6feet7

Finish has just been completed.

I absolutely adore the look of the Talbo, and have looked at converting one to a 5 string - I’m sure Simon at GUS Guitars could fashion something up, though I’m going to see how this one goes first.

Ouch

When it arrives - though it is mostly hollow, so it might be bearable

Here are the next few photos. Almost there

Thanks. I think I've found someone literally 20 minutes from me. I've just messaged them so will hopefully find out next week. Photos to follow.

Ever since selling my Alusonic Django bass I've had severe regrets, and, unfortunately, I just can't afford to get another one, so I've been looking around for a cheaper way of getting something made out of metal. I found Paul Miller of Molindar Ltd in Scotland who makes aluminium bodies for guitars and basses at a very fair price. My second thought was that I didn't wan't a Fender shaped bass (I play a Ricky 4004L and Gibson non-reverse T'bird - both converted to 5 string), so it had to fit in with these. Paul makes a Gretsch Billy Bo Thunderbird shaped guitar body, so I've asked him to make a 5 string bass this shape instead. First things first was to source the parts needed, so I found a 2002 Epiphone (Korea) thunderbird neck, an extra schaller tuner to convert to 5 string (I already had four). A 5 string Ibanez AGB2005 tun-o-matic bridge, a Lace Alumitone pickup, a Kiogan wiring loom and a couple of Gretsch metal knobs. These have all been sent up to Paul so he could fit the body to the neck and pickup. I'm not sure what finish I'm going to go with though. Should I just leave the body rough? Polish it to a shine? Get it chrome plated? Get it chrome plated then acid etched to look rusted up? Any help gratefully received. Photos below and I'll post more when it's finished.

I used to have a Retromatic B2. Stupidly sold it. If anyone hears of one going for sale do let me know

Don’t need new pickups. Even if they were separate pole pieces (which apparently they arnt - thanks JLP) the string spacing is close enough to not make any difference (thankfully).

I've just bought a 'secondhand' one like yours in red. Having it converted to a 5 stringer at the moment (it'll be about 14mm string spacing, but as my Rickenbacker 4004L 5 string conversion is 14.5mm I'm used to that and actually hate anything over 16mm anyway). Also, I had an old Epi T'bird scratch plate in faded white lying around that I'm having cut out for the truss rod cover so that the Thunderbird is on the headstock as well. Photos posted when I've got it back from it's 'conversion'.