Maude

I like a man who will happily mix up imperial and metric in one measurement. I always go to whatever increment is closest on my tape measure or ruler, "That's 18 inches and three mil". Never fails to ensure I cut in the wrong place. 😁

If you have good eye hand coordination you should be able to remove the fretboard from nut to heel with one swing of an axe.

@barlemniscate there's a T40 ending on ebay later today, still only £340 which seems pretty good.

I'll admit to being in the dark about the quality improvements in the Line6 family. I use an X3 Live at the moment and I'm happy to be honest as I don't use any of the wacky effects, just the amp and cab sims, and basic effects like chorus, reverb, overdrive, compression, etc. I know the Helix gets named quite a bit on here but how does the level of improvement go from model to model? By that I mean is the HD 500 vastly better than the X3, and is the Helix vastly better than the HD 500. As I've said previously, I'm not interested in exact replications of named brands, just good quality effects. I know it's all subjective but is it worth me upgrading or just stick with the old X3, what's the general consensus?

I'll be doing plenty of research before reaching for my wallet, but thanks for the heads up.

What was the fillet on top of the trussrod like? Was it a relatively substantial piece of wood or was it just a thin sliver to stop the glue from the fretboard join contaminating it?

That's cool. I'd only assumed because our guitarist got an M13 and it doesn't have a Variax input that they'd moved on from it. I might have to look into it as I really do like the feel of my Variax, apart from the weight.

I used mine exclusively live for years. No the the pa stayed the same but you do have to spend time editing patches to give a consistent volume output, and eg levels to a degree. No different to how you need to program any multi effect pedal. The Variax is really just an extention of a multi effects pedal.

Has the helix got a Variax socket then? I thought Line6 had moved away from the Variax, might have to look into it again.

Thats exactly how I use it. I use the X3 Live, it's a bit dated now but as far as I know none of the new breed of Line6 multi's have the Variax socket. I think for comparison on this thread it should be Roland midi system with synth and Variax bass with multi effects pedal.

I've just been watching a couple of vids on the T40. Whilst it's undoubtedly a very cool bass with a great array of tones, it's far too complicated for me. Tone controls that change from single coil to humbucking as you decrease them, volume controls that act as tone filters, etc. At home or in the studio it would be great but how would you replicate all those tones quickly between songs live? Also all the 'named brand' tones are only ballpark, as with the Variax, if you want it to sound exactly like the actual bass you're trying to mimick I suspect you'll need to buy the actual bass you're mimicking. I'll happily go digital just to be able to recall settings with a footswitch. The T40 is still a great bass though.

The Cornershop one reminds of that Spaceman thing, mainly because it was a similar era. I can't remember the band name but the bloke was called Jazz Man or something. Both versions were terrible to be fair but the original was the worse.

It looks very tactile. But then I did get told off once for caressing a machine head for half an hour while sat next to my wife. It was beautifully engineered and so smooth. "What's that Love? I'm a what? Well that's rude isn't it!" 😆

I reckon get an amp cranked up, foot on amp, pick in hand and treat them to five full minutes of 'Waterfront' whilst keeping a deadly serious bass face on the go. Then just quip, "Nah, it's not for me", and walk out.

I thought that when I saw it. A lot less fragile which is helpful but it all looks to be under control anyway.

Wow, look at that. It's come off really cleanly by the looks of it. As you say, the finish can be sorted later.

I offered some advice on a different thread before this one was started, I think that's where the confusion has arisen. I'm pretty sure the entire neck, fretboard and bindings are all lacquered over as one so suggested cutting through the lacquer with scalpel following a straight edge to try and minimise cracking and splintering of the lacquer. Hopefully after it's all back together the join line could have superglue wick'd in and polished up for an as near as possible invisible, and more importantly unfeelable join. As you've said previously, none of this is guaranteed to work, and probably wouldn't be advisable unless there's no other choice, which it seems there isn't.

And all is right with the world again. 😁

That's a four string! Can't trust anyone these days. 😉

That's a good point, and one I hadn't considered when I suggested all this madness to Stew 😆, he's got crushed pearl triangular inlays to worry about. I'm not sure what they are made of being a late seventies bass, but some kind of epoxy resin I'd guess.

I can only speak for the Variax as it's the only one of the four I own. It sounds like a completely normal bass on 90% of the models. The only ones that can get glitchy are the ones that use an octaver and the synths. But this can be the case with some similar pedals. The two that use an octaver are the 8 and 12 strings, the 12 is worse that the 8 and it's trying to add a third octave 2 above the normal bass. It's actually fine but if you play Jeremy by Pearl Jam (it's the law on a 12 string) then it gets glitchy when doing the intro harmonics. I can forgive it as it's trying to play 3 octaves of a harmonic simultaneously. The 8 string is fine. The synths have to be played really cleanly as they get confused by multiple notes, again a lot of pedals have this issue. All the other normal basses sound like normal basses as it's really just very clever eq'ing that's getting the tone. I run mine through an X3 Live and can change amp, cab, bass (including tone settings) and effects chain by stepping on one switch.

The answer clearly is a solid bodied doublebass 🤔 and a crane. 😆 I've always got my amp on a stand behind but to the right of me, I'll normally leave my bass on it's ribs with scroll just against my amp stand and the endpin against the back wall with the bridge facing inwards. It seems the safest I can normally get it but I still worry. Luckily my band mates are quite careful.

I could put black paint in the cracks and then flat it back to create an effect like Lichtenberg burning. 😁

Aaaand that's why I hate aerosols! When they go wrong, they have a tendandcy to go spectacularly wrong. Case in point, the headstock. It was primed, basecoated and lacquered ready for the decal and sixpence to be applied, then it would've been lacquered over again to seal it all in. I didn't put too much lacquer on as it only needed to be a surface to apply the decal to. When I was flatting it to get a nice smooth surface for the decal and subsequent lacquer, I rubbed though. Not to worry, I'll just dust a bit more lacquer on, then flat that and put another colour coat and relacquer it. You can't just dust a colour coat on as the waterbase basecoat is relatively soft and there would be an edge, resulting in a visible ring around where I'd rubbed through. I put some lacquer on to seal it in a couple of days ago and gave it a quick flat this morning ready for some colour and lacquer this afternoon. Colour coat on, lovely, let it dry and just a couple of coats of lacquer and we're back to where we were before I rubbed through. MASSIVE REACTION! The previous coat of lacquer must've still been curing, even though it was plenty hard enough to flat, and because aerosols contain so much solvent, the new lacquer, being the nasty aggressive stuff that it is, decided to have a pop at the older coat of lacquer, making it craze up really badly. Luckily it's just the headstock so not a big area to rectify. I'll just flat the whole face back to bare wood and start again. This is why I don't like aerosols.

The pallbearers carrying the coffin down the aisle to the sound of Dave Edmunds' 'I Hear You Knocking'.