Jean-Luc Pickguard

Some of us like to tinker. Its less risky to customise a sub-£100 instrument than something considerably more expensive.

The photo was taken with the bass at an angle that makes it look a lot worse than it is.

At my next gig I'll probably be proudly playing a Harley benton PB50 that I bought for £50. I have customised it a little, but the neck, body, and pickup are the original parts 😉

I don't really have an opinion on what Wal should do as the basses aren't really my cup of coffee*. How they're doing it at the moment must work for them and I'm sure they have made a decision not to expand based on the likely pros and cons of expanding the operation. *A wilcock kind of looks a bit like a wal, I wouldn't mind a short scale one with a single Guild BS-1 bisonic pickup.

I would love to see a series of tutorial videos outlining all of the techniques that go into making these fine instruments. These could help answer questions such as: Should you spit or swallow when gnawing at your nuts?

They were never going to recommend a Seymour Duncan! If its the shiny chrome relentless I'd put in a Kent Armstrong jazz lipstick—purely for looks, but they are great sounding pickups. I used to use a pair of 'em when a highway 1 jazz was my number one gigging bass.

A comfort strapp will make a light bass practically weightless. Gotoh res-o-lite 350 tuners are a little lighter than hipshot ultralites. Also they are better made and work smoother.

It’s pretty much useless without a pickup, and the intonation is bound to be well out with the bridge position set for skinny guitar strings

As its not a super-valuable instrument I would probably try acetone (nail polish remover from superdrug etc)—after testing on an inconspicuous area of the original finish to check it doesn't strip that off as well.

I used to use a Behringer bass limiter enhancer for this, which is a clone of the boss bass limiter enhancer. It worked very well and was easy to use. I currently use a spectracomp which doesn't have room for a 9v battery but can be powered from one with a simple converter cable

Someone should buy it and give it away at the basschat summer fete as a prize—Whoever guesses how many dead rodents are inside it gets to take it home.

His solo albums are all great

When I put together my fretless precision bitzer I didn't want to spend a fiver on a nut blank I was probably going to ruin, so I went to the nearest Chinese food wholesaler, Wing Yip in Croydon, who supply restaurants & takeaways, but is open to everyone, and I bought a box of fake ivory plastic chopsticks for about a quid. I cut a few down to the length of a nut, filed them to the width of a nut and cut the slots using a variety of needle files and wet & dry paper wrapped around things. I ended up with a perfect nut on my first attempt and no elephants were killed. The material the chopsticks were made of was perfect s it is quite a dense plastic which files very well.

I'd second this advice. I recently acquired a secondhand PB-50 for £50 and have reshaped the headstock & applied a new decal, made a loom with CTS pots, puretone socket & orange drop capacitor, fitted super-knurly domed knobs, squier tuners, a Fender HiMass Bridge, chrome pickup cover, and a well worn-in set of thomastik flats. I'm so knocked out by the tone with the stock Roswell pickup that there's no way I'd consider changing it - it punches well above its weight.

Richlite - looks like ebony, feels like ebony, not affected by seasonal heat & humidity changes.

Next year it will be as old as the basses it was based on were when it was built. I'm not normally one for jazzes, but this looks fantastic.

I use these: https://amzn.to/38x8cVS

I always assumed he was miming to a sequencer while trying to look as cool as possible despite having a pink shaztree growing out of the top of his head.

Nah! Its only naughty if I sell it. It told me that it identifies as a Fender due to the Fender pickup cover and Fender HiMass bridge which together cost me more than the bass.

Before and after pics of the headstock on my PB50

I usually fill a saucepan with petrol, bring it to the boil, throw the strings in and simmer for a couple of hours.

The best cheap(er) flatwounds I have found are the ones sold by status graphite. These are stainless steel flats made for status by picato who no longer make them so there is a finite supply. They still have short & medium scale in stock, but no long scale flats. I use the medium (32") scale ones on my guild starfire and for £22 delivered they are unbeatable. I can't link to the specific page on status-graphite.com as their retro 90s style website uses a frameset.

My favourite Nick Drake song is 'Poor boy'

Mine would be the same as Mr Meldal-Johnson’s signature mustang in Daphne blue, but made to replicate how a 1966 bass would have come off the production line - ie the colour would be brighter and there would be no roadworn malarkey. If that’s not allowed due to it being based on someone else’s signature bass, I’d get a Fender version of my Squier short scale jaguar bass in candy apple red with rolled fingerboard edges, Fender hi mass bridge, Fender yosemite PJ pickups with CTS/ switchcraft bits inc a greasebucket circuit and more substantial tuners.