neepheid

Here's my Hartke HA3500 on top of an Ashdown ABM 4x10, with the suitably pornarific Gibson G-3 in front:

It's amazing how much quicker you get on with the right tools. Got fret nippers from StewMac. Well worth the wait. That's the frets in. I put the bass together to check out the frets and surprisingly for a first fret job there were few issues. I just have to file the ends down now.

Because entries in this thread are useless without pics: Fecker Imprecision: Epiphone Les Paul (Not So) Standard:

Haven't made a will yet, so I guess my wife would get them.

I love doing this. Currently in my arsenal are: [b]Fecker Imprecision[/b]: The neck and body of a Chinese Squier Precision (Affinity) I had lying around. From top to bottom I did the following: 1) Reamed out the tuner holes and fitted full size tuners instead of the enclosed cheapy things 2) Applied a custom logo (Fecker logo and IMPRECISION BASS in the late 70's style) 3) Fitted a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pup 4) Rewired it with CTS pots and Orange Drop cap 5) Filled and redrilled the pickguard screwholes for a standard Fender Mex pattern 6) Fitted a Badass II 7) Shim the neck to get the action down low enough Result? A nice growly P with probably the lowest action of all my basses [b]Epiphone Les Paul (Not So) Standard[/b]: A beautiful black model with cream binding and a carved top. Fell in love with the looks, wasn't so impressed with the sound. So I swapped the pickups out for EMG-HB (active P in a humbucker housing basically) and added an EMG-BQC 3-band EQ. Also gave it it's "gold tooth" - I found the G saddle sat too low when all the other strings were fine and being the Gibson 3 point bridge, you can only raise/lower either side of the bridge, not each individual saddle. So I stole a D saddle out of a gold bridge I had lying around which is the nearly the same height as the D saddle in my bridge and swapped them. Result - correct curvature of strings, and a "gold tooth". To finish off the sophisticated look, I obtained some East knobs from Alan at ACG. Previous mention goes to my [b]Squier Bronco[/b] which got a similar treatment to the Fecker Imprecision, namely: 1) Again, reamed out the tuner holes and fitted regular sized tuners 2) Swapped the ugly thick 1 ply white pickguard for a sweet looking black/white/black one 3) Fitted a lipstick pickup 4) Changed the useless 2 saddle bridge for a 4 saddle one 5) Modified the body for through body stringing I sold it a while back because it wasn't getting played enough to justify it hanging around. I really enjoy doing this to "budget" basses (I never understood this terminology - surely most people have a budget when they go bass shopping, it might be a grand?) - I love exceeding people's expectations when they get down and play these basses. Maybe it's a "championing the underdog" thing. Yes, in some cases I've spent more on mods than the initial obtaining of the instrument, but I build for fun and I always intend to keep my modded basses.

Isn't this what the wiki is for? Oh, never mind

Yes, I've used them before. No there are no hidden costs. I didn't find the shipping too obnoxious. You might have to pay duties depending upon the value and if the customs are awake or not when your package comes through - but that's nothing to do with BPR.

Oh, the sound of a can of worms opening... Seriously though, either of these are an increase in mass and/or bridge to body contact, which is beneficial or not depending on who you ask. I presume you're attaching this to a Fender type bass. Between the two of them, the Badass is the "established" name, and it has "BADASS" stamped on it, but you have to file the saddles if you get plain ones, and in some cases because of the thicker baseplate you might need to shim your neck in order to get your action as low as you like. The Gotoh has pre-notched saddles, but I haven't used one so I can't comment about its bulk. Wouldn't mind a shot of one though.

I bought a DeArmond Starfire from Steve a while back and he saw through his side of things quickly and easily with good comms.

[quote name='henry norton' post='508941' date='Jun 9 2009, 12:20 PM']Have you checked how it plays yet? Especially around the cracked area. If it plays well you might want to think twice before subjecting a localised part of the neck to clamping pressures as it could end up giving the neck an unnatural warp. If it plays badly then I guess you've got nothing to lose. Can you post some pictures?[/quote] It plays well enough, but it's come away all the way across, you can shine light through the gap. It's not a huge crack, >1mm thick, but I'd prefer it closed. I've had a test clamp and the gap does close up under pressure. I don't think a difference in height of >1mm is going to introduce any weirdness into the neck. A piece of finished wood about 3mm x 15mm has come away, so that will facilitate access to the crack, could even make a small drill hole to get the glue in and then glue the piece of wood on top to cover the hole. I haven't got any pics of my own, there are some in the for sale thread I linked to above. Will try and get some pics of my own tonight.

I bought a DeArmond Starfire a while back from tayste_2000 who in turn got it from EssentialTension. It had a few things wrong with it - these are outlined in ET's original for sale thread: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=31912&hl=starfire"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...amp;hl=starfire[/url] Well, it took a while (a small family problem, now resolved) but it finally got here this weekend. I'm pleased to report that the easiest problem is fixed - the wonky knobs. ET reckoned they were glued on. I bloody hoped not, as one of the tone pots was loose. I managed to remove the knobs by sliding the folded over edge of an old T-shirt under the edge of the knob and pulling up on it. They were damned hard to shift but I got them removed eventually. Once I tightened up the nuts on all the pots, I squeezed the split shafts slightly with a pair of pliers to make putting the knobs back on a little easier. It was still bloody hard work. But they're all tightened up and on straight. My attention turns to the more perplexing problem, the crack between the fingerboard and the neck from frets 2-4ish. I am going to attempt to get some glue in the crack using a syringe then clamping it down to hell. I don't see fixing the dings next to the bridge as being a priority. A drop fill of lacquer might smooth it out. Now to find some suitable syringes and needles.

[quote name='lojo' post='508419' date='Jun 8 2009, 06:30 PM']Hi Going to build my first bass, but I am going to use an off the shelf neck first time round Will be copying a jazz bass to scale, keeping it simple first time round, making and spraying the body (wow i can have any colour I like!) So I need to go shopping 1. Any recommendations for best place to purchase a decent finished maple neck w maple finger board ? 2. Any recommendations on make of hardware and electronics, I have no preference if they are standard fender or not? (I plan to order these soon to put pressure on myself to get on with the body construction) 3. Any comments very welcome at this stage Thanks for any comments[/quote] To be honest, eBay is as good a source for necks as any. Brand new necks are rather expensive from your usual suspects (WD Music, Allparts, etc.) Pickups, well with Jazz ones the world is your oyster - so many varieties.

Welcome to the forum

I installed a Big Combo (I guess its a Thumper and an Eighty-Four?) in a PJ Jazz recently. I liked the sound, but I was less impressed by the rather sharp edges of the pole pieces, caught my thumb when muting the E string a little.

A while back, Geoff bought a Squier P body from me. Paid promptly and everything went smoothly.

I recently acquired this 31 year old, she was in a bit of a state as can be seen here: In the middle of cleaning some white gunk off the pickup casings: Well, I decided to give the old "coke soak" a try on the tarnished metal parts. Colour me amazed. And here she is, fully assembled: I haven't given her a good go through the rig yet, but even through headphones/bass trainer last night I was impressed. Proper play tonight!

[quote name='noelk27' post='505599' date='Jun 4 2009, 05:07 PM']Planning on converting a four-string G&L L2000 to string through body, and looking for recommendations as to suitable replacement bridges.[/quote] Are you sure you want to do that? IIRC the G&L bridge is a nice one with locking saddles - but quite large. The chances of finding a direct replacement are slim. You might be left with screw holes on the sides. Furthermore, if you perform this then you're going to harm potential resale value if you come to sell it. If you're sure you want to do this, I'd put forward the Hipshot A-style bridge. Adjustable in all directions. As seen here:

I've emailed them in the states to see if anyone knows what's going on. They were pretty helpful with questions about neck dimensions etc.

[quote name='neepheid' post='504391' date='Jun 3 2009, 01:09 AM']I've just ordered a Chaos 4. Hope the shop actually has one [/quote] And it looks like I'm being bedevilled with supply problems - the shop phoned me up to say that they've none in stock and they asked their suppliers when new stock's coming and they've got no idea. Bah humbug.

I've just ordered a Chaos 4. Hope the shop actually has one

Practice, practice, practice. And plenty of practice as a band - don't do what I did and do my first gig off the back of only 3 whole band practices. Try to relax. If you make a mistake, keep calm and carry on - join up the song as soon as you can. Try to enjoy it. It seems like you've got a reasonably relaxed gig for your first one with probably a supportive and captive audience. Good luck.