Shonks

[quote name='silddx' post='1159406' date='Mar 12 2011, 03:28 PM']Shonks, that's a fantastic bass, and it looks lovely. It's very satisfying doing a parts build. I designed and built a bass last year and it came out splendidly, and it's unique. Delighted for you mate! Another J-Retro user too, wickid aren't they![/quote] love 'em! I got a Marcus Miller Deluxe version pilfered from another bass which I mounted on my USA fender 5 too. I had to site a jack socket on the bottom edge and install a battery box - now I've started I cant finish... Put a badass 5 on too and drilled the string thru holes into the bridge - worked a dream. Now the fiver is like the big ugly brother to my pretty custom!! its mat black and slightly distressed, but i wont bother you all with pix hahaha! its a porn thread, but i dont want to get too pervy!

[quote name='lapolpora' post='1093296' date='Jan 17 2011, 11:23 PM']Tasty Sorry. Coat on. Leaving now....[/quote] want some of that!!!

what about trades??

likey!!

[quote name='mojobass' post='1153384' date='Mar 8 2011, 08:53 AM']that neck is lush!! where did u find it? wish i could find one like that for my jazz build!![/quote] as i said, just lucky, was a one off on eBay!

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1154438' date='Mar 8 2011, 08:31 PM']What happened to that finish?[/quote] it got all f^cked up! I love it - you cant hurt him, its too late.... ... its a bit Mad Max

[quote name='Bassassin' post='1154212' date='Mar 8 2011, 06:20 PM']These are DiMarzio Model Js - they still make them and new they're about £100 a set. Sadly I don't think there's a vintage "premium" for old ones, they tend to go around the £50-£60 mark. Are you sure they're 1974? I thought the Model J & Model P lines appeared around '78/'79. They are nice, punchy, warm-sounding pups, I have a set (one 70s with the PAF sticker, one more recent) in my CSL Jazz and they do sound sweet. Jon.[/quote] cant be sure - someone will have to ask Dill

[quote name='JPS' post='1152564' date='Mar 7 2011, 03:09 PM']Thanks for the interesting answers guys, especially liked the idea of getting away from merely running the shapes and trying to play them and use them in a more musical fashion (I'm certainly guilty of merely running through the same shapes and patterns). Would you also include major and minor pentatonic and blues scales in lists of really useful scales (plus maybe mixolydian and dorian)? My next question is why do you practise scales? Is it for increased dexterity, greater knowledge of the fretboard, as a source of musical ideas for improvisation/solos etc? Is it essential to practise them i.e. if you don't improvise or solo etc?[/quote] exactly all of that ! if you don't know them or practice them, you're left with pumping the root cos you don't know where to go...! scales are like the vocabulary of music. If you don't learn them you can't speak the language. Learn to read too, as not being able is the equivalent of being an illiterate!

Thing with mine... it wasn't a project I set out to do. There was no budget, and nothing was deliberate. It started with winning the Bartollins really, I bid ridiculously low and didn't expect to win them. When I saw the neck, it was the same story. I loved the look of it, so beautiful, branded or not but wasn't sure what I was gonna do with it or how good it would perform, and then the body came up the same week, and I won that for a song too. I decided I was gonna look out for all premium components and make a bass to completion, what the hell. I think something or someone up there was watching out for me as everything just came my way, even the matching strap. Think it might have been my late mum - like to think so anyway. After putting on the Badass and then winning the schallers, I screwed the thing together. Except for the neck being a bit chunky, it is beautifully made and the action after tweaking the truss and bridge was as good as any of the boutique basses out there. In fact I used to have an Alembic Omega Series II, and this felt better! I asked a mate who knows about wood, if he thought it was maple as the colour is darker than any I've seen, and it has an unusual grain, but he confirmed it is maple. I sanded the back down to much thinner profile, thinking all the time thinking I'll probably ruin it, but nothing ventured as it were, or easy come easy go, were expressions that came to mind. Eventually when I thought it was about right, I used a very thin layer of cellulose varnish, the kind recommended for brass fittings on your front door - it worked so well. I have very limited skills in DIY, so when this bass was finished and turned out so well I just couldn't believe it, & only cost me £260. I really plays fantastically, and the active sound, well - its hard to describe a sound, but there's nothing out there I'd ever swap it for - and the passive side, well its another bass again. You probably know the J East amps and the Bart pickups so you can guess how this bass performs. & then.... the Hipshot extender came up and that was the cherry on the top!! - thanks mum! so, I have my own signature bass, there's not another like it in the world - I had to put my own logo on it, - waterslide paper for the printer did the job, again from ebay, well, you didn't think I'd let Fender take the glory for this one! Mind you, they do deserve a mention, after all its still a Fender Jazz copy, as are the Sadowsky's Sandbergs, Laklands - in fact every bass out there was born from the Fender legacy, lets face it! That was a long rant - thanks for being patient enough to read it all , but this is Gear Porn after all, and there's nothing like an erotic story to get you off I just got home from a rehearsal - its late - & I'm just waffling while having me cocoa Cheers !

[quote name='Matt P' post='1152742' date='Mar 7 2011, 05:59 PM']sir, that is not a bass, that is pure XXX pornography! top marks for a beautiful build.[/quote] i know...I'll get the lube.....hahahah!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1149903' date='Mar 4 2011, 08:33 PM']Everyone should have a bitsa Jazz and yours looks cracking! Mine owes me about £400 and can hold it's own in some very respectable company although yours looks nicer than mine by a mile (mines CAR I'm not keen so a refin may come knocking). Thumbs up mate, all hail the bitsa Picture added in edit, [attachment=73931:Jazz.JPG] I told you your looks better![/quote] Well, mine does have the bound n blocks, but your's is pretty hot too!!! Love that colour - !

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1152545' date='Mar 7 2011, 02:49 PM']Very nice bass there Steve. On another topic, looking at your last name, I wonder if we may be distant relatives, as there aren`t too many Shones about. My Mums maiden name was Shone, and her family originate from South East London - Elephant & Castle/Old Kent Road area.[/quote] hey, I'm glad I'm a show off now, might have found me a long lost cousin...!! Aint too many of us about, we have to be related!!

and here's my USA Fender pimped down! and here's the back - added the battery box and the string thru for the B string has been extended - weird i know - but it works!!

not sure if this is the right forum for this thread so apologies in advance if it isn't. as the title says, I have the vintage pickups salvaged from Dill Katz original 74 fretless jazz bass. I dont want to sell them. I now got them installed on my bitza fretless - 84 jap jazz and defretted mightymite neck. the vintage yellowing dimarzios sound as sweet as they look! I know anything vintage is only worth what a buyer would pay, but love to hear your thoughts on what monetry value you'd stick on them. dont want to take them out of the guitar for pix, so here's a brief description. They each have two separate coils. the split is in the middle, with black tape round the copper. two strips of magnet on each side of the center with poles adjustable with a hex key. White epoxy on the middle and ends keeping them together and sealed. Each coil has a pair of wires and are wired in seriesalthough I suppose they go parallel if required. they're passive of course and have a pretty hi output compared to Fender's modern equivalent. Oh yeah - and the original creamy white covers have gone very yellow with 37 - gasp - yes, 37 years of the genuine aging process taking its toll. that's it - what're your thoughts?? thanks !

looks a bit like mine ths is surf green but csme out more blue in the pix for some reason