Norris

Hi and welcome. Nice bass! How did you find the beech to work with and what's the weight like? As you say it's an uncommon wood to use for guitars, but you can't complain at the price!

Personally I wouldn't buy a provenance bass for a player and only have giggable basses in the stable. Plus I certainly wouldn't pay twice the price in those circumstances - and would stick to budget (I have a wife you know). I can see that the bass might be worth the extra to a collector but probably not to most people that would want to gig it

The Ampeg BA-108 is worth a look. Great little practice/acoustic gig amp for the money. Solidly built but light and a nicely defined, full sound

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1473877932' post='3133837'] Was it awful in everyway? [/quote] My first SG copy was - action could be measured in metres! I'm not sure if it was an Avon or possibly a Columbus. Awful and probably put me off G-style basses until I got my Thunderbird. Kind of coming back to the OP, Gibson (in my mind) never really "got" the bass. Guitars are great (if you can stand the weight) but basses not quite so. IMHO

[quote name='Rumble' timestamp='1473776142' post='3133028'] Whacked on some brand new steel strings... Maybe there's a reason some bright spark came up with the KISS acronym! [/quote] I didn't want to say that Glad it's better without too much expense or hassle

I think Hercules have a lifetime warranty (?) I wonder if that would be covered

I have a Tbird. It's a lovely bass, great sound, fabulous looks. However it's not been out of the case for 18 months or so because I've been playing my P. I suppose that says something. If I was to sell a bass then that one is probably at the head of the queue

Nice work. It's amazing how the fingers can feel what the eye can't see. Neck shaping is over too quickly - it's very therapeutic

Mike Rutherford. Some of the sounds he gets on the early Genesis stuff are sublime but not suitable for filling out the bottom end of a guitar/bass/drums covers trio

Beautiful!

If you're interested in programming DMX I'd take a look at some of the Raspberry Pi-based stuff. I bought a controller a few years ago before I knew about the Pi stuff. I use it to cycle through some colour washes with 4x cheap parcans and control the flashy light thing. Unfortunately the git/voc insists that the haze machine gives him a sore throat so I don't use that any more (shame!). Most of the kit came from Thomann

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1473227003' post='3128078'] While you're at it, please will you also tell me the benefits of Nitro over normal lacquer, other than the fact that it cracks when exposed to changes it heat? [/quote] Each coat of nitro blends into the previous ones so is a lot more forgiving if you overdo a sandback or need to patch it. Polyurethane laquer goes on in distinct layers and if you sand through will be visible as banding There's one

Have you changed the strings since you got the bass? They could just be a bit old

You probably already know this, but nitrocellulose is not good for your lungs. If you're spraying it yourself make sure you have decent ventilation - preferably a proper spray booth with extractor fans if you can

That looks fantastic. Very similar to my mk1 Aria SB-1000. Lovely job!

[quote name='kusee pee' timestamp='1472400374' post='3120831'] In my experience, it's worth being as accommodating as possible unless there's a real cost to you or a risk to your equipment. It's a shame you weren't asked before but if you show willing to do everything to make the event special then the chances are that the reputational benefits will come back to you. Particularly if you are trying to get a foot in the functions door. There have been many times where we've got bookings from guests, friends, relatives of the original client and it's as often from how we are to deal with as how we perform. Of course you don't want to be taken for a ride but you should be able to get a win from this I would think. [/quote] +1 They should have asked first, but it's really not a big issue in the grand scheme of things. Being accommodating and helpful will lead to more bookings. It wouldn't be untoward for the singist to buy you a pint for your trouble (but unlikely ime! )

You might want to think about cutting the nut slots a little deeper. Now that you haven't got the height of the frets you could get the strings lower at the nut to almost touch the board - and will help with intonation too

Yes, recessing the bridge is another, albeit more intrusive method of achieving the same result. A heel shim is the quickest fix. A full shim (thickness depends whether you angle it) involves a bit more work but will be visible. I doubt whether you would hear the difference between a partial shim and a "full contact" one tbh

The whole point of the neck angle is to get the frets on the bridge end of the neck to the correct height based on the straight line between nut and bridge I.e. your strings. Regardless of the factory neck angle, what Manton is saying is that you now need slightly more neck angle to get the geometry correct for your bass in its present state. A slight shim at the heel end will allow you to get the action you're after without the saddles bottoming out

We got one for my lads birthday and I'm well impressed. The fact that it doesn't rattle and fart is a major plus point, but it actually sounds good and would easily be up to an acoustic gig. Wedge shape is nice too if you fancy a bit of tilt

He"s probably talking about me I did some colour fastness tests on several lovely shades of blue, that faded quite badly. I had no issues with the red I tested. Wanting a blue guitar, I had to resort to the limited range of blue shades available as "proper" aniline wood dyes. I'd rather have used the ink if it hasn't faded so badly - ending up almost grey in some cases.

For internal routes such as control cavities you may find it easier to use a guide bush. Then you can use thinner templates such as 6mm MDF and get a longer plunge. It does mean calculating an offset (the guide will be a larger diameter than your bit) but you don't need a bearing on your cutter. Edit: And it's safest to do a test route on scrap wood first to check you've got the offset right (yep, I've had to re-make a couple of templates, but better than getting it wrong on the guitar!)

The key is not removing too much material in one pass. If you need to use the full depth of the cutter to get the bearing on the template, shave a mm or two off with each pass until you work your way to it. Don't try to chew it all out in one go.

I did like the thread on PG where someone calculated the "cone of clamping pressure" and made a paper template for the clamping locations. Never enough clamps though - I'm going to have to invest in a few sash clamps for my next build! Lovely work so far Andy. I wish I could work as quickly as you (PG = ProjectGuitar.com if you are into your build threads)

I suppose I'm lucky in that I've never had to wear ear protection as we just don't play that loud. The guitarist is the same (although he wears them for his pro band) and doesn't like it too loud. We only mic the vocals - nothing else through the PA It really doesn't have to be deafening to get a good tone or to have a good night. Think of the poor punters too - will your liability insurance cover hundreds of people with hearing loss?