CertainBass Custom Built Vintage Style Basses
Custom Built Just for You
A BASSIST BUILDING BASSES FOR BASSISTS, ONE AT A TIME!
The Elita CertainBass basses, now with Varitone!
First of all, all my basses are solid as a rock, light as a bird (depending on your choice of body wood) and play like butter. I use a combination of Fender parts, Fender licensed parts and generic parts. You'd be hard pressed to find a better playing bass in any shop or eBay due to my unique build techniques and excellent set-up. Check my feedback, ALL my customers love their basses. Of all the basses I've built and sold, not one has come back. Here are your choices:
Body: Dual pickup j style or single split pickup p style body (see photos)
Color: I stock the single split pickup p bodies in sunburst and black; I stock the dual pickup j in sunburst and pink (yes, pink). Other colors are available, let me know what you want, and I'll check availablity and cost. For body wood I carry basswood when I can as it's my personal favorite, I always have alder (that's what vintage Fenders were) and sometimes maple. Basswood is what I used for the basses I built for myself, and I love it. Basswood is very light of weight and has a sound warmer than ash. Basses come in around 8 lbs and less. Alder basses still come in less than 10 lbs. Maple bodies? Wear a jock strap at the gig or sit on a stool. If you don't specify, the wood will most likely be alder.
Pickguards: pickguards can be vintage style faux tortoise shell, black or white. The tortoises are 4 ply (white/black/white/tort) and the black and whites are 3 ply. This is what I stock; ask if you want something different.
Necks: four necks to choose from: 20 fret in either maple fingerboard or rosewood. These have high gloss finish and a skunk stripe. I also have 21 fret in either maple or rosewood fingerboard. The rosewood is a satin finish and the maple is tinted yellow for a vintage look with high gloss poly finish. No skunk stripe on the 21 fret necks. Both the 20 and 21 fret maple necks are a separate maple fingerboard on maple neck as opposed to the one-piece maple Fender style. This results in a much stronger and more stable neck. All these necks are great necks! I can also provide you with mother of pearl, block inlay necks witgh binding in either rosewood or maple like vintage Fender Jazzes. I prefer to build with the 21 fret necks as they require me to route the neck pocket and I get a tighter fit. The maple 21 fret is what I have on the bass I built for myself, and I recommend these whether or not you play that high on a bass.
Pickups: I have found these great sounding Asian-made pickups. They're deep with a hip brightness along with the presence we know and love of Fender, and as you turn down the tone control, you travel back in time to some sweet vintage tones. These pickups are reasonably priced and help keep my prices down. If you have a preference, I will install anything you send me. I've had customers tell me they were going to change them out, but upon follow-up, not one has done this yet. These are the pickups I used on the bass I made for myself, and I can use anything I want.
Other electronics: you can specify my stock pots or CTS pots or Bourne pots, my stock jack or a Switchcraft jack. I also do stereo basses.
Tone Control Option: I have an optional Varitone. It can replace a tone knob or work in conjunction with it. The Varitone has enjoyed a resurgence as of late. I gave my tech my prototype and he improved upon it: better quality capacitors which truly yield a warmer tone, and resisters to minimize clicking noises when you switch the switch. My Varitone is a 6 position switch that invokes capacitors of different values, and hence, different frequencies of high end roll-off. A standard tone control invokes only one capacitor. With my Varitone, you have 5 capacitors (1st position of the 6 position rotary switch is flat, wide open bass, no capacitor). I install my Varitone in conjunction with a blend pot which is optional. We'll discuss your style of playing to see what you need. The Varitone makes a P bass atomic, ansd makes a Jazz bass poisonous. A ton of tone control AND: no batteries, totally passive. And since it's a rotary switch utilizing a normal knob, it doesn't ruin the classic, vintage look of my Fender style basses. AND with the Varitone, you get the Elita CertainBass headstock decal (see photo). My stereo, dual output basses utilize two onboard varitones. Ask about my stereo bass configurations only if you're willing to go to any lengths for the best sound ever (carry two amps).
Pickup Configuration: stock style Jazz or Precision, PJ or PP (PP is my own thing: two P bass pickups to function as a jazz bass set up except it's fully humbucking on any volume control settings and infinitely and exactly adjustable for string balance. Along with my Vartione, the PP set-up is another innovation.
Hardware color: the stock color is silver/chrome color. Gold and black is available for another $119 as I don't buy those in bulk.
Fretted or fretless: you can buy the fretless option for this or any bass. This listing also details my special technique.
Strings: I buy very good but economical strings in bulk, roundwounds, various metals, in 100 to 40 or 105 to 45. You'll eventually change them out anyway. Although they're decent strings, I'll install anything you send me or have sent to me. It's best to do a set-up with the actual strings you use.
Headstock decals: I offer a choice of headstock decals. Sometimes.
Other options: straplocks maybe? Disc or T style string tree?Let me know what you're thinking if I haven't covered everything.
The photos below are some basses I've built and sold. All four necks are pictured in the various photos.
Ordering information
Boutique custom basses without the custom boutique price.
You're going to dig your new bass!
|
