uk_lefty

Well... I've bought a jinwan neck today. Heard good reviews of them on BC. Now I need a body. There's an ebay seller in the UK who says he can make anything, I'm after a J body but rear routed and PJ pickup config. It might be a bit ambitious at this stage and I want to keep costs down in case of a mess up. I may have to reign myself in. Am I thinking right that on a J bass with the really big wide route out for the neck pickup I may be able to fit a P pickup in there?

Long story short... I sold a bass to someone who didn't want it, he returned it to me but had nicked the knobs!! I'm waiting for the body supplier to get back to me but I'm after a rear routed jazz body set up for a PJ config. Would like to not have a bell plate or pick guard ideally. However, they do standard P and J bodies for a good rate so if they can't do my wacky idea then I'll have to just go for the ordinary

So, for the benefit of my mental health (!!! This could go either way!!!) I'm going to build a bitsa. The wife and I discussed it last night. I'm working, I'm very lucky to have a job that allows working at home, but I have to admit it being a bit full on to go from being woken up early every morning by my kids, once they're sorted I work, then when I can finish in the evening I've immediately got the kids until they're in bed and I'm exhausted. I don't get much time to myself and I'm someone who cannot mentally rest. For me mentally resting is turning my attention to something else, other than work or family stuff. So... A bitsa it is. I've found a supplier who will make me a lefty bass body with whatever routing I want. I have found a few neck suppliers but am veering towards trying to find a second hand neck from a reliable brand (E.g. A Fender or Squier neck unmolested, or an Allparts, Mighty Mite or Brandoni...) and I'm OK having a righty neck. I need to put together a parts shopping list so I can slowly but surely build up the bits I need to put this together. I've had a go below but would welcome any input: Body (finishing materials?) Neck (finishing may be required?) Nut Tuners String guide Neck screws and neck plate Pickups Shielding tape or paint Wiring loom (has to be a solderless Kiogon doesn't it?!) Bridge Strap buttons Cover for rear route with screws Strings and strap

That superb that it has been found and your buyer has been good to deal with. Amazing how things can go completely missing. Its very similar to my story of recently selling an 80s Aria to a buyer in Bristol, DPD lost the package for a month and the buyer was good as gold to start with, though requested a refund and said if it turned up he'd refuse the delivery. Well! He accepted the delivery and didn't contact me until 24hrs later when I had been informed the item was delivered and emailed him to check if this was true. He repackaged and returned the bass for me, but when I got it back he'd nicked the knobs!! What a complete bum hole of a person. I called him a few weeks later out the blue and he said "oh yes I have got them I've just not had chance to post them". He's obviously still "not had chance".

In all seriousness the heaviest strings I ever had were the Steve Harris Rotosound signature flats. Unbelievably heavy and tense but on a P bass with the Steve Harris sig pickup the sound was just BIG. Big, clear, bass sound. No grittiness or added character as such just a huge, huge, open and clear sound. The tension took a little getting used to and I had to have a tech set up the bass because I was scared the neck would snap when I first fitted the strings, but I thought they sounded excellent. Same bass with lightweight TI flats did not work for me.

Don't look at this if you're hungover, particularly if you've been on the bourbon or whisky.. LEFTY Bass Mods Custom 5-String bass (strung righty): Poplar top, Birdseye Maple Fingerboard, https://reverb.com/item/37317838-lefty-bass-mods-custom-5-string-bass-strung-righty-poplar-top-birdseye-maple-fingerboard?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=37317838

Booooo! Flats should be thick. Steve Harris signature all the way! 😁

Couldn't agree more, on this point anyway. I have no idea how you could cut yourself on TI Flats. Maybe it's supposed to be tongue in cheek but just not very well done? I do agree with a lot of the rest of the review though. I personally found TI flats incredibly disappointing but so many BC'ers love them. As with any bit of kit though it all depends on the rest of the gear in the chain whether that gets the best out of it or not.

I bought a shed load in my first few years of playing. I rarely ever use them unless I really, really need to. I've still got some that I bought in my teens. The one I favour most is a big yellow fender one at. 73mm. I call it "the Dorito". This must be 20 years old and still going. Also my favourite straps, RightOn fake leather, have a little pick-pocket on them that I stick some Dunlop medium picks in, but these are more to lend to the guitarists than use myself.

It looks OK but would it sound any good?

Hmmm... Odd then, would have expected some kind of pickup replacement rather than a bass neck and bridge on a tele body.

I saw these on their Facebook page. What are the pickups?

Would love to have a go but anything DIY that I touch turns to disaster. If its all screw together stuff I can do it, and I have soldered in pickups before. I really fancy having a go. Being a lefty we get very little choice in bass designs so a bitsa would be great, especially as I don't mind an upside down neck. However, I already 5 basses which is 1or 2 too many, realistically, so not sure if or when I'd let myself get round to a bitsa. I do love seeing the creations people come up with though, some real lookers in this thread.

Maybe, I hadn't thought of that. But with him being responsible for a shed load of hits and being powerful and influential in music and beyond and Robin Thicke who nobody outside his family had heard of before that song... I just thought "easy fall guy" there.

As in free from criticism at the sexist content of the lyrics, not the plagiarism.

I'm with you on this. In fact at the time it was out I remember it being a real dance floor filler and didn't see any women walking away in disgust, far from it. However, that doesn't make it right, the lyrical content is awful, but there's been far worse so if I remember rightly it took a while after the sing had its peak for the disgust to get out there. Don't get me wrong, I don't approve and I even cringe whenever I hear a song with the word "b!tch" used by a man as a throw away replacement word for "woman". I just think it's odd how Robin Thicke has been the fall guy for it and Pharrel Williams walks away scott free making the odd apology for it, maybe he's the easier target, being the far less successful of the two.

Superb, found the answer in minutes. Thank you!

A few mates and I were discussing the price of Fender MIJ guitars last night via text. We were kicking ourselves for not buying up the entire stock of Guitar Emporium when MIJs were about £450 each. It got me to thinking, I've got some nice basses that may have sold for absolute buttons brand new but now are maybe selling for a lot more either new or on the second hand market. I'm not selling but I'm keen to know whether there was a way to find out how much guitars would have sold for new back in their day? I'm talking about 2000s onwards, so in the Internet age, which may make it harder as there are no printed catalogues to refer back to!

I used to go on a different forum years back where it was de rigeur to refer to Fartke... But the kickback amp I had was utterly superb. The price the LH heads go for second hand is insane too, and now you've said it spanks the RM500 you've set me off on mad ebay search, curse you! Am I right in thinking there's some valve involvement in the LH heads, maybe in the pre amp?

I haven't finished it yet but I came across a pod cast where Guy Pratt and Martin Kemp are hosting and they're interviewing John Taylor. He was talking to his peers as if it wasn't an interview, just a chat, and it was really insightful. He talked about wanting to emulate the great recording rhythm sections and how he and the drummer (who's name I have forgotten) and nobody else in the room would spend ages just practicing fills to get them perfectly tight so that they could smash it in all rehearsals and song writing sessions. That struck a (bass) chord with me as a brilliant way to practice with a drummer rather than trying to improve and stay on each others rhythm changes. Made me respect him as a player more than I already do.

Fair play to you! Two massive lessons in this thread: Enjoy the process of learning, rather than fixate on the outcome. Stoke your enthusiasm by putting yourself in the mindset of a complete beginner. I really like this one and will take it with me in to work and leisure.

Is he just trying to get on the Katie Hopkins rent-a-gobshite bandwagon? I literally couldn't care less, he's a hateful individual and I never got all the fuss about the Smiths. I bought one of their albums when I was 17 and gave it away to a mate the next day. Believe me, 17 year old Yorkshireman me didn't ever give anything away that had cost me money. I just couldn't stand Morrisey's voice for an entire album.

Yeah they're more versatile than people think. And I've had this nearly 2 years and I'm being told there's more I can get out of it than I am. Playing with a pick is really awesome and grindy, slap can be Flea-like (not that at I am at all proficient) and fingers type can be really big and bold and that's where I am 99% of the time, either with scooped mids or for a more traditional sound boosted mids. My only issue with the 3 band EQ version is that the treble really needs to be tamed, I'm glad I got a rosewood board on mine otherwise it could be too shrill and brittle sounding without a lot of tweaking. The real thing about this bass though is the ergonomics and the feel. It's perfectly balanced and the neck is perfection. Playing it is really just effortless. When I tried it out I preferred in a lot of ways the US Jazz that was 500 quid cheaper but in my head I just knew for bashing out weddings and functions it had to be the Ray. If I did any serious recording my cash would have gone on the US Jazz but I know it just wouldn't have given me the kick that the Ray does. Long answer there! But yeah, I like it.

Forgot to mention I funded the jazz by selling a precision. I funded the Warwick by selling the Aria but the dpd c0ck up left me refunding the bass after I'd bought the Warwick...