Maude

Basschat at its best. Some threads can get heated when folks don't agree but deep down I think we're all here with a common interest and a willingness to help others if we can. Warm hugs all 'round. Now enough of that malarkey and back to manly wood carving. 🙂

Just thinking out loud here, a single action rod must push against the centre of the fretboard and the volute and heel ends of the neck to counter the tension of the strings. This would mean that the cracking in the centre of the neck wouldn't have any direct stress placed on it, making it just a cosmetic issue, to a degree. Wouldn't it?

Oh no! I don't quite understand why that's happening, the substantial fretboard must've been bracing it.

Superb! Love the little maple vaneer between the front and back of the body, adds a real touch of class.

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.