Leaderboard

Well, the radio silence has simply been while the final coats on the body have been hardening. I'm actually re-doing the Nemesis transfer on the headstock - I got a spare and think I can do better than the first go by getting the headstock coating a bit flatter before I apply it. BUT...the rest is pretty much done. @fleabag sent me the pots and switches to do a series/split coil/parallel option and also a 250k tone pot vs a 500k tone pot. For starters I've put the same cap value on those two but @fleabag will be able to experiment simply by swapping caps as he wishes. Here's the finished circuit: And here's how the body is looking:

Doubt they’ll ever find the body

So gigged the Stomp twice this weekend with two different bands. Used it through the DB751 and Barefaced 610 and it was magnificent! Had the presets ready to go and this thing just works, really bloody well too! Lots of comments from the sound techs for both gigs about the tone and clarity and sat beautifully in the mix with my 69 P bass. Last nights sound with Fu Fighters was👌 So glad I took the plunge and sold off all, yep all my pedals. Incredible but of kit and I’ve probably only scratched the surface of what it can do but so far so good! If you’re in two minds, just do it you won’t be disappointed.

I like comments on threads. One experience I had recently was in respect of an item I had listed. I got a PM from one of our 'glass half empty' members saying it was over-priced and could be bought new for virtually what I was asking. I thought, OK fair point let me do more research. So I did, decided this person was wrong, listed it elsewhere and ended up selling the item for more that I was asking originally.

Finally, my work here is done. It was the normal story for me, woodwork went more (or less) smoothly, finishing was a nightmare. Anyway, at third attempt I am very, very, very happy with how it's turned out. I really like the 33" scale - with careful positioning of the bridge the overall reach is probably 2 inches less than a standard Fender 34". The weight is just under 8 lbs, so very light for a jazz, but the balance is absolutely perfect - it sits naturally about 30 degrees above horizontal. The finish is like double cream, silky smooth, really incredibly smooth, but matte at the same time. It really makes you want to touch it....or even...no enough. Get on with the specs....... Scale: 33" Shape: Slightly undersized Jazz Body wood: Alder (no weight relief) Neck wood: Maple, flatsawn Fretboard: Rosewood Pickups: House of Tone '62 PJ set, installed with the P pickup reversed Electronics: Passive, 500k pots Tuners: Ultralites Bridge: Wilkinson Other: Mother of Pearl Blocks, white plastic binding Weight: 7lb 14oz (3.65kg) Balance: Absolutely spot on Colour: Vintage White (1:2 General Finshes Snow White & Antique White) Finish: General Finishes High Performance clear coat, sprayed with HVLP Strings: D'Addario XL Nickel wound 45-105 Other than for the purposes of set up, I haven't really had the chance to play it yet. I like to get proper photos does immediately (before I drop it), then I just haven't had the chance. First impressions though are very very positive, particularly of the P pickup, which sounds massive! More dets to follow. Anyway, here are some studio shots..... And a few I took at home....

Yep it was financially very worthwhile on this occasion. I think the key to getting gigs these days is being prepared to travel a little and we have good history down in Thanet. The local Essex circuit is tied up with the same 10 decent bands playing the same 6 decent venues and bands moan they can't get enough gigs between them but they wont travel more than 30 minutes. We're right on the M25 and can travel an extra 30 minutes and get pretty much as many gigs as we want. And its nice to explore new venues and meet new people.

I love it when a plan comes together Man-bass-pedal-amp-cab Each part of the chain was awesome congrats

Well this is mine, very thin neck, doddle to play, great sound. Stunning looks.

Cheers! Will have this bass finished this week. Couldn’t resist a little play whilst I had the preamp temporarily connected - the bass (not my playing..) sounded really nice! I’ve only really been making basses as a hobby; there are a couple of people who have basses I’ve built but these weren’t made specifically for them. I am going to start looking at commissions as I’m running out of room at home for things I’ve made!! Cheers again

I rounded the fingerboard edges off a bit more than Musikraft did, at the business end where I think it would wear more, and then used some of this leather dye, which others have recommended for darkening the fingerboard. It also darkens the 'clay' dots down a bit which I prefer the look of now. I may add some boiled linseed oil later to give it more of a shiny, gunky old look. I also rounded the end of the fingerboard off a bit at the neck pocket end, as they also seem to wear down there. I have done the date stamp on the heel of the neck, as I said at the start I purposely made it to show my date of birth, rather than copying the manufacturing marks Fender would have or still do, put on their necks. The Fender decal was given a light coat of amber, the instructions advised doing it, but I have noticed that the decal on old Fenders is often slightly darker than the headstock Then I give the neck a light dusting of amber lacquer before masking off parts of the neck, the same way I did on the body, that would discolour differently, due to not getting exposure to light, and then applied a bit more amber. Again, I know it's not going to be seen, but a big part of the enjoyment for me is seeing how these little touches are created and applying them to something of mine. It makes a difference to me. I also made a decal with 'Rubis' on it, my date of birth and a little shamrock, in plain view and to be clear coated over to permanently seal it in, a bit like Limelight do on the back of their headstocks.

Its that old warehouse of Skank's again. Comes in useful.

I voted PJ due to my favourite bass for rock being my BB1025X, however standard Fender PJs sound nothing like it. If I was playing old school funk though it would be a single MM like my Sandberg Basic. I'd love to have a custom one, but it's €1690 for this one and my standard one cost me £350, so I'll stick with that for now!

Cue the inevitable @Al Krow ‘Two of the very best trainers for indie!’ thread.

"Fill your hands, you son of a ..."🙂

Hahaha. Can’t detect if sarcasm or not, so I’ll just tell you to Feck off to be safe.

Is it Susan Boyle.

Don't get hung up on specs or what's in the box - it really doesn't matter. Just get an amp that you like.

NOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!! That's how it started with me. Its too late for you now. You will now need to buy a Sandberg. You have been hooked. Dave

I’m not sure about your distinction between a public and private advert? And no, negative comments on price are not acceptable. If the seller wants £XYZ for it then that’s up to them. If it’s too high it won’t sell. The market regulates itself.

I’d love to take the credit but @ybotyawnoc is the man behind this wood porn. I popped round on Friday to see how the neck carve is vs my idea for shape and thickness etc and it’s almost perfectly spot on, whoop!

I'm in my mid fourties now and after playing for thirty odd years (mostly) off and on, when someone asks me about playing bass, I always say I learned how to play the slow fun way as opposed to the quick hard way. What I mean by the quick hard way is the discipline of theory... the chops, the scales, arpeggios, chords, the sight reading and all of that. I kind of wanted the chops but have ultimately been scared away by the musical constriction I've seen in a couple of my friends, (one good friend of mine is a seriously fabulous scouse flamenco guitarist who, by his own admission, couldn't string three power chords together to save his life... although he can probably still wing a better performance on the bass than I could with practice). I couldn't help but pick up a bit of theory along the way, major & minor scales and the triads (best ten minutes of bass theory ever) but for me, the slow fun way has always been been hearing a song and thinking... "Yeah, if I could play that the bassline to that song, I'd be a happy bass player" When you master that new song, that's the joy... and that's what I'd like you to share with me chronologically. The songs you've aspired to play as your bass playing progressed. The lines gets maybe more intricate, nuanced, simple or complicated, but as soon as you've mastered that one song you never thought you could , you've already set your sights on another song that's a little bit more... whatever it is that you want. That IMO is what I mean my fun. It really doesn't matter what genre or level of playing ability. I'd love to hear from dicsiplined players with fabulous chops and players just starting out... I don't really care how good a player you are, just put those benchmark songs in the order that you learned them. I'll start with the first bass line I think I ever remember wanting to learn as an angsty teenager and finish it with the last I remember being reasonably proud to master. I'm going to keep it to half a dozen but there was obviously lots more inbetween. Louie Louie - Kingsmen We've Got A Bigger Problem Now - Dead Kennedys The Thrill is Gone (live) - BB King (was atributed to Wille Dixon on that Blues Collection album but I'm not convinced it's him) Take The Power Back - Rage Against The Machine Cake - I Will Survive Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie Message To Society - Wally Coco (you'll have to google it) OK, stinky poo, half a dozen was harder than I thought. I deleted quite few (I must have played and forgotten hundreds of songs), but the list is in a sort of cronoligical order. Please tell me yours, I'm looking for inspiration... nothing serious and just for fun. P.S. next on the list is Scott Walker - The Old Man's Back Again.

My one is very resonant, you can play it unplugged and hear every note clearly, I’m fairly certain it’s because of the build quality and the selective use of woods 🙂

First gig for the Magnum tribute band (A Storyteller’s Night) last night, supporting the excellent Backstreet Thunder in Rotherham. All went really well: great crowd reaction, lots of positive comments (both from the audience on the night and on social media) and quite a few came specially to see us (some from as far away as South Wales and from Co Durham). Clip of ‘How Far Jerusalem’, filmed by a student of the guitar player – a bit up close and personal but gives an idea of how it went…

Welcome. It took me forty years to get round to learning any scales and it’s beginning to pay off, both in note selections when writing and also in improving my dexterity. This forum has been an incredible resource for me, it’s an extremely reasonable community too, which I think stems from most members realising the forum’s worth. We have the odd spat occasionally, who doesn’t? But don’t ever be put off, it’s invariably solved reasonably and we all get on with contributing to and learning from a great site, enjoy!

Hot Damn @Andyjr1515, you've done it again! I love that design! Eude

"Hi, I'm Jack Bates of the Smashing Pumpkins and my dad was Peter Hook of Joy Division (and we all love Yamahas)". Sometimes the dice are just loaded, right?! 😂

I reckon the best tone I've got out of my Deluxe Special is when it's DI'd straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface with both pickups on full and the EQ on the bass flat. I'm fairly sure the Focusrite is supposed to be completely clean, with no influence on the sound coming into it so I think the only thing I'm hearing in that scenario is the natural tone of the bass and it's onboard preamp.

Pino serving the song :

What gorgeous piece of work Maestro. Come in here dear boy have a cigar, you're gonna go far

You appear to be having another “I haven’t bought anything in three month’s panic”. Take a few deep breaths and sit down. It will pass. Learn to love what you have, the 5 or 6 basses you own should see you thorough most gigs. Truth is no one will really care if you have a MM at the bridge blended at 74%. Know the songs, know your part and trust the groove.

Only one time I ever saw some seriously dubious stuff: There was a guy here who was pretty active in the marketplace. One time he put something up for sale which I'd very recently seen on eBay. Checked it out, same item, sold to this guy 24 hrs or so before he put it up for sale here. Problem was, the item was in the USA and no way it would have been over the pond and in his hands by the time he advertised it here as 'the pride of his collection'. Anyway, he's gone now.

I won't make a specific comment as I don't know the specifics, and I prefer to hear both sides before drawing conclusions - unless a judgement has been made in the small claims court or similar. That said, in an unrelated field that operates in a very similar way, I hear far too many stories about people paying huge amounts (as in many thousands of pounds) for work to be done or things to be made to order. Sadly, as the work takes along time and there are waiting lists, it's easy for a sole artisan to end up holding a lot of money for customers. They end up spending it and funding each job with the advance payments made by other customers. Eventually things go bad, and the customers who have been more patient and forbearing end up loosing lots of money. My advice is simple. If you are getting something made to order pay a deposit that is fair to the maker (they do have to invest in materials and time before the job is complete) but not more than you can afford to lose; if it's a really big job - agree stage payments that you will make when you see evidence that agreed milestones have been met. If the seller won't take your order on this basis, walk away. Also, do a bit of googlepokeren and maybe look them up on companies house (if applicable) or even buy a credit report if you have any whiff that they might be financially unstable. This might sound a bit extreme, but I have spoken to people who have lost five-figure sums out of their life savings and suffered tremendously from the stress and worry of being continually palmed off with excuses. Ideally, there really ought to be a protection scheme through something like the Guild of Master Craftsmen where you could pay into a secure third-party scheme that would release payments against milestones AND insure you against poor outcomes - it would cost money, but I think it would be worth it.

Just go on the configurator on the website Then you can pick a finish and extras of what you want and rhencost will become apparent

Just been playing my fretted and fretless back to back, playing the same riffs (funk type stuff, no slides, no vibrato - boo 😉). I actually surprised myself how accurate I was on the fretless without looking, at least up to about the 10th fret/position (it actually 'felt' easier if I closed my eyes, no distractions). However, I like the occasional peek and check take the 'worry' out, even on fretted. Beyond the 12th fret/position, because it all gets a bit tight, I'm going to look and really listen, the upside of which really makes it look like I'm into what I'm playing. I should also point out that I'm no stranger to fretless, I've playing fretless almost as long as fretted - it's all Pino's fault. Speaking of whom, here is the Welsh wizard being unprofessional and almost looking continuously at his fingering 😱!

Nooooo.....😂🤣😂 I feel a poll coming on (Just kidding!)

Proud electronic girlie right here, just standing up to be counted obviously.

Played my second gig with my Tom Petty tribute band on Friday night. I was really not looking forward to it: it was a good distance away on traditionally very busy roads; there was no money (it had already been spent on various promotional activities); I’ve not been enjoying playing my parts at rehearsals; I had lost confidence in my BVs; I had strained my back in the morning and wasn’t looking forward to standing for all that time. It was an absolutely blinding gig! The pub was packed, locals said they’d never seen it so busy. I really got into some ‘rock and roll mic sharing’ action with a friend from another band who got up and did some Stevie Nicks action with us. Just goes to show how different the event can be over the anticipation.

Is it Cher ?

I have a PJ Mustang that I regularly gig and I love it! If you want classic Fender tone and feel with a short scale then look no further. You may also be able to stretch to a Japanese Mustang with your budget, it's the same body and neck as the PJ but with a single unique pickup that is similar to the P but with its own twist. It also has its own unique bridge design. I tried a couple of the Gretsch short scales after hearing good things about them on here but the ones I tried had had their necks finished with treacle, the finish was so sticky that I'd guess it'd be virtually unplayable on a sweaty gig. I don't know if all of them are like that or whether I just managed to get a couple of duff ones but it's something to keep in mind if you go for one.

Looks like a young David Coverdale in his early chubby persona

Get in touch via pm and we’ll sort something out.

I was going to link you to a Second Hand Fender Jaguar MIJ shortscale that was on GAK but has since sold. Great basses, no matter what scale they are. Another good one is the Rascal bass by Fender too, a crazy little bass and so fun to play and so many tones to play with. Looks an absolute quality made bass from Mexico too. 😉👌🏻 Now you don't always see these come up, a bit of a rare beast and when they do, you have to act fast but promising you for £500-650 you won't be disappointed with your purchase.

pop this code in to see one of my creations! CANV1-VS:S-N-4S-34-HG-CR-ALD-NOT-BEMPF-F-BB-MHHG-BKH-CLT-2EQ-BP-BCP-RH

Err, the clue is in the name...?