mike_mccue

He wants The Bapu Bazz.

I'm sure of it.

I'd be looking for a 5 string neck through bass...with two hand wound pups...and an EQ....heeheehee

I really like a healthy piece of wood. I like it light enough that it doesn't feel heavy.

I love long straight grains that indicate the tree had a good stable life.

I love a clear finish over a very healthy piece of wood. I've been assembling a collection of blonde, amber, and TV yellow guitars... each one is built around a nice chunk of wood.
I've posted a few images of a guitar I've been dreaming about. It's a passive pickup model inspired by the Alembic shape but with traditional hardware rather than the brass stuff. Sort of like a super SG.




I'd enjoy some beautiful figured wood over a fine piece of straight grained wood.

I enjoy light colored woods. Sometimes I type "Korina" into ebay so I can page through and drool.

I've never really appreciated binding on the neck. I've got fret board radius between 7-3/4" and 16". 12" seems like a good compromise.

I've always prefered dots over blocks markers.

I like small frets, or at least low frets... but I'm easy. I play a crude rhythm strum style and I play a fast fingerstyle single note melody solo style. I don't use a pick much, when I do I use them for the stuff I can't do with fingerstyle.

I think I like wider fretboards and I like a medium or medium fat neck. I say I like round, but I think the truth is I like the regular old flattened C shape best.

I like just about any fret board wood... I'd probably defer to what looks matched to the rest of the guitar. If it's rosewood I like that long straight grain figure.

I like the action to be reasonably low but I usually go a bit higher than most guys.

I enjoy when I swap guitars and have to re acquaint my self with a new scale length. I don't think I have a strong preference about scale length.

I think a 10-42 string set seems "ultraslinky". A lot of my guitars have 10-50 sets of flat wounds as the skinny set.

I really like single coil pickups, but I like humbuckers too. I mainly like a clean "bell like" tone either way. If it has just enough oomph to get some overdrive on an amp that's great... but I don't like it go all mid rangy.

I prefer 2 conductor humbucker wiring because I would never split a pickup that was an ideal humbucker. I want a humbucker that satisfies as a humbucker.

I think my ear led me to Alnico magents back when everyone was pushing Ceramic. I still would say I prefer Alnico 2 or 5 but I'd listen first. :-)

I like switches or blend knobs.

I have a fascination with Varitone switches.

I don't play the 21st fret very often, so I don't have strong opinions about the heels.

I enjoy seeing the back of the neck wood on a headstock, the veneer on the back of the head seems awkward to me.

I prefer Nitrous over oil finish because I grew up in Florida with out A.C. and oil requires some special attention in that type of environment, but I have AC now so I can enjoy learning about all the good things that come with oil.

I like silver finish hardware and never got used to gold on my own stuff.

I really like old vintage looking tuners. I've never had a guitar that needed locking tuners or stuff. I think it's cause I play finger style. I actually bend strings quite a bit, but I've never had to go searching for special tuners. I think it's because I know about back lash and how to tune "up".

I like Kluson vintage styles from Fender and I like those open back Waverlys a whole bunch.

On the other hand, I like a real nicely built bridge and don't go in for the decidedly crude vintage stylings that seem popular.

I'm pretty good with pattern making so I'd be happy to supply some shape patterns for the body and headstock shaping.




I apologize for the rambling, I was just switching gears to do some mixing. :-)




My generalized interest is in assembly line guitars that seem to be cherry picked specimens of a good chunk of wood. I like to wait until I see a piece of wood that seems to have wanted to be a guitar and then I become obsessed with holding it.

I have a few "custom shop" guitars that we both know are assembly line units... they are good chunks of wood.



Having said all that I'd be just as happy with a custom spacey Tele made with love and your special attention.


Just knowing that I can be in the line up makes me excited. I can be plenty patient!!! :-)



all the best,
mike

I have to go mix...  I could lose the bigsby pretty easily.

:-)

Thanks for asking about this.

McQ.

Good thing you want a green guitar with white outline. That way you'll be able to find in when you leave it on the lawn.

Wookiee waits to watch the build and hear the results.

Have fun guys, Mike you will not be disappointed with the quality of a Spacey build.

Emblematic?

Limerick?

In the right lighting, Bapu's Limerick looks purple (or so I hear).

Now that I think about it, that may be the wrong lighting.

spacey

 

opps....hope that's the only mistake made lol.
 
I've never played an Alembic guitar or bass. Never seen one.
I hear they are expensive.
 
I was checking out their Purpleheart fretboard as I have one and just been waiting
for the right time- not that I'm hinting Mike.
What surprised me was what I saw....NOT what one should see on an expensive well crafted instrument...IMO.

 
And if you can't spot it....that inlay should not be below the fretboard surface.

Regardless of any "inperfections," that neck is gorgeous!  My custom guitar has purpleheart stripes and an ebony fretboard (my usual favorite), but I bet it would have really popped if the entire fretboard was purpleheart.  No idea how it would feel to play though.

bapu

spacey
I've never played an Alembic guitar or bass. Never seen one.
I hear they are expensive. 

Yeah, expensive. I was fortunate to get mine back in the day when they were costly but not overtly expensive.

YOU have an Alembic?  Really??!  Wow...
 
(Who knew?)