If you mean Eastern Carribean dollars, I'll take both

So zeronyne, can I have your warwick now? :angelic smiley:

I still love mine. Hopefully that is encouraging to you.

I understand you are moving ever closer to your new fish. Congratulations.

Peace.
--Doctor Luv

Yep. I guess the body is rough cut and the neck is glued and drying.

Did I mention the few changes?

Carey recommended a soft maple body. Apparently, this with the multipiece maple neck and ebony board will exhibit a bit of aggression.

I opted for the dual coils with a tap. Ebony covers with exposed polepieces (just because) and a RAMP.

I decided against the Hipshot/Graphtech Ghost and went with the regular A-style.

I'm guessing the challenge will be the finish. I'm realizing now that getting a solid black, super glossy finish is probably harder than a satin finish on an exotic top. There's no margin for error.

I'm hoping that I will see this five stringer (dubbed negatiV) by Halloween...Thanksgiving at the latest.

First of all, I still think you should name the bass the Fish o' Doom (or FoD). Or nXegatiV, with a silent "x" -- harkening back to the model, an NX.

Second, Carey's dual coils are awesome. Standard J pickup placement or closer to the bridge like the Sadowsky 24-fret basses or Spectors?

Third, aggression? You want a bass that sounds aggressive? Say it ain't so, Mr. Mildmannered Nyne...

Keep us posted, my good man.

Peace.
--s-uu

This probably makes more difference than any other single design decision. I'm finally coming to the conclusion that I prefer the bridge-wards position as on Spectors, Warwicks, Sadowsky 24s, Ken Smiths, etc.

So what is it for this fish?

Alex

Nice to hear that this is moving along. I wish you all the best.

Interesting, as I'm not sure I'm up on hard vs. soft maple, and if my reading comprehension is still working, that's a change from ash. How will this change the weight? The laminate neck with ebony board I understand.

So Carey is going to make pickup covers with holes for the exposed pole pieces? That's quite a bit of detail work! Why the ramp? It's not that it's a problem (on my Kinal), but I wouldn't do it again. I didn't find much benefit, and it gets in the way of my pick technique.

Why is that? With spray lacquer/urethane? My Kinal is glossy urethane, and looked pretty even to me. My only comment is black stain on maple may not come out like black paint. A satin finish may enhance the wood-effect if you can give up the "none blacker" requirement.

As to the name, why not nega5? The capitalized V will only work visually, not aurally/orally.

Tom

I'm going for the pushed back bridge p'up placement, but honestly, I told Carey to rely on his gut for that decision.

Tom, the soft maple is definitely going to be heavier, but after my Thumb and the Ken Smith Design, Anything shy of 9.75 lbs will be a feather.

And the NegatiV moniker is, as you mentioned purely for visuals. I will most likely refer to it as the Fish o' Doom, as Willie has suggested. Apologies to Jaco.

And you are correct Tom. I was led away from the black stain idea specifically because of the chance that it might not actually come out black. I'm looking for a wet ink look on this one....as synthetic looking as possible.

OK, I have to stop thinking about this bass now, or I'll go insane.

OK, so 22 months into it, I have some pics! I didn't want to steal bandwidth, so these are hosted one of my servers:

First, Carey working on the neck joint. This is a set-neck, btw.


There's a hell of a lot of maple on this bass (solid maple body, multipiece maple neck). Good thing that there's the ebony fretboard to soften things up. Just kidding. My request was to create the brightest, most frightening and aggressive bass ever. I'm sure the sea of maple will help the bass achieve this sonic profile.


And overall shot.


I know that this is probably the least interesting set of progress pics on Carey's site due to the lack of an exotic wood top, but it looks great to me.

The dual coils (under polished ebony covers with exposed polepieces) should be quite versatile, but I'd be happy with a one trick pony if it did the one trick I liked.

This is going to be some Xmas present to myself. I'm going to have to do some serious thinking for the spouse...

that looks special, and not in the short bus kind of way. are we staining the maple or leaving it natural? i like its grain, either way.

robb.

The grain is pretty sweet. Maybe three or four staining sessions with black, then 4-5 medium wet-coats of clear to seal in the black-ity goodness. That way the grain will only be noticed if your crackin' someone in the noggen with it.
Beautiful 5'r, I am jealous.
Brocko

Sorry gents...solid black...no grain. I wish I could get it plasticized. My intention is to get it to look like this:

Sam, if you want it to look like that, you are gonna have to have Carey change the body, it's not Buzzard-like at all... :rolleyes:

Seriously, it sounds like you want a high-gloss piano finish. It's a bitch to work with, but consider a lacquer finish perhaps. Not the most durable finish for a bass, probably, but you can get that look. Consider maybe a really thick polyeurethane too. I have a couple of older Japanese Squier instruments, each 20 years old, and the black finish itself is nice, deep and shiny on each.

Maybe spray it with Rhino-Liner or Tuff-Kote.

Looking good, can't wait to hear it.

Peace,

wraub

p.s. For your wife- maybe get a car?

Carey is experienced with glossy black...

Gallery - Check out 2/9/04. Asolutely mahvelous.

Believe it or not, that's an ebony top, and that bass is the reason I first noticed Nordstrand. Willie's bass was the push over the cliff.

Ebony? So those lines are wood grain, not a resolution problem with my LCD. Phooey. It's still gorgeous.

That is the bass I think of when Nordstrand is mentioned. She is so beautiful, so striking. She has been my wallpaper, she has been the object of my lust.

Perhaps NegatiV will win that special place in my heart.

Willie's Nordstrand is an absolute work of art. I can't wait to see your finished product. Please keep the pic's coming as she progresses.

BTW, Wraub's correct about the total lack of buzzardness (buzzardocity?).

I think thick poly and Carey's mojo should do it.


Maybe if I had gotten a Fodera. I was thinking of a nice conflict diamond.

OK, so last week, there was a picture of Carey installing the frets on his site (it's the first picture in the news section).

I had no idea that the paint would go on so quickly. Carey sent me pictures, but I'm reluctant to show them because it's so close to being finished.

As a compromise, I'd like to show you a picture of the neck joint. And before everyone piles on, I absolutely requested a finished neck. I've been playing my Parker Fly (guitar) a lot, and I've become very comfortable with a gloss neck. Anyway, here's the remarkable finish:



A few weeks to go....heh heh.

And by the way, I've been on a self-imposed hiatus...but I'll post clips as soon as I have this in my hands.

oh.my.goodness.

suh-weet!

But...there seems to be a flesh colored protuberance coming from the upper horn?

He's not charging you extra for that, is he?

I'm jealous.

Jim

Awesome!!

(We need a 'Dropped Jaw' smiley)

G.

Just. Wow.

I've been avoiding this thread because I didn't want to spoil it for myself by looking at the pics before it's done, but.............

09, can you design my next multi-thousand-dollar custom bass for me?

I can't wait to see the rest of it!

Wow when are you gonna post pictures 0-9?

I can see my reflection in it.

Solid looking bass, Oh-9.

Mmm... black.

Big and black [comment removed] j/k

Maaaaan that is lookin awesome!! (Even if I can only see the rear, but hey a bit of rear never goes a miss)

It's done.

But just a teaser pic until Carey puts it up in his gallery. I should take delivery of it next week.

The ebony is probably much darker than it appears in this Photoshopped image...the flash and color correction really bring out the brown.

100% pure sex. Really.

Gonna be a real looker

Wally