LeftyBassist.com

My pandemic basses (May and September):

And just for fun, this is the truss rod that came out of the Streamer:

Jesus!

Those threads were spun hard, and put up wet!

Nice looking basses. How did you get the truss rod out?

I left that to a professional. He got the fretboard off with heat, a wedge, and a lot of patience. Came out great, though.

Very nice basses! Beautiful wood.

Here's a picture that Paulo took when he happened to visit the luthier while the neck was getting re-glued:

Beautiful basses! Love the natural finishes.

Sure looks great!

For those like me who are into strings:

The $$ has DR Dragon Skins.

The LX has stainless steel Elixirs (first time I've tried these, totally kick-ass, smooth to the touch, attack like a pistol shot, and not a lot of string noise). At $40/set, though, I probably won't try the Elixirs on any of my other current basses, which all seem to be well matched already.

So, uh...

Nice! Are you getting into Black Metal?!

Nope! But I just love the look of the Vampyre, and was curious about the pickup configuration.

Needed some new strings as the ones on there were deader than I ever thought round wounds could possibly be. New strings made a huge difference.

Next up will probably be a new bridge and nut as the former has badly rusted screws and the latter has a couple busted plastic tabs and is basically only held on by the strings.

Because f*** the Just-a-Nut 2!
How does the Vampyre sound? I'm really curious about that pickup configuration with a humbucker that close to the bridge.

Yeah, f*** that cheap plastic crap!

I don't want to try to describe the tone just yet as I only played it for maybe 5 minutes total on an amp I don't use often. Also, with different pickup configurations, it's more a matter of feel than tone. Like, you pluck one way on a P, that's going to have a different feel than the same pluck on a J. This is how I finally decided that I didn't like Js: even though they sound great when other people play them, I always felt they were fighting me. P/Js I love because they feel like they're doing the work for me. H/Hs are kind of neutral, but still seem to work. Anyway, I digress...

So I gotta say that I'm not instantly enamored with it. I mean, it sounds good. It's just going to take some time to get used to how it responds to my playing and adapt accordingly. It may be worth experimenting with the pickup heights some more because when I got it the bridge was like 2mm from the E and G strings while the neck was like 15mm. I set them both to ~5mm and that's better, but probably worth more tweaking. I also need to try it through my regular practice setup, rather than the spare amp in the basement where I am today.

To be continued...

BTW, anyone here have strong feelings on the Just-a-nut 1 versus the Just-a-nut 3?

I had the original JAN on my Thumb way back when and I think that's what I prefer. But I welcome other input!

I still have the JAN-1 on my Fortress, and I do like it, especially that you can still get the parts, and you can adjust on a per-string basis, rather than having just the two adjustment points for the JAN-3, and as the "screws" all have the same thread, stringing it lefty or righty is easy.

I did swap out the JAN-3 plastic on my Corvette $$ for brass, and liked that change also (mainly an aesthetic change, and not having to worry about knackering it - didn't notice anything sonically).

Thanks, NoXX!

I spent an hour and a half with the Vampyre this morning and it's growing on me.

Playability is fantastic. It hangs well thanks to the long horns, but also balances comfortably on my leg thanks to the heavy body, and the funky side cuts don't dig in at all. Lots and lots of frets with easy access, and the flat-ish radius is a breeze to play. I don't love finished necks, but it's not a problem at all. It has all the ergonomic plusses of the Thumb with none of the negatives (e.g., short horn and far-away first fret). I really, really like this body shape.

Feel: once I got a handle on the tone / EQ, I was able to start building an impression of the "feel" of this pickup configuration. Despite what you might imagine by the pickup location, this is actually a really deep, dark tone. So even with fresh steel round wounds and through my brightest preamp (a Hiwatt DR103 clone), I had the bass backed off a quarter and the mids and treble boosted a quarter. And it's still pretty dark, but not dead. This bass is definitely going to like the brightest strings I can find (stainless steel Elixirs right now). So in that sense I think I would still favor the brashness of the Thumb. I wonder if I could sneak a single coil diagonally in to the twin-J route without modifying it.....

Back to the feel. The low end is super compressed. So no matter how or where I pluck, I get a nice punchy attack followed by a consistent authoritative but tight boooooom. It's really different from any other bass I've owned. I wouldn't call it "thumpy," because it has sustain. But it's a percussive feel that would work well with bass lines that drive a tune from behind. Maybe less so for bass lines meant to be more out front and playful. E.g., Allman Brother and Van Halen: yes. Guns n Roses and Stone Temple Pilots: not so much.

Nice write-up Tim. I had a Fortress Masterman with that pickup, but not the neck pickup. I bet being able to blend the two is awesome. Sick bass dude.