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I'm attempting to make a bass from scrap pianos. This is a prototype short scale bass called T800 because it's telecaster shaped and has an 800mm scale length. Wherever possible I'll be using wood from defunct pianos, mostly poplar with mahogany veneer and oak for the fretboard. As far as I can I will attempt to keep the original finish and use whatever screws I can salvage from the donor pianos.

You can now put a few screws in the handle to make it easier to move around. Marvel at how light it is. 😀 Finishing and fitting out is next. This is no more difficult than assembling the box. I'll post a guide on fitting out in a few weeks' time.

Morning, FarmCat. 😀 Do you remember drinking nitrogen shots last night? 😛

Mornin' fellas,,, wtf happened lastnight?,,, WTF??... I didn't say that, did I? 😯 Somebody must have spiked my NightNurse!

Your English is fine Figue2B, I wish my french was as good 🙂 I hope you get the sale or trade you are looking for, it’s a very nice bass 👍

On the first post I put Sold because on this site we can’t delete post, I see with Bass Direct it’s possible to me to send back the bass and after this I need to buy a second bass on bass direct. I wait a little for see what England and France doing with the Brexit. Now the Brexit is not for now. If I send back the bass and the brexit come French Customers are going to put 23% more of new price in taxes so I will lost too much money. So it’s for this I wait and put sold on the first post If I sell the bass 600€ it’s the same if I return back so why not I will don’t make happy a bassist I am open with trade maybe one guy will propose me a bass i search Sorry for my English guys 😅

It’s not though is it? It’s just oppositional nonsense. ”i’m Cool because I said something’s crap”. It’s missing the point on purpose. The bloke can play bass well, it’s not full of slap bass or harmonics etc (another thing which causes people’s undies to get twisted), it’s played in time and with dynamics and a good bit of feel to it. It’s not “noodling” because there’s a pattern to it. It repeats every few bars. As I said in an earlier post, it’s actually structured verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle/verse/ chorus pop song. It’s just a bit “jazz” sounding. I dare say Jazz purists baulk at stuff like this, pigeon Jazz...or whatever. It’s easier to say “that’s crap, it’s not music...” etc - it’s like disagreeing with someone and referring to them as a “snowflake” or something. Do you know punk bores the derrière off me? I can’t stand reggae...do you give a sh*t? Probably not. It’s like comparing an art house black and white movie to a Michael Bay blockbuster - futile nonsense. Everything has its place.

Sorry, I had to add this one with the pick guard I designed for Dingwall

Every now and again something pops up that you just want to share...

Hi guys Today we started using a better and faster search engine for Basschat. Elasticsearch allows much faster searching, more accurate results and works for shorter search terms which it didn't before. It'll also make the site faster when browsing. We hope you find it more useful. Now go and use it to find your next bass, or to argue with someone about something Cheers ped

As many others have since the dawn of time I've been on the search for 'my perfect' bass for quite a while. I've been on this site forever but not really been active for years although I've looking for a fretted GWB to pair with my upgraded fretless GWB35 for what feels like forever so came to post in the wanted thread a request for one (along with a Promethean P5110). I thought I'd have a peek to see what's out there and this bass was listed. It culminated in a few thoughts/realisations: 1. I've always liked the idea of a singlecut but don't like many singlecut designs, and I'm not affording a Fodera anytime soon. 2. I've always loved Steve Swallows piezo sound 3. I've always been really drawn to the Bolin headstock since I first saw it on this very site. 4. It feels like I'm never finding a bloody fretted GWB. So I did a bit of research and ended up picking up this bass today. Best bit was on the call with Brian last night to talk details "it's got this bit of wood with it that I have no idea what it is". With the defret and refret that I found had happened to it I thought maybe a neck shim or something...even better than that, turns out a previous owner had a ramp made for it. So here I am with 'my perfect' bass, restrung E-C, quick setup with the ramp attached (wasn't sure whether to go in centre or by bridge but for now this suites my playing position). Not the GWB fretted I expected to end up with but on initial impressions think something much better. And the Piezos...wow. As for the internetting...I've done some more today and found quite a few owners on here. If anyone else has any information on how it got from being built in the US over 10 years ago to today I would be really interested to hear. Past owners: Lastrega: ?? Bassmachine (thanks for the ramp!: ?? - Jan/Feb 2016 Pluckedout: Feb 2016 - Feb 2017 (defretted) PaulS: Feb 2017 - Q4 2018 (refretted) Sunfish: Q4 2018 - Apr 2019 MikeyD: Apr 2019 - ?

I did the Shuker build course back in February and thought I should should share my experience with any Basschatters who aren't sure if the course was for them. I haven't done any woodworking since high school, so picked a nice simple build. The specs were: Ash Jazz body (classic), stained black and rubbed back to highlight the grain Maple neck Fretless ebony fretboard Musicman style humbucker Passive electronics with stacked volume/tone to keep the front cleaner, but at Jon's suggestion a 3 way switch was added to be able to run the pickup in parallel/single coil/series for a few extra options Schalled elephant ears tuners and Gotoh bridge in black If you don't feel like reading the whole thread, here's the end result! Day 1 The 2 piece ash body had already been glued and planed, so once the centre line was found and the body outline drawn, it was onto the bandsaw for a rough cut. Then a template was used to guide a router around the body, removing about 2-3mm of material each pass until something that looked a bit like a bass happened. Once that was done, the forearm slope was cut out with a hand plane, and the stomach contour was done with a saw rasp. Then lots of sanding, starting at 100 grit paper, then moving on through 120, 180, 240, 320 and finally, 400. I'm a puny man and my arms were so gone by the end of the day I couldn't raise them horizontally, and had to buy a hot/cold pack from the train station Superdrug on the way home to try and get them ready for the following day's work. I decided I was going to take breaks if needed to make sure I got through the rest of the week. As it happens, that was the worst of the physical side of it, but I did get a good excuse to pet Jon's new dog lots, 10 month old Lily. Lily enjoys head scratches, singing the songs of her people and chewing everything, including my shoes, while I was still wearing them.

A badge and grille really do finish the cab off. I fitted an Ashdown badge to the first one I built, but badges from Trace Elliot, Ampeg, Marshall, and plenty of others are available on eBay.

The interesting bit is where the guitar riff and bass go out of time with the drums, seen a lot of bands cover the song and put that bit back in time, a lot harder to play it out of time as per recording.

Love that amp @NancyJohnson. The connection options are much better than my MT900, which is pretty basic. Thanks for helping me to run in my cabs - they sounded great at the gig last night! For pedalboard options, I have a four cable setup with my pedalboard and it works well. Drive/distortion etc in the front, modulation/delay/reverb in the effects loop after the pre-amp.

I had a go at Black Dog earlier. Tricky one. That John Paul Jones is a bit good.

I've sold a few bitsas and basses built from parts before, this is my first complete build. I have refretted guitars and basses and build a fretless bass from scratch so I've done all the processes but not all on the same instrument.

I'm basing it on owning an 808 ( an original TR-808 from the 1980's) many moons ago. The reason people use/buy them, is primarily for the big kick drum. It's massive and completely swamps everything else. Buying an 808 and turning down the kick drum, would be like buying a Porsche and driving everywhere at 20 mph They are great machines though, but only for a certain niche style of house/hip hop music.

You're making a big assumption there

Aaaargh!

His hair.

What is about this talented, successful & professional musician that people don't like? 😉

Purleeeease @ped Purleeease do it! 🐱

Fitted the ‘radio’ knobs. I like ‘em - much easier to see where the controls are at, and I do tend to use the tone knob a lot - even the volume given how the pickup character changes through its travel.

Just adding mine here. I’ve had a few Ps in my time, and, like many, my first bass was a P.

@Roland Rock Nice demo of what the Copilot can do and there's one currently in the FS if anyone is interested:

my 2 cents. It's OK to ask questions about weight, hardware etc, but if you think it's way over or under priced, I feel a PM is best here. saying "Gorgeous bass, GLWTS" is fine too. No pointing out that your Jazz is better than the P for sale, it's not on. Coming in just to say you hate that bass or amp is not on either Nor is it OK to comment on an effects for sale ad "I don't use effects" lol, yet people do

Idunno! Weird stuff is happening on this site! First it's pop ups, now new cats up, and I guess it soon goes tïts up. 😮 Uh oh! Maybe I shouldn't have written that... ...and where in Hull is my HatCat avatar? Suddenly got something that moooves! 😮

Thought I’d dress her up for the evening, looks great but a bugger to play with all that chrome getting in the way...

Well chuffed for a mornings work. I have put cobalt flats on it, vintage 62 pickups. The neck was spot on during set up. Set the height to 2mm and not a buzz or rattle. I think it may work its way to the front of the stand.!!

Not to get into the can of worms...but. Generally speaking, in my experience, others may dismiss etc...(although I’m bob on right - had lots of rainy afternoons in a guitar shop to figure this out, 12 years worth...also, don’t start me on how weather changes them) Alder/Rosewood - ‘Warmer’ sounding, lovely softer edge to the sound - notes ‘bloom’. Great for fingerstyle and such. Ash/Maple - Punchy, snappy, very solid fundamental note - direct sounding. Great for Slap bass, Hard funky fingerstyle. (edit - this is a generalisation, you can do any style you wish on any bass, whether it sounds ‘right’ or not is down to your ears/preference either way) Someone will come along later and say something along the lines of “it makes no odds, it’s down to pickup choice, pickup placement, and tone is in the fingers...” Yes they’re all contributing factors, but the way notes travel through a dense bit of ash, through the strings and into the pickups has some effect. Anyhow, not getting into too much detail - literally choose one and play it. If it’s made of moon rock or Blackpool rock, as long as you’re enjoying it...it doesn’t matter. I know with Sire it won’t be easy as some because they’re mainly available online. See if any local Basschatter can help? I’ve never played one, although I wouldn’t mind a go...just to see what the fuss is about.

Rack kit you say? Yeah, I like a bit of rack kit...

"The only cosmetic thing I don't like is the amount of the fretboard material that extends behind the nut." I actually like the look of this. I read the sentence as in the bold...

Last bit of porn for now.

Here's a new video of a song I wrote a while back. Always curious to get your thoughts on this since I play the Stick from the perspective of a bass player. Hope you like it! Kevin Keith

I put a small amount of wax on the threads on mine and every so often check they have not seized (my polepieces that is). As you note changing the volume has a significant effect on the tone (same on my L1505 as well). What height have you got the MFD from the strings?

Now for the second side panel. Here's a view showing the CNC'd rebates that help everything slot together.

Nice video, I’m feeling it. now I wish SD do a bass cover of U2’s with or without u for all the anti self indulgent jazz noodling crowd.

Years from now we'll laugh about that time we all got rat àrsed and went out and got cat avatars...

Some nice basslines here 🙂

Last few (quite a few...) jobs to do to finish this off for the bash this weekend. First up, cavity shielding. Normally I use copper foil but I decide to try conductive paint this time. I've checked that everything fit so first step is to mount the battery tray so I can ensure there is no interference with the jack socket or the pots. Next up, I've drilled the holes for the controls (very carefully at this stage. This definitely was a case of measure, measure and measure again - really would not like an error at this stage!!. As per the previous one, I'm installing an East piezo preamp with a volume control and a tone control. Then all the components have been wired and a quick test done to make sure the power is getting to the preamp only when the jack is inserted and that there is some noise when the piezo element is tapped.

I saved up wherever I could for about 2 years so far, which isn’t easy when you’re a self employed B&B and Cattery owner. Actually, it’s my wife that does that. I saved up my bass money walking people’s dogs, and that’s no word of a lie. 😊 Granted, I could have got a Metro or MetroExpress for less but my 20+ year GAS was for an NYC. I thought this over very hard. I COULD get Metro. But the NYC gas would still be there. Also granted, I could have got a really good used ‘real’ NYC for the money I’m paying for a new Satin. But I wanted the full on experience of ordering a new Sadowsky, dealing with Roger and Carl directly, even the build time, on this, the year of my 40th birthday.