neepheid

Welcome to the forum

Starting to look a bit more business-like: I've finished tapering one side of the neck, but it's such a slow, monotonous job that I took a detour and fitted the tuners. Also discovered (although I kind of knew anyway) that my "strings" are too fat to fit in the tuners, so I'm going to have to pare the end down a little before I can put them in the tuner.

Nothing's perfect. I love the Hipshot saddle design, but their bridges could do with some more intonation travel - like a Badass. I used an A style bridge on my first project bass and I ended up having only just enough travel available to intonate the E string. Perhaps I am culpable for my bridge positioning, but it gave me a bad moment. I've had to use a Badass V on my Zebrano Wideboy 5 as it's the only one with a baseplate big enough to cover the repairs I had to do to the body. +1 on the string spacing being a set once and leave thing - I adjusted my Hipshot bridges once to suit the pickup pole pieces and I've never touched them since.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome back to bass playing

[quote name='Paul Cooke' post='224068' date='Jun 22 2008, 11:55 AM']ah, the old "My late Fathers' Chinese Fender P-Bass" routine... Think he picked all four up cheap at CackConvertors and is trying to make a profit...[/quote] Or somewhere much cheaper...

[quote name='Wooks' post='224062' date='Jun 22 2008, 11:45 AM']Bugger that's a nice un, it;s a bloody pity I'm off on me hols tomorrow for a week so I won't be keep an eye on it I'll have to have good look on my return. Any other suggestions??[/quote] Stick on your max bid and hope for the best, you never know!

This Squier 5 string P is starting at £99. Last time it was on it was BIN £135 and it only choked up to £72 (reserve not met) [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170231455130"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=170231455130[/url] I'd wager the Squier would be a lot better than any of those cheapy eBay specials.

Epiphone EB-3 cherry red. Got it from local shop Bruce Millers in Aberdeen in 2003, can't remember how much. Still got it, been pimping it lately with a Hipshot Supertone bridge and now a DiMarzio Model One pickup at the neck. Next to require attention will be the electronics, which have scratchy pots and fuzzy kind of sound at anything less than full volume. (Model One not shown)

Forstner bit arrived. Tuners this weekend. I've also begun to taper the neck and provisionally cut the nut slots. If I decide how I'm anchoring the strings at the bottom then it could be up and running (acoustically) in the next few days.

Welcome to the forum

[quote name='Galilee' post='221114' date='Jun 18 2008, 09:05 AM']Looking more complicated that I expected. [/quote] Well, I did say I was adding some "flourishes" to his original design. Bear in mind that this is also some sneaky training for things to come on my Zebrano Wideboy 5 project (Headstock veneering, nut shaping and slot cutting, machine head fitting). Just opened a dispute with the eBay seller who has failed to get a 14mm forstner bit to me in over 2 weeks. They said last week that they had sent it and would look into it and redispatch if necessary. Royal Fail muckup or not, it's still ridiculous, emailed them yesterday and the day before to see what was happening. Got no reply and I've had enough. Ordered one elsewhere, should get here tomorrow or Friday.

Headstock veneered and shaped. Locations for tuning machines and nut slots marked. The veneer was a little lacking in bonding at the top, so I sealed the edge with a little superglue. As a practice run for the Zebrano Wideboy 5, I think I need to use a little more glue, especially round the edges.

[quote name='Sibob' post='220365' date='Jun 17 2008, 09:05 AM']And is it me, but is the A tuner lower than the others? lol Si[/quote] He actually points this out in the description. He's possibly not deliberately trying to pull a fast one (ie. he genuinely believes that he has a real Fender), but I could see him getting right defensive if this is pointed out, so I thought it best to report it to eBay. Basically I hope no more people get ripped off here (perhaps the seller did when he bought it originally?)

Sanded flat, nut slot cut out and nut blank fitted, and as some more practice veneering I am worried that the glue wasn't taking, hence the clamping. I'll trim the veneer tomorrow.

Duly reported.

Mmm, tasty. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Well, work begins - on the angled back headstock: It slipped slightly during clamping, so I have about a mm of difference to sand out. I really ought to get a block plane some time. I know I've done this the "wrong way round" (usually the join is further down the neck and the glueing surface is on the cut edge of the neck blank rather than the underside) but there's a reason for this - with no seperate fingerboard (at least not yet), I considered it both unsightly and the source of potential problems to have it there, hence the alternative construction. Despite having to mount tuners through the glued joint (whenever my 14mm drill bit arrives - been waiting over 2 weeks, grr) the lack of pull from the nylon strings means that I'm fairly confident that it won't put too much stress on the slightly weakened join. If I'm wrong, oh well I'll do another one.

That has to be the worst placed E tuning machine I've seen for some time. I'd be tempted to string it the wrong way round (a la Hagstrom) just to alleviate the sideways pressure on the string.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='218916' date='Jun 14 2008, 05:41 PM']Eitther of these can be tapped or switched for series/parallel, which the Model 1 can't.[/quote] Not so - 4 wires + ground = series/parallel/single if you wish, no?

"Made Up My Mind" by Savoy Brown. I don't normally play with a pick, so this one's taking some serious practice. Getting there though. Jammed it with a mate last week and he said that it was coming along nicely. It remains a struggle to maintain the rhythm though. More practice!

It'll certainly be a cut above the usual £50 43" long (because that's such a useful measurement) crap (Swift or whatever name they're putting on the headstock this week) that floats around on eBay. Remember that it's an auction, so it might not stay at £50. If it stays below £100 then I think you'll have got a good deal.

Aye, I'm looking to make it electric by placing a couple of piezo transducers under the bridge. I guess that would make it an EUB I have more crazy ideas like putting on a smallish radius fingerboard to put the strings in a suitable place for bowing purposes, but I'll get it working as is first off then make adjustments like that later (or just make a new neck, it's only a piece of pine from B&Q after all).

Discerning consumers are few and far between. It is far more sensible for the manufacturers to provide "the complete (crap) package" so that people who don't know the first thing about sound quality (which is most people) can get going straight out of the box.

Welcome to the forum, a good range of gear you've got there

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Tonight I had a practice run at veneering on a scrap bit of pine. I'm glueing on the piece only, letting it dry slightly then placing the veneer down and ironing it through a t-shirt. It seemed to go well, but when I trimmed it to size I chipped a little bit of it. Live and learn. Once the glue is dry I'm going to practice carving out the recess for the logo inlay.