9 strings on it. The point of this instrument was to make a full-spacing (19mm) 9 string bass that was as light as possible. My customer used to own two other Conklin 9-strings and hated the weight, bulkiness and sound of them so we worked closely on getting it like he wanted it. At the bottom in the pics you can see the Macassar Ebony blank that was used next to a 5 string bass blank. How big izzat? The FB blank was 6" wide. I ended up buying the Stewmac saw blade and building a jig using a circular saw to slot the FB, the jig is posted somewhere in the tutorials section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Bob, my customer wanted to be able to see the the fret lines when playig in a dark lit bar so we opted for high contrast lines. We used Ash veneer for that application. I sliced the Wenge veneer myself since it was 2mm thick. It's a shame veneer doesn't come in any other sizes than 0.6mm Slicing a 2mm thick bookmatched accent line with a rip saw can be pretty wasteful. That ends up being an expensive accent line but it looks great though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Here's a picture of me 10 months ago and 55 pounds heavier than now. I originally took it to show some guys on the net the size of the fingerboard in relation to my finger lenght. Contrary to what it might look like the finished bass is actually quite easy to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Here's the first pickup coil built and my winder. I built the winder as a clone of the Scratten winder after someone posted a picture of the guts of the Scratten winder on another forum. Dead simple to build. A box, 2 bearings, drill rod, a PCB speed controller kit for $12, a 5$ motor, a used Ebay battery powered counter, an on/off switch and a $4 reed switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 When I first wired up the bass for the first time, I tried to get away from grounding all the individual bridges by just grounding the first string. That ended up being very inadequate, since the spacing is so wide you don't always touch the first string with your hands when playing so I had to ground them all separately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 (edited) Pics of the finished bass and daddy, 55 pounds lighter Notice the lack of neck dive. Comments are welcome, I feel like I'm posting to myself, 6 posts and no replys Edited March 25, 2008 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernova9 Posted March 25, 2008 Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Well your replies were 6 in the space of 30 mins That is a lovely bass, that macassar ebony is killer. What are the 9 strings of this beast tuned to?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 (edited) Here's also the sizes of the strings to give you an idea C# 0.195", F# 0.165", B 0.135", E 0.110", A 0.080", D 0.055", G 0.035", C 0.025", F 0.018" The C# string is freaking huge it's like a cable. That one string was $35 The whole set cost $135, big chunck off my profits Edited March 25, 2008 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 That's fabulous!!! I picked up something like that in a music store once. I tried for a few minutes and then played a guitar. So I'm impressed to see the way it balances on the strap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heggis Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Nice! That looks awesome! Any sound clips? Does the winding on the 6th string start slightly ahead of the bridge? It looks like it's thin and then gets thicker a couple of centimeters in front of the bridge. Also: How did you decide where to put the bolts to hold the neck in place? They look a bit random, but I'm sure you had a reason for putting them where you did. Heggis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) Right! I forgot the video. This is a video taken during a Talkbass.com get-together in Brisbane last January. It's been edited to just show the 9 string bits. The string in question came like this from Conklin. It's made by SIT strings. It does look weird since the winding doesn't start at the same level as the other ones but still sounds like it should. The screws were all placed around the pocket to make sure the neck won't move at all. It's missing that one screw in one corner because it's in the tummy cut and was getting dangerously thin there. The neck pickup pocket is also in that tummy cut area. Edited March 26, 2008 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 So we're looking at the world's most expensive string change And a C# resonating frequency of under 20Hz. Damn... But this is one epic picture! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Cheers Phil! That is a fine instrument there, and it must be very satisfying to bring it to fruition with your own pickups as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) Phil man, that thing IS epic as mentioned above. How you actually play it is beyond me... but I am wowed. Chris Edited March 26, 2008 by verhoevenc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Very nice Phil - I like! For thicker veneer to make accent lines, try asking for sawn veneer, or constructional veneer. It's commonly about 1.5mm thick, and much less work than cutting your own! I know Anita Marquetry in the UK carry it, but that's probably not too handy for you... there must be someone in Aus' who sells it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Great! thanks for the tip Setch, I'll check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) outstanding work Phil. I haven't voted in many GOTMs, not because the instruments were not good, but because they didn't call me to. You got the vote today! I feel like making one now, and I don't play bass at all. Edited March 26, 2008 by Maiden69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Now that's a compliment, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 So what's the story behind the 55 lbs? Not that I could stand to drop a few...just wondering... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) Jenny Craig. Hey, it works. The way it does work is they basically teach you how to eat proper portions of food. The reason 99.99999% of people that are oveweight is because we eat too much according to what our body should live on. Anyway, you have to buy some of their food and they give you menus. You're pretty much told what to eat and you need to do 30 min of exercise 3 times a week and THAT together is engineered to make you lose between 1 to 2 pounds a week or 1% of your body weight (i.e. more than 2 pounds a week if you're realy overweight). If you do more exercise you lose more. It's dead easy, just stick to what they tell you to eat and you lose weight. Stick to it long enough and you'll lose a lot. Took me 8 months to lose 55 pounds (25,4 kg) after a while you get used to eat proper portions of food too. BTW I thought JC was BS until my wife tried it (I originally rolled my eyes when she said she would) and she lost 25 pounds, so I didn't resist when she said I should try it too Edited March 26, 2008 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Sounds like I could do with looking into that somewhat Phil. I'm losing weight due to better eating (apart from portion sizes which I believe to be the issue) and my tough Muay Thai training, but I still need to lose another eight-ten kilos to be at my ideal fighting weight which is light heavyweight instead of my current heavyweight class. I could possibly drop a kilo for weigh-in but I believe that dehydrating yourself for that impairs overall athletic performance. I digress. I'm at a good sitting weight right now, which incidentally is what i'm doing. :-D Very nice project Phil - that's one staggering instrument, even if it is a bit crazy and prefers full fat strings! I tip my hat to you, sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 It's a beautiful bass, Phil! I hope I can do nearly that well on my 4th instrument! What's the scale length on that monster? Looks HUGE. Your customer's got some cajones to play that fretless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 35" scale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 oh, ok. I guess it's an optical illusion. Wish I could see it in person, but that'd be one hell of a trip to see a bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) Not as far as you'd think. The bass now resides in Rochester NY. At least you don't have to take an inter-continental flight Edited March 26, 2008 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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