Got this monster a couple weeks ago. Been playing a Conklin GT-7 for awhile now, and have been wanting to go up to a 9 or 10 for years and years. Holloway ended up mentioning this was for sale over on talkbass in another thread and the price was too good to pass up. It's a little rough around the edges, so far I've completely gutted the electronics/pickups. It had some weird stereo config that didn't really work that well and the pickups ended up being EMG 35 sized underneath the wood. I threw some cheap seymour duncan passive pickups I had laying around in for now while Nordstrand makes up some for me. I put in an Aguilar OPB-3 in as well, I like having active preamps on basses. Its 34" scale and I tune it F#-B-E-A-D-G-C-F-Bb-Eb with .174-.009 Kalium strings. I do two handed tapping stuff like pretty much every other person who gets one of these does. The only video of solo stuff I have for it so far is kind of rough, I'm still tweaking some things on it and my pedalboard to get where I want everything before I do some more. All in all I'd do it again, I love having the range.
Nice looking bass, and beautiful musical piece. Not sure which I enjoy more, the instrument or the music..........
Thanks guys! I'm still wrapping my head around this a little bit, but really going up from a 7 string to a 10 isn't too crazy a jump. I'm working on some more solo material I intend to record properly once the Nordstrands come in.
Ah, you got it! Great score. It’s a shame they don’t can those, but it sounds like you have a plan worked out for the tuning/use. Too bad we don’t see more of these on the market. It really is a cool design.
Thanks everyone! I'll snap some more pictures of it later today, thanks again Holloway for mentioning it in another thread! I list the specs that I know in the first post.
Haha thank you! I'll have to check them out when I'm at work tomorrow. I did another video with this thing, it's sloppy but it's something new at any rate. Have about 2-3 more songs I want to record soon
Cool instrument and playing! Do the super beefy low strings properly compensate for the short scale length or are they still a tad floppy?
I run a .174 for the low F# at 34", and it both intonates well and has plenty of tension. I prefer 34" over even 35", I had a 7 string Ibanez BTB for a minute and I didn't care for it at all. I tend to like my strings with slightly less tension than the average, but even so these are plenty tight and clear. Even on a custom I don't think I'd go farther than 34-1/2 on the low side. A 34-1/2" o 31" seems like it would work perfect in my head for something custom.
awesomee. I wanted to buy a 6 string bass lately, solely for this kinda stuff. But I know it'd be nowhere close, those extra few strings really open it up.. I just doubt I could work with the comfort of the instrument.
