Maude

Canoe Feel It - Jackson Five

I'm the same. When I first saw it I thought, ooh a nice little project. But a combination of you expressing an interest, my having too many unfinished projects, and that I've just bought a bass vi meant I saw sense. It would be cool though once done.

Did you go for it in the end?

The new nut and thumbrest made an enormous difference. After I'd sorted these, this was my sole gigging bass in the Mod band up until Covid put a stop to it all. As of yet, we haven't got going again due to a few reasons. I'm going out of my mind not gigging.

I've heard very good things about the Vintage Tony Butler, and it's a looker too.

I don't want to hijack this thread so here's a link to the thread about mine.

Yes, it looks far more like an early Rickenbacker 360 Capri, or dare I say it, a more accurate copy of the Shaftsbury Rick copy bass than an actual 4005. I've just been trying to find the thread where it was discussed when it was released, but I can't find it. Maybe it was removed, I can't remember if things where heading the wrong way in it. The other even better option is a certain luthier who makes extremely accurate tributes to Rickenbackers, but with even better attention to detail than Rickenbacker themselves can manage. See my avatar. 😉

Black Magic Woman - Fleetwood Mac

They came out a while ago, and to be honest not much like a 4005. Still lovely though. Worryingly, at the eye watering price tag I've seen complaints about build quality, up close the tailpiece looks terrible. More like it's designed to cut strings rather than anchor them. I'm not a Rick hater BTW, wait 'til they get going. 😁 If someone wanted to gift me one I'd take my chances with it. 😎👍

Well that's a mouthful! 😁 I've had a Squier Bass VI since they released them but, like many, have never really got on with the string spacing, it's fine if you played it like a guitar. The Eastwood is much more like an actual bass. I'd been keeping an eye open for a used Eastwood but they just never seem to come up for sale. This one had been on facebook for a while but was too expensive for me, £300 more than new as it's one of the limited edition Fac51 Hacienda ones, so I'd kind of been toying with ordering a new one. I was selling stuff to buy the Peavey T40 I'd mentioned in other threads (I won't bore you) but the seller has decided to keep it. Feeling a little deflated I looked up the Eastwood ad and the seller had reduced it substantially. I made an offer and we struck up a deal. Now, I wasn't after the Hacienda one, it's kind of tacky, and being only 51 made is more of a collectable than a player, but I got it for a couple of hundred less than a new standard one so what does it matter? And being a huge Joy Division/New Order fan helps. It'll sit nicely with my Yamaha BBPH. It's never been played, just bought then squirelled away, so is absolutely mint condition. It's actually way nicer in the flesh than the pictures online make it look. Well built, lovely finish (I'm a fussy git) and really nice neck wood with quite a bit of quilting and grain, it looks really 3d as you move it in the light. It feels so much better than the Squier to play, the stock strings are fine and the spacing feels much better for me. Although wide, the neck is very shallow so feels very comfortable. It sounds fantastic, of course I had to put it through my EHX Bass Clone and play some New Order. 😁 It was bought as a 'let's see' kind of bass, which is why I was after second hand. But after a few hours of playing I can already tell it's a keeper, it just feels right where every other Bass VI I've tried doesn't. Anyway you must be bored by now so here's some pictures. 😉

Wow! That's in fantastic condition. What a find. 😎👍

I love the selector switch titles. Split Sound Jazz Treble Wild Dog Oh yeah!

Flour in the Dessert - The Cult

If only you'd put 'Flaky Bakey Tart'. You'd have won the thread. 😁

Jenny Don't Be Pastry - Paulo Nutini

It was your posts that turned me onto the Tonerider Lozz. You know your Precisions and if you thought it was close to the customshop 62 then that was good enough reason to try one, especially at the price they are. I put it in a £50 Encore I picked up, did some serious fretwork and a set up and put some old chromes on it. When I play it I genuinely wonder why I've bothered with expensive gear. It sounds, and feels fantastic.

I wasn't sure at first but then saw the picture. If a second pickup replaces that sticker then go for it! 😉 Don't overlook cheaper pickups. May I suggest moving the original to the neck and putting a Warman in the bridge position. The Warman, although cheap is a great authentic sounding pickup.

The cost for a repair probably won't be any different than a full respray. The prep is the time consuming part. Once ready for paint the quickest, cheapest option is to do an entire refinish. It will be a blue basecoat and clear topcoat. The damage is extensive enough that a small 'spot repair', while possible, isn't worth the extra effort involved in blending the blue, then fading out the lacquer and polishing the lacquer edges. You also risk the blue not matching. The next option is repair, then blend the blue over the repair and lacquer the entire body. Again, doable but there's the risk of a halo around the blended blue and the blue being a different shade. Lots of things will change the shade of a colour but get ten different LPBs from ten different suppliers and they will all be different, even different batches from the same supplier. The area left after repair will be about the same area needed to blend the blue satisfactorily, so pointless really attempting a blend. The only option I'd go for if asked to paint it would be full blue basecoat respray and full lacquer. Far less time consuming and guaranteed results. If you've got a bodyshop local to you they will be able to scan the body (before you do any repair) and mix the colour to match. This will probably be cheaper than buying your own paint from a guitar supplier as they will only have to mix what they need, plus they will be using paint they're used to and set up for. If you can look up the paint code or RAL number online they probably won't even need to scan the bass. LPB is afterall just an old car colour, Cadillac I seem to remember, probably late fifties. If you do the prep yourself, just take the lacquer and the blue basecoat off. There's no need to remove the sealer coat, it's an absolute pig to remove normally and once off you/your painters will only need to replace it. If the damage is through the sealer coat I'd look to repair those small areas rather than remove all of it, then prime. Good luck 🙂👍

A few that I see come up on facebook quite often that I've had/still got, that punch way above their usual two figure price tags are Aria STB Series, SX and 90s Encores (just Encore on the headstock). Usually around the £50-£75 mark. A Tonerider pickup is £25 and turns any of these into a vintage sounding traditional Precision.

Just Who Is The 5 O'Clock Hero? The Jam

It's more of a tongue in cheek saying than literal. I've got plenty of 'rubbish' basses. They're not, but the likes of Kay, Encore, Hohner, Cruiser, etc aren't exactly aspirational brands names. I like taking a cheap bass and turning it into something really playable and cool. My 'guiltiest pleasure' must be my plywood Kay. Universal hated as many's first bass, but I gave it a loving refinish and a really good set up and it's great, naff, but great. I spent a couple of hours playing my Encore precision last night. With a well sorted neck/set up and a Tonerider pickup and Chromes I did sit there last night wondering why I've bothered buying some pricey basses lately as this Encore is genuinely one of the nicest basses I own. It's a guilty pleasure as no one aspires to own an Encore precision one day. I'm not guilty at all by the way, if anything I'm more proud of my well maintained, nicely set up cheap tat than the expensive ones. Now I'm over thinking it. 😁

I had to Google HMNIM (Hi my name is Mark) and now the one pickup one volume makes sense, being that the Mark in question is Mark Hoppus. If it's a strictly limited run then Fender might not have a say whether they let you keep it or not. I don't know if this is the case, but say it was a run of fifty. Yours is damaged so they are making you another. If they let you keep the damaged one then there will be fifty-one out there. The number of basses may have been stipulated as part of the deal so an extra one is a no go. Who knows. Nice bass though, I like it. 😎👍

Just tell us what the damn bass is and put a picture up! Please 😁.

Old Shep - Elvis

A low E on a bass VI is the same note as a low E on a regular bass, so yes it's bassy enough. But it does have a slightly guitar like quality to it, so maybe not as solid sounding, possibly. But that all depends on playing style, EQ, amp and cab as well. The Eastwood Hooky 6 strings are 30,40,50,60,85,105. The Squier strings are considerably lighter and, in my view, not suitable for the job. I put a heavier custom set of LaBella round wounds on mine and it's loads better. I think the low E was a 95. Robert Smith of The Cure is/was a user of the Fender Bass VI, but on Primary, which has two regular bass sounds, he used a Precision as even he admits that the low strings on the VI just aren't up to the job. They're great for higher up stuff.