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The build took about 3 weeks, I made a lot of pink torpedo-ups, learned a lot, but thoroughly enjoyed building this bass, and it sounds like a 'proper' P-bass - the supplied strings are a bit crap, but functional (I'm going to replace them with Roto 66s). As mentioned by others, I might change the hardware at some point, but not just yet. The kit cost £85 plus £15 delivery from Thomann; the paint cost cost around £40 (it might have been less if I hadn't been so cack-handed!), transfer paper £5, copper tape £7, finishing compound £10. I already had the lemon oil for the fretbord and carnuba wax for polishing, and the Schaller strap lock pins, so that saved about 50 pence! One tip that I think I picked up from the Build Diaries threads was to coat the screws in candle wax to make it easier to screw them in - it works! Some of the reviews of this kit said that people were snapping screws - I managed to not break any - so thanks for the tip BCers So, the finished item: @Bridgehouse - the Aria on the left was the one I stripped the poly (dark brown tint) and polished with beeswax and carnuba. It has a lovely tactile satin finish Thank you for reading my build thread

I've wanted to build a bass for quite some time - I had a go about 20 years ago, but it did not go well. Mrs Teebs had decided that under lockdown, what I needed was 'structure', so she resolved to keep me busy with DIY tasks around the house and garden. I realised that what was required was a distraction; something that would keep me busy doing something that I would enjoy, whilst keeping me free from Mrs Teebs' evil and onerous chores. I stumbled across an old email from Thomann, and followed a link to their website, where I noticed their DIY kits - thinking that this might be a good introduction to building a bass, I bought their Harley Benton P-Bass kit (was a tricky choice between the P or the J). Despite the lockdown issues, it was delivered from Germany within a week - excellent service! Thank you Thomann. I had already found a headstock template, and slimmed it down to save a bit of weight - I'd read that these kits have a bit of neck dive. THe first thing that I did when the kit arrived was to shape the headstock using a fret saw and sanded 'til I was happy with the shape. The kit: Headstock shaped: I rough sanded the body and masked body & neck: Despite having a Fender headstock, I wasn't intending to make a replica, so I designed a logo that looks stylistically like the Fender logo, but wasn't. (Il Pavone is Italian for 'peacock' ) The name comes from the colour that I was going to paint the body and matching headstock - a darker version of Fender's surf green, but more bluish. @Ricky 4000 said it was Woolworth's green - but he's just a lout! Even @Bridgehouse stuck his oar in! *sotto voice* I hope his dinghy sinks! I think that it's a lovely colour! (Used a yellow primer x 3 coats under the blue/green) More to follow...

Hi, it´s me again from Argentina. I want to show you this time a bass that I made taking all the things that I love from Leo Fender basses. The ALL IN ONE bass or the Feo (ugly) Lender (funny name jeje) Body: Lenga (guindo) Neck; american maple Pickups: 2 Wilkinson Platinum MM style 1 Volume (500k), 1 tone (500k+82uf), 2 kill switch Color: Rustoleoum metallic apple red + sherwin williams polyurethane clearcoat

I decided, once the varnish had fully shrunk after a week's curing, that it did need flattening and then a couple of final coats of varnish applying. While I'm happy with ridges that are following the grain lines, I'm trying to get rid of the ridges that are from accumulated brush strokes and other lumps, bumps and dust buggies but taking care not to get back down to the timber. And I've mentioned it before, but it is worth repeating, that unlike nitro and other 'melting' finishes, with this kind of finish you flatten before the final coat and not after. : I have used here some 1500 grit wet 'n dry used wet and with a sanding block. Almost there. Again, I'm trying to flatten the varnish itself and not get down to the underlying timber - gently does it! : I then give one or two thin gloss coats - here I generally thin the varnish around 5% to ensure that it flows and flattens. This process often takes a few goes. This is after the first go - close but no cigar: While it's a whole lot flatter than before and the lumps, bumps and dust buggies are sorted, the surface finish is a bit bobbly. So it is simply a case of letting it cure a day, then repeating with a very light flattening (usually 2000-2500 grit) and another go...and this whole process repeated as often as needed. Here, patience is your friend - you are only affecting that final couple of coats, so at least one time it's going to be OK! This is better - much flatter than before and decent surface quality that will gloss up nicely with a light polishing in a week or so when it's fully hardened: But it's already hard enough to be worked on, so I can now carry on and finish the build Today's job is going to be fitting the magnets to the control chamber hatch that has also been varnished: And then it's the other dozen or so finishing jobs, final polish and done! Probably by the end of the coming weekend Must chase up Matt and see how he's getting on with pickups for it!

I may rename this as the slowest build ever, but I see that thread title has already been taken – I've been waiting for the return of my ACG-01 preamp from the repairman for ages now and have bought a replacement to get things moving – once that's arrived it's final sand and re-dye, then lift off. I snagged a minty, cheap used Schaller 2000 bridge from Reverb and have nicked the chrome bits and put them on the black bridge – idea stolen from the Simms Lionheart basses. Not long now!

Can't help with the technical bit, but reading through the threads on this site, perhaps remove the tort pickguard?

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

I wish I could do fretboard inlays I'd change the dots for TeebsEyes

Ah you're a comedian.... Here it is once I'd bolted the stick on it..

I sanded back the body (again! ), and resprayed (again), let the paint dry for a few days. Added the headstock transfers and clear sprayed:

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This was unexpected indeed, but hey ho; it sort of gives me the full set now (one P Bass with flats, One with Rounds, a Stingray and a Jazz Bass). I don't think I'll need a fiver (I've managed so far for 30-odd years) and I have a fretless I can borrow as and when. A friend if mine bought this new thinking that it was a 70's Jazz as he wanted the 70's pickup spacing (don't hear much difference myself) and after carefully installing the bridge cover etc. realised he'd made a mistake. Coincidentally, I'd always fancied a CAR Jazz and so a deal was done, just to help him out you understand. Having sold an Alto Sax and a few Basses recently I was in a position to do so. I've fit it with a set of TI Flats, just to mellow it down a bit and go the action nice and low for me (took a while with the 9.5" radius, but nowhere near as painful a process as a 7.5" radius) and it plays beautifully. It's very well built and put together nicely, but you don't half notice the difference when compared to a Music Man which is on a whole other level of quality to my eyes at least. I'm usually a fan of tortoiseshell pickguards but I really fancy a white one on this. Strange times...

Finished and set up. Wow this 3-Leaf preamp is the best I’ve come across so far. The Lollar pickups are very warm and vintage sounding in passive mode but in active it comes alive and all settings sound good. It’s similar to an OBP3 as it has a mini switch for mid frequencies rather than semi parametric. I couldn’t be happier with the sound and playability

😃

@Reggaebass predicted (above) what happened when I rushed into assembling the bass to test the fit & the electronics... ... dented & marked the body finish all over So sanding back; respraying etc. was the order of the day. I took the opportunity while the bass was disassembled to shiled the control cavity and back of the scratchplate: Not my neatest work, but functional And then print the headstock transfers: Some random test-build pics: The good thing about doing a test-assembly was that the sound was okay through the amp, and that it showed that the neck needed a shim.

Pay no attention to them, Young Teebs. You’ve done a grand job there and I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures of the finished article. Out of interest, how long has the build taken? And would you do another one - or has this scratched the itch? Whats your next plan to avoid Mrs T during lockdown? Build a glider in the loft? Or a 1:1 scale icebreaker? Seriously though, that looks like a nice job and I’m looking forward to your impressions on playability and tone....

This is where I absolutely don't say anything that might incriminate myself, right? Got any pics?

23” and 27” scale. The headed one is my new favourite toy!! So much so, I’m making another.

Fixed.

Shame on you 😂

To be fair my “free” offer wasn’t exactly genuine...

How short are we allowed to go here? I've recently acquired an amazing ACG Micro Bass, a 6 string based on the Reiver ChubstRR guitar. It's 26.5" scale, currently tuned E to F, but I'm going to try out B to C as down tuning has actually worked quote well, and that's with a 115 string... It's got a Flamed Maple top, and Quilted Maple back, hand coloured by Mrs ACG, on a White Limba body Bolt-on 5 piece Ash/Bubinga neck with a AI Maple fingerboard. Two FB humbucking pickups with an East Uni-pre preamp and Chrome Hipshot hardware. The look of it is something else, I given how different this instrument was going to be, I thought why not go a bit crazy and I absolutely love it! Cheers, Eude

You guys need to watch out for the “Free to a good home - 1964 Precision” thread then.

Well I had a bit of a play with the other basses last night. Started with the hollowbody 51P - yeah, it was okay. Not bad. Decent handwound pickup so should have been. Moved on to the solid body 51P with custom one off Ric style single coil - better.. bit better. Then on to the ACG Finn 4 - a step up again, rounder, more complex.. And then onto the 64P - yet another significant step up - really good as I remembered (haven’t played it for a couple of months or so) Then back to the Shuker. Yeah. After 5 mins I didn’t want to go back to any of the others. Still felt better, still sounded more complex and detailed and more pleasing. Still much preferred it. Well there you go.

Updated my board with a Boss Harmonist:

Personally, I am convinced that even once this lockdown is over, pubs and gigs will be the last thing to get back to normal. Shops will open again under stricter social distancing rules but lets face it, pubs and gigs cannot by their very nature, allow social distancing. I think we will have to wait until a vaccine is readily available before they will allow pubs and gigs to go ahead. Even restaurants will be able to open before pubs unless there is a limit to the number of people allowed in, which will make for a poor atmosphere anyway.Very soon we will be pining for the pub gigs.

Watched it earlier this morning. Had me rolling about laughing with his spaniel comment. Dave

I have gold knobs on order but thought I’d see what Sadowsky style aluminum knobs look like. Not bad

An update. I’ve been off the bass for a wee bit (just a break) and a few weeks back decided to start practising again. Once lockdown is over there’s a whole series of jams and gigs to do, so I figured it was time to start up again. I’m usually a creature of habit.. but this time I picked up the Shuker to start with. It’s the only bass I’ve played for the last few weeks. I look at other basses, but no. It’s actually better than it was. Solid, stable, more sustain and more tone. I have no idea why. It’s now officially the best bass I’ve ever played. I have even looked at the 64 Precision and thought “I should probably sell you”. I know, right?

I've sweat it out for a few days, changed my mind many a time, .......but i finally pulled the trigger, just hope they live up to hype

https://www.thomann.de/gb/sadowsky_metroexpress_21_5_vin_mo_bk.htm?glp=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-r71BRDuARIsAB7i_QOEUgdFZolfHPrTTs4PKQy7cuoqYYKo61rxuLNJTf21xGCAhbhtFT4aAgmUEALw_wcB

Comes from years of being a stand up comedian. Thats the bass player way lol.

Back in early 80's i played a fretless P bass in a rock covers band doing Kansas, Magnum, Gary Moore, Saga, ELP and it was great. I ended up getting a WAL custom fretless after that but wasn't happy with the WAL and traded it for a white Rik bass. That lasted even less and bought a Fender J with maple neck. The WAL appeared to have a dead spot around the Eb on G string but on hindsight it may well have been something silly but WAL didn't want to know. And after spending £740 on it in early 80's i wasn't a happy chappie with them. RANT over i think if you put the effort in you can indeed play in most styles but it does take work to get there. I kinda lost the notion for fetless after the WAL incident and stuck with fretted until 2010 when i bought my Overwater 6er custom Fretless more for a challenge and to push me a bit plus i wanted something special for my 50th. Wife's idea to get the bass so can't complain. Some pics of my WAL, Shergold twin 4&8 (their first 8 string bass built using their 6 string bass) and my Fender P bass. (back in the days when i was a skinny 9.5st) Dave

Yeah, I might go fretless only and give all my fretted basses away to good homes.

I think your experience is a minority one. I've been gigging for about 30 years and I reckon I've done about 5 gigs in that time where I could have done without an amp.

I'm in. I have it on a word search now. I'll get a notification as soon as it appears or maybe even before its written. Dave

A policy I try to follow but, the resistance is ebbing away here. The draw of Noggin the Nog, one of my all time favourite programmes (with Mr Postgates' wonderfull narration), is causing a wobble !!

Heres the latest video https://youtube/gKFJsxEMHMQ

Something like this pickguard and control plate combo, perhaps?

We have drifted from pubs to functions, which is better money, nicer venues and more space typically (not always) I don't miss setting up next to the toilet door or pool table. But I do miss being able being able to set up in the evening, playing what would now feel like straight away and get out straightaway. Functions can be a real bind setting up before lunch, playing at 9:30 then waiting for the 'disco' to finish at 1 or 2 in the morning.

Also consider LR Baggs who make great pickup systems with a non-destructive preamp mounting on the sound hole... https://www.lrbaggs.com/acoustic-guitar-pickup-systems Blendable under saddle and internal mic... https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/L-R-Baggs-Anthem-/art-GIT0028945-000?campaign=GShopping/UK&ProgramUUID=HADAqJarPzAAAAFlea9yjI.G&gclid=Cj0KCQjw17n1BRDEARIsAFDHFeyS8I8ZBjLgL2WAWBc5FQyxZ9y92VF8_yAUNj4bENhdL-JxpbCHVxsaAs76EALw_wcB

A band is for life not just for Christmas 😂

Cut out the body shape today - the holes are from where I attached the template, but they will be obliterated/obscured but the forearm contour, scratchplate and neck pocket respectively.

Ok, just discovered this thread. Great opportunity to showcase my Spector basses again 😎 First up is my beloved Euro Mike Starr LE with Haz 9V. This bass has some serious oomph. Not sure my neighbours appreciate it though 😀

Lockdown symptoms: really weird haircut, and swapping out my EB Cobalt flats for a set of D'Addario steel rounds. Sound like stilettos through plate glass. This'll keep me amused for another day.