More Customer Photos

Here's Dennis from the Netherlands with is his Amboyna burl topped LeCompte SS SC-5. It's always great to see the basses in action. Thanks, Dennis.

LeCompte #31

Dave, the current owner of the LeCompte NM EOTS-6 bass (#31), sent us this great photo. We just had to post online. Dave didn't originally commission the bass, but through a mysterious set of circumstances has come to posses it. Looks like he's taking real good care of it too. Thanks, Dave!

LeCompte STSS-10

Yeah, that's right...10!...as in double course, octave. This bass was recently completed and shipped out. It features a black limba body with a Pau Ferro top, maple neck, macassar ebony fingerboard, Nordstrand pickups and preamp, and a Leo Quan bridge. We started with an STSS-5 as the basis and adding another five strings. It was a challenge to design build, but it came out great. It's got a great big octave tone and I was surprised how easy it was to play fingerstyle, since that's all I play. It was commissioned by a member of out outstanding military. We were glad we could build it.

Electric-Bass-Secrets.com

We're happy to announce our participation with a new website venture, Electric-Bass-Secrets. Electric-Bass-Secrets is an information source for the beginning bass builder. Several well known builders will be posting monthly articles, giving insite into some of their techniques and highlighting some very helpful trade secrets. Topics will include bass design, tools and electronic, among others. There will also be merchandise for sale, including well as bass plans, as the site continues to develop.

If you have a moment please check it out and let us know what you think.
http://www.electric-bass-secrets.com/

Happy New Year!

Not much in the way of news or new stuff this year. We're going to carry on pretty much like we did in '08. We do have a new model, however. It's called the AGT or "Agent". It's a single-cut, set-neck design, that's based on our BDC model. I was goofing around one day and thought the BDC might also work well as the basis for a single-cut design. Turned out my hunch was right...at least I think so. I've started glueing up the wood for the first one, but until I've got something more to show here's the concept drawing...

Another idea I've been thinking about is to start building a basses that are almost complete, but lack the routes for the pickups and the controls, no hardware, and no finish work applied to them yet. A customer could order the bass, specify the pickups/electronics, specify the hardware color and wait just a few weeks for the bass to be finished. As far as which models I build and the woods I use, well I guess that would be up to me. If you have a few moments drop us an email and let us know what you think of the idea.

Something else worth mentioning...we're back to using a pre-fabbed truss rod again. I found a source that is selling a high quality, single-action, dang near bullet proof rod that is working great in our basses.

That's about it for now. Happy New Year!

The Latest Three

These are the latest to get finished up. All will be soon heading out the door to destinations outside of the US.

First up is Marciano's new CBSC-4 with the really cool, all black Dark Stars.

Next is a really clean looking BRN-4. Gotta love that ebony top.

Here's a P4T-4 with satin candy red paint and mint green pickguard, heading down under. Sweet!

How I Spent Halloween

Last night I attended the Los Enanitos Verdes show as the guest of Marciano Cantero. http://www.losenanitosverdes.com/ I had a blast and must say what a good band they are. It's no wonder that they're still together and still popular after 30 years as a band. As you may remember I built a VB-4 for Marciano earlier this year which he used on a South American tour this past summer. They've been on tour in the US for the last month or so, but there was a miscommunication at the start and somehow the bass got left in his native Argentina. All was not lost. Marciano had a few days off before their show here in Houston and he took some time to visit the shop and check out the second bass I'm building for him. He checked out a few basses I have here at the moment and picked one out for me to bring to the show. Here's a couple of shots of Marciano with a LeCompte UV-4. Rock on!