Here’a a YouTube video of me carving a neck for a customer. I’m building a replacement/fretless conversion for an Ibanez SR bass, and I video’d the process over the course of a few days. Usually, a carve takes me 2-3 hours, but this one took more like 4-5. Haha – operating a camera while carving a neck is for the birds!
Funktronic does all kinds of custom neck builds. Contact us for any questions you may have about building custom necks.
I made a little iPhone video of me using Bruce Johnson’s fretboard radius fixture to cut a fretboard radius.
The re-vamped Uno draws from its original retro design and modern playability, and is newly spec’d with a wide-aperture ceramic humbucker based on the venerable T-40 pickup. Combined with an onboard 2-band preamp, the bass sounds fat, funky, and has plenty of clank. Says Southern California luthier, Jeremy Kirsch, “If you ever wondered what a T-40 would sound like if it was a semi-hollow MusicMan, this is it.”
Keeping focus on North-American hardwoods, the 3-piece laminate neck and extensively chambered body of the Uno are made of cherry. “I don’t know why more instruments are not made from cherry,” Kirsch states, “Cherry is adequately stiff for a neck, and it’s beautiful enough on it’s own to make a great-looking body.” Adding a little more flair, the body is bound with an American holly stripe.
Just for fun, the neck joined to the body with an oversized 5/8” stainless steel bolt driven into a large aluminum block embedded in the heel and makes an extremely strong joint. As with most Sirena Instruments, the bridge and much of the hardware is custom made in-house, and comes spec’d with Hipshot Ultralight tuners.
The 2023 Uno weighs in at a svelte 6.8 lbs. and is finished in a color shifting dark purple / deep black affectionately known as “Atomic Aubergine.”
For more info, check out the Uno page, and check the pricing page for current pricing.
Scale: 34”
Construction: Bolt-on
Body: Chambered Cherry
Neck: Laminated 3-piece Cherry
Fretboard: Dark Roasted Maple
Frets: 20
Pickup: Funktronic Faux-40 Humbucker
Preamp: 9v / 2-band
Tuners: Hipshot Ultralight
Bridge: Custom Made in-house
Sirena Pistolera #004 in Wild Watermelon just rolled off the production line. This one is getting shipped out to a customer New Hampshire. Yay!
Sirena Pistolera #003 in Wild Watermelon just rolled off the production line. This one is getting shipped out to a customer Florida. Yay!
I’m pleased to announce the 2023 update of the Sirena Pistolera. This is my production prototype, serial #002 in Wild Watermelon.
The Sirena Pistolera is loaded with three AlNiCo 5 split-coil humbuckers and includes a selection of hand fabricated 6061 aluminum hardware. Constructed with a chambered poplar body and walnut neck, this bass is light, weighing in at 6.5 lbs. Each of these basses is made to order by me in my shop in Fillmore, CA.
This is probably the best playing bass I’ve ever made. I’ve gotten really good at making necks, so I’m going to go with this bass being a reflection of that. Additionally, I think I achieved what I set out to accomplish with this pickup configuration. I would’ve used the word, “aggressive,” but the li’l Lady corrected me with the word, “confident.” Confident is more fitting for a Pistolera.
For more info, check out the Pistolera page, and check the pricing page for current pricing.
