Grangur

Yes, I'll give it a shot. If you send the whole bass I'll make sure it's fully stable when you get it back. I'd be very disappointed if you got it back and found it really needed another week in the clamp.

Hi @Bassmingo Sorry if what I posted is a bit harsh but almost any neck can be rescued. Wood is wood. If required you can steam it and make it soft and pliable and curve if into exotic shapes. This is how bent-wood chairs are made. In the case of your neck, the worst case scenario could be if the wood has bent so far that the truss rod is bent. In which case, yoy could take the fret-board off and replace the TR. The question then, If course, is is this worth doing on a £150 bass. If you want further help do post here again.

My guess is you could do it yourself, @A.G.E.N.T.E.. You can buy a fingerboard blank and steam the old F.B. off. There are vids on YouTube that show how to do it. Stick the new one on and use a radius sanding block to shape the new board. There are plenty of experienced guys here who can give guidance. Just start a thread in the "Build diaries" sectionand it will soon get attention from the right quarters.

Now there's a bass that will give that sound. This was my first bass. It's a short, short-scale. They were made in a small factory in Dartford. The body is ply and the neck is beach; made for Vox by the Ercol furniture factory, If memory serves. The amp connection is via a co-axial socket on the bass, which can be seen by the volume knobs. The pickups were very crude hand windings. Yes, it's has it's short comings, but it will give *that* sound.

Agreed; I'm not a fan of Badass either.

I do up basses. One I had was a Warwick with a wenge fingerboard. The frets were worn out and the strings had been well ground into the wood of the neck. I guess this is what would happen to your fretless. Why not remove the fingerboard and fit a new ebony board? This would also give you the opportunity to put the side dots in the right place: in the fret-wire positions.

Why pay money for a down-grade?

I've straightened a few necks and never failed. Also, the first step to levelling frets is to get a slotted straight edge and check the wood part of the neck is totally flat. If the wood isn't flat the frets will, naturally be at different heights. You can send me the neck and I'll be happy to give it a go. If it fails you'll only have lost the cost of postage. If it works, you'll have a good neck. It's your choice. But what do I know? I'm not on TB so I must be an idiot.

Hey @Bassmingo, I've got an identical bass, that had exactly the same problem. I hope you still have the neck, as the headstock is distinctive with a black finish. All you need to do is loosen the truss rod and clamp it in a reverse curve position. Leave it like that for a few weeks, then re-assemble the bass. I did this clamping with some wood blocks, a long spirit level and a G-clamp. It takes time, but worth doing.

Welcome to the forum @jonpain

Hey @Bassmingo, welcome back home.

Hi @Steen, welcome to basschat. Sometimes, if a string is twisted it can cause stresses that stop it resonating in the best way. You can try loosening the string and see if you can see if it "settles" into a better position. I've even had a new string that seemed dead improve after a couple of weeks. So there is hope.

You can boost the treble and ignore dead(ish) strings. What does bug me is fitting a new battery, when you know you've scarcely played that bass since you last fitted a new battery.

Trinity do exams for electric bass. I have a couple of the books. At grade 1 you learn: Psycho Killer, Shakin All over, Sheena is a Punk rocker. Grade 2: You Really Got Me, Need you Tonight, Spirit in the Sky, Comfortably Numb. Same here, I was curious but don't think you'd ever be asked about grades at a band audition.

Just out of interest.. @NickA, you took your grades on the cello and DB. Do you play electric bass? Did you take grades on that too? If you do, and didn't take the grades, why didn't you? I'm only curious.

Hi @paul_c2, What i mean is the fingering on a bass is this : See more at: http://www.totalguitarandbass.com/scales/16/pattern This fingering is the same for all scales. If you can start the scale at the lowest note root on the E or A strings, you will be sure of being able to do this same fingering for ALL 12 Major scales. It won't let you down. Every scale from C to Bb, they all use the same finger pattern shape. On a cello, you can't use the same finger pattern shapes... or so my Bro-in-L tells me. I'm looking into this. I've had this conversation, but looking at the cello fingerboard diagram it all looks repeatable to me so far. I'll come back on this.

What I do know is the "box" pattern we use for a Major scale on a bass, doesn't work on a cello. On a cello there are different fingerings needed for different scales. I know this through discussing this with my brother in law, who is a full-time pro cello teacher.

Something else to think about is in playing bass we can play a Major scale with the same fingering: 2, 4. 1, 2, 4. 1, 3, 4. This, I believe, is not the same in cello playing? I guess it's a matter of running out of strings and having to move up the neck?

Tis true, the A does appear in most scales, and where it doesn't it does make a useful approach note for jazz fills.

I have an issue with basses that appear to have a dead note on the G string, 7th fret. I'd put it down to my technique. I guess one option is to take the bass to someone else for them to play and see if they too find the same issue.

I've got a bass with jazz pups and a precision width neck. It's a Warwick Corvette.

Hardwood grows so slow that a 50 year old tree wouldn't be big enough to build a bass from. Some Oak trees don't start having acorns until they're 50 years old. Nice thought though.

Come to think of it... I've got one of these I'd be happy to sell. Except mine has a hand wound split coil pup and a Gotoh bridge. The original pup is low output. The Jess Louerio pup packs a good sound.

There was a Q&A feature in Bass Guitar mag. They asked 10 leading luthiers. 1 question was on stringing through bodies. They were all of the same view; it makes zero difference. What matters is you have a good break angle. String through is snake-oil.