Harmen's Jazz bass project.

My Jazz bass is already well used, I love this instrument, it's the first electric bass that I've owned and played, the experts tell me it plays as well as a genuine Fender!

Mmmm, Seafoam green my favourite colour, brilliant contrast with the faux tortoise shell pick guard. It's odd though that the camera seems unable to capture the true colour, these images read as light blue to my eye. Those of you with an eye for detail will notice my custom thumb support above the E string, on the pick guard. I've developed a playing position dictated by my Taylor AB1 which has an extension horn, thumb rest on the finger board. The thumb rest is made from a piece of  high density, heart teak screwed on with the same type of  screws as those that fasten the pick guard.

The strap is a modified fashion accessory, black and red nylon webbing with my customized extensions of sailors cord. The Tiki on my strap is a plastic one that I have kept since 1971 when my family traveled to Europe. We flew some of the way on an Air New Zealand DC8. This Tiki was in the pack of give aways the airline presented to us children on the flight.

Strings are Martin Darco Electric Bass Guitar Strings, D9700L Light Gauge, Nickel wound.

I can have some fun with the head stock can't I? This one is customized with an old 30's Marconi radio cadet's badge depicting 3 soaring gulls in blue and white enamel on brass.

Harmen's Taylor AB1 fret less bass.

This is the result of my recent upgrade of my Taylor AB1. Frets removed and fret slots filled with wall nut veneer.

Strings are D'Addario Deep / Warm Black, Nylon, ETB92 XL, Tapewound,  Medium Gauge, Long Scale. I love them, they last much longer than phosphor bronze and they are perfectly quiet, no squeak at all, contributing to the beautiful "mmwwaa factor" that I like so much in a fret less bass. My fingers love them too, very easy on my tips and they leave no black residue and, most importantly of all, they're easy on the fingerboard. The sound is beautiful, slightly more mellow than phosphor bronze.

Luthier Steve Klien's Art Deco styling is just right to my eye.

My strap is a modified guitar strap which I lengthened by sewing on some lengths of sailors cord. I hid the stitching with a sterling silver and Paua ( NZ Abalone) shell thistle broach, gifted to me by my great friend Neill Duncan.

I customised my head stock with the addition of a tiny enamel on brass badge depicting a palm tree, very Polynesian.

Clive Franks, sound man extraordinaire pays us a visit in Rawene

 Clive and Di came to visit.

Di and Clive taking a photo opportunity in from of my latest sculpture Sati the elephant.

 To see more of Sati visit my art blog

Clive and I shared our enthusiasm for Fender Jazz Bass and he played and admired my Taylor AB1 fretless bass. Then he spotted my classic drum kit, thanks for the photos Clive.

photo courtesy of Clive Franks

photo courtesy of Clive Franks

The Jews Brothers Band reunite for Neill Duncan

We all came together in Auckland City to meet with Neill Duncan who had come over from Australia to visit a healing specialist. His arm amputated Neill was unable to sit in on Saxophone so he took up a drum stick and played along with the Band.

Nigel Gavin and Neill Duncan a few years ago.

Neill Duncan, Hershal, Harmen Hielkema @ Cafe One2One.

It was the best experience I've had for a very long time. The band went off and the audience came along for the ride!

Neill Duncan, Saxophonist and true friend. My Dear friend Neill Duncan is fighting a personal battle with a dangerous Sarcoma Cancer. This is my online prayer that he win that fight.

My Dear friend Neill Duncan is fighting a personal battle with a dangerous Sarcoma Cancer. This is my on line prayer that he win that fight.

Neill Duncan: photo by Joe Glaysher

Neill Duncan, Barry Widdestrom, Harmen Hielkema @ The Bunker, Auckland 1999.
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Neill Duncan & Nigel Gavin @ The Bunker, Devonport 2000

Neill Duncan @ Rakino's Cafe 1999

Hershal, Harmen Hielkema, Linn Lorkin, Neill Duncan & Peter Scott, Rakino's Cafe 2001

Linn Lorkin, Nigel Gavin & Neill Duncan @ The Bunker, Devonport 2000

Nigel Gavin mandolin and Neill Duncan, saxophone with the Blue Bottom Stompers.

Mark Laurent, Brenda Liddiard and Harmen Hielkema at Rawene

This video was taken By Louis Tourenberg of Hokianga at a recent house concert featuring Brenda Liddiard's original songs. These two songs are originals written by Mark Laurent.

Clip one is called "Someday."
Clip two is called "I just wanna be God."

I love playing along with Mark and Brenda. as always, it's all there for me, gentle, melodic, beautiful, meaningful, warm, heartfelt music.

Mark wrote

"The song's actually called Someday & it's on my CD Undergrowth which came out just before we did that gig. Great to have you there Harmen & thanx Louis for videoing it - I never realised - & thanx Janine & Mike for having us do the concert, it was a lovely night on all sorts of levels."

Harmen's new Jazz bass project completed

My new home built kit, Jazz Bass 

Today I finished assembling my new bass guitar.
I spent some time screening all the cavities in the body prior to fitting the electronics. I chose to use aluminium foil from some pie dishes obtained from our local store. I cut and fitted each piece of foil to shape, and set them in place with double sided tape. The wiring cavities I shielded by rolling foil around the stem of my Philips screw driver to create tubes which linked both the pickup cavities with the control assembly cavity. It was a simple matter to slip these tubes into the predrilled holes and terminate each end by cutting tabs into the protruding ends of each tube and folding these back against the shielding in the cavities.

I found that after assembling and doing a rough set up yesterday that the neck needed to be set back a little  to get the string action into the right range. I downloaded a PDF from the Fender website which turned out to be an absolutely brilliant reference for me during the dry run and final set up.
I fitted a .5mm shim in the lower end of the neck pocket and screwed the neck firmly in place.
I then fed the strings through the saddle and adjusted the intonation of each string with the help of my Boss tuner. They were all a bit flat so I unscrewed the adjusters until I achieved a true octave from open to the twelfth fret.
Next I set up the action, adjusting the string heights at the saddle and measuring the clearance at the 17th fret. After this came the pickup height adjustment, a simple matter of turning the four height adjustment screws..

I then re tuned the guitar and went up to our studio and switched on my beautiful 1961, Jansen 50 Bassman valve amp and plugged in my new guitar.

 My 1961 Jansen 50 Bassman valve amp and quad box.

You can't imagine my delight at what came out! It sounds just like a bought one. My new bass feels amazing, solid and positive to the touch. It really is incredible to me that a group of inanimate objects, assembled in the right way, with some care and attention to detail can produce such a quality instrument. YAY!

I finished the guitar body in Sanding sealer then automotive primer (Grey) followed by several coats of water based enamel each coat was sprayed with a small  De Vilbis  touch up spray gun.
The neck got two coats of sanding sealer, and 4 of semi gloss polyurethane varnish applied by spray gun as well.
The fret board is finished in 3 coats of Danish oil applied by brush and wiped back with a cloth.

My semi rigid, bass guitar carry bag arrived from Lenker Music also by courier.
It's constructed from 600 denier nylon, closes wit a heavy duty zipper. The padding is high density polystyrene with a black velvet liner. It's lightweight and very durable.

I made a guitar strap from an old webbing belt to which I hand stitched some synthetic braided spectra line.

Harmen