Sean

So here's the 400S body with pickup routing done. I'm happy to have done this routing myself as it'll be covered by the pickguard but the battery compartment, jack socket and controls cavity enlargement needs to be done by a pro. Also, you can see the first layer of Sea Foam Green. All trace of Sonic Blue is now gone, I sanded back and primed again. That's a bit of wood filler in the routing filling a minor error

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1351370633' post='1850663'] The Chocolate Santas - good band name that. [/quote] Yes, much better than The Greengrocers' Apostrophe's

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1351366766' post='1850638'] I am seriously worried about the coincidences here I now know what the spare Yamaha brown body I have is.... BB400S. Mine appears to be mahoghany or similar. Anyone got a spare Yamaha BB neck? Sean's progress is faster than mine - good work. [/quote] The 400S is alder. I saw what the body wood is in a PDF of the old yamaha catalogue. Can't find the link right now but it is there if you search. I really like the 400S body, chimes like a bell.

Seriously need some pro advice now. Calling The Bass Doc and Ou7shined. I need routing, I need a pickguard, I need a new nut.

Just watched the docu and was very impressed. Amazing musicians. Tried to cover the Sideboard song when I was in school gor the end if year show but we pulled it cos it was too hard to sing.

Here's the front of the body of the 300 stripped. You can see the blocks of nato (?). The scorching looks worse in the photo than it does on the bass but that'll sand out easily - it's a much neater stripping job so far than the 400S was. There's an open joint running through the control cavity and there's a fair bit of movement there and this is the main reason I don't want to get the cavity enlarged. You can also see that there's a big open joint across the shoulder of the body on the opposite side. This is all very much a learning process for me and that's why I'm not using expensive bodies/necks.

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1351243750' post='1849085'] Picked this up yesterday : £2.99 at Aldi Just the thing for holding pots, sockets and pickups for soldering. Not the worlds finest piece of engineering, but for £3.00 - very useful. [/quote] Just went out and got one. Definitely worth £2.99. Let's just hope the bottle of vino tinto I picked up for £3.99 is equally serviceable.

They've even got a good drummer in the Aldi near me.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1351343666' post='1850337'] Oh that's kinda disapointing. I would have put money on of the two basses I traded, my jazz turned out to be a turd of basswood laminated with some kind of plastic stuff and your one would have been solid wood. [/quote] [quote name='3below' timestamp='1351346310' post='1850385'] Useful to know about the body on the 300. No full re-finish for mine then I think. [/quote] The BB300 will refinish OK, definitely. I'm going to use some grain filler on it and I've already started to fill the J route with a small piece of [s]oak[/s] wood and filler. When the two bodies are side by side suspended on hooks and hit with a mallet the 400S body makes a much nicer sound and the four-piece alder body seems to me as though it will cope with all that extra routing much better than the 300. I might have to merge the two threads now as I'm swapping necks between the two and the 400S will keep its original bridge while the Gotoh-alike will go on the 300.

CHANGE OF PLAN!!!!!!!! I'm currently stripping the BB300 body and can now see it's made of lots of blocks of what seems to be supele or nato or something, it's not alder like the 400S, which is made of 4 blocks and isn't as crumbly as the 300's body. So, I'm going to use the 400S body to do this project and use the 300 body to become the sonic blue reverse-P bass that the 400S was going to be. The alder body is going to cope better with all the routing and retain structural integrity whereas I'm not happy about adding a battery compartment, pickup routings and a controls cavity extension to the nato body. Make sense?

[quote name='kenny' timestamp='1351338794' post='1850256'] Hi, Looks like an interesting build. I am thinking of modding a Attitude Special I have, but have bought the Billy Sheehan Dimarzio pickups. Did you consider them? That DP127 looks V HOT!! [/quote] Yes I thought about for about a minute until I realised the truss rod adjustment is where the pickup needs to go and I saw someone on here do that to a BB300 and although it was a neat job it would annoy the hell out of me if I had to remove a pickup every time I needed to tweak the neck.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1351329704' post='1850092'] er, this is more interesting than the BB.... [/quote] It was this morning! It was my local butcher, they had different turkeys, sausage, pork pies, duck, stuffing etc. I've ordered the Christmas meat now.

Questions: 1. Should this bass have a matching headstock? I know it's subjective as to whether it should and it's my choice but I'm thinking that masking it off and spraying could be a world of pain. Any advice? 2. How do you fill the dents and chips at the end of the headstock? Will filler get enough purchase or should I use epoxy or something similar?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1351293515' post='1849916'] you'll pay for this by selling off the bits you don't need [/quote] Tuners, pickup, pots and speed knobs already sold. Just off to post them, then going to a turkey tasting event and then it's time to get serious with the heat gun. I'm going to keep the BB400S as original as possible so I'll hang on to the tuners for that.

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1351286604' post='1849856'] Sean, Neepheid is on the look out for a set of Yamaha tuners for his BB450 on the off chance your selling the originals. [/quote] I've already sold the tuners from this bass.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1351273956' post='1849643'] surprised about the change in tuners. I always liked the yamaha 'hearts' [/quote] Well, I've got a spare set in case the Schallers don't work out but this is destined to be an uber-bass and I want everything just perfect. Btw and FYI, the bridge on the Super BBs is far superior to the one on the Attitude. I have been told by the good folks at Yam.

Dismantled... [IMG]http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j74/PhoneyPoney/P1050141.jpg[/IMG] Stripping the body tomorrow. Will also be cracking on with the Sonic Blue BB400S project.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1351269427' post='1849566'] nice bass... where did you get that? would look good if you had a hardcase built for it.... [/quote] Some bloke on a forum, can't remember which one or who he was I reckon it would need a really mojoed original Yamaha case to give it the right authentic look. I'll never find one

Here are some of the ingredients that are going into this recipe: [b]Schaller machine heads[/b] - Look the same as the Gotoh GB1 (standard fit on BB2024x) but was in stock and a few quid less [b]Gotoh-alike bridge[/b] - got one on my BB415, other than the logo it's identical to the Gotoh [b]MEC MM ceramic pickup[/b] - going on reputation, never actually heard one [b]DiMarzio DP127[/b] monster humbucker P pickup - these are bonkers [b]John East MMSR preamp, 3 band/3 knob[/b] - I've had loads of John's products over the years and have always found it good stuff plus his customer support is outstanding. I've got a Hipshot string retainer on the way too - I like the look of them and have them on my BB415.

I've always loved Sea Foam Green and I've always really fancied Rich's Pingray and the whole concept of getting a P pickup on a bass that has the MM pickup in Leo's sweet spot. I love BBs too and I managed to find one that was good enough to convert and also that needed enough loving care that I wouldn't want to keep it as is. So what we have here is the recipe for a bass that could turn out to be one of my all time favourites but [i]many a slip twix cup and lip[/i] as they say. This BB has got a bit of interesting figuring on the neck. The profile of the neck is different from my BB400S, same width but less chunky and it feels faster overall. The bass weighs in at 9.0lbs. In its current state it's set up beautifully with a nice low action and no buzzing and it intonates really nicely too. It sounds like a BB should, it's like a Precision but a bit a tiny bit tighter because of the reverse position of the P pickup. The frets are nice on this bass, very neat and look like they've been dressed at some point. Compared to my 400S this is a nicer neck. Here's the bass photographed today before any work begins:

I sold a rackcase to Jim - great guy to deal with, highly recommended.

I got home and there was a new John East preamp waiting for me!

Now here's a thing... What is a BB? To me a BB is a BB200, BB300, BB400, BB1000, BB1200, BB2000, BB3000 and any Yamaha bass that has the classic BB body shape and headstock and usually a P or reverse P pickup - that's what I like and that's what I expect. IMO even my BB1300 pushes the limits of what a BB is. How is this ever a BB except in name? or this Body shape completely different, headstock totally different! Nathan East's signature model is a BB but it isn't what I think of as a BB. Why don't these completely different basses have a different nomenclature? Anyone know?

Bought a bass from Luke, he's a top Basschatter and kept me up to date throughout the deal. Bass came very well packed on a next day from Interparcel. Really chuffed with the deal and the instrument and can't wait to start pulling it apart! (It's for project) :-D