The Bloques Big Birthday Bash

Ah - forgot to press the publish button 2 years ago...

Moonbassalpha got its first major outing on 6/June/09 in Chichester at The Bloques Big Birthday Bash.

Since then, the neck has warped slightly, but in a Dingwall kind of way. It is only very slight and doesn't affect my playing. I think it was down to the wenge having a definite twist in the grain, even when stacking the layers in different directions when creating the neck. That is the downside of mail order wood buying! But that aside, everything else is still working fine.

I had to change the Bartolini pickups as I found them too dark. I could not get exactly the same size replacements so a bit of mild tweakage and some cheap £10 a go pups later and it sounds better to my ears.

March 2011 - Oving

Only a month ago I found myself buying a bass neck from ebay. It's straight, and doesn't have the typical fender scroll at the end. I scribbled a few different ideas down on paper since then and one has risen to the top of the stack...

Using Paint to get faux 3d didn't come out too bad for someone that is more used to drawing stickmen. I think the top horn needs to be a bit smaller, but the key points are

1. I cannot buy a bass that looks like this (hmm - deja vu)

2. It uses a ready built neck (though it needs an overhaul)

3. I like curves!

4. It looks pleasantly unlikely to work

5. I like orange

6. I've seen the Delano Xtender oval shaped pickup and want an excuse to use it

I reckon this one would benefit from being made out of a thick piece of maple. The string tension is going to make a lot of demands on the strength of the body wood, so I'm thinking of about 2.5" thick, but with a roundish cross section.

And definitely no lights this time.