Product: Hambone Walnut/Ash Jazz body style
Price Paid:
Submitted
07/02/2006
at
08:34am
by
Tallpaul
Email: Tallpaul223<at>yahoo dot com
Features
:
10
Custom Jazz style fretted 4 stringer delivered Jan. 2006. Made by Allan Hamilton out of the Atlanta Area. His Discription is as follows. Chambered walnut & ash body - the back is made up of about 20 individual boards, matched and glued up butcher block fashion. The top is a bookmatched piece of the same walnut stock. Body weighs 8lbs. The body was sealed with amber shellac and tinted with TruOil. Final topcoat is a PPG polyurethane high solids clear. The new pickup covers were cut from some scrap of the original blank and finished like the body. The cover over the electronics was the original piece I made back then. It doesn't fit perfectly but it's grain is much better than the one the bass had before. It has my single screw retainer with a curly walnut and maple button.
Flame maple 1 piece neck - This is one of my "interpreted" necks that began life as an overrun production piece. It's been narrowed, reprofiled, leveled, fretted and dressed. I replaced the black dots with abalone - my first inlay job. The headstock is laminated with walnut. The Hambone ribbon was cut into the headstock and a new decal was applied as part of the rebuild. It's finished in a clear poly on the fretboard and headstock and a rubbed TruOil finish on the back of the neck. The lower edge of the neck has been pretty radically radiused to be a very rounded and smooth finish. Of course, all of my bolt-on necks have steel machine screw inserts.
This neck is like a Geddy Lee sig....its amazing to play with no dead or hot spots..
John East U-retro preamp
Bartolini 9J pickups
Gotoh tuners, bridge, and straplocks. All gold really sets off this bass!
Brass nut
Total weight is 8 lbs even
Sound
:
10
Allan took my ideas and made this bass way more than I ever expected..I play mainly classic rock/blues.Just joined a country rock band also. So And this preamp and pup combo have any range of sounds , from a old p-bass thump to a punch that can cut through any twangers gain addiction. Any sound I want I can dial up..Love it!
Play through 350- 500 watt head with a Avatar 410. No effects. I am old school
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
No Opinion
I like my action low and fast. Allan knows how to set basses up. I will send any of my basses to him for setup or repairs.
The finish has a dozen coats of poly. Its very deep and shows off the wood grains. I play this all the time, it doesnt get babied. just clean her up the next day. Beautifull.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Better than any factory work I have seen, and I have played many makes for 20 yrs now.
LOve the Gotoh equipment on this ,very solid.
One neck adj. in 6 months.....wonderfull and easy.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Allan is Tops......easy to work with. He took my basic ideas of what I wanted in a fretted bass, like I love clear wood finishes, and I needed alot of midrange punch in this bass. He used his artistic skills and knowledge, to put together ideas that blew my mind. THis bass is so much better put together , for the price, than any other custom on the market.
Overall Rating
:
10
I have played for over 20yrs. Played old Fender's mainly. THis bass is everything I have wanted...I have shown her to other bass pros here in Mn , let them play it also... They really like her, and have asked for Hambone's info. That says Alot.
One of A kind bass... Thanks Hambone!
I dont leave this bass in my truck at all. I couldnt replace her , its like a part of me now.
Check out Hambone's website for more pics.......its #003 in his gallery, or email me about anything.
