Charlie jones Perspex bass - notes
Charlie Jones has been playing a perspex bass for nearly ten years now, his first one had a maple neck with a perspex headstock and a slab body with a glittered scratchplate.. it looks great on TV but weighs way too much for comfort! When Charlie came to me he was after a lighter version of his original, but over subsequent phone calls we decided to come up with something with a lot more ergonomics than weight..
The first and major worry was the strength of the neck, we wondered at length how the perspex would cope with the day to day life of a gigging musician (Charlie is currently on tour with Siouxie Sous and early next year will be on the road with Goldfrapp again) with the inherant temperature and humidity changes engendered by international travelling, cold vans and hot stages..
After extensive, time consuming, prototyping we've come to the conclusion that a perpex neck will never be stable enough for a gigging musician.. that leaves us with a bolt on multi-laminate timber neck, which obviously is very stable and tonefull. We have also figured out how to create a stable headstock joint between timber and the perspex head!!
The body has obviously had our trademark ergonomic 'belly-carve' cut into it, which goes a long way to creating the comfort, and weight, that is neccessary here! The new version weighs in at just 9lbs!! .. considering I've played perspex basses weighing up to 2 stone before this is an achievement we are proud of! The other benefit of making the instrument out of a clear material is the visual effect achieved when the front and back carves meet.. the instrument was nearly called the jellyfish for just this reason..
As with every instrument we offer there are endless custom options available, from different coloured perspex to having razer blades or crushed glass suspended in the material.. lazers? LEDS? this guitar is your oyster!! The build process involves a lot more hard graft than with any timber instrument we build but in the end it is well worth the effort. Most guitar copanies who use perspx go the easy route and have a slab-bodied guitar with absolutely no interesting effects created by the light.. that isn't an issue here!
And on to the most important bit, what does she sound like?? I built a timber prototype using the best woods available and set up the same way.. the perspex bass was three times louder through an amp and had an amazing sustain and mid to low response.. I have never heard such a lovely and powerful sound coming out of a passive instrument! Custom wound Wizard pickups helped too of course!
All my best, Ben
Crimson Custom Guitars UK