I was so impressed with my upright bass that I decided to order another instrument from Jon. As before, I paid him a visit in Sheffield to look at various models of electric basses and decide what exactly I want. Jon just introduced his new single-cut bass which looked fantastic. On the other hand, I really loved his semi-acoustic Artist design. As a result, we came up with a specification which combined both designs. Here it is (as from July 2006):
- Six-string Artist Pro Bass
- Fretted
- Single-cut, set neck
- 34″ scale
- String spacing 17 mm at the bridge
- Schertler transducer system + EMG TW pickup
- Mahogany body
- Top wood to be decided *
- Mahogany maple neck
- Macassar ebony fretboard
- Two way truss rod
- Carbon fibre reinforcement
- Rosewood bridge
- Black hardware
- Jumbo fretwire
- Mother of pearl side dots
- Polyester basecoat
- Satin topcoat
- Custom shape headstock
As with the EUB, Jon kept me up-to-date with the bass construction via email. The instrument was ready by June 2007. However I had to cancel my trip to Sheffield because of heavy rains and floods. Luckily, Jon was able to evacuate his workshop, literally minutes before the building was flooded. I went to collect the bass in July and saw all the destruction.
As far as I know, this was the first single-cut Artist bass Jon has built. Another unusual feature was a combination of Schertler (“acoustic”) system and EMG TW (“electric”) pickup. The latter is a combination of two electromagnetic pickups in one: single-coil and dual-coil, and one can switch between two modes. A separate knob works a balance between “acoustic” and “electric” signals. The purely “acoustic” sound is more similar to the sound of acoustic bass guitar rather to that of a double bass. The bass was (still is) fitted with Rotosound Swing Bass roundwound strings.
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