This bass came about by way of an accident! Baz, the guitarist / vocals with
the stranglers was a bit annoyed when a pint of beer came sailing across the
stage towards him and as any true guitarist should know, the only reaction
is to smash up the guitar! a pretty difficult repair job to put the neck and
headstock back together (initially I told him to bin it) but it worked out
ok. He was amazed that it glued up. He came to me through a friend called
Shaggy, I'm not really sure what else went on but I think a few people recommended
that JJ tried out one of my basses.
So I went
for a visit down to the studios in Somerset. JJ explained what he wanted from
a bass, what he liked and didn't like about the two he plays.
So I went about making a bass that had the best of both, but also updating the design and trying to make improvements to really bring out his individual style and sound.
His 70's Precision sounded great, but weighed a ton. The 60's P was a nice weight, had a great feeling neck but lacked a little in the sound. Both basses weren't the easiest instruments to play, but JJ is a strong player, really digs in and gives the bass hell. So I knew it had to be quite robust !
I settled on a design that I thought was good, slightly changed the shape to make the curves more flowing, better access to the upper frets, my headstock shape,....heres the spec:
3 piece basswood and english white ash body
40mm thickness
polyester basecoat, black colour, wet look lacquer top coat.
laminated Phenolic scratchplate
custom wound P pickups (slightly overwound)
Gotoh bridge, chrome
straplocks
copper can shielding
wide band tone cut
maple neck
maple f/board, black front and side dots
Or rosewood board, white fron and side dots
jumbo fretwire
two way adjustable truss rod, neck heel end adjustable
dual carbon fibre neck reinforcement
Gotoh tuners
brass nut
satin finish on neck
individually signed and numbered
The ash is a heavy dense wood, great for a defined low end and crisp trebles, definitely the right wood for JJ's sound, but very heavy, so its used as a core wood with lighter swamp ash wings. Slightly thinner body too to reduce the weight.
The pickups are of course extremely important, they are custom wound to sound like a vintage P but with a higher output, a bit more aggressive sound.
The Gotoh bridge is a huge improvement on the original, well made. Heavy gauge baseplate, channels for the outer saddles aids stability
The control cavity is lined with copper sheet, soldered at each joint for improved shielding.
The tone cut removes a little more of the treble than on the original, giving a wider variety of sounds.
The neck is a single slab of rock maple, central is a two way truss rod which adjusts the neck in both planes. Its adjustable at the body end, a small cover in the scratchplate lifts out. Either side of the rod theres two lengths of carbon fibre that increase the strength on the neck immensely, making it very stable but also the properties of carbon fibre improve harmonic content, sustain and attack.
The Gotoh tuners are improved versions of the elephant ear tuner. They are also adjustable for gear friction, so zero backlash.
The satin finish on the neck feels musch less sticky than gloss.
The headstock has the Shuker bass logo and JJ decal. On the rear each is numbered and signed.