Garth wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2024 1:53 pm
Please play them w/ a bow and send me samples. Or bring em w/ you for your next Kzoo trip & I'll do it while you rehearse

Oh you have to know that I bought a new bow and rosin just for the occasion!

8 brand new (or rather NOS) Penny+Giles 10K faders as used in Studer consoles. 120 bucks..... well if nobody's interested, I'll take them!

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:49 am I get that perspective is everything, but that looks like it's 4 feet long. Please tell me it's 4 feet long.

Actual retail size is 48.5 inches - You sir are the highest bid without going over! You have won a ridiculous mic!
This is going to sound like dogshit on everything and I couldn't be more excited. This is hopefully the new MC mic for every PRF event forever.

That bass is your Duke, right? God, looking at that thing brings back memories of the first instrument I ever bought. I was probably 12 or 13 and got it at a local music store on layaway for maybe a hundred bucks or something. It looked just like that; same exact shape, same bridge, knob placement, tuners, retainer thing at the end of the headstock. Similar color, mine was a dark blue that was slightly metallic(?) with a red pinstripe sort of like binding around the top of the body about a quarter in in from the edge. The weirdest thing about it though was that it had no visible pickup. That didn't occur to me at all when I was a kid, but once shortly before I sold it (when I was 18 or so) I took the bridge off and was very confused by a long piezo that was mounted under the bridge. I was like "ohh...there's the pickup". That explains why it sounded so weird. I've tried to look that instrument up many times over the years and I've never found anything else like it. I guess it was either a special order or a really well done mod, because the top was perfectly flat. I'm seeing some Dukes with a neck plate on the back, is it a bolt on or is it all one piece? Pretty sure mine was all one piece, I remember thinking the smooth transition from neck to body was cool.

I like that "Kramer 'The Duke' for scale" has become the new "banana for scale"

Nate Dort wrote: I like that "Kramer 'The Duke' for scale" has become the new "banana for scale"

Now that you mention it, I realize I have more The Dukes in the house right now than bananas.

Regarding the build, The Duke is a bolt-on & this one's the 2nd of two I have because I am a hoarder. It's currently my fuck-around-during-meetings or wait-for-bar-to-fill-on-the-screen bass.

These necks and some others Kramer did starting in the mid/late 70s are a weird aluminum/wood sandwich. The aluminum component is a long T-shape and then the curve radius is filled in w/ wood. Being aluminum, they don't have truss rods obv, but not being solid aluminum, they are prone to a bit of curvature, although this happens more with those weirdo 8-string basses they made due to the increased tension that 2x as many strings has.

The other weird quirk since no one asked that these have is an ebonol fretboard which is basically like bowling ball material and I'm surprised it isn't used more often.

The Thin Blue Duke in the photo plays a little better than the black one (probably because it was owned by our resident guitar tech FM CJury) but I added a P-pickup to the black one so has a better pick sound.

You've got me intrigued on what a piezo would sound like on a bass though, but since I'm mostly a pick guy it probably would be too clicky for my taste. Still Piezo's are cheap, probably going to have to look into that as an experiment.

Garth wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2024 10:16 am although this happens more with those weirdo 8-string basses they made due to the increased tension that 2x as many strings has.

Mine was totally fine and I kick myself all the time for selling it.

I had 4 different Kramer aluminum neck guitars over the years, but never a bass. A couple 450Gs, DMZ 2000 and DMZ 3000 and I didn't mind the ebonol fretboard at all. They had a nice wide fingerboard too which was comfortable. I did mind the shitty neck mounting design with those two machine bolts, one above the other, threading into the neck. At least one of the receiver threads was stripped in the neck on all of those guitars but one. I sold the good one to a friend and got rid of the rest over time. They were cool and sounded good, but they were very heavy and I did have issues with the wood strip inserts protruding from the neck in different weather. They were fun guitars, though. If I could still get em for 3-5 hundred dollars I might fuck with one again, but I just don't see them as $1k and up instruments.

Yeah a weird side-effect too that I notice more on The Thin Blue Duke than the black one is that the clear coat doesn't adhere to the aluminum in the long term so it's got a lot of chipping on the back and I'm always preoccupied with getting poked. I am not sure how to deal with it. I'm thinking just having the neck go black or maybe sanding and respraying the whole thing as the clear coat is coming off by the pots also which is a shame because it's a real purty blue stain which is coming off in that outer shell.

Did those vaccaro x-rays solve any of the issues with the kramers? I always thought they looked way cooler than the kramers and 4 bolt necks > 2 bolt necks maybe?