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I can even imagine what @eude was thinking. I'll bet he was thinking : "OK clever clogs Andyjr1515. So you can build 6 string electrics and you can build dreadnought acoustics but they are - well - NOT BASSES! And, yes, admittedly you've made a bass or two and you've modded a few. BUT I BET YOU CAN'T SORT THIS ONE!!! Oh, and before you say you can, did you know it's a VI? Bet you've never done one of THOSE!" I'll let @eude fill in the background but the challenge is to take this body: And put a shortscale neck on it and a Warwick two-part bridge. "Oh...and did I mention the b****y big hole through the body?" "Oh - and the neck pocket might not be the right size for a VI neck but I'm sure a clever clogs like you will be able to sort THOSE trifling details!" So what could I do but accept the challenge! Besides, I've only got my reputation to lose. @eude has this rather nice bass carve to lose

No backline at all. It's the way forward.

Tried to finish this off. Almost but not quite. First popped the magnets onto the truss-rod cover: ...and hey presto: Then installed the Shadow Doubleplay electrics. It comprises a blendable under-saddle piezo: and a mini magnetic pickup at the end of the fretboard: I suspect that this is intended for a flatter fingerboard radius (prob 12" - I've build closer to an electric neck with 10" rad and locking tuners. Makes it easier for me to transfer from my electric to the acoustic) so I sunk it into the top to make sure it didn't foul the top and bottom E strings: As it turns out, I've overdone this and will, at some stage, take it off and pop a shim underneath. I then installed the preamp / blend unit that sits inside the soundhole (I'll photo it in the 'finished' shots) and the rear strap pin / jack socket. Before I put the strings back on, I cleaned up and oiled the fretboard. The frets - well, at the moment there is absolutely no buzz anywhere so I haven't even polished them! When I get a moment, I'll at least do that but there is no need for levelling and crowning By the way, before you go thinking I know what I'm doing, that is a first... And - other than the low nano-mag pickup being a bit quieter than the piezo - we have electric amplification. Lastly, now the strings are on, I do my usual 'sit it like a cello and scrape the neck to the final shape by feel, spinning it round and playing it then re-scraping until it feels like I want it. This is followed by a quick tru-oil slurry and buff and it's good to go within an hour. Am I the only one that does this? No matter how well you fit a neck to the profile templates, I don't think you can really tell if it's right until you play it. So that's what I do. And the most subtle tweaks can make all the difference! Remaining jobs: - Replace the nut with a slightly wider one (plays fine with the present one but it isn't quite wide enough - Raise the nano-mag pickup (ditto) - Side dots! It's a big b****r and there is no way you can see the top of the fretboard when you are playing it - Final polish in about a week's time - Take the arty farty photos

This ^^ . And of course the ''flat' tone may not indeed be flat on some of the amps as they each have their own voicing. I'm sure most of them could be made to sound like each other with some simple EQ-ing if required..... One of my fave things about the bash was hearing the range of tones we can all produce...... from Nancy Johnson's gnarly rock tone to Frank Black's beautiful double bass style fretless tone to OBBM's traditional warm tone to Richard Searle's muted picked tone.

It would be nice to see more Darkglass demos using different genre's and more traditional type basses.... All I mainly hear is dingwals and metallic sounding metal tunes. I'm sure all his pedals could sound good in other formats. I liked the b3k on lower settings and would be interested to hear what more med type drive this could do

Just got this Explorerbird. I was toying with the idea of building one, but thanks to Karl Aldorfer pointing me in the right direction, I managed to find this beauty. Well chuffed

Here's the thing, none of those amps sounded bad. Some of the 'baked-in' tones might not be as preferable as others, but nothing sounded bad, due in no small part to a classy cabinet. Likewise with the blind bass test, nothing was bad, just small variations on a theme. A real eye opener on both fronts.

I bought a set of these a few years ago just to put on a jb I leave in my summerhouse £12 I think and was really impressed Very nice deep warm tone Well worth the money

I'm shocked @cetera I feel I may have to down-grade your status to 'quite knowledgeable Spector Guru' in light of this shocking revelation

Where do I have to send that cheque to again? 😂

Very interested that a number of people are up for this little (big?) challenge. I should perhaps explain my own feelings behind why I thought I might do it...... Ultimately, I think too much about gear, like many here, always thinking about what next piece of gear could replace or potentially better the last piece. Which is strange, as I have a lot of fantastic gear that allows me to do everything I want (need) to, at a very high level. Obviously this a well-known story, and basically the definition of GAS. It's usually well humoured and dismissed as a bit of fun, but it genuinely takes up a fair chunk of my thought processes, which kind of gets a bit tiring if I'm honest with myself. So instead of trying to manage it, I'm going to stop it altogether, safe in the knowledge that I have some amazing gear, and that actually nothing will change haha. As mentioned, in actual fact, I only have a couple of very intentional purchases left, so if we're including those in my 'exceptions'....I'm technically starting from now haha. Si

Or an Excision?

Here we are then. Pulled the trigger on a pair of Aguilar SL112s today. I think that's me sorted now. GAS has disappeared.

Here is an analysis to see the harmonic content Open B Open E and some pics with me

You were probably an obsessive teenager, as I was, when you got your first bass. The first song I played live was 'Alright Now' by Free. It took me forevers, squirrelled away in my bedroom, to get the tricky bassline in the solo. In fact I was still figuring it out about 5 mins before I went onstage. But this dude is 51, he's got better things to do than hide away in his bedroom for 6 months learning 2112.

I did, in fact rush were probably the reason I started on the bass. Rush and Yes. I got an Ibanez Rick clone.

It's just my personal opinion, of course, but I don't think it's worth compromising on amplification. I think a dedicated bass amp is the way to go every time. For practice, at home as well. The other alternative is a Preamp/DI or some sort of bass specific interface that can go to a PA style speaker. A guitar amp will always be found lacking.

I hope that nut is glued in properly otherwise it's going to be catapulted through the ceiling when you tune up!

Result (well, partial): the neck seller has agreed to a 50% refund and I get to keep the neck. I’m still disappointed it’s not the “right” one but it does look like a nice bit of wood, and the fingerboard in particular has some nice grain. May as well suck it up and crack on. The refin’d body has spent the last few weeks at our practice room whilst the paint cured and has finally made it home with me tonight. I’m a little short of time this week but may grab a few hours at the weekend to get the build into some sort of shape. As I think I mentioned in the OP, my long term aim with this build is a fretless. I’m not entirely sold on defretting the neck myself, however. I’d be more than happy if I could pick up a fretless neck for decent money, but they don’t seem to come up often (annoyingly I missed Beedster’s fretless neck cull in June) so I rather suspect my hand will be forced in that regard. It just seems that with defretting there are too many things I could make a right balls of, and I’d rather save myself the hassle. One could argue, though, that making a balls of a neck that has now cost me £16 isn’t exactly the end of the world. Onwards!

Just for home use your guitar amp will be fine....personally I would wait to part ex until you have been playing a few months....then once you are a bit more familiar with the instrument you might get the urge to jam with folks then you could always part ex for a half decent Bass Combo....but till then your guitar amp will suffice just crank the bass EQ to about full and keep the mids and treble to a minimum.

It's funny you say that I've been told in the past I'm as stealthy as a killer whale!! And yes you may christen it the Orca(ster) Bass!! 😁 I agree that would look nice with hidden pickups but I've got another build in mind which I was going to go down that route a semi hollow with piezo pickup possibly under the bridge I am going to call on Jez or Andy's expertise when I come to tackle that!! 🤔

Just purchased one of these at the weekend, very impressed. It is two different distortion channels, Hot tubes and Crayon but its more like l 4 pedals in one. great smooth drive on hot tube all the way up to 12 o clock and no loss of low end at all, not even touched the blend nob. up to 2pm and still only some eq to boost the bass a bit. best tube simulation i have ever played really good organic sound. Crayon is a nice smooth range of overdrive and again no blend needed much up to 12pm. gets a bit fizzy on loss a bit of low end on higher gain settings but not had to go beyond 50/50 mix as yet. Bang them both on at once and the hot tube drives the crayon. this is when things get a bit crazy and i did need some blend, but again on down to 50/50 at pretty harsh settings. Either side can be used as a clean boost full blend and 8-9pm gain. or gain all the way down completely. If it had a mids control as well as the bass and treble would also make a great pre amp. this certainly looks like my always on pedal from now on instead of my MXR M80 At just under£110 cannot recommend this enough, everything from mild boost mild tubey /grit to full on distortion and all the controls for flexibility you need.

More than just another Jazz copy? I hope so... I like the look of this one...

Probably competition to those, yes. I didn't look into the details but compared to K.2 it looks like the power section is much smaller and the Hi-z input gone in the CP series.

No shock you feel could ever match the disappointment I feel in myself.... 😂😂

It's my fault - I passed out from GAS withdrawal symptoms and my head came to rest on the 'page refresh' button all night.

I actually thought the Handbox was the best amp in that shootout by a country mile.

Here's an updated picture The chrome knobs are just temporary they are just there for visual effect! I definitely prefer this in white than the black 😀

This might come in handy

New bands worth checking out in the neo-soul genre include Moonchild and Hiatus Kaiyote. In fact, Hiatus Kaiyote are probably my favourite band right now. As unique as the Nai Palm may appear, I think I'm a bit in love with her. Here are some tunes worth checking out:

I think the key word there is myself so therefore excludes gifts - especially milestone birthdays

I'm originally a guitarist but I was a very early adopter of IEMs (excluding the pro guys) and it just made sense to me - a mix wherever you go inside an earplug that prevents hearing damage...what's not to like? With modern options such as Helix, BIAS-FX, Kempers etc I just can't see a need for backline! Our drummer does like to hear a bit of bass next to him though hence me not ditching everything and just going DI Cheers @Lozz196 - i think that if we're going to use backline then it's a sensible setup. Both guitarists now use Victory heads that can run around 7w. At a gig one even said "I'm swamping the FOH mix, I'll turn down!" As long as there is a suitable monitor source then backline is just a way of delivering sound to the FOH system. I wish more musicians understood that simple principle - the louder you are as an individual the more problems you cause for everyone else and the less control the engineer/unfortunate band member who runs the desk has over things...as a band your volume in any venue is only as quiet as the loudest on-stage performer.

Mmm yes. Stealthy as a Killer Whale. Heeheehee. It does look good though. If it had concealed pick ups or a piezo bridge it would keep those clean lines. With only the strings to come between the bass and the onlooker, it'd have an intriguing darkness about it. May I christen it The Orca Bass?

I'm glad people feel comfortable enough to admit it, though...very brave... 🙂

No, i meant that you cant run it off batteries. just pointing that out to Bas as he was talking about using it as a portable headphone practice amp. He will also need a PSU if its not going on his board.

I've not played one of those through a 5-bar gate ... how does it sound?

Hi @Christine, thank you for the feedback. I am not at basschat.co.uk so often, so I missed the info before I ordered it! Anyway, I can confirm what you wrote, absolutely. It is a really good neck I got. It has a beautiful grain and the frets are really good - sure there will be the need of doing a dressing at the end, but I have to think about which style I should go on...

Another late starter here! (First started learning aged 53) So glad you have discovered the joys of the bass. I'll tell you what worked for me.. it's not 'advice' as such because different people learn in different ways. But I went for private lessons from a tutor from day one and really loved my lessons. For me, nothing could beat that one to one input,. And a good teacher will tailor the lessons to suit your needs. I don't think I would ever have motivated myself to practice so much if I hadn't known I had another lesson coming up. I went weekly for the first month or so, then dropped it back to fortnightly. After 2 or 3 years I was just going every 2-3 weeks. I've only just stopped going for regular lessons 7 years on! I always knew I wanted to be in a band of some sort, but what I never expected was that I could actually earn some money out of this! I thought I would just be doing it for fun, but this year I have in fact secured a few paid gigs, which has been very welcome as it coincided with me retiring from my day job. So you never really know where this lark will lead you! If I had another piece of advice it would be .. don't worry to much about muting strings. I'd read all sorts about palm muting and other stuff and it started to do my head in a bit. It seemed like this was very important but I couldn't really work what to do. My tutor told me not to worry, eventually you'll be doing it without realising.. and that has been the case! Just learn to play the notes first and the muting (if required) will come naturally. IMHO and all that.

'So, what advice would you give a 51 year old brand new bassist?' Get another job because if you spend any time on here you'll soon be lusting after more Basses, Amps, FX's etc etc...it's called GAS😁

I would stand your sound guy in front of your cabs and tell him that's what you want to hear coming out of the FOH. Tell him to stop trying to be creative and just emulate the stage sound.

“The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy notes that Disaster Area, a plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, are generally held to be not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind at all. Regular concert-goers judge that the best sound balance is usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves play their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stays in orbit around the planet – or more frequently around a completely different planet. Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being beneath a silvery moon, which then explodes for no adequately explored reason. Many worlds have now banned their act altogether, sometimes for artistic reasons, but most commonly because the band’s public address system contravenes local strategic arms limitation treaties. This has not, however, stopped their earnings from pushing back the boundaries of pure hypermathematics, and their chief research accountant has recently been appointed Professor of Neomathematics at the University of Maximegalon, in recognition of both his General and Special Theories of Disaster Area Tax Returns, in which he proves that the whole fabric of the space-time continuum is not merely curved, it is in fact totally bent.”

Another Pralines video, this time from Olivier’s channel. I haven’t watched as I’m not on WiFi.

Hi again Terry, this might be better for you - scaled & cleaned up in CAD. All the best, Hugh Hofner 500_1 Violin Bass CAD.pdf

Or this - I can try to scale it in CAD if required. 500_1 Beatle Bass.pdf

This is the closest I can find: Hofner HIBB Ignition Violin Bass - http://www.proaudiostar.com/hofner-hibb.html

Euphponic Audio Doubler? Has a HPF and two channels, one with DB optimised EQ frequency centres.