Leaderboard

Another to the ever growing family.

Played Bloodstock festival Friday - definitely the hottest festival I've been too. In house cab was a very rare and very dark sounding Carlsboro 410, glad I took my own head, the Carlsboro head looked . . pants. Sounded great on stage! Can't complain. I'm still trying to rehydrate. Sound was awesome, crowd was packed out. Sandwiched between Exodus and Testament, so not a bad slot. I'm tired . . .

I'm still in touch with the drummer from the band I was in, in the early 80s and he reminded me that he had this broken BB neck. I thought you guys might be interested in the story behind it. This neck is from JJ Burnell's bass which he was using in 1982/83. JJ used the bass during the Strangler's Feline Tour at that time, plus many TV appearances including The Tube 1983, TOTP's - European Female etc. It's possible that it was also used on the recording of the Feline album although I don't know that for sure. It was damaged during the US leg of that tour when his strap failed and the bass dropped to the ground. The Kinkade Brothers in Bristol had made a few guitars for the Stranglers so the bass was sent to them for repair. I don't know the details of the repair but I know they made a new neck and, given that the BB2000 is a neck-through design, presumably they spliced the new neck into the existing body? I'm also guessing that the original fretboard was likely reused. My mate acquired this neck because his brother, the guitarist in our band, was having an acoustic guitar made by the Kinkades and they visited the workshop to check progress of the build shortly after JJ's bass had been repaired. The old neck was lying around in the workshop about to be chucked out so, being a fan of the Stranglers my mate asked if he could have it. Many years later my mate met with JJ in Liverpool and he took the neck along and got him to sign it. Here's a picture of JJ using the bass in question and also the signed neck.

Here we go, final pics... sorry there are quite a few. 😁 Extremely pleased with how it has come out. I am not a bass player, this is the one I will be learning on, so no sound clips just yet.

But says 1962, so I’m a bit suspicious now.

Saturday we played the Two Brewers in Chepstow, they mostly bobok blues/rock bands so we go down well there. It was hot so we were outside from 8 to 10 with a strict curfew. Drank about four pints of lemonade with a dash of lime... Crowd was a bit less than usual as there was a 'Rock the Castle' event with multiple bands on the same night, but went well. Broke in the new Squier P. Taking my Performer to a jam tonight, 24 fret fun up the dusty end is anticipated, plus I promised someone I'd do Bad penny with him so was cribbing Gerry MacAvoy's ideas last night 🙂

An outdoor gig in the blazing sun yesterday. We knew it would be a challenge but 33C is definitely not conducive to strutting one’s stuff. The stage wear was significantly pared down and the Glam wigs were omitted, it was so hot on stage that the singers platform shoes melted.... Fortunately it was a short drive home but I did sit in the car in full aircon for a good 15 minutes when it parked up.

Just a follow up on the gigs. Our Friday night gig 8:30 - 11:30 was a good gig. We had a groove going the whole night. Good crowd with good tips. Probably our 4th gig at this place, The Carriage House. We found out they are closing and re opening under new owners and management. Over here 🇺🇸 that usually means no more live music. Sunday's biker bar gig 3-7 at The Road House was lousy. We had a dep drummer and nothing clicked. A real drag. Blue

We were at The Royal Oak, Ramsden, yesterday. A very nice pub, though we had some sound issues as we were playing in a small alcove and different instruments were clearer in different directions and at different distances. For example, the bass was very clear at the tables nearby but not indoors in the dining area (I didn't fancy turning up too much as the cab was pointed at the drummer). A fun gig, though, and we were accosted afterwards by locals offering other opportunities.

Had a 3 hour gig in a pub this afternoon. I was a little nervous as it was about 3 weeks since our last one and I thought I might get blisters but tried the superglue trick (the gel in fact). No blisters afterwards, so I am definitely going to do that again. Gig went well. Lots of compliments from the punters and a “drop us an email when you want to play again” from the manager, so all good.

Some pics from Saturday... Yes, Alex and I randomly turned up in identical t-shirts!

A gig at The Road House Hope Dalton & Wade Garrett were on the door

Wichita Lionman ～ Glen Campbell 😍

(Somebody) Help Meowt - Beggar & Co.

Last night was great fun! Played at Wilsons in Aberdeen to a great crowd who were really into the gig. Highlight of the evening was this old guy who was sitting at a table near us. He seemed to be digging the songs and was singing along to some of them. Then we played Enter Sandman. Well! This guy goes to a carrier bag and gets out a Guitar Hero "guitar" controller and proceeds to mime playing it in front of us. He had all the moves - playing it above his head and all sorts! The crowd thought this was amazing and it made for a memorable moment for sure. Such was the energy in the room that I threw a lot more shapes when playing than I normally do to the point where the other guys in the band were wondering if I had been substituted for someone else. I did a daft bit during Highway to Hell - because there's no bass for a long time at the start (and also the second verse), I just got a chair out and sat down, looked at the audience, shrugged a few times. It nearly went wrong though because when I stood up, my strap came off its button at the bottom. Somehow managed to get through the first chorus by pushing the bass against my thigh until I could sit down in verse 2 and sort it out. Was more careful when I stood up the second time! What a laugh all in all. We played really well and had a bloody good time as well. Got asked to play an encore. Had lots of people come up after we were done and say nice things to/about us. Landlord asked about our availability for next year (we're going back to Wilsons next month too). Can't really ask for more than that. Compact and bijou

Finally. Back in the club. A (not battered) burner. 1993. Looking forward to arrival.

Quality audience is my preference. An audience that's into what you're playing and reacts well will overcome many shortcomings of a venue or low pay.

Once Kitten, Twice Shy ～ Ian Hunter

No competition. Versatility hands down... Lakland 55-02.

The Xotic jazz basses are well worth adding to that list as well. Mike Lull basses are supposed to be excellent if you can find one.

Felines - Morris Albert (Felines, Nothing more then Felines...)

Loser - Thunder (ooh, politics seep into the song title thread).

This is pane-ful now.

That's it, it's curtains for you.

Could have been framed differently, though.

The next week was spent oiling the front, getting enough coats on there to match up with the rest of it. Also drilled for the bridge earth. This was before final sand and buff. Next up was the final sand and buff, no pics for that as it will show in the final pics at the end and will have a final polish. Then it was the magnets for the cavity cover, ran out of my biggest ones, had to put a mix of smaller ones in and with the cover being mahogany it is a bit of weight so I had to add a few extra to get it to hold firmly in place. Also drilled for the jack and got the plate in place. I then got on with the shielding. And then it was in with the pots and 3 way switch. Next up was putting the tuners in, screwing the bridge in place and also the strap locks.

Did some on the heel transition, will need a bit more yet, but it is looking much better. And the neck profile is getting closer. Moved onto sanding the sides, top and top bevels up to 400 grit. Also increased the arm bevel a bit more into the body. Cleaned it off with white spirit so that I could see how it will look with a clear finish. Good days work, a clear finish is definitely the way to go.

On to the back bevels. First roughly marked out the carve around the edges. Then on with the carving.

A bit obscure for anyone not into the genre, but before he got big I had some online chat with dubstep producer Zomby who sold a cracked copy of Reason to me - or at least he took the money but never posted it to me. After a lot of hassling he offered to send me some p0rn to 'chill me out' (which he didn't!) eventually he gave me a full refund so I don't have any complaints other than the hassle caused. Shortly after, he got quite famous and there was controversy that he copied someone's tune (also made on Reason) and released it as his own, and quite a few more stories of obnoxious online behaviour....to the point that I wouldn't be suprised if he googled himself to find this thread and registered on Basschat just to send me threatening messages!

Shoot Shoot - UFO

Continued with the shaping. Back and bottom edge first. And then the horns. 😈 Next up was flattening the back. Still needs plenty more, but it is close to levelled off. And then got started on levelling the front, before the wife said it was time to down tools. Not quite level yet, but getting there. The join in the top wing was bugging me at the time, had managed to do quite a good job with grain matching when it was joined, but after sanding the grain was looking different on both pieces. I soon got over it. I will leave it there for tonight and post the next lot tomorrow.

Body glue up day... First masked off the lower end of the fretboard to prevent any squeeze out going on it and then put some pins into the wings and drilled locator holes into the the through neck. Then glued and clamped the first piece. Once it had dried I repeated the process with the second piece. When it was ready it was out of the clamps and on with marking out the rough shape. And then onto the carving stage. This is how far I got before close of play on that day.

Got on with buffing the fretboard ready for doing the frets. Then squared up the edges of the body sections so they are ready for attaching after doing the frets. Did some more sanding on the neck profile, back of the headstock and volute. The join on the back of the headstock disappears when cleaned with Isopropyl and shows again when dry, so hopefully it shouldn't be too visible under the finish. The volute is nearly equal on both sides, just a small amount to remove still on the right underside. Happy with the transition from the neck to volute now. The volute has a secondary function, which I will show later. 😉

I had been working on a few different things and jumped around between them as I went, so in no particular order... The headstock shape is near enough finished, just a bit more fettling to be done. And it is close to thickness all around. The volute is close to finished shape. Just need to take a bit more off the underside on the right. And the neck profile is part way there. Will need a bit more work around the heel once the body is on and then I will finish off the profile when doing the transition.

Started getting some of the excess off the back and bringing in the shape of the heel and volute. When it is getting close to the line I move on to a radius block to level it off and use a piece of wood clamped in the right position to keep it central down the length. Still got plenty more sanding to do to level it off and need to work on the transitions between the heel and neck, as well as the volute and neck. The headstock still needs thinning out a bit as well, but I will do that once the volute has taken shape fully.

Went through my wood stocks and didn't have enough mahogany for anything close to the sizes needed, so called round to my dads house and raided his wood stock. Found some pieces that would be big enough for the shape with a bit of work, but not thick enough, so brought them home and set to work on another way of doing it. Had a big enough piece for the lower section, but had to cut a couple of pieces to size for the upper section. After squaring up the edges and joining the pieces for the upper section (hopefully the join will not be too obvious afterwards), I cut them to their basic shapes, leaving clamping points and then set about halving them... times like these I would appreciate access to a band saw. 😆 Upper section first. I then glued and clamped the first piece of this onto a piece of poplar and then cut round the shape. Didn't take any pics during this, was too busy and forgot. Then got on with halving the lower section. Needed to glue and cut the other sections with the poplar yet, but this was the progress so far. Next up was gluing the bottom piece on, square up the side section for joining to the neck and level it off top and bottom, then do it all again with the lower section. But the poplar sandwich was looking good so far to me. The green poplar showing through with the bevels afterwards should be a nice feature against the mahogany.

Sanded the fretboard up to 10,000 Grit, then did 3 coats of Danish oil on it, with a small amount of sanding and buffing in between each coat. Did a final sand after the last coat with just the highest couple of grades. Still needs a final buff and polish, but will wait until I am ready to do the frets. Next up was taking the excess wood from the edges with a Shinto rasp. Started getting some shape into the headstock, needs a bit more work yet, but it is beginning to look more like the final shape. Tried it in place with the Mockingbird template again, it is looking like I will go with this shape body, the neck goes really well with the shape and the wife really likes the one I have made in the previous build.

Played at Dunoon yesterday afternoon, at the Doon The Watter festival...great day, but hotter than the sun on stage... Some slight technical issues with the sound on stage, monitors died halfway through the set, but it didn't affect out front... Back home all tomato-faced after a day hunting down shade! 🙈🤣😎 VID-20220813-WA0021.mp4