Norris

Brilliant!

Lovely work. Did you make two cuts on your scarf? The grain matches rather well - lovely attention to detail! I'm rather jealous of your cabinet making background - although I'm sure it would be much different doing it for a living rather than a hobby. I would love to have done more woodwork in the past, but the school timetable clashed with music, and I never really did any until the last few years. Now my eyes are about shot for close work these days, so I'm constantly switching between glasses, magnifying goggles and naked eye. It would have been so much easier back when I could see

I tend to avoid wet & dry paper altogether. Even the decent stuff leaves bits of abrasive embedded in the wood. I use 600 grit stearated aluminium oxide paper for final prep before finish and for flatting off between coats. Then I use micromesh pads (dry) for the final polishing - frequent wipes on a microfibre cloth avoids clogging Think of it this way: it's a constant learning process, and your bass will be really well prepared by the time you've done

Mine is an Indonesian Squier P-Bass Special. Pretty much the same spec though. Precision body, jazz neck and passive P/J pickups. I bought it second hand on here a few years ago. I think it had sat around unplayed for some time, so just needed a clean up and it was pretty much pristine. The SD QPs and Hipshot detuner I've upgraded it with cost more than the bass (£150 iirc). It's my regular gigging bass

First of all you could remove the brass plates. That would cut the eyesore rating by about 90%. After that you could maybe carefully sand the excess glue back to level with the body (600 grit sterated aluminium oxide paper followed by micromesh ideally) then polish out the scratches with T-cut (or even smoother polishing compound). After that, you'd need to fill the screw holes with dowels, dye them to match as close as possible, then drop fill with lacquer and sand/polish. I don't think you'll ever not be able to see the repairs, but they shouldn't be too noticeable from a small distance

When I built my telecaster it took longer to get the finish right than it did to build it from scratch. If you're a perfectionist (and not an experienced builder) it's never right. At some point it will become right enough. Just don't rush it at this point. Having said that, it'll probably pick up a dint first time out anyway

Ki0gon made my loom with mini-pots. He does those too. We had a bit of fun getting the switching pot to fit in such a tight area though, as it gets a bit narrow on the T of VVT on my Squier

If only there was somebody on here that was trying to sell one, and some sort of PM system that would allow you to chat in private...

I do like thumb planes. Very handy. I've never used a (?) thumb shave before - that looks useful too Nice work btw

Done 50 days left, still some way to go, you lovely folk...

+1 I think the emotional attachment makes far more difference than the finish

They vary. I recently replaced the loom on my Indonesian Squier. The routing was so tight I could only use Alpha mini pots. They fitted in the scratch plate fine, but I had to ream out the hole a little for a push/pull mini pot that acted as a series/parallel switch. It's not difficult to make a hole bigger. The problem is the other way round

There is a bit of synth chat in Other Instruments https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/82-other-instruments/

I suppose it comes down to enthusiasm, time and disposable income. I played for years with one bass, one amp and a wire going between them. The bass got cleaned when I changed the strings. I'm still pretty much the same except I have a GT6B between the two for tuning, muting and the occasional effect I did put Quarter Pounders and a drop tuner on my Squier PJ. Oh, and there are a few more "backup" basses to hand...

If you keep adding dye eventually you get to the point where you obscure the grain of the wood more and more, without necessarily getting any darker. You reach full saturation of colour. It's almost like applying more and more coars of paint - the colour doesn't change. Darker, beyond a small range, can only be achieved using a different blend of pigments.

25 or 6 to 4 is one of my favourites that we do in out guitar/bass/drums trio. Our guitarist just nails covering so many parts Edit: I found a 'tube of us playing it. Guitarist isn't quite up his usual standard because he's playing an unfamiliar guitar - which I had just finished building https://youtu.be/2st3WcIo9gE

We do Brick as a trio and just miss out the keyboards. I can't say we miss them and sparse is good sometimes

If you're thinking of mixing black with red to darken it down, do try it on a test piece first. Black can be quite unforgiving. You might get better results with a very dark brown, or dark blue if you fancy dragging it slightly towards the purple patch of the spectrum

Given the scale of the bass it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It is quite thick compared to most, but as long as you get your geometry correct it should be fine. Especially given the skills you've already demonstrated

What a fabulous use of space! I really must tidy up my garage. My first build was pretty much done on a workmate, while a perfectly good and stable workbench sat covered in cr*p. You've put me to shame Looking forward to the builds

Our dep drummer played with us at a gig that HAD to be quiet. He used hotrods (or similar alternative brand). It sounded just the same but quieter. Still had a good night and neighbours didn't complain

I've not spoken to my old drummer for over 10 years. Egotistical bully. He was a good chap when we first started playing together, but over the 10 years we played together he became more of an a******e. He blamed the guitarist for splitting up the band when he got the chance to turn pro, and didn't even acknowledge the birth of the guitarist's son a few weeks later. I don't need selfish people like that in my life

I tend to buy the CD then immediately rip it into iTunes as mp3s so I can listen to it on my iPod. I then have a physical backup plus something to read/look at. Because our car is a bit old and only has a CD player, I'll occasionally make a compilation CD too

I'm wondering if an offcut of your pickguard, suitably shaped and painted gold, affixed to the headstock (truss rod cover?) might tie it in with the rest of the body a little more

I think @Barking Spiders has already mentioned Hold Your Head Up by Argent. Funnily enough that's one of my favourite songs from our list. The same simple riff goes on for ages almost like a drone, eventually building up to some different notes, then back to the riff Sometimes the simple/sparse riffs are the ones that need the most concentration to play