Bass Naberius: The Devil’s Workshop

Look, I made another thing! Down in the obsessive charred ember I call a heart, I needed a five string bass. I really wanted a bass that spoke “Metal” to me and, in my head, that was to be a subtly demonic five string bass with active pickups that didn’t look like a Fender. I wanted one that was  personalizes to make it my own, so I decided to build one.

Before I even started to put together the Jazzy Wood Bass that I posted about last month, I had this one almost completely finished. As a whole this five string went together much more easily than that jazz bass. It was a complete kit that was meant to fit together, but there were a few hardware issues that prevented me from completely finishing it for a bit.

Since going back to work after my quarantine, I didn’t have as much time to work on this which added to the time it took. Now that it’s done, I’m pretty happy with it.

This started as a kit from Pitbull Guitars from Australia. I was psyched that the kit came with an ash body but I was hoping that the body had a little better grain pattern. The six string version looks like it comes with a lovely spalted maple top on a basswood body, but I wasn’t ready for a six string yet.

I was originally going to do something that popped the grain a bit, but the grain on this body wasn’t really pretty enough to exploit, so I had to think of something else.

I wanted this bass to look like it was dug up in the ashes of a burned out church. I was trying to get a worn, almost charred look to it, with engraved demonic sigils. I initially tried a water based, black stain since I was working indoors and didn’t want my home bar/work area to smell like spray enamel. Tragically, all that did was raise the grain back up and I needed to re-sand the whole body back down. As it was, I waited until it was a warm day, just opened up a window, and sprayed it. I then sanded it a little too much between coats to add than worn look to it. It is deliberately imperfect but I did resist the urge to light it on fire and burn an actual char into the whole outer edge of the body. If only I had a yard and no fear of burning buildings down.

I did end up physically carving the Naberius sigil and name directly into the wood instead of trying to get my transfer decals to work. They’re supposed to work with injet printers but no matter how much fixative I coated them with, the ink ran when added to water. The designs were red anyway and since I couldn’t bring out a nice red woodgrain on the black bass I figured a manual carve was the more primal looking thing to do. 

For those interested, Naberius is a demon who appears as a Raven or a three headed dog (often associated with Cerberus). He’s listed by demonologist Johann Weyer as “most valiant Marquess of Hell” who makes men cunning in the arts and restores lost dignities and honors.

After the really bad finish was dried, it was ready to put together. While this kit came with all of the hardware and electronics I would have needed to build it, I wanted to take it up a notch so I went ahead and picked up some upgraded parts.

For the pickups I went with EMG again since I like their sound and ease of installation. I really wanted a set of signature pickups from Slayer’s Tom Araya, just so I could say I have Slayer pickups in my bass, but they only sold a 3.5 inch set for four string basses. I could have just ordered 4 inch versions of each style of pickup but I went with the Dave Ellefson set instead. While I’m not a huge fan of Megadeath, Dave Mustain in particular, you can’t deny the prowess of Dave Ellefson as a bass player. After reading up on the types of pickups used in each signature set, I feel like the Ellefson set was closer to the sound I wanted anyway. That said, I may still build a Slayer Bass in the furure. 

The biggest issue I had using the EMGs was that this bass kit had the body drilled for a long barrel jack instead of the standard stereo jack that came in the EMG kit. The EMG Quick Connect system didn’t quite fit correctly on the barrel jack posts that came with the bass kit, but I was able to get it to work without soldering. Unfortunately, the cord I was using didn’t seem to seat well in that barrel jack. It kept working its way out just far enough to lose connection. I’m really glad I didn’t take the time to cut the ends of the wiring harness to solder it all together just yet. I rigged the EMG jack temporarily into the back plate but ended up ordering a new, better barrel jack because having the jack on the back of the bass was just pissing me off. I’d install that later.

I broke away from Hipshot for the bridge like I used on my previous basses mainly because the one I ordered from Better Bass Gear was lost in limbo with no updates from them for over a month. I ended up just cancelling that order and found this really nice Schaller one elsewhere. I must say that I really, really like this bridge, maybe even better than the Hipshot. I really like the way the string spacing is adjusted with the rollers over the Hipshot’s loose brass fittings. It’s solid and sharp looking.

I did go Hipshot again with the tuners, though it was probably an unnecessary expense. With the Sabbath Bass and the Jazz Bass I used the Xtenders that dropped the E string to a D for an immediate drop D tuning and I wanted the remaining tuners to match. I didn’t get so elaborate with this bass since it was a 5 string with a low B on the bottom end that I didn’t feel a need to put an Xtender. The way I look at it with the tuners, and the bridge for that matter, I have these nice, high end parts that I can install on a better instrument in the future should I feel the need to upgrade it. I can always just stick the stock gear on this and call it a day.

I blacked out the manufactured rosewood fingerboard with India ink like I did on the Sabbath Bass. There were spots of imperfection in the neck towards the headstock that I’m assuming were sections of wood filler since they didn’t take the ink at all. I went back and hit them with a black permanent lab marker that I’ve yet to find a surface it didn’t write on. I had a couple of choices for imitation inlays though I wasn’t sure which would work best on a bass named after a well-spoken demonic bird/dog. I went with the Roman numerals which seemed to look the best on the wide neck. They look fine from a distance but I was hoping they were true black instead of black with an opal-like blue.

With all of the hardware in place I went to attach the neck to the body. I arrogantly thought that my screwdriver skills were adequate enough but I unknowingly ended up with a significant gap between the heel of the neck and the body. When I strung it up the first time, it was nearly impossible to lift the string action high enough to clear the frets. I did it, but the bridge was maxxed out and I almost lost some of the lifting screws. After closer inspection I found the gap, took it apart, c-clamped it tightly and THEN I screwed it all back together. Unsurprisingly, this worked a lot better and I was able to set the bridge to a reasonable height. The intonation is almost just right but the B string didn’t fit well in the nut, so I had to widen that a bit. I’ll probably also lower the nut a bit at some point, it’s pretty high.

All together it sounded good, but I still hated that jack in the back. When the replacement barrel came, I took out the EMG jack that was installed in the back plate and the barrel jack that came in the bass kit and decided to properly install the new jack with solder and heatshrink. It all sounds way better now. The jack stays in, is consistent, and is where it’s supposed to be. The last thing I’ll have to figure out is what to do with the old hole I drilled in the back panel for the EMG jack and how to best mount the battery in the cavity provided. I have a little clip that I ordered but it’s hard to find a permanent place for it. For now, there isn’t much play in there so it doesn’t really move around, I just don’t like the idea of a loose battery flopping around in there.