happynoj

I’ve got some coming from Amazon tomorrow. Only £2, so a bit of a bargain if they do the job.

They look good! Do you use the normal or extra strong?

It’s not actually attached at the moment. It looks good without, but I’m leaning towards having it. I don’t want to drill into it and then regret it, so I’m going to start with some double sided tape and see how it holds up.

My favourite bass is my 2003 Warwick Corvette Standard. I’ve owned it for 17 years, and I’m sure it’s got some magic in it. I’ve had other Corvette Standards, and I’ve got other ‘nicer’ and ‘fancier’ Corvettes, but this one is special. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia of being my first ‘Wick, but I love it. It didn’t have the most careful first owner, and it’s not exactly been a garage queen with me, and it had picked up plenty of scratches and dents along the way. I decided that I wanted it to look as good as it feels, so I started cooking up a plan. First of all, I stripped it down. Without any hardware, the Swamp Ash body and neck felt astonishingly light - I was tempted to see if I could throw it over the roof of the house! (Even with hardware, it’s only around 3.6kg/8lbs.) Then I set about making a scratchplate. Having never done this before, my favourite bass seemed like the right place to start. Now I know that Warwick sell pickguards for Streamers, and I like the idea but I’ve always felt that they weren’t quite the right shape, so I drew out my own on a piece of cereal box. I then photocopied it, glued the piece of paper to a piece of 6mm ply and rough cut it out with a jigsaw. I did lots of drilling and hand filing to get the neck pocket and pickup hole right… …and then did the same for the outer edge. Then I borrowed a router from a friend, and had my first ever go at routing cutting the scratchplate out of 4-ply pearloid, and putting the 45 degree bevel on. It didn’t come out exactly perfect, but it’s not far off. (This picture is before further refinement with sandpaper, and although it’s still not perfect, it’s a bit better). After then, I took it to Rob at Manton Customs who added pearloid blocks and refretted it. There’s a lovely YouTube video about it, which I found slightly disturbing to watch - it’s not every day you get to see someone taking a chisel to one of your favourite possessions! He does beautiful work, and he’s a lovely chap to boot. Then I took it to Dave Wilson for paint, and it turned out beautifully (as expected!). I also went for a matching headstock, and took the opportunity to swap my broken Just-A-Nut II for a shiny brass JAN III. Then it was just a case of reassembly (most of which Dave did) to see what it all looked like! And a bonus pic with my ‘05 Ltd Ed. I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’m happy!

I would also like Dave’s details if someone has them please. 🙂

Bought a book. No complaints! Everything as it should be.

I think that the 'collectibility' of vintage instruments is more down to sentimentality and myth than anything else. The main brand which does well in the vintage market is Fender, which is probably because they are the biggest company in the market, they're the most copied company in the market, they've been around for longest, and people remember wanting Fenders when they were kids because their hero played one. There is also the perception that Fenders of various periods are better (pre-CBS, etc), but because all of the pre-CBS models have been snatched up and now command astronomical prices, people moved onto the later basses which are now all more expensive, and now even the 80s stuff is starting to rise in price, which is funny because as far as I was aware, everyone seems to think that the 80s stuff is crap. Because of this, the market is huge, demand is huge, and sellers can ramp up the prices because people will pay them. Warwick doesn't have any of that stuff. They've only been around since the 80s, no one makes copies of their instruments, and the only people whose childhood heroes played them are people in their mid to late 20s because of the Nu Metal wave of the early 2000s (I'm one of them). The number of buyers for Warwicks is tiny compared to Fender, so if people try to sell Warwicks for high prices they just don't sell, because the demand and the mythology just isn't there.

Hi, I'm a maybe. If I can make it I'll bring my 3 Warwick basses and can bring a Warwick Xtreme 5.1 + 2x10 cab if anyone is interested/if there is room. Will probably also chuck in my pedalboard.

There is a short scale Rockbass available.

I love my Warwicks but I bought them all used and I won't be buying a brand new one without a hefty lottery win.

Recently picked up a fretless FNA Jazzman. Goes nicely with my 2005 Ltd Ed for a Yin/Yang effect! Planning on blacking out the hardware for the full stealth look.

My vote would go to Jens Ritter. I feel a bit grubby just browsing through his website.

I would like to chuck in 'Shine' by Take That, and 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol. CC makes me sick in my mouth a bit.

I have D-tuners on the B-strings of my 5ers. So I guess maybe they are A-tuners? When I've got some more free time I'm going to investigate modding a normal D-tuner to have an extended arm so that I can have one on the E string as well.

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1435336849' post='2807899']I wonder if classical orchestra musicians carry backup instruments?[/quote] The stringed musicians will be carrying spare bows and strings. The reed instruments will all have spare reeds. The brass section will probably have a selection of mouthpieces. Not sure how many of them will have a whole backup instrument, but I've worked with a number of trumpeters who carried more than one trumpet around with them all the time. With orchestral instruments being acoustic, there is much less to go wrong, bar sitting on them.

On the flipside, if you have to be 'qualified' to criticise something, you must surely have to be equally 'qualified' to appreciate it. No one evers claims that people shouldn't be dancing to the funky music because they aren't musicians.

[quote name='anaxcrosswords' timestamp='1433933349' post='2795153'] I’m going to sound like a total nob by asking a question that must have been asked a gazillion times before. As a debutant, what would I be expecting to happen at a bash, apart from me potentially looking very silly? [/quote] You should expect me to look silly as well.

I'm moving to Shropshire this week. Would potentially be up for a little trip to Manchester if I could fit it in with work. I can bring Warwick basses and amp, and a large pedalboard.

I'm from Lichfield as well! Moved away for uni a few years back but my parents still live there.