- No. of Frets
- 24
- Construction
- Neck-Through
- Active or Passive
- Active
- Scale Length
- 34"
- No. of Strings
- 5
- Body Material
- Poplar
- Neck Material
- Maple
- Body Finish
- Acrylic/schellac
- Nut Width
- 44mm
- Fingerboard Material
- Unknown/thermally treated laminated poplar
- Bridge
- Warwick 30126
- Pickups
- EMG P/J 5
- Other Hardware
- Gotoh machine heads
Gotoh oval jackplate
Gotoh dome knobs
Schaller strap locks
Warwick just-a-nut
Custom made truss rod cover, backplate and pickup surrounds from polished brass
- EQ / Controls
- EMG bts 2-band active EQ
This is a project that been in the works for the past 2,5 years. It started with my admiration for Jason Newstead (Metallica, '87-'01), and the many cool basses he played in the late 80's-early 90's.
The most important inspirations were as follows:
BC Rich Eagle
Alembic Spoiler
Spector NS-2
Yamaha BB5000
PRS (no specific model)
The project started life as a Gear4Music Chicago 5, a 24 fret neck-thru 5 string budget bass with poplar body wings and a 5-piece maple neck with accent layers and fretboard of unknown species (although Gear4Music claims that it's also poplar, which I highly doubt).
I started out by trowing away the original hardware and electronics and stripping the 1mm thick polyurethane finish. Then I proceeded to bevel the edges and reshape the neck joint. I also reshaped the headstock to closer resemble the PRS design and gave the lower horn a PRS-style "scoop" to improve the upper fret access even further.
This is when the level of both mine and my fiancé's expertise were surpassed by my ambitions by about half a lap around the globe. Luckily I have a good friend who's been a hobby luthier for the larger part of his life. He helped me to rout the body for the new bridge and battery box, as well as to pore fill and sand the body.
Now the body wings has been finished in acrylic "rally black" leaving all of the neck exposed. The next step is to apply the shellac top coat and refet the neck. Then it's finally time for setup and final assembly.
The most important inspirations were as follows:
BC Rich Eagle
Alembic Spoiler
Spector NS-2
Yamaha BB5000
PRS (no specific model)
The project started life as a Gear4Music Chicago 5, a 24 fret neck-thru 5 string budget bass with poplar body wings and a 5-piece maple neck with accent layers and fretboard of unknown species (although Gear4Music claims that it's also poplar, which I highly doubt).
I started out by trowing away the original hardware and electronics and stripping the 1mm thick polyurethane finish. Then I proceeded to bevel the edges and reshape the neck joint. I also reshaped the headstock to closer resemble the PRS design and gave the lower horn a PRS-style "scoop" to improve the upper fret access even further.
This is when the level of both mine and my fiancé's expertise were surpassed by my ambitions by about half a lap around the globe. Luckily I have a good friend who's been a hobby luthier for the larger part of his life. He helped me to rout the body for the new bridge and battery box, as well as to pore fill and sand the body.
Now the body wings has been finished in acrylic "rally black" leaving all of the neck exposed. The next step is to apply the shellac top coat and refet the neck. Then it's finally time for setup and final assembly.
