Leaderboard

When they develop one that can drive a van, set-up a PA and keep a drummer sober until after the gig, I'll start worrying.

Yay! Neck done, bolted together and strings fitted. Had a quick noodle and dead chuffed so far. Will give it a little time to settle and make little adjustments where needed. Will post some proper photos later. I'm just considering a truss rod cover but that's about it. Here's one next to a normal sized bass for reference

After 23 years of messing about on bass, And owning probably close to 500 basses...I’m slowly realising that I’m a Precision (well, P/J) kind of guy. I started with a Kay Precision copy, got a Yamaha BB300 (a P type) and a Washburn XB-100...in quick succession. This came up for sale @bouvier was an absolute gent to deal with which made the money evaporate from my wallet. I’d been looking at a mates 68/69 and paid particular interest to having a TV logo burst bass with a tort guard. I have sourced a 1966 tort pickguard...god knows how, But also a limelight reissue as a “just in case”. it’s a shade under 9lbs, feels great - going to do a little infill on a chip in the neck lacquer because while it’s not bad - it’s a niggle. but for 45 years old ish - it’s a great player, warm, round - and not a huge neck. Played well out of the case - I’ve lowered the action a spot, just because I’m an incredibly lazy bass player. I’d promised the Flatwounds to @bassfan but even though I “absolutely hate rotosound flats” - these are played in and just right. The Limelight guard isn’t quite right and the screw holes don’t align perfectly - with it being an older bass, I don’t want to drill holes...

I have a 1979 Aria LC440 Custom that my dad bought new for my 15th birthday from Holiday Music in Leytonstone. It was played for a year or so before i committed to a bass future and is currently tucked up in my loft. A really pretty guitar and fabulous quality. Flamed sycamore top, mahogany body, birch neck, cream binding, gold hardware and sounds great. Its identical to this one....

Some slightly better pictures.

A lot of you know I enjoy a bass or two, and if I can have one without breaking the bank so much the better. Well I've surpassed myself. I have just had a foray into the bargain basement of the bargain basement. I've already bored you with how nice I think my Harley Benton collection is, but even I hadn't particularly high expectations of this one. The 'Progressive' series doesn't really catch the eye on Thomann's Pornhub. The shape appears a bit blobby and nondescript. The fretboard is neither light nor dark,the finish unremarkable. And it is cheap. Cheaper than an effects pedal. Cheaper than a replacement neck. But looking at it, so to speak, in the flesh and above all playing it, is a different ball game. I may have been dismissive about the aesthetics but this thing is all about the playing, not the looks. I use a little bass run to test a new bass. The opening run up of the solo in Sir Duke, to be precise. If I'm contorting my wrist to reach the top few notes then the bass needs to be sexier than Felicity Kendall playing Twister with Kate Humble, or I don't keep it. I flew up and down the neck on this one with laughable ease. It really is a joy to play. The back of said neck does not look pretty. I can see where different pieces of timber have been joined and there's a couple of unsightly dark blemishes in the wood. But it isn't a 1k bass it isn't a 500 quid bass, heck it's not even a 150 quid bass. And the neck is smooth. And it's straight. And the low action and perfect intonation tell their own story. And my hands glide over it like greased WD40 in a vacuum. The bass has a pre-amp. Another reason to pass in my book. Never got on with active basses. But it switches off and the passive tone is great. And actually, so is the active tone. And the two (again unattractive) humbuckers blend really sweetly. The pots have that tactile centre point and I would describe them as subtle but effective. No huge sweeping tonal variation but enough for me. The balance is excellent sat or standing, the weight is negligible. Not worth checking on the scales, you just smile when you pick it up. It isn't polystyrene light like some basses, you don't want to pass it round the band to see the look on people's faces but you barely know it's there when playing. Oh and as for the uninspiring finish. That solid black actually has a subtle purple tiger stripe quilty thing going on. I know many reviews will say, great for the price, be useful to give to a student and so forth. But I am gigging with this and recording with it. No question. Totally blown away. Decent pictures and sound clips will follow.

This Hagstrom has always been a bit heavy

So here is my parts stack knob replica. I tried the Fender Flea bass - essentially a '61 replica relic and I thought it was absolutely perfect for me... apart from the mechanical relic work and rather grey faded pink which I know some love, it's fantastic. It has a really wonderful aged neck, great Fender '64 Pure Vintage pickups and proper USA CTS Stack pots. So I waited to find one, and I bought one used last year from a West End theatre musician locally for a very good price with hard shell case - to then customise it to my needs. To be frank, once I'd got the Flea used it for some recording and it is was so good I was in two minds about breaking it up. But I didn't like the finish much and I really wanted it to be aged Oly white! Rexter Guitars https://rexterguitars.co.uk/ I have worked with a few times and Jon there does lovely thin nitro finishes the way I like them to my specs. Plus he's a lovely guy to work with. (no affil). So I did a bunch of research on the early '60s stack knobs and sent him some sample Oly White pics I liked and described the way I wanted it aged. So I commissioned a replacement body from him (the original Flea I will sell - ping me if you want it). I really think he did a great job (as usual), a hit of yellowing, fine checking, light distressing... so this build is a Fender-Rexter bass. The body, and hand made made tort guard are Rexter Guitars, Fender Pure vintage cover parts, aged wood pull bar, natural bone nut cut cut are by my me. It plays and sounds great. Link to a set of pics https://imgur.com/gallery/GFXN9FU

Well, this probably looks exactly the same as the previous photo, but to the dedicated air-guitarist tester (me), it actually feels completely different You can see in the top photo, @Maude , how brown that stripe looks. By the morning it will be a deep purple. Going to leave it now until the morning. The one thing I might do for the aesthetics is bring the heel transition further into the body - although playing-wise it actually feels fine right up to the 24th fret on the bass strings. These things are best left to gestate a while.

Most builders will tell you that their favourite part of a build is carving the neck. It certainly is mine The first thing I usually do is rasp-file the corners off the volute: ...which lets me go the full length heel to headstock in continuous strokes of the spokeshave: You do have to be careful with the spokeshave, though. I've gone from rectangular to broad curve on this side in just over 1.5 minutes! It would be very, very easy to overdo it! In all cases, though, I am moving progressively round from fretboard edge to the edge of the purpleheart and so taking nothing off the thickness of the neck, just removing material from the haunches. In less than 10 minutes total, I move across to a fairly fine microplane. In use, I hold either end and draw it up the neck just like a spokeshave - but trying to show that would mean me dropping the camera! You can see how quickly the basic shape starts getting there. However, I do stop frequently, have a cup of tea, play a bit of air guitar on it and view the shape from afresh to work out where I need to spend some more time. Normally, I would move onto the cabinet scraper pretty quickly (again, drawn up the neck two-handed) but mahogany is quite soft and doesn't respond so well to a scraper used hard - so for mahogany I tend to stick with the micro-plane and then use the scraper just to 'kiss' the sides rather than bulk-remove material: This is about 1 1/2 hours in, including the tea breaks. I'll come back to it this afternoon and the carve should be complete by the end of the day:

1983 ‘62 Fullerton Reissue.

I've found one, it's gorgeous, natural 3-band EQ with the old style mute bridge. £720 equivalent. Maybe next paycheck... how many basses is too many for one week? paycheck comes at the start of next week

It'll be fine - its in a soft case with 2 tons of old hifi and LP records on top of it to keep it flat! 🙂

Just to say I'm not a luthier, I'm a hobbiest builder! So I got VERY bored very quickly and had a neck lying around that was on another bass I replaced the neck on and pickups, bought a bridge and knobs etc and built the body... I'm writing as I'm uploading the pictures so I can remember everything and you can follow it and the pictures! I wanted a double P as I had a Fender CS '57 p pickup I had bought off a mate and a Dimazio P pickup which came in a project bass I got at the tail end of last year! First came the wood... I found a STUNNING 1 piece swamp ash body so that sealed it and had some red stain and guitar finishing oil so then started the process... So I started to research double P pickup basses and it came down to the BC Rich style, 80's Fender Elite P basses and the Warwick styles... I didn't like any of them! So I started to look at where my thumb sits on a P and where I should put them... So I came up with a reverse P at the front (with the bass half sitting where it would normally sit on a p bass and the treble pickup infront of it at under the D and G strings) and a P pickup behind in the "traditional" style with the bass half infront of the treble half. I cut the body using a P template, but planed it down to 41mm so it's a bit thinner than a standard P to counter the weight of the wood! I made a template for the neck I had (a Brandoni P bass) I got in 2002 when I had a frankenstein parts bass put together for me which was my first proper bass (which I think started my obsession with replacing and adjusting things). Then routed it. I then had to think about pickup positions and where I play so I took one of my other P basses and played it for a bit thinking about positions and took the covers off the fender pickup and taped them to the bass so I could see if I was happy. So came the result! So then, being a man of... larger stature and built for comfort, I had to think about contours, arm and belly! So here comes the axle grinder!!! So I then pilar drilled where the controls would be and I always LOVED the way a '62 jazz is wired with a stacked volume and tone for each pickup and wanted that look and vibe for this build seeing as I'm having 2 pickups! Then came the routing of a rear mounted control plate as the front of the bass is stunning! I used a piece of offcut from the body when bandsawing the shape out and routed the rear for this! You'll notice a knot in the wood in the rear and this was soft and plyable so I chisled it out and sealed it with glue. There was also a small crack in the wood so I did the same too that! Whilst I was looking at the bass I contemplated leaving it natural as it's just too stunning not to see the grain! Whilst I routed the neck pocket, I noticed that one the neck it's got the old fender style truss access with a phillips at the base (what I call the body end) of the neck so I took a little bit of the body away and built a template for a scratchplate/truss rod cover so I could access it... this meant making a custom shaped guard but still wanted to make it out of wood, so with a lot of sanding and shaping with a file, I made the template! Then I saw I had some Sepele lying around so I made the plate from that! Then I had to go home as it was the end of the day and I decided that my workshop needed to be shut during this time so I took home some stuff so I could do it at home! Then came a LOT of sanding... A LOT and thank god for random orbital sanders is all I can say! So I progressively took it back to 320grit! Then the red came out so I started to stain... but I forgot to use my gloves so it looked like I had murdered a small animal (clean version)! Whilst applying the stain, where I had stabilized the wood on the crack and the knot, the stain didn't take so I took the body back and started again! The stain was looking great and applied 2 coats to the bass... then I found some silver car spray paint in the shed and had a mad idea... what about a silver accented grain... stinky poo... I've gotta sand it all back again... it'll be worth it... let's do it... so I did, it's not like I'm on a time scale or can go out and gig it at the moment! So here comes the silver spray paint... And now to sand it back again after leaving it to dry... That's when I thought "Holy stinky poo, this is gonna be stunning!!!!!" So I started to apply the red stain again... 4 coats in total before oil! That's when it was confirmed I did the right thing!! This is where I discovered that the misses goes mental when red stain (which will wash away once it rains) goes on the patio! So at this point, I was waiting for the stain to layer up, I made the scratchplate silver, sanded it back and then stained it... Then came the oiling! This was long and I almost lost patience but the results are STUNNING! 5 layers of finishing oil (also Crimson Guitars) later and it was time to put the bass together... but I had forgot to locate the bridge (Sir Richard Head III!!!!!!!) So it was a quick trip back to the workshop as all the main tools including long enough rulers are there... just to locate the bridge!!!!!!! Assemply, wiring, setup, pickup height... BOOM, it's done and STUNNING! Kind of a P on steroids but with some really cool combinations of tones from the pickups and being able to change the tone on one of them and leave the other one, it's mental! Really cool! And here's a picture with my other P basses (the Kay is having new tuners, I just haven't installed them yet)! I hope you enjoyed this! I may be doing a couple more during this mad perio of not being able to gig!

My custom build is ready to go!! Can't wait to get my hands on it!

What’s going on here? They just can’t use my user name like that! Especially as mine was first and in no way is supposed to be pronounced ee-zee. Expect to hear from my lawyer. 😡

Decision made. Unbelievable.

I live my life by a simple rule - if less is more then think how much more more will be

Inside the trussrod assembly there is a threaded bar that has two opposing threads, right hand thread at one end and left hand at the other. There are two fixed threaded tubes, nuts if you like, at either end, so as you turn the threaded bar via the allen key, the opposing threads either pull the ends of the rod together curving it one way, or push them apart, curving it the other way. Edit, I should add that the above is a dual action rod. A single action is just a threaded bar which is fixed at one end and passes through a non threaded sleeve at the other, adjusting end. A nut is placed on the threaded bar outside of the non threaded sleeve and when tightened creates tension in the trussrod assembly making it bow.

I think most lyrics are rubbish, so I’m more tolerant of songs song in a foreign language, since I can’t understand the words I won’t know if they are crap.

Well, 2 in a week... For one reason or another, I found myself in Bangkok without a bass for a year. The Sterling lives with his grandparents back in England, and my life has been in a bit of a funk, sans funk. So when I was ordered to work from home, first thing I did was buy an early 90's Japanese Fender Jazz, and she's a beaut! My girlfriend heard me playing and decided she wants to learn, but needs a smaller bass. So we got out hands on a little Aria Pro II, also from Japan. Totalling £500 for the pair. I now feel as if the floodgates have once again opened, there's a Japanese made Stingray (yes, that is a thing) advertised online that is calling my name. Customary pic. His and hers:

Right, I got to the workshop unscathed, (fairly quickly, I admit). So its time to plug in and try the bass I suppose.....😁 Despite Martin keeping me informed throughout the work with lots and lots of photos along the way, there is nothing like being presented with the completed bass. I was utterly blown away by the look of the new back facing. It looks like it has always been there. It really does. Such quality workmanship by Martin, who really is a legend. Now on to the numbers: The bass, prior to the chambering work, weighed 10.5 lbs. It now weighs a simply amazing 8.1 lbs! Thats an overall reduction of 2.4 lbs. This is lighter than I could have hoped for. It is immediately more comfortable to wear, even for a 3 hour gig. I am simply delighted with the work Martin has done. Upon plugging. the bass in, a second surprise awaited. At the outset Martin was concerned what effect the chambering would have on the sound of the bass. This bass always has had 'grunt' to spare. I play in a 9-piece Soul band, with a 4 piece brass section, and they are loud, so the bass has always been turned up, to the point where my Vanderkley Aurora was clipping for 3 hours. With the new Overwater circuit, and the chambered body, the bass seems to 'breathe' more. I notice that the mids in particular seem more pronounced, but all the bass tones are still there. I am so happy with the sound, which overall is so much improved. So there we are! A scary piece of work, driven by absolute necessity, with a very happy ending! What more could I wish for. Huge thanks to Martin, for taking this job on. Thanks also to Chris and Kirstie at Overwater, and to Neil for the excellent re-finishing of the bass. I am very fortunate to own my Overwaters, and moreover, to be part of the Overwater players family. I am blessed. Thank you for reading my ramblings throughout this thread, I hope you have found it informative and entertaining in equal measure. Right, I need to get practicing! Over and out RK7

It was only a matter of time really... After seeing Mark's posts today, I made a purchase! They need the space, so I'm helping them out, right?

Time for some more woodwork on the back, fine tuning the round-overs, and drilling for the ferrules for the individual Hipshot bridge pieces:

Nearly 40 years ago the introduction of 'drum machines' prompted a drummer of my acquaintance to pen the first (and last) song he had ever written. Well, some lyrics, anyway. The song was entitled 'Black Box'. It lamented the imminent replacement of flesh-and-blood sticksmen by sinister pieces of equipment and though most of the words now escape recollection I remember that the hook line was: Black box Black box Black box Now it's all up to you This, to me, rather encapsulates the mind-set of the drummer. A swift, though stoic acceptance of his fate, tinged with a hint of petty passive-aggression. In a strange way, the drummer's song was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everyone else thought it was awful and no one would write any music to go with his words so he threw a hissy fit and left the band just before a recording session where circumstances therefore dictated that we had to use a drum machine. Alanis Marmoset would have had a field day with that set of events.

Hi everyone, My band have been working hard to get a feel-good track recorded during this isolation, which was a very steep learning curve for a lot of us, but I would like to share this with you: For those that are interested (and let's face it, you are on a bass forum, you probably are!) this was my own handmade Jazz style build with DiMarzio UltraJazz pickups through my CTM300 and ABM810. My recording method was very low tech, so you probably don't get the best representation of the sound in the room, but it does the job!

Still very synthetic sounding to my ears... And I guess it can't play fretless out of tune : useless !

The lead guitarist's a robot samurai from the future - what's not to like?

Looks a bit cheesy

Stays pretty vibrant for at least a few years, based on builds I've done in the past - although I am told that it eventually morphs to more a reddish-brown. Interestingly, when you first cut it, it is quite light brown and then the purple develops over a few hours as it is exposed to light.

Holey Crap!😱

One of my favourite ever rock records. Killer. Saw them a couple of times, they were ace. How about these?

But isn't the idea of the HXFX that it's an effects unit (there might be a clue in the name somewhere 😉) for people who are using it through a traditional rig? In that regard it makes perfect sense as well as keeping costs down for those who don't want or need the amp & cab models.

I've got a nice Japanese Strat (1954 Reissue) built in 1994. It's nitro finish and wearing quite nicely. Playing it more than the basses at the moment since we're gifted with so much free time currently. I don't have the Hayden rig anymore, it was far too loud to use at home but sounded great.

There, fixed it for ya. 👍

More recent photos.

One from the eighties.

And that’s the sad part, we all have fantastic gear sitting around at the moment 😬

Lush. Though I must say I prefer the black PG. Looks more 1970s (to me).

So, the Perception was taken through to the Overwater workshop in Carlisle, and left in Martins capable (culpable?) hands, heh heh. And the process began. First, Martin stripped all the hardware and electronics from the bass, and made an MDF jig to be fastened to the front. As this is a complete bass, the fretboard prevents the bass from lying flat on the router table. Also, upon stripping the hardware from the bass, it became obvious that the ferrules for the control cavity cover screws would need to be removed. These ferrules would make a right mess of the router bit when the back of the bass was removed. So, out they came! This is another element of the task that is not normally performed. Once there ferrules are installed, they are not intended to come out. But, Martin devised a safe way of removing them without damaging the body of the bass. With the offending metalwork out of the way, next job was to mill 5mm off the whole of the back of the bass: Eek! The point of no return! Phew, job done. Its strange to be looking 'inside' the bass. Thanks for reading RK7

Comes complete with its own custom stand.

Here is mine. A 32 inches Spoiler with flamed koa top and normal size (4/4) body. As I said earlier, I love this bass.