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There's something magnificently and indisputably Glaswegian about the fact the fretless version's called the 'Nofretiti'!

This was the switch and pot layout I agreed with @Jus Lukin when I was working out the size of the control chamber. We have some options for the tone, volume and jack, but this is basically where the switches will go. And this really was a 'measure 14 times, drill once' jobee! Especially as the SimS switches are offset! The twenty six more times measuring got me here: Tight! Pots and jack positions next and then it will be the chamber shielding

We're going for an oval jackplate, set into the body. It's 6 of one and half a dozen whether this is best done before or after the main finishing. For gloss, I tend to do any holes and cuts after because these kinds of features can tangibly change how well the coats go on the way I do it. If I was doing a spray finish, I would do it before. It never ceases to amaze my just how big a hole you have to drill to fit a standard jack plug! 20mm is pretty much the minimum and even then you often have to taper it to allow the tip contact the required movement: And these jack plates don't have a lot of leeway: A carpenters mallet and two or three different radius curved chisels around the periphery and I can start paring away the wood with a standard chisel. The criss-cross formed by the chisels is useful because it prevents chippings getting too large and deep: And happily, no slips. In the morning, I'll tidy up the edges with some fine emery and finish off with a quick sealing wipe of tru-oil:

This came up on YouTube looking for something else. They seem to be playing the tune in triplicate at break neck speed. The bassist really goes for it on that Mosrite, love the cool dress code too. Bring back matching jackets and guitars 😁

So this arrived today as an addition to my 80's/early 90's Pointy headstock collection. It's an all-original Charvel 1B (goodness, I think the strings were the original ones!) which is Charvel's take on a passive P Bass bit with a reverse P pickup. I've got another one in red that I'm hoping to be reunited with after lockdown and they really are super basses. This one is in a real state and looks like it's been used as an oar to row through a swamp at some stage: it's filthy. The knobs were spinning freely and the control cavity looked like it had someone's ashes in it when I opened it but both were quickly resolved (amen). The neck had taken a step to the right at some point and the G String was very close to the edge near the body , so needed a bit of a tap on the headstock. I'm still not sure it's 100% as I've not restrung it yet but it looks a lot better. Tomorrow I'm going to don my full HAZMAT suit and give it a good clean. Fingers crossed I'll survive.

I know a bit but I can't guarantee it'll clarify much! The J copy's Korean & made by Samick The identifiers are the square heel, pressed backplate tuners & narrow unstamped neckplate, which aren't features you'll find on an MIJ Jazz. The control cover's a bit of an odd shape but don't remember seeing that before, actually looks like a home-made replacement. The pickups are the same design as the MIJ Maxons but either copies or (more likely) licensed. They'll be plain on the back, rather than embossed & date-stamped, and in my experience a fair bit hotter than the Maxon versions. Despite the 8 poles, these are single-coil units. Here's a very similar Hondo-branded 70s Samick J copy. Most of the details are identical. The P's a bit more tricky. I have frequently bemoaned the fact that the more accurate the copy, the harder it is to pin an ID on - and this is a perfect example. Give it a brand name and we might have a bit more to go on, but no-names are a right bugger! The neckplate with its lower-half stamp was consistently used by Fujigen, but occasionally by Kasuga & Moridaira on later instruments. There's also an as-yet unidentified manufacturer of various nice quality off-brands that used these. Any pics of the back of the headstock? Would be interested in seeing the tuners. I'm tempted to cop right out and pin this one on Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai, AKA the Matsumoto Musical Instrument Manufacturer's Association, a loose alliance of smaller woodshops & parts manufacturers who broadly collaborated building off-brand & unbranded low & midrange instruments. But that would be basically saying "dunno, mate". Did I mention that I probably wouldn't be much help?

I think you have to use Pyramid strings.

Big update today! First off, i started to cut out the Malee Burl scales into the branches that will be inlayed into the fretboard: The knife scales themselves were about 10mm thick, so idivided them down the middle so i could get both of the branches out of juat 1 scale. waste not, want not. this kind of cutting looks complex, but its pretty easy with some patience and a sharp coping saw I have another branch to cut, then i'll inlay these to the fretboard, and then inlay the leaves over the top. at least thats the plan! as with my last bass, this bass is going to have a Bigsby modified for a bass. this worked pretty well last time around just by drilling a new string bar with 4 holes in it and stringing it up as usual, but it did present a couple of problems: 1. the angle that the strings had to wrap around the string bar was a bit too tight for bass strings 2. a normal bigsby tension bar (on a b50 or b5) is probably a bit too low for big thick bass strings, making it a nighmare to string up without damaging the finish of the bass so i decided that this time id try a new approach. firstly, the whole colour theme for the pickups and hardware is a nice mix of black and gold, so i started off buying a matte black bigsby 500 clone and immideately binning most of it first i decided to tackle the string bar, which last time around i turned from a 10mm piece of brass round stock on a lathe, and then drilled 4 holes through for the strings. this time started much the same way, with 10mm brass round stock, but this time i used a dremel to drill 4 smaller holes only halfway through. I then used a tap to thread the holes, so they would accept an M2 steel threaded standoff. I tested this with a few sets of bass strings, and the ball end of the strings fits very snugly around this post. this means that the angle of the string wrapping around the bar isnt quite as harsh as last time, and these threaded posts are much stronger than the small split posts on normal guitar vibratos. The Brass polishes up really nicely just using some fine sanding sponges and some brasso applied with it mounted in the drill. i will later use a diamond file to cut the groove needed for the clip to hold it in place. ive tried this on a test piece and it works remarkably well. you can see in the second picture the snug fit of the string ball end around the steel standoff The tension bar was a little more complex. i added some threaded rivet nuts to shrink the tension bar holes from 9mm down to a threaded m4 brass rod. this was so that i could use some of these brass thumb nuts as tring rollers. this gives me a few advantages, a less steep angle to the bridge, less friction as the bigsby i used, and finely adjustable string spacing to ensure the strings run dead straight from the string bar to the bridge. ill also get a little gold sticker printed up with my logo for the small indentation where the bigsby logo would normally go. the balance between black and gold is about right, and i think if i mount it with some nice gold scres, itll look pretty classy Over in Pickup land, things are coming along swimmingly even if i do say so myself! The 3 pickup wires (Hot cold and Voltage for the LEDs) are soldered on, and the 4 LED's are in place. these are 3mm box LEDs, in bright blue, which fir perfectly into the 4 small square holes on the pickup cover i showed earlier. you can see that there are small round cutaways in between the bobbin mounts. the pickup covers have 3 more brass standoffs mounted to them, that then slot down through these holes and line up with 3 more holes in the PCB, which i can then secure with screws. this means that the PCB and cover all all ridgidly attached together, but allow the colis to move freely up and down inside: on the right hand picture you can see the 4 larger standoffs that the coils are screwd onto pointing up, and the 3 smaller ones that connect the cover to the base inbetween and ta da! one bass pickup assembled and ready for a test. the 4 screws im using at the moment are black, but when it all goes together i will use gold screws for both these and the 3 mounting screws around the edge. taking a bit more inspiration from wal there! as a quick test i hooked up one of the preamps to the pickup, with 2 9 volts wired in series to provide 18v. i had to switch out one resistor as the voltage was a bit too low for these LED's (the preamps will be powered by 24v phantom power in the finished article) and it worked just as expected! I had a little frosted plastic window cut to fit in the small recess to diffuse the LED light a bit but this is how the display looks: Those are "P", "reverse P", "J" for Jazz and "H" for humbucking. this lets me see with just a glance down what mode both pickups are in, without having to have bright LED's shining out the front of the bass, result! and back down in the garage, ive cut the two rosewood neck/body beams and got them glued up to each side of the marquetry beam and truss rod channel: you can see in the background of these some of the laser cut templates for the neck and body, looking forward to the next parts of this build! and heres the whole assembly glued up and ready for the next steps. if youve noticed the big hole in the left hand piece, dont worry. i measured beforehand and that will be past the edge of the neck. gived you an idea of just how much of the bulk of this neck will be carbon fibre. ill rout the body end down so that its flat and ready to accept the top of the body before i cut and glue the wings in place, but im going to leave the headstock end untouched for the time being. this will let me shape the neck to its final profile whilst still keeping the option to add more stiffness by adding additional cabon rods down the 8mm channels i showed in the last post. im looking forward to getting the body together and seeing it start to look a bit like a bass!

@Bassassin you may have thought you weren’t being helpful, but it was interesting.

PS @Paul S Ami, who is a lead vocalist in both my bands is also fluent in Spanish (annoying right? 😁).

The Tourtech case arrived...first impressions are that it'll do the job. Looks nice, handle comfortable, it's light, locks look ok. The inside is fluffy and the foam under this is reasonably firm. Tried it with the stuff I don't have cases for...see below. Main observation is this is clearly a one size fits all case; it's fine for the Precision and the neck is supported its entire length. The Hamer headstock is angled back a bit and the neck sits lower in the body, so as a consequence the neck isn't fully supported (it rides from the nut to about the 10th fret. That said, the headstock is free of any obstruction, so it's fine. It's a good fit. Onto the Spector. A big no, I'm afraid. As the bass is so small and curved, it moves back and forth around quite a bit, and just rides on the extremities. I'll hold out for another case...the Spector ABS case can't be had for love nor money, so I may just pull the trigger on a Spector hard case. Hope this helps.

Every year is the year of The Ox. Be lucky 😎

My moment in the sun.... https://www.discogs.com/Various-Heavy-Metal-Heroes-Volume-II/release/2138908 NWOBHM was where it all started for me. In 2 years or so, I did the Friday Rock Show an EP and the above track on a compilation LP. It went down hill from there. I am far Left on the photo and politically.

Craftmanship: 10/10 Personal taste: 0/10. Would rather play a Harley Benton than this.

So this utterly outstanding build by a certain Mr Cringean is just awaiting final set up before being sent over to me, and dear god it looks simply stunning! I mean the word stunning doesn't do it justice, a new word needs to be invented to describe such glory.. 'Stuntacious', 'Fanmazeic', 'Awestastaciousic'? I know (as most of us do) how well an ACG plays, so I'm confident this will be such a good bass to hold and play - but to look at... it's on another level. It's almost pornographic! In the words of Zoolander, it's just so ridiculously, ridiculously good looking.

Pssst, that was Avril Lavigne. From what I hear Swifty is a pretty shrewd, and ruthless if needed, business woman, and if you're her target audience then she writes a pretty catchy pop tune. Good luck to her.

All power to her. What she’s doing isn’t illegal, it’s fair game.

I've been waiting for this thread to reach its Clive Burr Appreciation moment 🥰 Di'Anno Murray Smith Harris Burr, my favourite line up (ps love that Di'Anno plays air guitar left handed)

My first proper gig was in 1980 with Priest on the British Steel tour. Maiden supported with Di'Anno, Burr and Stratton. It was all about Running Free and they were pretty good. Newcastle City Hall was my stomping ground and we used to get down fairly regularly and see 3 bands for £2 or £3. I remember Girlschool, Angelwitch, Witchfynde, Tank as well as the big names like Motorhead. I'm proud to say I had a ticket to see Def Leppard on the On Through the Night tour, but I didn't go because I thought they were cr@p. Never regretted it, because it's a fact that they are cr@p.. Bombay Shite-Hawks as the NME would used to say. My prejudices were borne-out at Donnington in '86 when I finally saw their nonsense

No, I had the 'embarrassment eraser filter' on so they didn't come out. 😁

It was T. S. Eliot that wrote, "This is the way the bass ends. This is the way the bass ends. This is the way the bass ends. Not with a bang, but a splinter", or something similar. Final score, Me 1, Aria 5. That's to say I'm in one piece, the bass is in, well more pieces than I'd planned. I now have a body, a neck and three parts of a heel. I managed to drill the joint and get some heat into the centre following couple of the videos posted by @Matt P, (thanks for those, very interesting) where he used an electric element on one and a soldering iron with a long tip on another instead of steam injection. He mentioned that the steam can get under the finish causing misting and just get water in places you don't want it, so as our old steam mop had been thrown out I thought I'd try it. I cut spoke from an old bike and wound a coil into the end of so my soldering iron would slip inside. Squirted some water down the hole and slipped the spoke in and waited. I could feel the joint warming so occasionally turned the bass over on two wooden blocks with the neck between the two, and firmly tapped the heel with another block of wood and rubber mallet. Nothing. More water, more heat, more patience, another whack, tiny gap opening between the heel and the back, but also glue starting to squeeze out of the heel joints. The heel is made up of three individual vertical parts with the neck glued horizontally on top then the whole thing dovetailed and glued into the body. Basically all four parts of the heel/neck started to ooze glue and move independently, but it still wouldn't let go. I guessed as the joints had all moved then there's no going back, the neck has to come off to re glue the four bits. This is where things got messy. I used a heat gun on low as well as the soldering iron to warm the joint completely as it now had to come out somehow, but still burnt some of the finish around the heel. Nevermind, roasted necks are all the rage aren't they? I'm not worried about this as I had a plan in my head as to finish which meant these areas would be a lot darker anyway. It's not black, just darkened it. The neck came out leaving the three bits of heel still in there so I drilled the hole slightly bigger so the ceramic element of the soldering iron, with the tip removed, would fit directly in the heel. More cooking and it's all out. It's not pretty but it's all out. I've put it away again now to mull it over but as it was built from four parts I assume with some careful cleaning, glueing and clamping, I can refit all the bits, after reshaping. I have had another idea but I'll mull things over before air that one.

The Year Of The Ox begins today - hopefully it will be a good 'un. Take care and stay safe. Chris

Does anyone else, when looking at the acronym NWOBHM, pronounce it in their head as 'ner-wobbum'? Just me, then.

I've not played much. Maybe once a week for an hour, if that. The enjoyment I get from music is not so much sitting and listening or even playing on my own, it is watching and/or participating. To either watch or participate in making music from nothing. Neither of which has been possible during the lockdowns. As it happens the last couple of weeks has seen me pick up my guitar, rather than bass, as I feel driven to record something. Specifically 'La Bamba' - the back story being that in my former covers band I suggested that we play 'la Bamba' towards the end of the 2nd set as a good dance/singalong tune - we played precious few. And I was offering to sing it. I can speak un poco de español so can pronounce it properly and I reckoned I could manage the bassline at the same time with practice. Come the rehearsal day, guitarist and erstwhile band leader hands over his mic. I got as far as the first line 'Para bailar la bamba'... and he stops playing and says 'If that is how you are going to sing it then forget it'. So, just to prove a point, really. Still rusty as hell but slowly improving. I'm going to try to do the vocal, BVs, guitars and bass. A mate will do drums, maybe some BVs and, if possible, doing some sort of midi accordian-a-like at the end. Wish me luck!

So I have this morning off so I had to do somE surgery on the bass I built in lockdown 1.0 (there’s a build thread somewhere) ... After I had put shielding tape in the pickup cavities I did a rookie error and the wires came off the pickups as I think I yanked it a bit too hard! So I’ve just done some surgery (on a dipped Dimazio pickup it’s a nightmare!!!!) and it’s singing again!!

Came with OHSC and matching tour bus.

from that 1st picture, looks like Sickboy and Renton are selling it to get that days supply!

-

He could’ve made a trom bone

No probably about it. There are plenty of interviews with Mike Shipley talking about the recording process.

Did you do Tequila as good as this guy?

This does have to be one of the most innovatively exciting threads to date....

The horror of the turdburst finish is a best seller

@SumOne I sold my separates end of last year to fund a stomp. It's worked out great for me, I kept my preamp and fuzz to put in the loop to free up blocks for more utilities like EQ, signal splitting and compression. It makes for an awesome interface too.

I love my ACC 370 head and 301 cab! The 371 system, Acoustic Control Corp. The head I bought used is a 1974. I refurbished the head case a couple of years ago. I bought the cab new in 1973.

Polyphobic?

Just picked up this nice s-s off here. Not done my set-up yet but first impressions are very favourable. https://cdn.basschat.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2020_12/IMG_20201212_151727.jpg.14f59f910ab091d222c7723966c493cf.jpg

In a touch of irony, the nut is made of plastic rather than bone

Aside from using chrome screws for the bridge and pickups, this is quite delicious

I couldn't resist this, it's going to become a 'stack'. I'm building a cab for a second Fane 6-100. I've intended doing it anyway as i want to try it as a vocal monitor and also to do some development work on a bright-box idea. The only change is in the size/shape of cab which I'm now going to make to match the existing combo. I should also be able to get an extra 5db out of a stack compared to the combo on it's own. Also I'm in lockdown and it's fun. It's too cold to work in the workshop you can never have too many clamps

He’s going to end up playing in a Pelvis impersonator backing band, not the best option for maxilla exposure.

I thought this looked very nice: From the The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!

I bought in the same 12 months Def Leppard Hysteria, WASP Live In The Raw, Motley Crue Girls Girls Girls, ACDC Blow Up Your Video, Guns n Roses Appetite For Destruction and then, just after them, ....And Justice For All. It did not seem like "average generic metal", not one bit, and it made Iron Maiden's Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, which came out a few months later, seem pretty feeble stuff. (Given that I had all the previous 7 Maiden albums, could recite their complete track listings, including songwriters, and could draw the Maiden logo from memory, you can imagine how hard that realisation hit me 😭😂) I now shake my head at the Motley Crue and WASP albums, but ....Justice still gets me terribly overwrought.

Fantastic. My kinda music. Riff driven, reminiscent of the music I loved as a kid. And, the unmistakable sound of a Spector!

I’ve been playing for over 25 years, and this is the least I’ve ever played I think. In fact, despite spending thousands on a new bass I had barely played it. Thankfully, I’ve started recording with a new post-rock band and have become inspired again... Music is a collaborative endeavour and I miss the social side of it as well as the creative aspect. While the musical world seems to revolve around bedroom geniuses noodling at 300bpm, I’m still happier at a local jam session or watching a real band crank through a set, whether that’s jazz standards or a prog-rock concept album. I can’t wait for post lockdown gigs.

The same for me, alas. In particular I can't bear to play anything from the set list of either of the bands I'm in because it just reminds me of what I'm missing. On the plus side, the (mild) arthritis in my hands has improved because I haven't been punishing them so much

Well, that took longer than expected 😂 I had to get some penetrating oil to get a saddle screw and a knob locking screw moving. Never underestimate the power of old biocrud to get into every nook and sieze up things you would not believe. The pots also needed some cleaning but they're all smooth and scratch free now. Not an inconsiderable amount of work, but it's done now. General impressions, this is a really nice bass, a clever tweak of a great design. It's very comfortable with some nice features. The backplate has inserts for machine screws, a simple but tasteful touch which I wasn't expecting from the big F. The bridge is a decent unit which allows for quick string release. The Kubicki preamp is quirky, it must be said, but also quite practical and useful once you understand what it's doing. Knobs are vol + pickup blend, treble + bass and a four way rotary switch. In the cavity is a small mid boost control which, after some testing, I've set at about 80%. The four way switch is the key to the whole thing. 1st position is passive, where the volume and blend work as expected, but the bass control becomes a standard passive tone roll-off. Classic Jazz bass. Position two is active, so you get volume, blend, bass and treble. There are no detents in the bass and treble controls and, while they're labelled as cut and boost, it feels like there is a lot more boost than cut in both. They're quite musical, though and pleasingly subtle. Position three is active again but with the mid boost engaged. It undoes a lot of the natural J scoop and gives it a healthy growl. Nice. Fourth position is a kill switch which turns it off. No output at all. I'm sure, some day, I will find a use for that. I might try it with a wall of distortion and use it rhythmically. It all works well with the silver Lace Sensors. They're clean, with healthy but not outrageous output. I like the smaller headstock, it suits the smaller body well. And the tuners look like branded Schallers, I think? Overall, I like it a lot. I grew up with a J bass so it's homely, but it's a more comfortable shape. It sounds like a standard Jazz bass when you want it to, but also has Jazz-on-steroids on tap and neither gets in the way of the other. I put all the parts back together on Sunday evening with a quick setup and, now everything has settled down, will do a thorough setup later on. It's good but I think it has potential greatness when properly set up. Plus (no pun intended) I'm not scared to catch something nasty off it anymore 😂

I've recently had to learn "The Floating Thumb Technique" after moving from 4 to 5 string. TBH I should have leant to play this before changing to 5ers - long term I would expect fewer issues with hand/ tendon injuries. I'd suggest learning this rather than putting screw holes in your gear. @TJ1 If you choose to go down the thumb rest route let me know. I have one I took off another bass.