Skjoldplayers.com

[Juneau]

This will be the first fanned fret Skjold ever made. A little history behind this instruments development: First, I am not a great player, and will likely not do this bass justice, but Im getting it anyhow hehe. I currently play a Dingwall AB-1 and fell in love with Fanned Frets. After a lot of time spent at Pete's shop taking pics of everyone else's basses, I had to get in on the deal and started talking to Pete about this project.

The bass specs are as follows:
Multi-scale 6-string (35" low B to 33" high C)
Body is Swamp Ash, w/ Amboyna Burl top and back
Fingerboard, Knobs, Pickup Covers, and Tuners will be Birdseye Maple
Neck is a 5 pieces Maple/Bloodwood/White Wenge/Bloodwood/Maple combo. The White Wenge in the middle should give good stability, and a nice little midrange bump in the overall sound.
2, SC1 Pickups (Pete's own custom design)
3-band East/Skjold pre-amp
And one tiny side note, Im also going with Banjo frets instead of Pete's usual medium/jumbos. Another feature of the Dingwall I couldnt live without

[Ben Rose]

Juneau,

Is this Skjold going to be headless? That looks like a pencil marking for an ABM bridge saddle. What's up with the block at the end of the fingerboard?

[emjazz]

I'm very much looking forward to this one!

[Juneau]

Ben, it wont be headless, it will have individual saddles though. As for the fingerboard, thats how it comes back from the C&C machine. They insert a solid board, the C&C radius' and cuts the slots at the same time. That will be chopped off once its ready to be mounted to the neck. Its also wide enough for an 8 prolly right now hehe. Thats just the dimensions of the board that was sent in, and will be cut to fit from there.

[sagryf1]

Juneau, it looks like it's coming along nicely. Can't wait for a review from you on how it plays and sounds.

[Tryxx]

That's going to be quite beautiful. I need to just get up one day and make the drive over there. I mean, it's not that far.

[bassnutz]

That sure is one beautiful bass. How much longer until it's finished?

[Juneau]

Good question, prolly not long after its paid for :p

[Flipper]

Why do the pickups angle the way they do on fanned fret basses? I'm guessing that its a function of the varying scale lengths and keeping the pickups in the sweet spot. How do you determine the sweet spot?

[Ed_R]

It's a part of the scale. You want to put the pickups as close to a harmonic node as you can so you pick up a larger range of frequencies. Essentially, well-placed pickups are in the same spot that fretboard markers would be in if the fretboard continued up the string all teh way to the bridge. And you can imagine how close together they would be that high up, so you can see why it's more critical the closer you get to the bridge.

Or maybe because it just looks cool;)

[Flipper]

Thanks, I think its probably both.

[Juneau]

Actually, you dont have to angle the pickups, if you have enough room on the body. With the Skjold body shape, its very minimal, so if you did straight pickups on this body style, the bridge pickup on the high side would be right up against the bridge piece, and therefore you would get a very thin sound out of the high end. Same thing with my Dingwall, the body shape just doesnt have enough room with the bridge in place to accomadate straight pickups. There are a handfull of people with straight pickup, fanned fret basses though, like Jean Baudin and his Ken Laurence for example.

And yeah, I think it looks cool too

[Juneau]

Couple new ones of mine with the pickup covers back.

[Basso Gruvitas]

NOOOOO! The pickup covers MUST be amboyna too!!

Looks awesome man! Pete, I look forward to seeing this one done.

[Juneau]

Nah, they are going to match the awesome birdseye fingerboard, birdseye knobs, and birdseye tuning pegs

Between the front and back, there is plenty of Amboyna!