new project. put your eye out V440

Nice work, Bro! That will be one sweet bass once it's finished!

I wonder if your budget has been all used up compared to the cost of buying a factory V440?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-Carvin-V440-Bass-USA-Kahler-Trem-/250994699981?pt=Guitar&hash=item3a70732ecd
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carvin-V220-1980s-Kahler-/260956007545?pt=Guitar&hash=item3cc230ac79

amimbari wrote:

I wonder if your budget has been all used up compared to the cost of buying a factory V440?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-Carvin-V440-Bass-USA-Kahler-Trem-/250994699981?pt=Guitar&hash=item3a70732ecd
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carvin-V220-1980s-Kahler-/260956007545?pt=Guitar&hash=item3cc230ac79

dig this .......

i'm right at $450.

mine is in "new" condition. i just built it!

mine has a warmoth neck; and i'de take that over any production neck from the 80's.

mine is swamp ash and not alder. just a smidge more quality ... not to mention trans finish. ive seen the guitars in trans with lam tops, but not the basses.

mine has more modern alnico pickups in it ... but it doesnt have the coil tap and switching (because i didnt want it).

i have the personal satisfaction that this bass is "mine" ... 100%, like, im not just the owner ... my soul is in this bass.

furreal ... both of those v440's arent worth more than $300 - $400. they will draw $500 plus because ... where else are you gonna get one?

plus, its ebay. do you really know what your gonna get shipped to you?

lately, i been taking the money into consideration before i start any project. not so much because i dont wanna take a bath, because i love doing this work, but because others have been asking for work and i want to know cost off the top of my head and give em answer ASAP.

... and oh yeah ... its almost done.

polishing now.

then assembly.

then setup.

then bug the neighbors!

then i'll post some pictures.

ya i know it's ebay and all but since i never look at stuff like that and see 500 i wonder sometimes.

this too ......

a carvin v440, new, from the factory in 1986, was $750. this could fudge the numbers one way or the other. nowadays, new, thaddid be at least $1100.

ultimately it comes down to, its worth whatever someone will pay for it.

and here it is ... i'll get better pictures in the daylight tomorrow .......

{edited pictures 2/23/12}









plays great, sounds great, feels great.

gotta do a set up tomorrow. i also need a truss rod cover so mike doesnt freak out on me and i gotta pick on of the PXR logos to put on it.

whaddayaguysthink?

Very nice man! Hope that when I start building my bass this summer it's gonna look only half so nice as yours and I'll be satisfied!

well mike is getting better at doing what he likes to, so someday maybe ( already a year later ), he will tackle MY projects?

overwrote update with better pictures.

thinking about the next project already ... it requires $$$. where the $$$ comes from usually determines who's project it is. i gotta bunch of quotes out for custom builds and kahler installs ... but no body seems to get back to me with a deposit.

i'm ready is all i'm sayin mike.

and that red line on the border ... like binding ... i know how to do it now .... seamless.

haha j/k I know it's partially my fault for procrastinating anyway just as much constantly changing my mind about "what shape", until the TAK came around.
next month I'll be all set with spare cash from 3 shows so March2012 will be the beginning of the takamine-copy project.

ALSO, the chinese Kahler-X is out for under 80 bucks. I wonder if it would never give me a hassle and I should buy one?
all the guy from Wammiworld says on the site is USA-USA-USA but does NOT say anything else....

i couldnt find the trem X (for bass) anywhere. got a link? i'de like to look at one.

i just had that nightmare with the ebay guy ... i see whammi world is selling blems. the guy on ebay is getting these blems and charging $10 more. (LIAR!) i'm glad i called him on it and bought a sub trem for $100 ... i got my money + back even tho both trems only had 2 springs in em.

i'm just going to wammi world for now on.

oh ... and whenever your ready mike.

WOW!

i did see this and told someone here to stay away ... if only because of the ebay element. i didnt see that it was coming from china.

x-trem ... looks like the 2410. i would bet a ham sandwich that it isnt even something that was produced by kahler. i would bet a bag of chips too that it aint even close to 2410 quality. or a 7410.

the only thing that looks different is the stationary 2410 oldschool style cams.

if someone was willing to take a chance and not spend as much to try one out they could go for it ... but i wouldnt. again ... wammi world has blems.

actually i would do it BECAUSE of the ebay element. if it never arrived i would do the paypal thing for my money back, if it was pure-junk then i lost 100 bucks.

those mings preamps took 30 or so days to arrive here so i would have to be a very patient man to wait that long for a possible piece of junk...

but you never know. if the seller had a black one I would have already bought one.

oh wow that was NOT the AD I wanted you to see...it was THIS ONE:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260959193435&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3AWNA%3AMOTORS%3A1123

Kahler Bass X-Trem, eh? Here is what the main Kahler site says about the X-Trem. It is a legit line, but read on carefully:

The Kahler 4200 X-TREM - As seen on ESP and B.C. Rich Guitars, Kahler USA is proud to unveil the all new Kahler X-TREM bridge system. Sharing all of the features and benefits of the Kahler Hybrid line, the Kahler X-TREM is sold exclusively to guitar manufacture's throughout the world and is not available for distribution or retail.

All X-TREM series models include onboard fine tuners and 6 way adjustable saddles: side to side for perfect string spacing; front to back for accurate intonation and up or down for ultimate action and radius matching. Plus, they are all available in either chrome, black chrome or black nickel.

Check out your favorite guitar today and take it for a spin with the new Kahler. X-TREM at your nearest retailer.

Notice that they say "the Kahler X-TREM is sold exclusively to guitar manufacturers throughout the world and is not available for distribution or retail", which tells me that these sellers in China are either taking stock meant for guitar makers and selling them separately, OR, someone in China is boot-legging Kahlers. I suspect the latter is true because of one other interesting point. The main Kahler site says NOTHING about a bass X-Trem. There are only two models mentioned, which are the 4200 Series for Les Paul's, and the 4300 which is like a standard guitar Kahler. No mention of a bass version anywhere I can see.

Thoughts?

I also notteds this Eric. Look at this interesting fact; When I go to the bridge specification page on wammiworld:

Kahler bridge specifications
The X-trem series start according to the followeing page:

Professional vs hybrid vs x-trem
With the number 4xxx,

Which tells me when I combine these two pages a verry weird thing; There only exist a 6 and a 5 string x-trem for bass. This seems unlogical to me and I quess it can't be true.
Now the best thing I can say about x-trems is. There is very little information. This is for a reason, they are not meant for "the people" but only for manufacterers. And I read you can't adjust string spacing on them, so they aren't that usefull to us anyway.

oh you guys are reverse engineering this too far.
they probably reused all the existing parts, and either stamped the xtrem in the metal, or used a 6strings baseplate and just tossed a 4string cam in it.

you HAVE to know that this bass xtrem is probably one of the countless Chinese copies.
when I get my check at the end of the month, I'm gonna buy one. I will either have a nice CHEAPER alternative to add to my lefty bass build to tell everyone about, or I lost 100 bucks and I'll throw it in the trash and have Mike toss a regular bridge on it.

so .........

i'm calling hijinx on the thread hijack. i posted this thread to share with all you guys the work i've done to make this awesome bass ..........

and all you guys can talk about is some not readily available, probably a copy, POS trem from china.

now ... i hijack threads too ... but i worked on building this bass for 2 months ... not to mention all the hours i logged doing research on how to do such a thing, all the money i spent on tooling and finishing, and all the time / money / frustration i spent on practice and the learning curve.

appreciate that.

ok no more posts on chinese trems.
we will make a new thread.
and your ironbird for sale in the CL the original owner saw it and wondered if it was his - showed him one of your pics so that was that.

did you tell him how much of a complete POS it was when he sold it to me and all the stuff i needed to do to the neck to get it to play right?



furreal ... that bass came out real nice.

I started a chinese kahler thread now

and ya he knows what you did to it I told him enough as it was being built.

the neck / fb / frets in the logo below is it. the strings didnt sit where they are in the picture before i took it all apart and fixed it.

pretty picture in any case

SORRY MIKE he saw it in the GuitarCenter used inventory not CL....

Is this what mike did with the bass?
Guitar Center Plymouth Meeting $200
Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania 19462
610-832-0800
IRONBIRD BASS BLUE W/CARVIN PICKUP AND KAHLER BRIDGE

Sorry for the hijack, MadMike. Back on topic!

Just to clarify, is that Ironbord yours, MadMike?

yeah, thats it.

$200? Thats a steal! I was selling it for more. Ide need to chek the receipt ... I think they gave me more.

Relatively speaking, they traded me for something that was retail price ... what did they pay for that epi g400?

Eric ... Im gonna go see if they have the ltd posted..........

wow that looks sick!

madmike wrote:

Eric ... Im gonna go see if they have the ltd posted..........

Cool, Bro. At this point, I'd be curious to hear what they are listing it for.

I was talking to Andy last night about designs for my new basses, and we might mimic the Attitude design for one of them.

So, in reading through this thread, unless I overlooked something, I don't think I've seen what your final plans for this latest project, MadMike? Will this one be a keeper? Or will you try and move it?

Wow mike the bass turned out amazing. Great job.

naw eric, this bass in mine. 2 reasons

... i've always wanted a carvin v440 and now i got one. the ones i've seen on ebay are way too expensive and way too beat up so, i figured this was the best way to get one. there are other basses i feel this way about that i will mimic someday.

... the wife bought the wood for me for christmas ... so technically, she bought me this bass. i would never sell a bass that she bought me as a gift. that makes 2 ... the washburn tarus and this one.

thanks BD.

thought i'de play it a little .......

Wow, sounds great, nice playing. Its a good looking bass. Nice job.

TOTAL agreement with Barkless!

And it's about bloody time we had some MadMike video! Bravo!

That axe is comming out SWEET!!!

glad i did 4 takes ... i deleted 3 of them because i put my head down ... there was solar glare bouncing off my tonsure.

i hate MPB.

Duhhh its done...... , (just watched video) sound hot too!

The bass looks cool on you as well. Sometimes a bass can look cool alone, but look silly or out of place when you play it. Not this one.

haha an "oh my" video