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something to cheer us all up this morning

I think the technical term, given the smoky venues these basses will have been played in, is 'Fagnolia'... 😀

1972 all original Fender Jazz, with the original case, she’s aged beautifully with great looking wear and checking all over, she was Olympic white but is now a gorgeous buttermilk colour with the most beautiful piece of tort I’ve seen, I think my soul was a small price to pay.

Although the Festool is now firmly on my wish list (I have seen previous reviews and it is that halfway house that @Christine mentions that seems to be a pretty powerful USP), nevertheless it isn't in my present means so it's old-fashioned BF&I this time round. Got the sanding pretty much done (prob still got the final, final neck work to do) and THE FINISHING IS STARTED Here it is in its sanded form: Not sure if it really comes off, but the figuring just behind the fretboard end always reminded me of the swift shape, so I tried to emulate it with the fretboard end carve: And then the first tru-oil slurry and wipe coats. Unless I have a colour concern, I generally now use that for my base sealing and grain-filling process, whatever the final finish. In this case the final finish is going to be Osmo Polyx satin, but I'll still start with the tru-oil treatment. In a previous build, I proved to myself that you can slurry with Osmo just as well, but I wanted that touch of added amber hue that tru-oil tends to give: The bridge, by the way, is now flush with the leading edge of the body as planned: Finishing progress shots tend to get a bit boring so I won't post the Polyx progress, suffice to say that I will be wiping it on with micro-fibre cloth. All being well, the next shots - probably next week - should be the fully assembled bass It will still need a week or so for the finish to fully harden before I can pass it across to Neil but I think I'm now fully clear of disaster/BBQ wood potential tasks - I think it's actually going to turn into a playable bass! As always, many thanks for the encouraging feedback and pearls of wisdom along the way

always loved Bobby Vega

I have a full set of plans and instructions to build an Eagle 1 hovercraft from ply and fibreglass. Engine options include a lot of single cylinder ones and even a 2 cv. I made one myself about 15 years back and they comfortably take 2 but are more fun with one. Easy build for anyone with decent DIY skills. Free to collect or cover post and they are yours.

That looks the business, if they’ve sorted out the issues I might get another one! Good luck with the mods.

Arrived Monday but only got a chance to upack today. 1st thing... How the F**ck do they make these for so little money? Some things other people thinking of buying may want to know: No hole under the scratchplate like some others have reported. Can use without plate now. Bridge has changed from the large bulky one to one with Fender dimensions and screw placement. Volume and tone pots work as they should do. Gave It a quick set up and It plays superbly, love the tone with my old flats on too! Mods I'm gonna do: New tuners. (anyone know what are direct replacements?) Amber tint the neck with Nitro. Reshape the headstock. Add own decal. Repaint scratch plate aged cream. Must say I am blown away at the price. Cheers Geoff.

We had a somewhat different experience - we played together, off and on, for a year as a blues workshop at Band on the Wall in Mcr which ended with a friends and family gig at the BotW cafe. At the end of that gig we looked at each other and knew we couldn't let it end there. There was so much shared energy and potential, we just had to carry it on as A Real Band 🙂 Two people did drop out, one more joined, but by then we knew exactly how much commitment and ambition was shared. Played our first gigs outside Mcr last weekend, and we're all looking forward - realistically - to building on it.

Melodic and groovy too.

Now that’s a challenge to the profanity filter!!!!

Talking of Laura Kuensberg...

Grecos were excellent basses. Dont be confused with the likes of Columbus etc

This should be progressing according to the script. Fender are digging themselves out of the financial hole they are in. To do that they have to draw a line under the "old" Fender product lines and start anew. These basses are supposed to be "better" than the old ones. I assume that means they have taken notice what customers have been saying and addressed any QC and build issues and looked around and finally seen what the competition are doing and are incorporating the best and most useful bits into their basses. Of course this means they will be more expensive. The market place will decide if the extra cost is covered by the "improvements" being made to the instruments. Bass players moaning and thinking that cheaper instruments was the was to go was what got Fender into this mess in the first place. I'm hoping Fender makes it.

Right, clear your desk out now and get your coat. I'll have security escort you from the building.😂

Thanks Douglas, but as the audition is scheduled on the 11th of September, I will be careful with knockin' em dead. 😉

Last post on this I don't want to derail Andy's thread. If you can't justify one that's fine, they are very expensive but they are exceptional at what they do which is smoothing wood either flat or curved but in the way you want to not the way the wood wants. Previosly I had bought Bosch and Elu sanders which didn't last 3 months in my workshop and spent more time back at the service centre either being replaced or repaired. Then the finished surface was at best a little wavy on flat surfaces, the Festool has the Rotex setting which is a halfway house between a random orbital and a disc sander. It cuts cleanly across the surface not following it removing high spots but in an almost scratch free way. I use that to 180 grit then switch to the random orbital mode for finishing with 240 or 320 on a bad day. And the best bit was it did it for over 20 years, only just recently did the switch give out and need to go back for repair, along with some new gears that I didn't know about, I think it has another 20 years in it now. I would recommend one for the standard of finish alone even if they only lasted one year, they are honestly that good

So have I. £433 was the cheapest on a quick search and that was an RO125. Christine's RO150 is £508! I've not looked at the specs to see what the differences between the two are because I can't justify the expense of the entry level one let alone what Christine recommends. I might have to consider it however as I am getting a bit of interest locally for restored cast iron garden furniture. Shameless thread diversion concealed below:

I think of vocalist as the catch-all term for someone who uses their voice as part of a musical performance. Not all vocalists are singers, but all singers are vocalists

I’ve always had a soft spot for Billy Gould’s effort on ‘Kindergarten’ by Faith No More: https://g.co/kgs/DQQKMa

The yellowing is UV discolouration in the lacquer. I’ve had some success overspraying a light amber tint nitro to give some of the effect - it’s not exact but it’s close. I’ll dig out some photos. I also have a later 64 Precision in sunburst should you want any details - My neck is October I think, and I have the transition logo. Pots are October 64 and pickup is November I think.

Belatedly my thanks and congratulations. I too would have preferred two separate one-hour episodes - of course i could have split up listening to it, but i got absorbed and went straight through. Good natural voices. Good to have the segments explicitly flagged up. Tiny detail - there have been threads here about "what should you always have with you at a gig" usually spare battery. strings, &c but the podcast was the first time I'd heard a hand towel recommended. I passed that tip on to the others in my band. We played a couple of outdoor marquee gigs last weekend, and I was not the only one who gratefully reached for a towel between every song! Thank you @SpondonBassed 🙂 It's a lot harder to do than it sounds, very well done and thank you.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Agree with all of Cameron and Skinny’s comments. Two one hour episodes with that content would be ideal. So record the same amount of material but edit it across two separate hours. The chat to Mr C was fascinating and I want to hear his in depth thoughts on CITES, rosewood and using other woods so do have him back. Well done guys. Reminded me a bit in the chatty bits of David and Marc on the dear old Word podcast back in its glory days. Worked really well. if you ever want a potted history of Wal basses for a future one...

And now there's a beautiful Warwick 6 for sale in the marketplace... I'm just hoping he'll tell me it weighs 20 kilos...

If it's done my mr Whittaker you can call it Rogering if you like !

Take a look at that. Luvvverly....

Is it Jonas?

That a Status Streamline 5, going through a Valeton Dapper boost pedal to get that cheap synth-bass sound. In truth, it sounds OK on the YouTube but was absolutely righteous on the night.

Wow. That's some shift in tone on the finish! I have a 74 Precision in Oly White which has been somewhat abused, but it's gone a milky custard.. Looks flipping' brilliant tho! Well done - and play the heck out of it

I put the 'P-Type' pickup in the neck position of my ABZ, and it's no longer polite - actually, I'd have described it more as 'Clean'. When I think of 'polite', I think of the Overwater I owned once (actually twice...long story) and I emailed Chis May about its 'politeness', but there wasn't much to be done about that...

Just got permission to publish this ...

Nice, just be thankful you weren't born in 1960!

Take a look at the Real Book.

Good luck to you. Three great songs. Take Five shows you can play in odd time signatures. Autumn Leaves shows you can play slow with emotion, and All Blues shows you can play modes. What instrument?

Unless the case is always going to be carried and stored in the same orientation as it sits on the cab you are also going to need to attach a block of wood to the top of the amp bracing against the top of the rack case.

I switched to 5 strings because absolutely I needed to, came to a point where it was a chore working around the limitations of a 4 with regards to songs we play. Not something I wanted to do (I had some very nice and expensive 4 strings I was perfectly happy with) but needs must. Playing a 5 is much easier too, wouldn't go back if I could.

Sadly I'm more selling than buying these days due to illness , but Over the the years I've always been happy buying instruments which have been well used and and dings in , just meant I could use and gig without worry .

Good luck. I'd say it's a good selection. I specially love All blues.

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Well - I'm out of excuses now...tomorrow is final sanding day and finishing starts at the weekend. The last job was to set the bridge at its final height, and that allows me to see how much leeway I have for the final curve of the top. It's not critical, but I would like the bridge plate to be at least partially sunken into the top and, ideally, flush. It makes no difference to the functionality, but I want to avoid the look of some bridges where they appear to be a bit of an afterthought. I used a Dremel precision router for the flatness and finished the edges with chisels. Like the pickup routs, I did the curved front corners with a 5mm drill, drilled to final depth, before routing the bulk out : That gives me a nice close fit and looks like it is supposed to be there: This done, it lets me pencil the 'flush level'... ...so I can see how deep to sand. The aim will be flush at the leading edge and curving down a touch to expose the bridge plate progressively towards the tailstock. I'm hoping that the weather stays dry tomorrow as it is a lot easier to do the final sand outside - especially when looking for sanding marks, glue overspill and unwanted dints. The Osmo has arrived so, all being well, I should be able to apply the first couple of sealing coats as well before the start of the weekend

Despite being one of the bands I have seen the most times I still have to remind myself that David J of Bauhaus played fretless. One of the pleasures of old age this not remembering lark...

Ive decided to go a bit more vintage looking so I've got a bridge cover hot footing it's way over from China, I was going to go for the metal pickup cover as well but Ive got the feeling that it would get in the way (not that I've ever played one with the pickup covers on?) 😀

Even if the UK distributor doesn't hold stock, it's a production part so GK should have have them available and be able to get one to the UK in a few days