I'm in the process (very early stages) of having a new extended range bass built by Barker Bass in Redmond, OR. This will be the first ERB built by Barker and will employ some new technology during the construction. While we have many details yet to be worked out, Lee Barker (Barker Bass resident genius & master craftsman) and I have come to a "gentlemans agreement" about the overall concept and the wheels of progress have begun to spin. I hope this page will keep you all entertained during the build, and also hope that it provides some insights to the things that need to be done to get a new bass design up and gigging!
Step # 1 is to select the overall design concept. We have decided to go with a 6 string fretless bass, after some waffling back and forth between a 6 and a 7 string, the 6 seemed to be the most logical for my performance needs. The bass will look very much like a standard Barker as seen here, but with an obviously wider neck and more strings. The pickups will probably be soapbars, and the initial thoughts are to switch the bridge design and possible change the electronics package ... but just preliminary thoughts right now.
Lee Barker has found some very cool hardwoods for this project, a beautiful fir material that would be perfect for the job. Some rough stock pics, the wood has been wetted down to show the beautiful grain:
Pretty close to zeroing in on the "donor" bass. I have a possibility of a bolt-on Brice Z6 from an internet buddy, and if that doesn't pan out then I'll be placing the order with Rondo next week to have a Brice HXB-406 shipped out to Barker. I'd prefer the Z6, but the HXB-406 will be a very acceptable alternative. One sort-of issue with the Z6 possibility is that the headstock is tinted blue .... not 100% sure that Lee Barker will be able to do anything with that color, so it could look a tad odd. If I go with the HXB-406 the headstock wood will match up very well.
May 4, 2009
I have located the "donor" bass, the blue Brice Z6. An internet buddy from TalkBass, Mike Ziemski, hooked me up with this older bolt-on fretless. Mike was kind enough to forward me some pics:
Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice my red fretted Brice Z6 to fund the purchase of this great bass, but it'll be well worth it. Honestly, I'm really not playing any fretted basses except for my FBB 7, so it's not a huge loss. Also, I'm really trying to fund this new 6 string Barker without dipping into any of our personal monies, so if some gear has to go, so be it! Mike Z will be shipping the bass out to Barker in Oregon this week, and Lee should have it in house sometime next week ..... the fun begins!!
May 15, 2009
The Brice bass has arrived at the Barker facility in safe & sound condition (thanks for the great packing job, Mike!!). It seems the blue tinting on the headstock may be something that Lee Barker can modify, more details on that to come later. Since the bass was shipped without strings, step next is to get a set of flatwound strings out to Lee. I usually use LaBella flatwounds, so that'll be the likely candidate. However, I have also been contemplating a set of Indie strings available from Rondo Music (www.rondomusic.com) that is fully half the price of the LaBella's with the "wink and a nod" understanding that they are very similar to LaBella's. Decision time over the next few days on that front.
May 20, 2009
Pic update, received from Barker Bass today .... look at the beautiful grain on that wood, really easy to see placed under the fingerboard!!! That is the "donor" Brice Z6 in blue before dismantling, you can also get a feel for the size looking at it hanging alongside BVB's (and the Brice is a pretty big bodied bass!). Strings will be the Rondo Indie set, giving them a shot to see how they work on the Barker 6
Fascinating stuff (well, at least to me it is), watching how a luthier goes through the process of creating an instrument. Lee was kind enough to send me over some great pics showing how the back of the bass gets constructed. In the pictures below you'll see the backing being assembled:
These pics, left to right:
Raw alder stock in the racks; resawing the selected alder board; initial glue up of the alder; hand plane to remove rippling; final planing of the alder
More to come soon!!
Amazing when you think about the little things that go into modifying a part of a bass. These pics show the original finish on the headstock of the Brice Z6 donor neck. Obviously, a blue headstock would look a little funky with the body woods shown above, so Lee had to take the blue color off the wood. In Lee's own words: "Finishes now are so good and so hard that scraping remains the best way to keep the surface flat as possible until one hits paydirt!"
I was a bit worried about the coloring on the headstock, but as you can see it's "disappearing" quite nicely. Hopefully the "new" headstock will be proudly displaying the Barker Vertical Bass logo!
Received a ton of update pics from Barker Bass today. I have some sorting to do before posting them all, but here's a few to "wet your whistle" !!!!
July 17, 2009
Nice!!!!!!
Some great pic updates from Lee Barker ..... starting to really take shape now! These next 4 pics show, in order:
1) The "donor" bass body side by side with the new B6 body
2) Routing of the neck and pick-up pockets .... note the router to stylus configuration which controls depth and boundaries
3) A digital measurement to make 100% sure everything is accurate
4) The new neck and pickup pockets on the B6 body
The figuring on the top of the bass still amazes me, absolutely beautiful!!!
Newest batch of pics from Barker Bass! Getting close now!!
September 24, 2009
Getting really close now .... the body is out for final finishing (several coats of lacquer and polishing) and the headstock is finished. Pics of the body soon, but for now here is the refinished headstock tinted to match the back of the neck ......
October 5, 2009
Nice pic of the finished body ..... this is Dean Mancini (he applied the finish) holding the body! Getting very close now!
October 22, 2009
Received a bunch of pictures and information from Lee today, the bass is in final set-up and "de-bugging" .... hopefully another weel or so before it ships!!
It's here, it's wonderful, it plays like a dream!! More detailed pics will be forthcoming, but here's a few from the first gig!
