Finished the Mark Stanley Bass Kit

[johnnparchem]

I finsihed the bass guitar tonight. Majogany back and sides, red cedar top. The headstock veneer is ebony and the back of the headstock has bookmatch Koa veneer. Fretless Rosewood fingerboard and rosewood pinless bridge. LR Baggs under the saddle element pickup.

It actually sounds ok both plugged in an unplugged. Right now I have GHS acoustic light Bass strings. Last night I had medium Martin Acoustic bass string. It was a lot more powerful with the mediums. I will probably try them again. I just had this feeling that the guitar would explode. Un plugged the mdiums sounded better. Plugged in the lights sounded great.

[darren]

That's a beauty! Congratulations. Lets hear a sound clip when you have a chance.

[Ben-Had]

The figure on the back is to kill for (the rest ain't bad either).

[mjmeehan]

It's a beauty, John. Love the headstock design and the fretless fingerboard is sweet.

I see you're not shooting much pool these days!

[tippie53]

looks good

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Turned out sooooooooooooo nice John. I'd love to hear it too.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

Thanks guys for the positive comments.

I may have an opportunity for a professional bass play to play it. I am playing around with different brands and gauges of strings to see what I like the best. I have some black nylon wrapped flat wound strings that should arrive today or tomorrow. They will look cool but may have a more muted sound for the better or worse I suppose.

[RnB]

Very nice John. It turned out great. I really like your Hdstk Logo! What kind of pickup system did you install...?

[johnnparchem]

Very nice John. It turned out great. I really like your Hdstk Logo! What kind of pickup system did you install...?

Thanks,

I installed an under the saddle LR Baggs Element pickup.

[johnnparchem]

I took the bass over to a professional bass player in Seattle. The guitar has a good unamplified sound including a great low E. Overall at least while he played the strings had good balance. He played some amazing sounding notes while playing high on the neck, he said it was the sound one looks for from a fretless instrument.
Listening to a really good base player play the guitar was fun It was amazing to hear the resonance of an acoustic instrument with the bass licks he was playing. He is keeping the guitar for a couple of weeks and is going to use it in a performace with some of his students. So I will get a recording of him playing it.