Sirius
I’ll be honest with you: I’m not really quite sure about this particular model.
I was trying out some new timber and also wanted to play around with body shapes. “Sirius” takes some cues from Merlin but is definitely also influenced by the Manta (symmetrical bottom half of the body) and the Warwick Thumb (rather short lower horn). So there’s that.
Much more importantly I see the Sirius as a massively important basis for the Shorty.
So what does it actually look like? Let’s check out the two I’ve built so far.
Sirius prototype
Probably one of the worst rasta bursts you’ll ever see. Still, the prototype is my main fretless - it simply sounds quite amazing.
This was my first attempt using accoya (acetylated pine) as a body timber, and as such a lot on this bass is “seconds”: timber offcuts, second-hand EMG pickups, rather clumsy neck-body transition since I wasn’t sure about the inherent strength - shouldn’t have worried.
35”, 24 fret equivalent ebony board on a 3-piece neck (maple and walnut) with a maple heel block. 2-piece accoya body with an English oak top, all garishly stained with aniline dyes.
Below is an example of me playing this bass in the Doubleshot of Blues trio:
Yummy Mango
The first and so far only “production” Sirius with a few twists.
Not unusual to see a walnut body but this one is “topped” with an understated yet beautiful bookmatched mango layer. The 35” 5-piece neck (maple and wenge) features a “composite” fretboard: a wenge base with a koa top. 24 mando frets give 2 whole octaves per string, and the zero fret makes sure open strings sound as similar to fretted ones as possible.
The customary Hipshot UltraLite HB6 Y short key tuners ensure never-wavering tuning, and are complemented by an ETS Tuning Fork bridge.
A pair of matched Delano SBC 5 HE/S pickups are in the scale-adjusted Thumb positions. Each can be switched series/single coil/parallel, and a 3-way mini switch gives the option to select neck/both/bridge. Active tone-shaping is possible with the versatile Nordstrand 3b-3 preamp.
