Leaderboard

For polyurethane varnish finishes, nowadays, I use an artist's watercolour fan brush. In the case of Tru-oil, if I am going for gloss I wipe it on with a decent-quality lint-free cloth. In both cases, the final coat is determined by when 'that's it - STOP!' rather than the number of coats. And sometimes that's very quick and sometimes that is multiple 'flatten it, add a coat, add a final coat' cycles. I also tend to apply the finish 'back and sides' then, when it's dry, 'top and sides' And the second coat of 'back and sides' went on extremely well - and my experience says I should STOP on that before I try another coat...and wreck it Here it is: The top, on the other hand, is getting there but still needs a few more (or many more) cycles: But, overall, so far so good

Decision made: Matt finally decided to go with the scratch plate, so I screwed it on and did the final setup. His custom made Zoot Funkmeister is now ready. Here a couple of quick shots taken early this morning in the workshop of the finished bass.

OK, so first build and first proper post, so go gently 😁 Compared to the stuff done in here this is almost embarrassing to do but we all have to start somewhere I guess, so, I am fairly recently back into Bass after nearly 40 years, decided to do a cheap project P style bass, back then I was plug and play (Vox Standard amongst others) very little attention to anything else. OK, I could have bought a decent one but I like to tinker and nothing better than taking something average or less so in this case, improving and learning along the way. So I found an unloved HB SBK 20 on FB for £40 and thought I didn't have a lot too loose at that, what's the worst that can happen?? The thing was shot Tuner wise, but apart from a couple of little nicks good condition. Tuner cogs teeth were all chewed flat, would tune somewhat and just slip out of tune, sounded ok though but needed sorting. I am not taken with the all Black look so decided to go Chrome, nice contrast to the Black, imo. So the shopping list was..................... Chrome Bridge and Tuners (£42) Seymour Duncan QP's (£80) Black Tusq Nut (£10) Chrome String retainer (£3.50) P Bass Flat Top Knobs (£8.50) Stainless Scratch plate screws (£5.25) Chrome Strap buttons (£7.99) Copper Tape (7.99) Pots/Wiring (£23) Ebay SBK 20 (£40) I wont you anyone more than you probably are by now, so I will be brief as possible with the rest. Removed old Tuners, plugged old holes with Cocktail sticks and CA, was not worried on looks as they come under the new Tuners so not an issue. Re drilled the new tuner holes without much fuss. Then the same on all the scratch plate screw holes, all bar one were stripped as such, left them 5 mm short of the top so as to leave a bit of a guide for new screws, all tighten to a stop now. Dry fitted the new wiring/pots, this just needed a small amount of wood off the side of the recess for it to drop in nicely, the old pots were crap, all the adjustment in the last quarter of a turn, nothing before and they were very, very loose friction wise, so worth changing the lot. The nut was a bit more of an effort, guess HB decided they were unlikely to be changed so it was well glued in, had to remove it bit by bit, a pain tbh but got it all out, tidied the slot up and the new one slipped in a treat. Then it was shielding the scratch plate and cavity, I wanted to do this to more to try it, as a few quid and a couple of hours is cheap learning imo. Went with the 1" width as more versatile for the job in hand imo. I had assembled everything back together prior to doing this too see how the tone noise was prior to shielding and it was quite loud, mostly disappearing when strings etc touched, happy to say (once I had earthed it, DUH!!!!) the result is considerably quieter now, so worth the effort and it gave me the opportunity to do a few photos for this, not great but hopefully show Its not perfect, a few rookie mistakes along the way but hey ho!!!!!! Put it all back together and put some DR Hi Beams I bought for my TRBX to try it out, actually surprised how good they sound, nice thud but quite bright too, but I will try some flats on it at some point soon though. I was not looking to make it Classic P Bassy looks wise or sound wise, just what I liked and that it sounded good to me and it does, so for a first basic attempt it is a win win for me especially at a tad over £230 all in, plus some new strings eventually, which is what this was all about for me, a pointless waste of time and money to some I guess, could have bought a ............. for that etc, but each to their own, still a very enjoyable and educational exercise well worth doing. Thanks for reading to this point (if you did) Cheers 😊

A long period of marketplace inactivity came crashing down this week. I've saved up, and I've sold so I can replace my aging pc and get myself a backbeat. Useful items both, especially with online rehearsal perhaps become a regular thing even after lockdown. Then some unavoidably irresistible stringed things appeared and my resolve collapsed like a soufflé in a sink. One of these impulse buys brings to two the Cort corner of my collection. This beautiful jazz joins the C4, also purchased here fairly recently. I make no secret, I bought both on the looks / price tag method of instrument selection. I'd only heard the Cort name mentioned here, and then not often. But always the remarks were favourable, always suggesting underrated, quality basses. My test is simple: if all other basses had to go would I be happy to be left gigging with this one? A resounding yes for both of these beauties. So playable, well balanced and comfortable. Underrated? Not here, not any more.

*Warning non-Yamaha content* I like it how it turned out as is. A £250 paint job on top of new pick ups and then it all becomes folly! I can see some new dings and a run but for a £120 bass it sounds and feels as good as many other jazz basses out there for a lot more money.

Thats a good bit of information, @Hellzero, ive never tried one of their preamps, ill have to look into it. some very interesting stuff on the PDF for the bassXX preamp though The next stage in the marquetry work for the back of the neck is to finish off the pattern at both ends, and extend the beam so that it runs the length of the body and the headstock. first off, i cut another strip from the walnut/purple veneer that will extend the central stripe. the idea is to have this exend all the way down the back of the body and the headstock as well: i also cut strips from another fretbaord blank to exend the rosewood parts. i then cut two more triangles from the oak/maple rope laminate so that it looks like it wraps around at either end: then, using a hardwood board as a backstop, its all clamped and glued together then, once both ends are extended this way (the body extension is longer than the headstock, for obvious reasons), i planed each side flat and glued a strip of the light veneer down either side: and finally, carefully remove the excess with a sharp chisel Very pleased on how this has turned out. im looking forward to planing one side dead flat and glueing the Carbon rods in place as this will ensure everything stays flat and straight. this may look pretty but it isnt stiff ive carried on winding my pickup bobbins in the meantime, and started to do the first bits of work on the pickup PCB's as well: this is the 4 position switch for the pickup in place. the pickups are going to be fairly large, but i wouldve struggled to save much more room than i did. These Brass standoffs are then attached the the PCB base with some black nuts. these are M3 standoffs, and the 4 Hex bolts screwed into them will be used to adjust the coil heights for each string (this is what the 4 holes in the top of the pickup cover are for) the plan later on is to replace these with some shiny gold screws, but for now these black ones will work just fine. so far everything lines up nicely as expected The leaf inlays arrived in good condition, and im really pleased with them. they should look lovely in a macassar ebony board. ive decided that i want to add something else to these however, to really make the fretboard stand out. the plan is to inlay 2 tree branches cut from a brown Malee knife scale blank to add some additional detail and contrast to the fretbaord. doing this on the dining room table, the little one wanted to come and do drawing too, so a pleasant evening spent all round! the next step is to cut the branches from the burl and then inlay these into the fretboard, and then move onto the shell laminates. im also shortly going to cut the two rosewood beams for the neck as well, and hopefully finish one set of coils so i can get one of the pickups wired up to make sure everything fits... busy busy busy

Well, whenever I've been on holiday on Greece, I've always struggle to find a good source of... ...oh wait, never mind...

Next steps were to put some packing strip in the bottom of the original trussrod slot to level it out from its original curved single-action rod rout, then put in the new two-way rod and finally fit and plane level a piece of binding strip to act as a truss-rod cap: ...and that means that the next job is re-fitting the fretboard Which, all being well with be tomorrow.

Full disclosure, I actually did consider buying the pink sparkle HH when it first arrived at Bass Direct. It would have suited my 80’s band perfectly, but I wasn’t prepared to drop £2,799 (I think) at the time. I saved the picture to my photos.

I love compression and my bass playing just doesn't feel right when playing without it. But compression is a bit of a black art and depending on which flavour of compression is used it can sound as though nothing is happening when it's just the bass in isolation but play along with the band or even a backing track and it will make sense. Definitely do a bit of research into compression so that you understand what's going on, it'll help you to set one up so that it works better for you. Having said that, there's a lot of misconceptions about compression - some of which have been repeated on here and really don't achieve anything other than spreading fake news and adding further confusion to an already misunderstood subject. So maybe start with the link that Grandad posted above as Basschat isn't always a reliable source of 'truth' when it comes to compression* *Unless it's been written by @51m0n in which case it is the unquestionable word of the God of Compression.

They don't seem to have a history of that. Look at their Caprice and new Cutlass models, for example. They looked very attractive, a Precision style bass with the MusicMan build quality? I could be persuaded... erm, how much? rather than adjusting their prices they concluded there was not enough interest and discontinued it, preferring instead to bring yet more colours, with glitter! yay!, of their usual models. I suspect, if anything, they'd restrict their options even more by offering just a handful of colours/combinations. A used SR5 looks like a very good alternative to buying new now, and if I want a specific colour I can get it refinished and still have a LOT of cash in my pocket.

A very reasonable theory. However, it does have one tiny flaw. After Covid is over and Brexit calms down, do you think the prices will come down?!! They won't.

Pino's hands reminded me of someone, but I couldn't remember who. Then it dawned on me...

I think the antidote is to listen to many isolated bass tracks. Many of them are not great on their own.

So Pino Palladino's releasing a solo album in March, and he has released the first single last week, it's called "Just Wrong", here's the studio version: But today, a live version of that composition surfaced on the YouTubes. Pino on his fretless Stingray with Blake Mills and Sem Gendel. And I can't express how much I love Pino's playing in this video. Look at those HUGE hands. Listen to how he handles harmonics. Check out the brilliant arrangement, both in composition and sounds between the musicians. What an amazing piece of art.

... then you'd be living in North Korea.

Anyone else discovered that while recording yourself can be fun and helpful it can also be deeply depressing, revealing that what you thought was your totally tight pocket is actually a shallow bomb crater?

I am not sure if this will tell you anymore than you know, but I think this is a great video on how to use compression, albeit 25 mins long:

I think we are back on track. Absolutely took no chances and threaded the holes first, then screwed in the (cr@p) ferrules and let them protrude 1mm so I could position the block perfectly. The maple block is on a slight diagonal, giving a bit more “meat” on the bass side. Once dry I will trim flush and adapt the neck pocket. Crisis averted, lesson learnt.

Just for interest these are the predicted responses of the two speakers at 320W, the thermal limit of the 12CMV2. You can see that the response below 100Hz is pretty nearly identical, above that the SM212 has about an extra db which is just about noticeable in A/B listening. Subjectively the volume levels are the same as the 12CMV2 has a broader midrange peak and of course that is where our hearing operates best. As i said above I think this is why it sounds more agile and detailed. The -10db point is around 50Hz which is quite good for a little cab like this and both speakers manage 120db levels across most of the range which was the original design target and should be enough to work for most bands.

Is this a Korean bass...? Ho Lee Fouk! Sorry... That is an amazing piece of work. So many lovely touches. 👍

A 'Dastadly' upgrade their Mutley... Snazza frazza rashin' fashin'

Dagenham?

I had ups and thomann updates by text if this helps: 1. It said is was due on Monday morning (6 days after ordering). 2. Then on monday afternoon it said 'delayed'. 3. Eventually it recalibrated to say delivery due the Monday after. 4. Then on the Friday it said due on Tuesday between (11 and 3). 5. It turned up Monday afternoon 4pm. So, I think we have to bare with the couriers and distributors at the moment. We are only a month in, so problems are be expected, as frustrating as it is. There will be things that need updating, but I'm sure itll be fine soon.

Shh.. Don't p1ss on their parade 😜

As someone alluded to earlier, this sort of pricing (not even taking into account how much this will invariably rise again in a year or two) surely means the end of Musicman Basses as a viable entity in this country? I can't think of anyone outside of the tiny group of die-hards, who would pay this money for one. Luckily the the 2nd hand market is saturated enough to make sure people can pick them up with ease, at sensible pricing.

After a thorough google search I've decided I would like to buy a beaten up 424 and have it lovingly refinished in Pharaoh Gold I got the idea after coming across a really bad photo of a natural finish 2024 that made it look like dullish gold. I'm now trying to picture the BB's pickup surrounds against that textured gold (initially I wanted to write "metallic gold" but that seemed tautologous....🙄)

Back to basics - you should have a bass guitar that sounds like ....errrr..........a bass guitar anytime you plug it straight into a desk or an amp. It's that simple. Any effects pedals should be just to fine tune your sound or to get a particular effect, not to get a basic sound. I'm no expert, but this problem simply sounds like the input on your desk is set far too sensitively for the chunky bass signal you're providing. What if you plug straight into a small amp? Do you have the same problem?

Sent off to the Famous Quotes topic...

@Ricky Rioli here’s something Dave Wilson did for @walshy in a similar vein

Thought I'd bring the captain's log in to the thread to help.

Not a pointless waste of time and money at all. An invaluable learning experience that has given you a sense of achievement and a lot of fun, more like. I love this kind of fiddling, myself.

Love the figuring of the maple in the neck, top top work, this is gonna be a stunner. And I still want it 🤪

Repeat after me, as many times and as often as is necessary... 'Less Is More'

Sorry Mr McFly. I actually really love that finish 🙈🙈. Then again I would. This is my number one. . . . Brighter and bolder the better!! 😂

Yes, they may have to "reconsider" their pricing strategy in a year or two. I don't see a fairness issue though. No one is forced to pay the new price. There are plenty of alternatives. As mentioned, I doubt anyone, apart from the fan brigade, will pay these crazy prices anyway. BTW, I just got myself a used G&L L2K instead of the Special. As it is used, I still have some money left to get myself a used P bass (my "Motown", old school bass) too. Happy days 😁

Plan E. Try ordering from one of the music shops in Bulgaria. It's only next door and Ekont (couriers) cover both countries, and are dirt cheap.

The right *Way*...

I know this is quite an old thread, but I was looking around the web for info on this myself and wanted to share the method that helped me remove some wax residue left on the rosewood fingerboard of my Musicman Stingray. The residue was the result of wax left behind on the open pores from using a Gorgomyte cloth. I'm not knocking the product (because I've successfully cleaned rosewood fingerboards with it before), but maybe it was an old one, or the air got to it, but either way it left behind flecks in the wood grain and I researched ways of removing it, before putting the job off for a while. Until today. I used an unused soft toothbrush and Dunlop 01 fingerboard prep and a clean microfiber terry cloth. I sprayed the fingerboard prep onto the cloth and then rubbed it into the fingerboard to start to soften around the wood pores. Next I sprayed the toothbrush bristles with the prep and (gently) worked the toothbrush into and around the pores. I started working along the woodgrain, but found going gently from side to side seemed to effectively remove the wax like a splinter. A word of caution: I tried using a toothbrush on an old Aria Pro 2 bass I had and it left scratch marks - so go do not apply too much pressure (remember: Gently Bentley 😉). It took quite a while, but to me it was well worth the effort as I got nearly all of the wax out. After the toothbrush, I gave the entire fingerboard another wipe with the cloth sprayed with the prep just to remove any small debris and give it a once over. I then wiped the fingerboard with a clean part of the cloth and liberally applied the Dunlop 02 fretboard conditioner allowing it to soak into the wood pores of the fingerboard for a couple of minutes before wiping away the excess with another clean microfiber cloth. After that, I polished the frets and put new strings on. I rinsed the toothbrush bristles with washing up liquid (acts as degreaser) and dried it out so I could use it again. I know there are quite a few different ways that people have got results from this so I wanted to share mine. Hope it helps. 🙂 All The Best! Dave

They’re struggling to be audible above thundering double bass drums!

Also the slowed down 'male' version is quite interesting/amusing/strange.