Venue: Bull’s Head, Barnes, London SW13 9PY
Tel: 020 8876 5241

Overwater is planning a trip to London!

Time to catch-up with old friends, meet new ones, chat about basses, make some noise and generally have a good time! It’s the only bass event happening in London this winter as far as we know. We’d love to see any players who can make it – and if you’re an Overwater player, why not bring your Overwater Bass along to “show & tell”! And, as if that’s not enough to get your strings buzzing, at 7.30 pm Phil Mulford and Scott Devine are presenting the Overwater Showcase gig, introducing a few friends for an evening of bass fuelled music… See you there!

12.30pm – 5pm Overwater Bass Day (admission free)

Come and spend your Sunday afternoon doing what we know you love to do most – playing and talking bass!As the UK’s leading and most established electric bass makers we invite bass players to spend Sunday afternoon playing and talking bass – and checking out a selection of our and each other’s basses and Acoustic Image amplification in company with Chris May, the Overwater team and a host of the UK’s top professional players…

7.30pm – 10.00pm Overwater Showcase (admission £5)

Phil Mulford and Scot Devine introduce an evening of music with friends of Overwater , bring you a lively and varied bass sounds!

www.scottsbasslessons.com/
www.philmulford.co.uk/
www.thebullshead.com/

For more information Contact Us

The Inspiration Series is the first of a new range of mid priced basses we are introducing into the Overwater family and are designed to fit in between the more ‘entry level ‘Tanglewaters’ and the full custom shop basses – and while retaining all the aspects of construction quality, materials and playability of the full bespoke instruments – we are batch building to standard spec’s, with a limited number of options such as finish and scratch plates and are available in order to keep the costs down – available at the moment in 4 and 5 string formats with a choice of rosewood and maple fingerboards and 34″ and 35″ scale lengths respectively.

Check our website http://overwaterbass…es/inspiration/ for specifications and please do get in touch if you have any questions or want to know where to try them. Also follow us on http://www.facebook.com/overwaterbass for further updadates.

Following the hugely successful launch of the ‘Aspiration Series’ basses, built and distributed in partnership with Tanglewood Guitars and available in over fifty dealers throughout the UK; we are now working on a range of ‘Special Edition’ Aspiration Series and ‘Classic Edition’ J Series basses, that will fit neatly between Overwater by Tanglewood and our other Custom Series handmade basses.

We are currently developing prototypes and finishes for these instruments which will be entirely assembled and set-up in our Carlisle workshop.

This week we have completed the prototypes starting with the 4 and 5 body jigs.

Then the bodies were cut out including cavities and body contours, followed by the necks using a rosewood fingerboard for the 34″ 4 string and a maple fingerboard for the 35″ 5 string.

Once the fingerboards were glued on, cambered and fretted the neck cavities could be machined and the necks fitted to the bodies.

Finally the necks were shaped and all the holes drilled.

A limited number of Special Edition basses will be available for sale as they are finished over the next few weeks – check the shop section on our new web site for current stock. The full range will be available in the Autumn both ‘off the peg’ and custom built to order. We’ll publish a full listing of custom options and begin taking forward orders later next month.

Pete Smith Visits The Workshop

Long term friend and Overwater player Pete Smith called in to see us this week with his 5 sting J Series for a service, this is one of many Overwaters in his incredible collection of basses.

Pete’s J Series has a Quilted maple top and a swamp ash body, the neck is figured maple and an ebony fingerboard with paua block inlays.

J Series Build Finished

This week we have completed a 4 string J Series build in Tobacco Sunburst, the bass has a figured maple top and swamp ash body. The neck is highly figured Birdseye Maple with an Ebony fingerboard and Mother of Pearl block inlays.

The pickups are Overwater silent J pickups and the circuit is a John East Marcus Retro 01, the hardware includes a  Hipshot style B bridge and Hipshot Ultra Light Tuners.

click here to see previous pictures of this bass in construction.

Thank you for reading, check back next week to see a 6 Sting Progress bulid and much more………….

Our very own Laurence Blackadder brought his two J Series basses into the workshop for a service this week. His first call bass is fiesta red with an Alder body and Birdseye maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard inlayed with white pearl blocks. This bass has Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups and a John East buffered preamp which we have found to be a great combination.

The second of Laurence’s basses in 3 tone sunburst is a fantastic contrast to the first, again with an Alder body and a highly figured maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and clay dots. This bass is passive with a Vitamin Q paper and oil capacitor, The pickups are custom, over wound to add more mid range.

Both basses sound very different covering a wide and versatile range of tone, the sunburst j series is stung with flat wound strings and and has an amazing bottom end that is very clear and present, this is Laurence’s preferred bass for recording.

Showroom News

Our showroom is always open to visitors Monday to Saturday and you can try our Progress, Perception, J Series and Special Edition Aspiration basses as well as Strings and Acoustic Image Amplification.

Check what we have in stock on our web sites new shop page or if you have something in mind that you would like to see or try please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Workshop news

Scott Devine’s latest bass a 33″ scale length, 4 string J Series with 17mm string spacing is now sprayed and ready for assembly, Check out www.scottsbasslessons.com for more great lessons and check back next time to see the finished bass.

This week we have also finished the wood work on this custom order rear routed, 5 string  J series  for Andy Whitnell from Kent, the bass is now ready be finished in a high gloss white with a matching headstock.

Thank you for visiting our web site. Also if you haven’t already signed up to our emails and would like to receive details of latest stock and special offers please CLICK HERE

Stu has been working on a new shop page for the web site which will cover a range of Overwater products including:

• Strings
• Custom Overwater basses
• Special Edition aspiration stock
• Acoustic Image Amplifiers

Paypal will be a available, for more information on stock e-mail laurence@overwaterbasses.com or call us on 01221 590 591.

Special Edition Aspiration Basses

The first of these basses are now available, check back for full specs and prices when the shop page is live or in the meantime get in touch for more information. We have also added a scratchplate as a custom option to the Special Editions.

1983 Original series

Lenny Hodge of Rosyth, called in to the workshop today and brought his 1983 Original Series fretless for a service and electronic overhaul.

Phil, has been playing Overwater basses almost exclusively since the mid 1980’s, when he commissioned a pair of fretted and fretless 6 string Progress’s when he took over the bass chair from Dill Katz (another one time Overwater player) in Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia…

Since then Phil has become one of the busiest and most respected freelance players in the UK, working with artists as diverse as Lionel Richie and Evelyn Glennie, as well as becoming one of the small handful of regular bass players booked to play on major TV shows such as X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.

While at the workshop, Phil took the opportunity to check out some of the basses just completed and to compare his favourite Overwater J 5 with a recent model equipped with out new ‘Silent Single’ 5 string J pickups – to which he gave the definite thumbs up!

Scott Devine, long term friend of Overwater has ordered a new bass from us this week for some up and coming videos. If you haven’t already, check out his videos and tutorials at www.scottsbasslessons.com covering a useful and wide range of educational material.

Scott has ordered a 4 string J Series bass with 17mm string spacing and 33″ scale length and this week i have been working on a smaller and lighter body shape.

J Series Build

Along side working on the design for Scott’s bass i have been working on a 4 string J series with Flamed Maple top, Swamp Ash body and Birds eye Maple neck with a Ebony Fingerboard. Starting with splitting and thicknessing the top down to 3mm to allow the Maple to be glued and bent over the contour.

Once i had glued the other side of the matched top to the treble side of the Swamp Ash body i the glued the two halves together to create a body blank

Followed by machining the blank to the correct thickness ready for cutting out the body, routing all the cavities and finishing the body contours by hand.

At this stage i had also made a neck blank…….. next week i will glue on the fingerboard ready for Haydn to fit the block inlays.

Jon Ladhams, the winner of the 30th anniversary prize draw has been to pick up his bass.

Both Jon and ourselves are very pleased with the outcome, jon opted for a Perception with a Wenge through neck and figured Poplar top with matching pickup covers.  The bass has a 34″ scale length and tuned E – C with the Overwater 30th anniversary mermaid inlaid into the Birdseye Maple finger board.

6 String Fretless Progress

The 6 string Progress i finished the wood work on last week is now sanded and after filling in the holes on the burl chestnut top the bass is now in the final stages of finishing.

Special Edition Aspiration Basses

Chris has assembled the first in this batch of four Special Edition Aspiration, watch this space for full photos, specs and price list or get in touch.

Coming soon, Jazz Bass build diary and Haydn has been working on a new refined shape for Overwaters flagship Progress Bass………

First Special Edition Aspiration

Chris has started to put together the first Special Edition Aspiration basses, number one of four in this batch is a 4 string in Red Candy Burst. Once they are all together watch this space for photos and full specs or please contact us before if you wish to know more.

Fretless 6 String Progress

I have been working on a Fretless 6 string progress for Angus Stirrat and hopefully this will be ready for him when he is back down our way to play the Wickerman festival at the end of the month.

Angus has selected a Spanish Chestnut top, felled 20 years ago near Brampton not far away from here. First i have split the top and prepared the walnut wings for gluing together.

I made a 5 piece neck using Maple and Walnut, before i attached the wings of the body i glued on and cambered the finger board, shaped the back of the neck, inserted side dots and set the neck angle.

I then cut out the body and radiused the edges before machining the pickup, battery and control  cavities.

Finally I have carved the body contours added the nut and drilled all the holes, the bass in now ready for sanding and finishing.

Hope this was of some interest to you all, I have kept this build diary quite brief but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

Stop by next week for an update on the Special Edition Aspirations……..