12/12/2025
This is the last axe coming out of my CA shop. I won't be accepting orders moving forward because I'm moving out of California to pursue a business opportunity outside the mainland. I am leaving the Alethean Page up as a tribute to many that have supported me by purchasing my hand-built instruments, and to answer questions about these axes when I can.
About this bass: it came to me with the body gouged out in several areas, and completely needing a scrape to wood, body re-shape, and refinish. I suggested to the owner to wrap it in a custom printed vinyl (including the pickups) which was made for me by roaringtrinkets.com. They did a stand up job of taking my strict measurements, and printing out my buddy's (Marc Yap) band logo in Ultra HD. The separate printouts for the pickups were totally spot on, as you can see from the pics.
3m printed vinyl reacts to solvents like Lacquer thinner, so I needed to protect it with a coat of UV curing resin before I laminated it with several coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer. I restored the headstock logo, as the original logo was fading, and missing in some areas. Then gave everything a top coat of 2K matte clear. I installed an Aguilar 3 band EQ preamp to compliment Lace PJ pickups which really improved its versatility and sonic quality. The red strings are a nice visual touch, but required added shielding because they're not as conductive as non coated strings.
