Huge Hands

I appreciate your advice on this. I'm still thinking about the decal! I don't think I want a fretless - I have the DB and EUB if I want to scratch those itches. As for the Chinese neck, I was looking at it tonight and realised I may have been a bit unfair to it. I am not an expert on neck profiles but it is quite deep so assume it probably is a D type profile so not really Jazz like at all. I also now assume the original nuts were not that wide due to the headstock profile so it may be more faithful to the original than I thought. I wouldn't know if course, as I've never seen a real 51 in the flesh, I just love the look. This neck is really straight though and has not needed much adjustment so far. Very happy!

I just remembered that I forgot to mention the tuners. Again, these were Ali Express left handed ones. I can't remember how much they were but I think it was less than a tenner. I will edit my earlier costs post. ..

I used to play in a band with a lady whose husband was a DB player and she told me he used to transport his DB in a 1999 Fiat Punto. I think it ended up looking worse than the OP's for gearshift access. As a 17 year old I used to transport my 4-piece drum kit and hardware in my original shape Mini too!

Hi @PaulThePlug - just had a look through your build - you were certainly more adventurous than me! I have toyed with the idea of putting a decal on the headstock, but not sure if it should also be upside down, or the right way up for the way it is played. More obsessive thought required methinks! Did you just lay that on the top, or lacquer over it? My Chinese neck has a really shiny lacquer on it so don't really want to spoil that by sanding it down or over spraying. It's my first mod/build that I haven't really ballsed up in any major way and therefore for the first time I am pretty satisfied and not feeling depressed about it lol! I tried a more modded version of my green Squier P5 (the other one in the pic) but the supposedly identical model I used had a banana neck and could never get the pickup placement right....

Here's a rough idea of costs (from my rusty memory so not exact). Estimates include delivery per item. HB PB-50 - £105 Neck - £70 Covers - £70 Inserts and Bolts - £25 Lefty tuners - £10 So I reckon I am into this for £280 (ish). I already had the Makita, tools, rubber mallet, files, sandpaper, pack of plasters, eye drops, paracetamol etc.... I know I wouldn't get my money back on it, but that is not the point. I suppose I could sell the original HB neck but I'm not that bothered to be honest, it can sit on the shelf as an ornament!

Ok, so last bit....the pickup cover. Getting a bridge cover had been pretty easy online. There appeared to be lots of sellers that had them. Pickup covers were not so easy - only options I could find were shipping from abroad and adding about £25 on to the bill for delivery. Eventually, I found someone on eBay selling one they had bought but not used for about the same money as I paid for the bridge one (£35). I added this using the same inserts and knurled bolts technique as I did the bridge cover. My original idea being that if I was playing it and the covers were getting in the way I could get them off quick without tools. As mentioned in the earlier post, I did have to add a foam spacer under the feet as the 4mm bolts tightened all the way into their inserts but it still rattled slightly. All was solved after that. That left the finished guitar! I love the look of it and use it as my noodling bass at home. I like the fact it is exercising my brain and muscle memory into being able to flip more easily between 4 strings and my gigging 5s, and I have even taken it to a couple of gigs to try out on the odd song.

..and before anyone asks, I did eventually take the protective plastic off the pickguard!

Yes, it did! Apologies, ran out of time last night! I kept my eye on the internet but wasn't seeing anything with a proper lefty headstock that wasn't silly money. At the same time, I had become obsessed with trawling Ali Express and finding dodgy looking but very cheap little electronic gizmos that I didn't need but wanted to try out. It was on one of these sleepless nights of constant scrolling that I noticed there were sellers on there doing various necks. After more eye-dehydrating hours, I found a maple neck with the correct looking shape headstock, but a right handed nut, all ready to go for about £70 delivered. In my lack-of-sleep delirium I decided it was worth a punt. I hit order, and waited....and waited.... Eventually, about 2 weeks after the due date, I got a message to say it had been delivered, which it hadn't. Figuring I had been scammed, I messaged the seller. They said it would be there soon, and fair enough, it turned up a few days later...Phew! The neck turned out to be really straight. I did file down a few rough fret edges again (no worse than the HB one) and there was a slight smudging of one of the 12th fret edge markers, but apart from that it was fine. I found the heel of the neck was a little wider than the HB body's pocket, so had to sand the pocket edges a little. I probably should have been patient and sanded a little more off, but with a confident tap with a rubber mallet it squeezed home fine. My only gripe with the neck was the nut was only 32mm wide, so the neck has more of a jazz feel than an original P bass, but it is still nice to play even though my personal preference would have been to be wider. It wasn't mentioned on the listing, so "beggars can't be choosers" as they say.... I put a cheap set of flats on it, and it sounds awesome! The stock pickup in the HB (I think it is a Wilkinson?) sounds fine to my ears The final thing I had an issue with was the circular string tree. As the neck was brand new and not drilled, I nicked the one from the HB neck and guessed the best placement. Due to the longer length, bigger thickness and tension of the E and A strings that were now under it, it started to pull the screw from the wood After searching my bits box I found a suitable wider and slightly longer screw that fit still fit through the tree. Once it was all done, I loved the look! The neck is really straight and definitely looks the part!

So I had it like this for about 12 months. The bridge (and later pickup cover) were opportune Fender branded buys from eBay and such like which were about £35 each. The inserts and bolts were a bit of a bulk buy only thing so came to about £20 if memory serves.

First I added a bridge cover. I've not had covers on any of my basses before, apart from a really cheap thing as a kid which had threaded bolts sticking of the body that you spun a knurled nut on to. This made the cover much more easily and quickly removable than having screws through it. I was discussing it with some friends and started looking online. We came up with the idea of threaded inserts in the body, with knurled top bolts that screwed into them. This would avoid having two prongs of death sticking out of the bass when the cover was off. So, off I went (as gingerly as I know how) with my trusty Makita. I was worried about drilling too far into the body so think the thread was only about 4mm deep. It worked great but if I had my time again I would have ordered a longer insert and kept the 4mm bolt as I had to add some foam as a spacer to the pickup cover edge to allow it to fully tighten against the body without rattling. (Pics of that later).

Hello all, I am very late in posting this up, but Christmas 2023, I bought my son a Harley Benton acoustic g****r from Thomann and managed to sneak myself in a PB-50 (sunburst a'la Sting) into the order. All delivered to my house from Germany before the big day for under £200. I don't really play 4 strings these days but I love the original Precision look. I have not seen a decent 5 string one without blowing a wads ot cash on a custom, so thought I would get it for my own guilty pleasure, and at that price (I think it was £105), it was hard for me to refuse I liked the bass straight out of the box and apart from filing down a few rough fret edges, it was ready to go. I spoke to forumites on here who kindly sent me the templates to cut down the headstock to match. This concerned me as with my blunderbuss approach and giant sausage fingers, I reckoned I'd be left with a snapped headstock and a bloodstained house. But then during Christmas 2024 I had a dafter idea. I have always loved the look of upside down headstocks, so why not look for a lefty neck for it? I also looked for original look bridge and pup covers.... I was talking to @Merton about it last week and realised I hadn't posted a thread about it I did complete it in January and don't have the greatest amount of photos from the build, but happy with the results, so here we go ...

Methinks another meet up is long overdue! EDIT - although I think I have exactly the same gear as last time lol!

All I can add to this is that I met up with @eude and @Merton a good few years ago and they both kindly let me have a try of their ACGs. I felt like a bit of a poor relation handing my trusty old Squier over to them in exchange! I am a bit of a traditionalist and (perhaps stupidly) prefer the look of a painted P or J bass to these works of art so not sure they would be for me, but the one thing I did take away from the trial was the low B strings on them and how good they felt/sounded. PS - I know Alan's newer Retro series is closer to the traditional look, but there is also the fact that I'd never get a custom purchase past the Bank of Mrs HH.....

Oh wow, So sad to hear of @Mrs Tinman's passing. I remember having a few chats with her on here and FB years ago and she was always funny and kind. All the best to @Tinman and your wider family.

I laughed at that a lot more than I should have......

Looks like you might not be missing much:

"....and on BBC News tonight - man is convicted of murder after Police checked his internet search history....."

If I remember correctly, if you watch the new "Get Back" remaster thing of the Beatles that Peter Jackson did, you can see a set list taped to the side of Paul's Hofner, presumed to be from their Shea Stadium gig?

I own 2 Barefaced 210s but mainly only ever use one. I spoke to Alex originally as I wanted a big driver cab (my previous rig was a Ashdown MAG 210 combo with MAG 115 extension cab and preferred the 15). However, he talked me into the 210s (they were a new model at the time with his talk of extra excursion in the drivers and the way he did his ports. I was sceptical at first, but I have never experienced any issues with low Bs on any of my guitars at any volumes, and I can get pretty loud (occasionally). The pair of the cabs set up like a 410 is immense, but I rarely play gigs that warrant the need for a 2nd cab. Having said that, I have no idea if it would fit in an MX5 boot, but I would hope so. My brother has a mk1, but it is buried in storage at the mo, so can't try it for you (plus I'm down south and he's near Newcastle).

Hi @broken_strings - maybe you should have listed it as a "heavy relic" - then you might have doubled your asking price To be honest, at one point I almost gave in and ripped the Tolex off mine too (see earlier post about peel and my addiction to it). I was just lucky that I live fairly near BF, so was able to take them back to Alex to get them fixed.

I can see the headline now: "Shortage of bassists in Aberdeen after they were all press-ganged into working on a galleon....."

This doesn't really help the OP, but for my points: In the concert band I play in, I have moved from using paper sheet music to an iPad. It is a game changer, but I have to be very careful with the angle of my stand as it sometimes ends up sitting in a position that is on the varifocal divide between far and short lens, so can get a bit blurry if you look at it from the wrong angle. In my late 40s, my back is already shot, so although I use pedals, they have to be pre-set before a gig and switched by foot only as I can't bend down far enough to change settings on the fly!

Saturday night was in a school hall playing bass for the local concert band and it's 25th anniversary concert. Was good fun but a total sweat box, especially when the band committee insisted we all walked on stage in full uniform - ie shirt, tie, trousers and heavy band blazers. Luckily the jackets came straight off when we got on stage.....

I have 2x very early 210s, If memory serves they are serial numbers 9 and 10. Alex sent me the labels after I got the cabs, and I put them on myself. Mine had really bad Tolex peel issues around the access panel on the back and had to take them back to Alex twice. After the second time, I have not had any issues since. When I was a kid I had my own issues with being a bit addicted to peeling wallpaper in my bedroom. The old woodchip had started to come away in places, and I would pull on it. I don't know how I thought my parents would ever not notice the ever-growing patch of bare wall next to my bed, but I just had to keep pulling at it. I wonder if this is what happened here......