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Materials:
Flamed Maple, Wenge and Ziricote with Purpleheart veneer between
laminations. Neck has tapered stringers, two dual action truss rods
and 3 carbon fiber rods. Graph-Tech nut.
Fingerboard: Ziricote
Pickups: Carey Norstrand
dual coils - just about the best available anywhere!! Housed in custom wood covers.
Electronics: David McKeen 18v 3-band with selectable mid range switch.
Bridge: ABM 17mm string spacing
Hardware: Gold
Tuners: Gotoh GB-350
35-Gram extra-lights
Finish: High Gloss
Polyester Resin
This is the
Mother of All Basses - The 'Alien Queen'. So far there is only one of these
on the entire planet! It has the best of everything, all the features
that will make it one of the baddest bass guitars in the industry.
It's unique design will get the bass player noticed, the sound will
seduce the ears, and the lucky owner will have to get used to being
asked where he or she got hold of this thing!
The Ziricote
is a beautiful wood. It contrasts beautifully with the flamed maple.
The wenge and maple 7 piece neck has tapered laminates separated
by a thin purpleheart veneer. The fingerboard on this unique instrument
is also ziricote with purpleheart pinstriping. The instrument
is quite light, so far it feels great. The Carey Nordstrand pickups
have purpleheart and ebony custom covers. Wow!
With the Nordstrand
Dual Coils and McKeen Electronics, this awesome bass
produces a full spectrum of sound. The sound should get
plenty of attention, as will the unique but very comfortable design.
You'll definitely make a statement with this one.
High gloss polyurethane
finish was applied by the finishing gurus of All Wood Finishing, CA.
Really brings out the figure in the woods.
Having completed and tested this bass we have to say it plays like a dream and sounds awesome. Bass players have remarked that it is the easiest-playing 7-string they have played. The Nordstrand Dual Coils are super-quiet and very punchy. This bass looks, feels and sounds awesome!
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Above Left: Here you can see the flamed maple is continued around the edge of the instrument.Also visible the matching purpleheart pickup cover bodies and knobs. The knobs are topped with ziricote.
Another nice feature of this body-style is the fact that you don't have to have an instrument stand to put your bass down,
Above: Nice shot of the back of the bass showing the Maple trimmed cavity cover. The flame on the maple on this bass is very eye-catching. Also these photos can't capture the depth of the grain in the Ziricote wood, amazing stuff.
Left: This is about as compact as you can make the head of a 7-string bass. The tuners are very smooth Gotoh GB-350s, they only weigh 35 grams each! The smaller head and the extra-light tuners help us avoid heavy necks, which are often a problem with extended range basses.
Below: This photos shows the layers of wood on the custom pickup covers and the control knobs. The tops of the knobs are ziricote to match the body wood. The maple in the body core and the neck has a beautiful flamed figure. |
Below Left: We strung the bass up today to see how it played. Feels great! It has a really nice neck, and is easy to play.
Note the custom ebony pickup covers are engraved with the Watson logo.
Knobs are not on yet - they will be purpleheart with ziricote tops to match the rest of the body. |
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Right: Bass is on the bench having copper shielding and pickups installed in our 'clean room'. The photo also shows the awesome grain of the ziricote fingerboard.
The purpleheart and ebony pickup covers can be seen behind the bass. Potentiometers are in and we're ready to wire her up!
Below: Back view of the bass showing the beautiful wood grains and the pickup cover made from the same parent material and trimmed with maple. This is also a good photo showing the tapered neck stringers. Each piece of the neck construction is tapered to match the natural taper of the neck itself. |
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In the photo above you can see the matching control cavity
cover plate in place.
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Above: a couple of photos showing the difference in appearance after
the high gloss polyester resin finish was applied. really makes the
wood grain jump out! Next
step is to attach the hardware, apply copper shielding to
the cavities and install the electronics. |
Above: Detail
shot of the back of the headstock before finishing was applied.
All the neck stringers are tapered to match the taper of the
neck itself. Each stringer has a purpleheart veneer separating
the different woods. |
Photo taken after
gold frets were installed.
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I placed
the fretboard, bridge and pickup covers on the body to see
what the end result might look like. Next step is to fit the
fretboard, then cut pickup holes and apply headstock veneer.
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This
is an early photo with the basic glued parts thrown together.
The center laminated section has been glued and routed for truss
rods and carbon fiber strips. |
Here's
a shot of the pickup covers, not quite complete yet. Bases
are Purpleheart, tops are Ebony with a maple veneer in between. |
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