fronobulax
Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 24,730
- Reaction score
- 8,863
- Location
- Central Virginia, USA
- Guild Total
- 5
Builder's pics. I will take my own "soon".
Built by Darryl Betts of Carlisle, PA to specs developed by me, Mrs. Fro. and Darryl. Neck is a maple, walnut and cherry laminate that goes straight through. Body is a cherry, poplar, walnut laminate. Body shape was inspired by a Pilot although it is deliberately not a Pilot clone. Short scale. Curtis Novak BS-DS pickup, selected after mellowgerman convinced me it would sound awesome in a solid body. TRC and control cavity cover are made from the wood. Conceit items include 24 frets ("This one goes to 11"), a "matching" thumb rest (not installed at the time of the pic) and a suck switch that doesn't suck. According to Curtis the vintage Bi-Sonic and the later Hammon Engineering Dark Stars are not wound to the same spec, but a coil tap can be used to get either spec from the same PU. So the mini-toggle is really just a coil tap.
First impressions - in person it seems weirdly disproportionate compared to a Pilot but it is not supposed to be a Pilot clone so who cares? It does not neck dive when strapped on. I'd guess maybe six lbs. although weight and more pics are going to be forthcoming. If you consider four modes - each position of the tap and the tone full on or full off it produces four distinct but related tones. Furthermore the way those tones change as you move up the neck differs. I'm not ready to compare the PU to my '67 Starfire. There is a difference but I think that is more due to hollow vs solid body. Regardless the PU makes a good first impression.
It will probably be called "Walnut Bottom" for reasons that will be obvious when I post pictures of the back and because the builder's shop is on the corner of Walnut Bottom and Burnt House roads and "Walnut House" or "Burnt Walnut" just don't seem appropriate.
Reasonably good chance that it will make the trip to a LTG gathering in the NE or Mid-Atlantic with "Party at Steve's House" or "The Assembly of Fans of Night Shift" being two potential activities.
If the Pics don't show up it is probably a permission problem that I will fix once I check back. Please be patient.
Edit: Pics seem to be showing all right. Scroll down for more pics.
Built by Darryl Betts of Carlisle, PA to specs developed by me, Mrs. Fro. and Darryl. Neck is a maple, walnut and cherry laminate that goes straight through. Body is a cherry, poplar, walnut laminate. Body shape was inspired by a Pilot although it is deliberately not a Pilot clone. Short scale. Curtis Novak BS-DS pickup, selected after mellowgerman convinced me it would sound awesome in a solid body. TRC and control cavity cover are made from the wood. Conceit items include 24 frets ("This one goes to 11"), a "matching" thumb rest (not installed at the time of the pic) and a suck switch that doesn't suck. According to Curtis the vintage Bi-Sonic and the later Hammon Engineering Dark Stars are not wound to the same spec, but a coil tap can be used to get either spec from the same PU. So the mini-toggle is really just a coil tap.
First impressions - in person it seems weirdly disproportionate compared to a Pilot but it is not supposed to be a Pilot clone so who cares? It does not neck dive when strapped on. I'd guess maybe six lbs. although weight and more pics are going to be forthcoming. If you consider four modes - each position of the tap and the tone full on or full off it produces four distinct but related tones. Furthermore the way those tones change as you move up the neck differs. I'm not ready to compare the PU to my '67 Starfire. There is a difference but I think that is more due to hollow vs solid body. Regardless the PU makes a good first impression.
It will probably be called "Walnut Bottom" for reasons that will be obvious when I post pictures of the back and because the builder's shop is on the corner of Walnut Bottom and Burnt House roads and "Walnut House" or "Burnt Walnut" just don't seem appropriate.
Reasonably good chance that it will make the trip to a LTG gathering in the NE or Mid-Atlantic with "Party at Steve's House" or "The Assembly of Fans of Night Shift" being two potential activities.
If the Pics don't show up it is probably a permission problem that I will fix once I check back. Please be patient.
Edit: Pics seem to be showing all right. Scroll down for more pics.
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