NGB - Phoenix / Swift Dreadnought Build

Andyjr1515 · September 2019

Hi

I posted a question a few months ago about L.R.Baggs Anthem vs K&K Pure Mini for a dreadnought build I was in the middle of.

In the end, I went for both!

There is a full tortuous build thread in the 'Making and Modding' section here for anyone who might be waiting for a delayed plane or other such reason for whiling away half an hour or so, but other than that, here's the background, the spec and the finished pics.

Background:

The build is for a pro-musician I know. He is doing some self-promo videos and offered to use some of my bass, electric and acoustic builds in them. I'm mainly a hobby builder but good for the ego and, you never know, might result in some spin off custom projects

Two factors led to this build: He was particularly complimentary about my own dreadnought's tone. As he does the demo videos for one of our very well respected commercial companies, praise indeed! Second factor is that he wouldn't accept any contribution for the videos using my instruments.

So the deal is - as a thank you, I have built this to his spec (in terms of neck profile, etc, etc). If this is as good a tone as mine, it's his as a thank you. If he prefers the tone of mine, I'll tweak the neck profile and he can have that one

Why Swift? It's my logo and I tend to call my builds Swift this and than. Why Phoenix? Because I've used a reject neck blank from a past bass build (cut it too short) so at least part of it is sort of risen from the scrap bin.

Spec:

25.5" scale; European spruce top; Black Limba back and sides; Maple / Ebony 5-piece neck; Ebony fretboard; Walnut rosette, headstock plate and tailstock; K&K Pure Mini and LR Baggs Anthem fitted with dual output jacks.

Pics:

And why did I go for the two pickup systems?

Well Matt (the prospective owner) does live work, studio work and band work. He plays allsorts from percussive through to classical and jazz. My conclusion was that the K&K would probably be the most natural but there would be times he needs the power of a piezo and range of an internal mic. So the anthem gives him the latter - fully blendable, and the K&K gives him the other. And the two outputs means he can blend all three through a mixer or amp.

And it sounds great - but I won't spoil it all by trying to play with my arthritic old fingers - I'll post a link of Matt playing it. It'll be a while, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait...he's an exceptionally good player

Thanks for looking

drofluf · September 2019

Very nice!

GTC · September 2019

Very nice indeed. I am a K&K stalwart but was really impressed with the LR Baggs Active Element undersaddle piezo pick-up in my recently acquired Brook Tamar so blendable between the two with the additional mic option seems a good way to go . The overall design and craftsmanship on show look great.

Andyjr1515 · September 2019

drofluf said:

Very nice!

Thanks

Andyjr1515 · September 2019

GTC said:

Very nice indeed. I am a K&K stalwart but was really impressed with the LR Baggs Active Element undersaddle piezo pick-up in my recently acquired Brook Tamar so blendable between the two with the additional mic option seems a good way to go . The overall design and craftsmanship on show look great.

Thanks

I have to say, I am extremely impressed with the K&K. A very natural sound and a surprisingly strong signal for a wholly passive system.

Andyjr1515 · March 2020

Just a post-script to this - I've posted a video clip of this in action in the Making and Modding section, but for those sensibly who don't venture towards the dark side, this is Matt Marriott playing the dreadnought I built for him.

On this particular piece (a lovely Pat Metheny piece), he is using just the K&K Pure Mini plus an external stereo mic. As always, best listen will be through headphones:

https://youtu.be/8SCNbnmBY2Y

Thanks for looking.

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NGB - Phoenix / Swift Dreadnought Build

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