yepmop

I was almost as excited as you waiting for it to arrive where's the pictures????

I would love to have a go at building a body one day, but unfortunately, I don't have the big boy tools, but do have a sawmill at the bottom of my road though, so could use them to do the cutting. There is a company that supplies 51 Precision bodies in different woods [url="http://www.guitarbuild.co.uk/product.php?prodId=76&category=&secondary=&keywords="]http://www.guitarbuild.co.uk/product.php?prodId=76&category=&secondary=&keywords= [/url]and quite reasonable prices (from £75) maybe worth checking out? Good luck, look forward to seeing the progress in build diaries

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1339363194' post='1687577'] congrats - you've finished all the nasty stuff, now it starts to get more fun [/quote] Thanks Al, I really have learnt a lot so far (and thanks for your input as well). Next time I will leave the paint stripper on for longer until it's completely evaporated, as I found the longer I left it on the deeper it penetrated (ooerr ) Also, a wallpaper stripper (thin metal blade) it a top tool for removing paint from the body. I'm really looking forward to putting the first coat of colour on this week. Cheers

Welcome Mr Fretbuzz, Hope you have fun in your journey of learning the Bass, as advice I would say listen to as many different musical styles as possible listening to their rhythms and the bass technique used. I'm also a great believer in learning initially without amplification as I believe (right or wrong) it helps build stronger hands and wrists (as you have to player harder to hear anything :-)) and also helps with your finger placement on the fretboard. I looked at those Rock School books for my 9 year old son and I think they're quite good, have you taken any of the tests? Cheers

Have now added about 3 coats of Primer sanding gently with 600 gt paper between coats. It will probably need another 1 or 2 coats in certain areas where you can see the the wood grain/wood filler a little. Will give it a good day after the final primer coat and sand before applying the first colour coat (Yellow). [attachment=110098:P1060831.JPG]

Stunning build, well done!

Well almost finished bar some patches of wood sealer I've now stripped the paint/lacquer off and boy that's hard work!! There's a few dings to fill in with some wood filler and a little find sanding to do here and there and I'll be ready with the white primer. Off to Disneyland Paris with the kids for a few days from tomorrow so I'll wait until my return. [attachment=109311:P1060605.JPG]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1338198055' post='1670561'] I learn a bloody site quicker at 54 than I did at 16 . [/quote] Never a truer word spoken, I was only thinking about this a few days ago, I seem to learn a lot quicker than I use to, probably an age thing

Have now got the red primer off and parts of the wood sealer. Realised that when the instructions say "apply a liberal coat" It really does mean a liberal coat . Found that I got more off by leaving the remover on for 60-90 mins and then using a wallaper scraper to get the paint off. That final Wood sealer coat is proving really tuff so may have to sand to get the final patches of it off. Decided to go the car primer/paint root with a nitro lacquer finish, which will take a bit longer to allow the paint to harden properly.

Yeah good read, especially as i'm doing something similar, how long did it take to strip the original paint off? Enjoy your hols.

Started to strip the paint off today, have looked around the net for the best process and after reading this article [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/lacquer-faqs/#strip"]http://www.mancheste...uer-faqs/#strip[/url] I've decided on the paint stripper, I'm using [b]Barrettine Paint Panther[/b] Paint Stripper as it seemed to get good reviews. The top Blue coat seemed to come off reasonably easy (with a bit of pre-sanding). Now the Red (which I'm assuming is the primer coat) is proving VERY stubborn to get off and only seem to get it off where the paint has either chipped to the wood or around any drill holes. It almost looks like the Bass was originally RED? Here's the current progress.

Welcome Playing Bass is a lot of fun and so is this site

Welcome Ash "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][i] I feel the gap where I never got myself a decent teacher and trained in theory much more deeply[/i]" I know exactly where your coming from there, you're still young enough to correct that, don't leave it too late![/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Have fun [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color] Cheers Tony

Welcome Stu I lived in Lincoln for 15 years and was in a rock there in the 70s, lots of bands going on at the time, loved every minute up there.

As Al suggested I put a small shim in the neck and put the bridge back in its orignal postion. The pickups are now alighned although the neck is still slightly out on the G, so possibly need to shim in the E to push it back down? It plays okay and the harmonics are in the correct locations etc, needs to be setup now as there is a bit of fret buzz which I expected anyway. http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/yepmop1898/P1060597.jpg May leave further neck adjustments until after the body re-spray.

A good starting one I think is Weather Report's (Jaco) - A Remark You Made, just love this song.

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1337601376' post='1662483'] If your pickups don't line up and you knew the bridge is out, then maybe you need to shim the neck one side to bring it all back into alignment. It would be easier than having to widen the pickup routs. [/quote] Thanks Al. When I was alighning the bridge I had a nagging thought "Install the pickups to check everything" but didn't listen to myself, but will add them tonight and check. I'll shim the neck if they are out and hopefully they will then line up. All part of the learning curve.

Well, I've re-aligned the bridge and not a bad job for my first build attempt. I just need to add the string retainer on the headstock and then install the pickups. I'm now convinced that this squire body was a Friday special as not only did 2 Precision scratchplates not fit, the original bridge was out of centre by 3 mm, also not sure what the original bridge looked like but I had to move the new bridge forward to get the 34" mark in the middle of the saddle travel screw. here's what I have so far [url="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/yepmop1898/P1060593.jpg"]http://i303.photobuc...98/P1060593.jpg[/url] Close up of the new bridge position (bad angled shot makes the bridge look at an angle), also have to drill the remaining screw holes. [url="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/yepmop1898/P1060594.jpg"]http://i303.photobuc...98/P1060594.jpg[/url] The next problem arising (don't think the pickups are going to align ) [url="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn138/yepmop1898/P1060595.jpg"]http://i303.photobuc...98/P1060595.jpg[/url] I Have learnt a lot so far and it's more involved than I thought it would be, but it's sort of been fun !!! Thanks to Al for 2 bits of advice. Cheers

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1337472884' post='1660671'] best bet is set the saddles mid point in their adjustable travel and use that as the 34" point when you fix the bridge plate to the body. Then you know you have a bit of adjustment space back or forwards to nail the intonation. [/quote] Many thanks Al is was thinking along those lines but just needed confirmation Just got to "steal" some sowing cotton from the other half so I can centre it correctly. Thanks again

The neck is now attached securely, the only problem I have now is that I need to re-align the Wilkinson bridge by moving forward 5mm and upwards (towards the player) by 5 mm, reason being the new neck was about 1mm too big and I sanded both sides of the body equally. Now am I right in thinking the 34" point should be at the "saddle" (which are currently extended by about an inch from the end of the bridge), the 12th fret is exactly 17" form the fretboard facing side of the nut. Should I then add extra onto the length so it's just over 34" or should it be exact? Any help much appreciated. Cheers Tony

Welcome bassicman

Got the replacement Machine Heads and these fit a treat although they are just ordinary chromes ones as a opposed to the "Black Nickel" ones. I've also put some pilot holes on the neck heel, I'll leave the scary part of drilling the holes to the weekend. I'm going to get it all set up and if all looks and sounds good I will them dismantle and re-spray the body.

Feel sorry for the person with the winning bid. I looked at his other items for sale to see if he was flogging an unused bridge centering tool, but no

thanks for the link Always thought Andy Fraser was a very underated bass player.

Good thread. A couple that spring to mind for me would be; Hit me with you rhythm stick - Ian Dury My Baby just cares for me - Nina Simone Will have to think other the others.