rubis

As an example of the kind of ‘fun’ detail I will be fussing over, I shall try to replicate the date stamp on the end of the neck, of course, to say 17 MAR 64 (it would be silly not to!) I shall also try to stamp my date of birth on the neck plate as a serial number I have a few bits to make a start with, it will have a Bare Knuckles ‘65 pickup which I love. I have an alder body from a popular online body parts supplier, which was sold to me as a second because of a couple of very small knots in the wood, but they are in areas where a lightly worn bass would still have intact paint anyway. It came routed and sanded for less than the cost of an alder blank, so it seemed rude not to, it will be painted over and then lightly relic’d anyway, so it certainly doesn’t need to be perfect. I am comparing the appearance of it to some of the photos I have collected, to try to get things like edge radius and routings to look as close as I can to a ‘64 body before finishing it. I have already had advice from the very knowledgeable Brams77, a proper gent if ever there was one! He put my mind at rest over a detail which was concerning me, namely, that I had read somewhere that Fender would stain all bodies yellow before finishing, irrespective of whether they were to be sunburst or painted solid colours. As I intend this to be sonic blue, I was worried that the yellow would bleed through and turn it green, not that surf green is in any way unappealing to me, I just prefer sonic blue. Anyway Bram informed me that in ‘63 and ‘64 when production at Fender was picking up, this practice was dropped on custom colours, so i can do sealer, white primer, colour coat then lacquer in the way it would have been done back in the day! And this is what I am hoping to encourage from anyone with an opinion or knowledge of the subject to share, a sort of co-operative effort if you wouldn’t mind helping out please. Here is an example. Apparently, in mid ‘64 Fender changed the logo from the spaghetti logo to the larger script, as shown on this photo My question is when, before March or afterwards? I already have a couple of the later decals, but would March ‘64 be the spaghetti logo?……..logo geeks I need your help please!

I was born on 17th March 1964 and I’ve always wanted a ‘year of birth’ bass. Sonic blue is my favourite Fender colour. Rosewood board necks are my favourite necks. I can’t imagine how much a decent ‘64 sonic blue precision would be, certainly beyond any price I could justify spending, and to be honest, if i had that sort of money to spare, the thought of spending it on a guitar would scare me! So my attention was drawn to Limelight basses and modern Fender relics, but to be honest, they always looked ‘overdone’ to me. Maybe it’s my northeastern upbringing, but I was taught that you worked hard for your toys and you looked after them, so if I had been lucky enough to acquire a ‘64 p bass when I was starting out, it would look well played but well loved these days, not like I'd dragged it to work every day tied to the back of the car. Also, Limelight basses seem to look generically vintage to me, by that I mean that there are important missing details, (mainly for a ‘64 bass, the lack of a laminate fingerboard), which would put me off buying one, fabulous as they are. So, to get to the point of this build. I am going to have a go at building a ‘day of birth’ bass. That means one built on 17th March 1964, it will be sonic blue, I will attempt to ‘age’ it or lightly relic it, to look like it has been loved and played a lot, but not abused, not my thing I’m afraid. I have collected a certain amount of articles and photos for reference, but I am counting on the expertise of those who have owned a 60’s Fender, and those with the kind of in-depth knowledge who can help me with the small details which will hopefully add up to a convincing finished article. Let me clearly point out however, I am not intending to make some sort of forgery or attempting to pass the end result off in any way as an original ‘64 bass. Firstly, I don’t think it would fool too many people. Secondly, in the style of Limelight basses, it will have an alternative decal on the rear of the headstock with a suitable inscription to avoid any confusion. I think this will be a fairly slow process, but it will be fun (providing things don’t go too wrong) and I hope it will be an opportunity for discussion and learning. Probably my biggest challenge will be making a period correct veneer fingerboard neck such as this rather than use a slab board neck from the likes of Allparts

Pixie Lott! At Tunes in the Dunes waiting for Jake Bugg At least the sun is out in Perranporth and I’m spending the day with the man-cub 😎

I wonder if Deadmau5 has heard it His song Strobe reminds me of Suspension, and Beck has never been afraid of breaking down musical boundaries

Great programme Surely one of the most innovative of any instrumentalists, aside from all the wild pyrotechnics, he has a very restrained side to his playing, this is one of my favourites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdHhXYeHPj8

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENDER-STANDARD-5-STRING-JAZZ-BASS-Black-Body-Red-Tortoiseshell-Pickguard/163012513309?hash=item25f44d8e1d:g:YFAAAOSwBY5a1fQa This looks quite repairable

More fools them Twigman Had he still been with us, I imagine he could have contributed the perfect bass lines for the new songs, and if I remember correctly, he did quite a bit of string arrangements on the old stuff

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years WOW! How sad though, that it probably won’t fearure the late great Rutger Gunnarson The Smiths next?

Reaper is very good, and intuitive, you can use the full version on an “open ended” trial period and there are lots of online tutorials if you want to get more involved have fun

Mmmmmn, I might have to look into this, thanks

I found it also helps, if you are using rattle cans, to SLIGHTLY warm the can and the body/neck with a heat gun or hairdryer And prewipe with a tack rag

Nice one bazzbass

cheers, I will

Thanks for the replies, this is something to be getting on with I think the main culprit may be the guitar, a Gretsch 5420t, the pickups are not humbuckers and being hollow body it would not be possible to shield it I was thinking of trying some better leads, (I use Whirlwind at the moment) can anyone recommend anything optimised for recording (I don't gig anymore)?

................would you get mullered with import taxes though?

Hi can anyone offer any advice on how to eliminate ground loop noise from my recording efforts The set up I am using at the moment is an Asus laptop, Audient ID14 interface and Reaper The drum tracks with BFD3 are, as you would expect, hiss/hum free, but when I add bass and guitar parts there is unacceptable background hum. This is still noticeable when I use my P bass (I thought the pickups were humbucking?) and it is very noticeable when I use my Gretsch 6 string which has dreaded single coils! I have tried using a Behringer HD400 hum eliminator, but this has marginal effect I should add that the laptop, interface and a mains powered USB hub are all plugged into a six socket extension lead Anyone had similar problems they were able to overcome? thanks in advance Harry

Thats interesting Do you have a link to that at all?

Thanks for your comments drTStingray, you have shed more light on this than any of the online clips I've watched

Exactly right Discreet, just as with graphite necks, I can accept that there will be physical differences which may well make for a more stable neck, but would that mean less or no dead spots for example, or a better sounding instrument?

This is more like it! Thank you for your comments I’m interested in the concept, and I can accept the science behind it, but, as ever, when you ‘research’ these things a lot of the ‘reviews’ are a sales pitch, what I couldn’t find is an objective view of whether it’s a noticeable improvement over kiln dried wood on necks and bodies. In my case it wouldn’t be for gigging, so stability is secondary over any improvement in resonance or tone. I like the look too, by the way.