Maude

Thanks, I think. 🤔 I'm trying to navigate that on a phone so have to zoom in and then can't see all the different headings. Are piccolo bass strings even on there, or should I be looking at the guitar strings section? None under the bass strings section will be tuned an octave above the bass register.

Now order it quick before someone changes your mind for you. 😁

That is an amazing piece of wood. Is it going to be dyed a colour or staying au naturel?

Afternoon all. Being at home bored at the moment, as most of us are, I've taken a fancy to trying out a piccolo bass. I've watched a few vids of short scale basses with piccolo strings and that's the route I'm taking. D'addario do a set for around £15 and being my go to string manufacturer seems cheap and logical. The question of tension is where I'm in the dark. Does a set of piccolo strings put more or less tension on the neck? I know they're thinner (20,32,42,52) but being tuned an octave higher makes me think there'll be more tension. I'm not worried about setting the bass up, just that the three short scales I have are all either old, hollow or substandard materials, or a combination and extra tension might kill them. I have been looking at the Ibanez Talman short scale as I've always liked those basses and they're only £150 new, but I really shouldn't be buying any more basses. Sooo, any thoughts on the tension front. 🙂

A great Rancid song to help you learn and get used to string spacing is 'Fall Back Down'. For the most part the bass is runs of the same notes so although reasonable fast you could do half as many notes until you're used to finding your strings. It utilises all four strings fairly equally. It does have some tasty little fills which you could leave out until more confident, although they sound tricky they're actual fairly simple, Matt Freeman makes complicated sounding basslines out of fairly simple note choices and I mean that in a good way. This song is, to me, a great song to help build the skills you've outlined by playing as much, or little, as you're comfortable with without losing the feel of the song. Enjoy 🙂

So which do you prefer? 🤔

Got this lacquered today, along with the other two, but as I'm doing them at home in the garden the inevitable local fly colony decided to come and see what I was up to. I picked out what I could but I'll see what they're like once dry. They're currently hanging in my shed drying and acting as spider traps no doubt. It might all be pointless because when I went to get the neck from my special wardrobe of wonders it wasn't there, and I can't remember where I put it. I'll have a hunt tomorrow.

Yew can never have too many clamps. 😉😁

Yes anti clockwise to loosen. As you are loosening the trussrod and letting the strings pull the neck forwards a bit then it's not necessary to loosen the strings as you are also in effect loosening the strings by loosening the trussrod. When tightening the trussrod it's worth slackening the strings as you are trying to pull the neck backwards against the string tension. Also it's worth physically pulling the headstock backwards gently by levering against a sofa or suchlike when tightening a trussrod, it helps take the strain off the threads and makes turning the nut easier. It won't hurt to slacken the strings either way but not always necessary. Glad you got it done. 👍

Yes 😆

Holy thread revival Batman!! Well this has been a while. I can't even make up an excuse as to why this went on the backburner, but it's back. I'll update some pictures as the old ones all went in the photobucket fiasco. Right that's that caught up with. Now to some progress. As I'm painting my Kay tomorrow (maybe) I though I'd get this one and my Hohner prepped ready to do at the same time. I flatted the mint green ready to apply the glitter tape (remember that?), I hade to trim it down to size which was easier said than done. I decided that 1 inch masking tape would be the perfect width for the side tape so I stuck a length of masking tape to the glitter tape to give me a guide to cut along, fairly simple but when I peeled the masking tape of it took the sparkle with it and just left clear tape, hmm. Freehand it is then. I stuck the sparkle tape on and then put a thinner black tape line either side of it, rather than the traditional Danelectro cream textured tape. I think I'll be needing a white Tux and frilly shirt to play this bass. When I painted the headstock all that time ago I managed to drop it and get dirt all over the face of it, I have some of the mint green left at home but I really don't think it's going to be usable and mixing some more at work is out of the question at the moment, so tomorrows decision is to try and redo it green with what I've got or use the tape and do the face of the headstock silver glitter, the neck was going to be left natural. The three ready to paint tomorrow, this Longhorn, my terrible Kay and a Hohner Arbor Series fretless, both ply bodies.

A little update on this as it all went a bit quiet for a while due to one thing or another. I've painted the back of the body, neck and headstock in terrible beige colour, reminiscent of the cheap plastic stuff was made of in the seventies, think those Bontempi fan organs that were red and cream. I got a bit productive today and got three projects back on track, all basses and none made of real wood. I put the Kay waterslide logo on the headstock and lacquered it in then flatted that back, along with the body which after applying a black demarcation line will all be lacquered tomorrow, hopefully. The headstock still needs the black line applying. After applying the black line to the body I had a strange urge for some licorice allsorts. 😉 These are the three 'non-woods' ready for lacquering tomorrow, the Kay, a ply bodied Hohner Arbor Series fretless and a Dano Longhorn, made out of kitchen worktops or something. 😆

Thought it looked deep red but didn't want to say in case you said it was black. Even better now I know it's ruby red. 👍

@scalpy I like the look of that, very classy. Is it black or very dark red?

I still think this body is useable. But only once rotted down and used as a compost to help the growth of a new mahogany tree.

😆

Not metal but classic rock, Cream in particular. 😆

I was going to say I agree with you but for some reason a Rickenbacker with a white plate just works. Maybe you just get so used to a design that it becomes wrong to change it.

Firstly, thank you, it is a lovely bass and has now been my sole gigging bass for over a year. Secondly, follow the advice posted above. 🙂

Absolutely this. If it was set up OK before the string change then all that has changed is the tension on the neck which the trussrod counteracts. Less string tension just needs less trussrod tension to counteract it.

Plain weave or double braided string?

Longhorns seems like they should be all polite and frail sounding, but with rounds they have a proper growl going on. And they look as cool as ****!

Good point. This is good idea if you're after a decent amount of damping.

Oh yeah LEDs fret markers. Blurgh! Side ones I can understand but still don't want but what the hell are the ones on the front for? You can't see the front so they're not for the player, and they make your bass look like a cheap toy so they're not for audience. It's just jumping on the bandwagon of, "Ooh stick some blue LEDs in and it'll be cool". Not! Warwick tuners. Straighten them up muppet! 😆