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Well - other than I'm going to recommend to @TheGreek that I order a replacement barrel jack for it (it works - but it crackles when you really start rocking!), it's finished. Hatch fitted and magnets installed; frets polished; fretboard cleaned and oiled; bridge fitted; bass set up; sound check completed Here it is:

Recently moved house so have the space to get my music stuff out again, I'm sure my new neighbors are enjoying it as much as I am!

Same basses, different 'series' name.... zzzz....

It seems Alex has a response... https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/im-handsome-like-phoenix-and-play-all-instruments-t1171857.html

Thanks to the stupendous work of RichardH, I am pleased to announce that we have the final drawings for the complete design of this latest version. On page 1 of this thread you'll now find a PDF containing the technical drawing, exploded assembly view, wood cutting list, crossover circuit and crossover layout - everything, in fact, that you need to build one of these from scratch. LukeFRC, who's about to go on holiday for two weeks, has done a great job with the design for the logo and name, and has sourced and ordered badges for the grille, and stickers for the handle and input panel at a price that is difficult to believe. They'll be available when he gets back, and I think I should let him do the reveal. The CNC cabinet kits are progressing at a pace that is causing me to pull my hair out, but we should have one or two pre-production prototypes soon. I expect these to be perfect, but it would be foolish to order an entire batch without making sure. The first two will go to those in the queue who are close enough to the supplier to collect. Failing that, I'll offer them to those who placed their orders first.

Have you ever... ...?

I'm asking Rocco to fund my holiday to Crete

I would advise the 7% to take a very careful look at themselves - if you can't identify the idiot, then there's a good chance it's you. Everyone in my current band seems cool and competent, no idiots, so I am worried...

Frankly, I think it's time that the estate of the late Mr Paul Bigsby (1899–1968) sued both Fender and Gibson. Below: From 1947-1948 (four years before the Les Paul and six years before the Strat). Nice headstock and body shape, eh? and this two pup Bigsby: It is a fact that both Leo Fender and Les Paul knew Bigsby, sat around and discussed guitars, saw his work, etc. Suck on that, Gibson bread-head dudes.

So Gibson are launching lawsuits a week or two after the webz ripped them a new one about the Agnesi vid and just as the eagerly awaited and critically important new models are shipping?

Claiming Trademark Counterfeit is a fairly bold move, by bold I mean ridiculous. Nobody who buys a Dean thinks they're buying a Gibson. It's a pity Gibson don't put as much effort into making good quality instruments, at sensible prices, as they do into this sort of faff.

1. Has anyone found playing to a more genre oriented audience results in an improved response Yes. When starting out it definitely helps if you can find a venue which actively promotes (or at least accommodates) your genre of choice. Basically you and your band tip up and insert yourself into a pre-existing scene. If you're a start-up band then don't expect to get paid more than a pittance, if that. 2. Has anyone found that most audiences want to hear covers and not our own material Depends on the venue. Yer average local pub offers live music mostly as an incentive to people to come and drink there. Yer average local punter going for a night out at yer average local pub with a band thrown in (as opposed to specifically going out to see a band) seldom welcomes 'challenging' material. In that respect, vanilla covers bands offer reassurance and familiarity and ignore-ability whereas originals bands - er - don't. The trade-off is that covers venues are pretty much ubiquitous whereas genre-specific venues are fewer in number and therefore more thinly spread in a geographical sense. This means that bands and audiences have further to travel with all the concomitant issues of cost, time and logistics. The upside to genre-specific or music-specific venues is that punters are going there specifically for the music rather than simply to get mullered with their friends and moan that the band is too loud. 3. I'd like to swap the bass guitar neck onto my explorer 6 string body, do people this this is possible? Yes, people have done stuff like this. Yes, it is possible. But it is not a straight swap and will require substantial reconfiguration of the component parts for little real benefit. If you want an Explorer bass buy an Epiphone Explorer bass or a similarly asymmetric instrument. Don't buy something that's too pointy unless you want punters to think you're a Metal band.

The bass above (Ebay sale) was indeed a hand made bass (Made in Essex). Out of all the Iceni Zoots that were the same as this one, I only made 3 in this peacock blue. The reason for this was I used up the left overs from the bass bodies I painted for the Mark King basses he endorsed for Fender (Martin Simms did the necks and LED's etc and final assembly) I remember at the time I had some heavy swamp ash in stock and that got used on these Iceni Zoot basses as well, I seem to also remember they were as punchy as hell. The original Zoot Chaser was indeed made in Japan by Nanyo Beakoi (bass collection, Deviser basses etc) However, we did the final setup in Essex, and fitted with a John East 2 band E.Q. and our own custom made "Iceni CSD" pickups (or you could have Bartolini / Seymour Duncan's as a cost option upgrade) Here's a picture of the Mark King bodies being painted at my old factory. Note the colour. Also a picture of one of the other 3 that had a pickup option upgrade and is still being gigged every week by Bassist Steve Clark. The King bodies are in fact the same colour as the Zoots, it's just that the King basses are waiting for the second and third colour coats to be applied, that's why they look a bit lighter in the pictures.

For too many years, prog has been the "love that dare not speak its name", my solitary vice and my shame. It's good to finally see that I'm not alone and that I can walk with my head held high at last...... Thank you, Rich. Thank you (breaks down, sobbing... .)

I don't know if prog is fashionable, don't give a sht if it is or not, don't care if people think me a quote weirdo unquote for listening to it. I love a bit of prog, me. In fact I like an awful lot of prog, thank you very much.

We auditioned candidate no. 2 last evening. He turned up on time. He had prepared the songs we'd asked him to learn. He's a decent singer and a good harmonica player. Funnily enough he seemed to enjoy letting loose on a song we'd given him that he hadn't heard before. He's a personable guy. We've invited him back. This looks promising.

I was genuinely expecting it to be a new model, like the Dimension, but yeah - someone's hit the random configuration generator a few times and this is what you get, with another sneaky £100+ on the price tag.

Gotta love the period-correct Pau Ferro fingerboards 🤨

Would someone like to explain what’s new about this series? Looks like the same old stuff they have been making for years! Shouldn’t 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Precision’s and Jazzes have bridge covers and pickup bridges?

His name is Barry Savoy. His parents used to take him on holiday to Barry island, and...

I need blinkers like on racehorses when I go to a music store. I'm getting better, once, I went in and didn't even go into the bass room, true ! OK, I DID buy a drum kit that day hehehe

Have to yet do the final fit, but I reckon mission accomplished, @TheGreek ?

Used the Tc 450 combo last night with full band..... something of a first for me was using the inbuilt compressor.... I’ve managed to play for over 25 years without one but last night I’ve got to say I was really happy with it. it gave such a warm yet punchy well balanced sound with just seemed to sit perfectly in the mix.... im really happy with it 👍🏻

Oh, and I've added tweeter protection to the crossover. Bass guitar is never going to stress the compression driver in this system, but better safe than sorry.

No, that was a completely different one all together, nothing to do with this one at all, in any way, shape or form...you are completely mistaken and if you persist with the rumour it is the same as this one you'll be hearing from my lawyer... It is DEFINITELY NOT this one!! (all be it with a new body)

The list of corporates with leadership who a) know what they're doing, and b) give a f**k about their market is sadly getting shorter every day

Blummin eck. Looks a damn sight better than it did when I first met most of it!

What a negative thread! Give them some credit - they've made up a word!

What'd you think of my new low-level stainless steel PUP surround thingy from that nice man at Retrovibe? 🙂

Yay!

I thought that was your Hacked Bank Account name...

Have you not been before?

That'll be why I've never heard of her! I'm too busy actually getting out and playing live.... lol!

Showing up on time and learning the songs is the benchmark for me. Being able to get along with everyone would be the other part of that trilogy. Next up, look the part and buy the occasional drink. The finesse part is the helping pack away bit. Anything else is either a bonus or a miracle!

That's a bit of a nuisance. Luckily I was able to bag what I think was the last WD Music jazz body on the shelf, which I intend to employ in exactly that manner.

I take it when you but the 70`s Jazz you get a dodgy neck pocket, boat anchor weight and general shoddy QC? But not all 70`s Fenders are crap: so says everyone who tries to sell one I take it that knowing Fender these ones will be more expensive than the almost exactly the same models that these ones replace?

Clacton-On-Sea Ue Coffee Roasters True Artisan Cafe & Store

Young Teebs, eh? He likes to be up and cheekin' nice and early. The wee tinker....

You're becoming my comfort blanket on this build @Cuzzie Haha - thanks...has to be said, the Basschat community is a reassuring place at times...!

Mate you are missing the points of a limiter vs a compressor, I am not entirely sure this is because you don't 'get it' or because you are being deliberately obtuse I'll assume you don't get it and move on with:- Limiters vs Compressor 101 Or - why you might need BOTH a limiter and a compressor (oh crikey!) So, there are several very real differences between a device designed to primarily limit a signal and a device designed to compress a signal. They are:- Limiters are capable of far faster attack times than compressors (nano seconds) Limiters are never 'soft knee' compressors Limiters are capable of far higher ratios than compressors Limiters tend to measure instantaneous level rather than an aggregation of level over time (often RMS based) in order to achieve protection grade compression Limiters rarely have a make up gain, they are not about making things seem louder on average, they are about prevention of dangerous level spikes Dedicated limiters are almost always VCA or FET based, since these are capable of the fastest reaction to overloads Limiters set too heavy are really really obvious, and 'feel' terrible! They are things of subtlety only when used as nature intended There are similarities too:- Dedicated limiters have most of the same array of controls, threshold, attack, ratio, release Some limiters are pretty transparent, some are not, if you push any limiter too hard the artifacts become increasingly obvious, badly so Because limiters are so obvious people sometimes use them in the place of a compressor for the effect they produce, this is not necessarily a bad thing Little is better than lots almost always, unless you know what you are doing, like jazz you cant break rules if you don't know them, but if you don't try breaking them (with the knowledge of the potential issues) you never achieve anything new either Like a compressor a limiter in uneducated hands is almost always going to ruin everything.... So why would you need both a limiter and a compressor at the same time? Firstly you must really 'get' all the variables you have at your disposal when compressing. Secondly you must understand the nuances of many popular ways to use a compressor. This will lead you to understand why a limiter can also help a lot without actually causing any issues, or just ruin everything in the wrong hands. So we have threshold, attack, ratio, release and make up gain on a compressor. Setting a good obvious ratio (say 4:1) and a threshold where this is hit on almost all your notes (going for a Sledgehammer sort of effect type of sound) yeah your dynamics will be affected to an extent but you get a killer super fat tone right! Well, not necessarily, a big part of that tone is the pick attack at the start of the note, that transient spike is super cool and adds untold definition and brightness to an otherwise dark tone. The answer is to roll your attack back to at least 60ms, bingo super heavy tone, mega transient, brilliant! Nope not so fast cowboy, the compressor is catching everything after 80ms, it is crushing it to 1/4 its original volume, your make up gain then times your volume by about 4 to bring that level back up, but here's the nuance, that make up gain is not applied only when the compressor is actually compressing, it is just a general lift applied to the entire signal. So your transient is now massively uncurtailed next to the rest of the signal, it is going to hit your amp way harder than before and may even clip your preamp. You may not even hear it other than more brightness because a clipping transient tends to just sound a bit harsh or in some setting better than a not clipped transient, but that level is there and its going to end up hitting your drivers in a moment - uh oh! How do you solve for this? What you need is a really fast compressor that just prevents that transient from ever quite getting so loud as to cause an issue, but doesn't change the rest of the signal at all. A limiter does this, remember we have a fricking massive spike at the front of this signal now that we are just trying to take the edge off on the most exuberant notes, we need to measure this spike in terms of nano seconds to do this effectively so a standard compressor cant do it, it measures average level over the last n ms for a start! A real limiter will let you dial in a threshold that damps down that spike as it happens without you hearing that that is the case (super short signal bursts remember) typically the threshold will be at least 6dB higher than the threshold on the compressor, often more. The attack needs to be as close to instant as possible, the release can be quite short though, say 10ms to cover for the entire transient once the level dips below the threshold. The ratio must be at least 10:1, real limiters are more like 20:1. No make up gain at all, this is a wall not step ladder! The result is even more consistent level, the ability to get more level without damaging anything and done well, even more transparency. A limiter in this traditional setting should be after all the compression that is going on. If you are using it as a speaker protector put it after all the other fx, last in your chain before the amp and unless something is going wrong with feedback or a filter sweep or a jack being unplugged you will never see it light up at all, but if any of these things occur your drivers will be safer. So a limiter used in a traditional way does not ever truly effect the sound other than to prevent clipping/dangerous driver excursion. It doesn't matter if you dig in the part the limiter changes, if all you gain staging is set correctly, is so tiny that you are pretty unlikely to hear it, instead you wont hear your drivers melting, or your tweeters pop or some such, or even have your amps protection circuitry turn on.

1. "Know your audience" 2. IMHO people want to hear tunes they know........ 3. Several major issues: neck pocket - bridge position will probably be different, resulting in the bass neck fret placement all wrong. Guitar body will have a 6-string guitar bridge and pickups? If you swap these too, and relocate the bridge to the correct place, it might work. But I imagine the neck -body join will be clearly seen as bodged (is the neck pocket even the same dimensions? I would have thought the bass one will be longer and thinner). Also the angle will probably be slightly off, resulting in either no action, or too high action. This would be correctable with a shim or two, but will probably be visible. And the chances of putting the guitar neck onto the bass body are just as slim too. In fact, all the corrections (bridge location, pickups etc) will result in a bodged look, or plain not work properly. It would take a lot of time and skill to visually fix these. You'll probably just end up devaluing/ruining 2 perfectly reasonable instruments and regretting it.

Hi Personally, I would go simpler, assuming it's a normal decal and that it doesn't specifically exclude tru-oil (which would be very surprising - tru-oil is exceptionally unreactive)... If I was using Tru-oil for the neck, personally I would also use tru-oil for the headstock too. It will take a number of coats to soak into the wood and start to build to a shine, but once that's done, the decal should adhere perfectly well. Once the decal is on and dried, a few new coats of tru-oil, allowed to dry between each coat, will seal the decal perfectly well.

Top fella 👍

Terrible, isn't it? Then you dredge up some simple yet crappy bassline that you half-remember from years ago, play a bum note in it, then find yourself examining the fret as-if it's the bass not you... then you feel all hot and prickly, and you notice another civilian has wandered into the shop, and he's looking at the mandolins... he doesn't want a mandolin! He's come in there to watch you crash and burn! And is that a smirk on his face?? ... that's it, make your excuses and leave in a hurry... Nope, that's never happened to me.

Well first bass finished and it’s bloody lovely. Better than I thought it would turn out and I really enjoyed it. Big thanks to BassDoc for his help and advice. Sounds mega with the CS62 pick ups and ‘62 Luxe loom. It’s absolutely killer, well I think it is. Can’t wait to get the other Candy Apple Red one finished now. Few gratuitous pics attached. Gonna call it ‘sexual chocolate’ 😂😂

That's either the best typo or auto-correct ever! I shall never call them Overwaters again! 🤣

Don't get too excited - the bridge isn't fixed yet and I haven't started on the back cover or the frets tidy-up, but with most of the rest done, thought it was worth a quick mock-up. I know I say this about all of @TheGreek 's builds and saves, but this is one of my favourites :

A rare thing indeed......