Doing Things Wrong

Kubicki Factor Bass (1/13)

Sort of like a Kubicki, but not really.

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The original Tung-oil finish, kind of blah

Back in the glorious 80s, Kramer tried to cash in on the headless craze with a widely unpopular model called "The Duke":

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Apparently, it started out as an 8-string that went bad. One of the workers sawed off the body wings and headstock, and "The Duke" was born. There was also a guitar version. "The Duke" incorporated all of the worst aspects of a Steinberger, and none of the good, like the super-precise tuning. However, it is an interesting idea that could be done much better.

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Note the real bass tuners, with much less string fan-out than the Kramer, despite the fact that Kramer used much smaller guitar tuners. I scanned four copies of a spare machine from the parts box, and fooled around with them until I got it as tight as possible. The tuner spacing is ~24mm; the bridge is 19mm, so the outer ones are about 8 degrees off-angle. Why Kramer couldn't do this is a mystery to me.

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This bass is a 21" scale, with a piezo saddle mounted in an adjustable bridge. The soundhole is just for looks. The strings are metal-wound Kalas. The fretboard is cut out of the ugliest piece of wood I ever received. For such a small neck, I managed to cut around most of the ugly, and the result isn't half bad.

Printed from luthierylabs.com