April 2000

Son of Doubleneck

When Frank saw the first Featured Custom, he promptly fell in love with half of it, and placed his custom order for this gorgeous six string Series II bass. While he was inspired by the doubleneck, Frank was careful to make this bass truly his own.
For starters, he wanted the "cone" shaped peghead instead of the Alembic Crown shape that is normally found on a Series I or Series II bass. For the inlays, Frank instructed us to use ten bass clefs of various sizes. We also used a unique combination of woods for the pickup covers and knobs. The body shape is based on the famous Alembic Standard Series II basses, but this one features a Triple Omega cutaway and fancy Pistol Grip upper horn. Any way you add it up, it's a delightful bass to behold.


Series II
knobs We made these wooden knobs by first laminating the selected woods and then later turning them on a lathe. The knobs are made from Maple and Coco Bolo. The pointer knobs are made by sanding down the standard pointer knob and after capping it with a nice piece of mother of pearl, Mike then wrapped Coco Bolo around the outside. The result? Wow!
After we fret the bass, we route a small channel under the tangs of the frets. In this groove, we inlay a small thin strip of ebony with the LEDs and all their wiring already installed. Next, we use a special optically clear epoxy to fill up the holes where the LEDs live (that's what you can see Jon doing in the picture). It takes a while for the epoxy to cure, and while it does, Jon continually adds more as it seeps into the wood.

 LED fill
route We've wrapped the pickups is pretty packages! These wooden pickup covers are boxes made from Maple, Coco Bolo and Satinwood. Once they are built, we have to seal the inside before casting the magnetic pickups in their tombs. The hum canceller is not height adjustable, and has a thin veneer just on the top.

There are 21 separate pieces of wood in this peghead. In this shot, you can see how that the peghead back is every bit as beautiful as the front. For most instruments with burl wood tops and backs, we make our own veneer from the same piece of wood as the body. If we don't use the same exact piece (like we did here) we select one from the large pile of reserved burl so-called scraps, but how could you ever call such a beautiful wood "scrap?"

 peghead back
clef You've probably already noticed that the classic Alembic oval inlays are absent from this bass. Instead, Frank had ten bass clefs inlaid in mother of pearl. Each one is made from three individual pieces of shell and no two are the same size.
Triple Omega

SPECIFICATIONS

  • 6-string Series II Bass
  • Burl Maple top and back
  • Custom wood multi-laminate pickup covers
  • Custom wood knobs
  • Custom 10 clef inlay in mother of pearl
  • Triple Omega body shape with pistol grip horn
  • Cone peghead shape
  • 24k gold plated hardware
  • side L.E.D.s in red

Price available on request

See Previous Featured Customs · Get a Custom Quote
The Specials · The Products · The People · The Place · The Support · Site Index