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And Nobby Holder on the other side.

Actually, my own photos are still OK on the thread - luckily I was already using imgur. The formatting etc is all over the place but - it being 27 pages long (!!!!), I suspect the photos are the only things most sensible readers might be interested in. There is only so much Andyjr1515 rambling most sane people can cope with. Certainly, that's a view expressed often by MrsAndyjr1515

I set the last inlays in the other headstock today, looks good I think Well that will be it now for a couple of weeks, we're off on holiday to the distant land of England. When I'm back it will be bind the headstock, cut the trussrod access slot and drill it's hole, Finish the neck tenon, fret the fingerboad fit the side dots and stick it on before carving the neck.

Having been an Ampeg fan for a LONG time, my days of lugging the full size kit have been drawing to a close. I picked up one of the Aguilar cabs at PMT and I'm blown away with how great it sounds. I road tested it with my 3 piece rock 'n' roll band last night and the drummer was asking if I had changed the basslines. "No, you can just hear it now!" I replied.

This is far too cool. I love it!

"Real bargain for the festival season". Great for banging in tent pegs...

Some of you may have followed the diary in the build forum, but for those of you who don't frequent those parts, here's my new ACG Krell E-Type 6: These are Alan's photos, but it arrived yesterday. Spec: Alder body Indian Cedar top 33" scale 24 frets Ash neck Macassar Ebony fingerboard (with a very slight radius) ACG RFB dual coils East Uni-Pre 4K I believe it's also one of the first with Alan's new headpiece, which really tidies up the string ends on headless basses! I've already recorded the theme for the new Basschat Podcast with it, loving the sound, so make sure you download that and have a listen when it's available in the next few days. Si

I use the ACS pro 17s and agree that I'm probably missing out on a hell of a lot when I do. Ear damage to start with. Ears ringing for days after a gig or rehearsal. The lead guitarist bawling out the rhythm guitarist. The singer bickering with the drummer. All just washes over me with the plugs in. Actually, I'm thinking of wearing them all the time.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was next to Shakin Stevens in the Gents...?

It's probably only experience that's missing, I'd suggest. Give it a bit of time, have a bit of patience and the gigs will sort themselves out as you become accustomed to the new sensation. Whilst you're waiting (it won't take long...), just reassure yourself that you'll be hearing the gigs (and more...) better, and for far longer, than if you were unprotected. Well done for taking the step; wear 'em systematically and you'll soon be fine. Just my tuppence-worth.

@ped Si

Thank you. Corrected and apology given. That's 2 spelling mistakes I've been reprimanded for in this post and that's before the chidings I expected for my depicted misconduct. But it's good to see that BC is doing its bit to maintain high standards, (oh no, I started this sentence with a conjunction).

By the way, I've just remembered where the Aluminium DB GAS started - the London Bass Guitar Show 2016. The ones below were not for sale - just there as exhibits. I think they belong to the previous publisher of Bass Guitar Magazine.

Thanks for all the positive comments - I hope it carries on going well!! I've done the neck shaping this evening - good old Shinzo rasp!! The neck is obviously a completely different shape to a normal neck being headless, short and single cut and I have tried this before so I was expecting a few issues but it all went smoothly. I had to make a couple of rough jigs to route along the join with the body with a round bit. I did this as I wanted the join from the back of the neck to the body to be nicely rounded (this might make sense when looking at the picture of the neck on it's own).I modified the round cutter like a template cutter by fitting a guiding bearing on the shaft. It only needed a channel a couple of mm deep so I cut that first then changed to a normal template cutter, made another jig then removed a couple of mm from the back of the neck leaving me a level surface to start cutting from. After a bit of rasping and sanding I ended up with this (note the threaded inserts for bolting the neck on with allen headed bolts): And fitted to the body this is how it now looks (note the previous scars on the bench work top where I cut a bit too deep with a router in the past...) Next job is lots of sanding of the body.....

This is now being shown on BBC2 at 9pm on Saturday 30th June.

One of those situations where I'd been lusting after one of these for so long clearly I wasn't going to be happy until i'd bagged one - and here it is! Its beautiful to play - even though it's 30" it doesn't feel at all cramped compared to my regulr 34" precision - it has the same sort of proportions, and same very Fendery sound. It's a 2013 Made in Japan model, with a slab body, 7.25 radius and smallish frets - kind of slightly bigger than vintage. Really lightweight at 3.5kg and pretty well balanced too. The condition is immaculate - the guy i bought it from was retiring from playing and selling off his stuff - he'd barely played this, and never taken it out of the house. Genuinely could pass for new. Its just had a set-up by our local luthier here and now has a lovely low action and strung with La Bella Mustang flatwounds I'm gigging at a little festival next Saturday and itching to take this along - I really, really hope it's a keeper, as I've had to sell my Epi Jack Casady to help pay for it

Hi All I’ve just finished a Thinline tele which came out pretty well…. However, I’ve found that the only time I have to practise is in the evening, when my two year old has finally exhausted herself from saying ‘no’ repeatedly and vehemently to everything. We live in a flat so to ensure I don’t disturb her I’ve also found that I play it unplugged. That works pretty well but I wish it had just a tiny bit more acoustic volume. So…… I’m wondering whether I should building something like this, that is fully chambered rather than only half chambered as the Thinline is. Me being me, though, I want to simplify things a bit. I’ve found that for me I really need to build in an incremental way - making each build only slightly more complex than the last. I know there are builders here who can seemingly conjure painfully beautiful guitars from clothes pegs using only spoons as theirs tools. That’s not me unfortunately. At the moment, I don’t want to do a set neck or a carved top or bent sides but I’m wondering whether a flat top, bolt-on neck, fully chambered (ie routed) Les Paul build might do the trick? If anyone wanted to offer up an opinion, I’d love to hear it. Specifically, I’m wondering about the following: Acoustic volume - do you think a fully chambered (routed) body like this would increase the volume a little bit in comparison to the above thinline? Should I also be thinking about making the top thinner than the standard 5mm or so which I would normally put on a chambered guitar? 4mm? 3mm? Is there any reason why a Les Paul can’t have a standard bolt on neck? I know the LPs have the neck at an angle. Is that because of the carved top? Or the bridge design? Or both? Does anyone know what the minimum height of that sort of bridge is? Lots of questions, I know. PS. Now clearly I realise if I want a bit more volume just a pair of headphones would take me about 100 less hours than building an entirely new guitar. But if I did that, how would I fill those 100 hours?

It's bloody annoying, but if at least the drummer, guitarist and myself turn up, there's usually something to be getting on with. And we can talk about the others (and how we're going to replace them).

I have used them for years. But not for long enough. I cannot play without them. I even use them in Church. Sadly we are not a monster Gospel Music event. Even an acoustic piano distorts my ears now. Use them or stop playing. No, really.

The Basschat Podcast Pilot ...

I have molded plugs with Elacin ER15's from the hospital audiologist. Same as the ACS. I have the 25 filters for really loud stuff including sustained motorcycle riding. Couldn't live without them. Got used to them very quickly. Mild tinnitus made them necessary. Stage volume is around 90db average which is too much without protection. Join the club.

I enjoyed the video/performance....can't be rrrsed to get involved in the difference of musical taste debate..

I have difficulty walking and talking at the same time. Heck no.

That's a nice one Sibob.

Ouch lol

I find these a really handy space saver when I‘m on public transport. The Markbass bass keeper. https://goo.gl/images/ikujby

...none of that belt sander nonsense. http://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Hofner_1963_Violin_Relic.html Nice job, Hofner.

START OF THE OFFICIAL FEEDBACK THREAD! You can read the planning of the episode above, but now it's time to give your feedback about it. GO!!

I'm on this side of the fence. IMO foam works in the studio. I love the sound of a P bass with flats and a ton of foam right next to the bridge but on a gig I prefer as much dynamic range as I can get.

^^^ wot he said

Its sorted. I did factory reset. It was on it's own line though - all my digital stuff bar the dittos are run like that. I had to rejig my board quite a bit due to the relatively low position of the switches, but on the upside I've managed to retain the Pork Loin and running that into the filter already sounds very promising. If I get a neuro, I'll need a new board unfortunately - this tetris game has a single solution and I'm already a bit concerned about how cramped it is. I don't think I could lose anything without sacrificing some quite specific sounds unless I move the volume pedal onto the floor - and after one particular gig where the stage was basically a thin tarp on grass and the volume pedal sunk into the ground every time I went to use it - I'd prefer to keep it mounted. @GisserD was right that it takes a while to get the sounds up - the Option Control is not the most intuitive - but a couple of hours last night got me two good basic presets - a fast quacky one that works the the Pork Loin and a slow Sine Wave LFO sweep that works with the Okto Nojs. I can already see that 2 presets is going to be annoying - I really need a decent phaser sound too, since I've had to bench my Phase 90 and those tiny option controls aren't going to be much fun under stage lights. First impressions are that the sounds are quite a bit more subtle than I'd expected. Most of the action so far is either the 2 and 4 pole or parallel single peak filters, which I seem to be the gnarliest. The only previous filter I've owned in an MXR BOD and I remember it being pretty aggressive. This may be inaccurate though. I've got rehearsals with two bands this weekend so its going to be fun hearing what this thing does at proper volume.

Thanks, I'm going to read that or at least start now. All your threads are long but always interesting but I don't get the chance always to visit so I miss some. My favourite so far has been the Jack Bruceish EB, I did enjoy that but you may have guessed I like Gibsons so perhaps I'm a little biased there

Woah now , I'm still trying to nobble the software to give myself my three votes though in all fairness , the wife says I'm not too good at nobbling things , so I guess I'll just clean the keyboard ready for the next one , but I'll keep a little space on the wall just in case I get lucky enough for another certificate 😂😂

I hope that's not in reply to the urinal post above yours ...

Royal Ascot? I could have sworn I was in Lewisham...

Isn't the bass in the OP "double stained" that is the first application of stain is allowed to penetrate deep into the wood and then the top is partially sanded back to remove the stain from the less porous areas. Then the whole body is retained again which gives a higher contrast effect on the grain. If so depending on what sort of finish the OP is intending to apply it might involve either a lot of sanding to remove the first deep stain or very careful sanding to only take off the second stain.

Pretty much....and from the look of it, that will be the least of your problems You certainly like a challenge...

Another hot morning in the sun cutting Abalone today, I cut a couple of the Draig inlays. After I drilled the headstocks for the tuners and marked and routed the holes for the inlays and stuck them in, not quite as easy as the square fretboard inlays and yes a little black epoxy was needed. Just rough sanded and wetted to give an idea

<interval> For some bizarre reason, every time I see the letters "FRFR" written down... this song comes into my head. Which is bizarre, because there's not even any Rs in Foux Du Fa Fa. Anyway... As you were.

An AVRI '62 Precision for you. (and a rather fetching rug) Has a somewhat challenging nut width, but that's offset by a truly wonderful House of Tone pickup. The original fell apart during a setup, and the raised poles where annoying me so off it went to pickup heaven Absolutely nails that P sound I've had in my head since I first heard Queen in the 70's. Nitro finish has very slight checking in places, and over all bass looks much older than it actually is without looking like a relic. I find it a wee bit tricky to play for anything other than simple rock/blues due to the size of the neck and my mangled hands, but its so worth it. Totally fits in with the band I'm in. Currently considering flat wound brands ;-)

[quote name='stearstree1304' timestamp='1497541877' post='3318995'] I like the way the surrounds for the luminlay and accent line come together as one - very classy!! [/quote] Thanks ! Turned out as good as I'd hoped and better than I expected

Of all the 'go carefully' jobs, this is the one... It needs to be deep enough, but the remaining top needs to be thick enough. I know carved-archtop makers do this all the time but I'm going very carefully. I will check the thickness with some calipers this evening but I reckon there's another 3mm to come out of this. A job for tomorrow.... You can see here in the top left of the chamber the pickup cable rail breaking through. Phew - right place