Dazed

Ok so I’m sharing this idea in public and have fully prepared myself for the very likely abuse and mickey taking it probably deserves, but anyway it’s been a strange year so here goes .... Bearing in mind guitars that have suffered heavy damage and snapped head stocks can be repaired and often are stronger than they were before the damage. Realistically how possible would it be to shorten a neck? To go from 34” to 32” or less and retaining the original headstock? It’s also a neck through and not a bolt on neck. Obviously it would need a re fret and the side markers would be in the wrong positions. Could the neck be cut, shortened and the widths shaved down to match and rejoined? An alternate could be removing the body “wings” from the neck-through block. Shortening the bridge end of the neck-through and moving it further along and reattaching it, then re routing the bridge and pickup cavities. It would still need a re fret and side markers changing. I realise this would be a huge amount of work and also very costly if it’s even possible at all. Opinions welcomed good, bad or ugly. I’m ready, I still have my originally Tinfoil but now Kevlar upgraded Covid/Brexit conspiracy hat here so fire away!

Yeah fun innit Kev 🤦🏻‍♂️😄

I hadn’t 😄. ...... but now I have thanks @Merton luckily I’m not a fan of blocks on maple necks !

Funny you mention that Warwick I saw an ad earlier this week for a Streamer LX 32 5 which I’d never seen or heard of before. I’m not even sure they exist because the description didn’t mention the scale length so that could be a possible or a red herring.

Thanks Luke, custom is an option, but having bought a few used custom builds on here in the past it always seems a bit of a risky outlay without ever being sure the spec is what you really need. You just don’t know until it’s in your hands. Saying that I’ve come across a couple of newer builders online that look interesting so I have a few things to look into. It was really to see if there was anything slightly obscure that someone may have found available off the shelf.

I had a quick go on there and spent a virtual couple of grand 😄. It is a great tool though. Probably over my budget to be honest.

Thanks for the tip! I had seen these and the Mezzo that @fretmeister (thanks also!) mentioned and they are possibilities, seen a few happy reviews here for both. Typical I start looking again when you can’t visit a shop and physically try anything! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Ok I’ve been looking for a while and haven’t really found anything off the shelf. Other than a Dingwall Super P5 that i still kick myself over ignoring and I wouldn’t want to spend what a new Dingwall goes for now 😲 So precision type 5 string 30” or 32” scale 18/19mm spacing at the bridge no pointy bits - headstock or body I’d have loved to get hold of a Callowhill MBP5 but that seems very unlikely as: a) Tim Cloonan sadly passed away prematurely a few years back b) there aren’t many of his builds around or owners are loathe to let them go. pic for reference courtesy of Rayjay on TB

Body shape looks similar to a Carvin model too. Cant make out the logo

Right Owen. You are off my Christmas card list. Messing up my no new (or used !) gear chasing with fancy bass shop links.

Warwick but only a broad neck version - 20mm adjustable bridge. Their standard 5 strings have adjustable bridges too but top out at 17.5mm which has always bugged me!

Proper yawn fest that demo. I appreciate slapping but that’s just such a limited ad. Shame.

Here you go my 2388 came with a rickenbastard trc fitted but this was in the case 😎

Yeah you wouldn’t believe how many hours I spent yesterday searching for info on this! That’s encouraging that you didn’t have to replace anything. I’m assuming it was a Warwick?........With F holes.... an Infinity or Infinette? And you were able to rework it to a proper active /passive switch that’s another bonus 😎 Shame this was over a decade ago as I’d really like to see how it was all connected up and copy it. It’s a Pro2 I’m fiddling with. The bridge pickup is mostly lost on me so I’m planning to put beefier passive pickups in to hopefully improve the nasal thin sound.

Digging up a post from the dead here...... @warwickhunt John do you recall having to replace the blend pot when going from active MECs to passive Wizards? I’m looking at replacing some gold active MECs with passives and so far I’ve found the balance pot is 22 or 25k but would have to be changed to 250k to work properly with passive P’ups. It’s using the BEC2 2 band MEC Preamp. I’m curious what effect the blend pot value has (and tight 😄) thanks Daz

You are not alone. I don’t get Yes. I also do not get Rush. Go figure

I get the impression from the playing Jon Poole played a lot of the bass lines on the later recordings. I could well be mistaken and it was Tim. Distinctively different style to Jim!Jim!Jim! Since being introduced to their music a few years ago I became completely hooked on it, after an initial repulsion, I was border line obsessed with their ‘tunes’. By all accounts Tim was a lovely human being. Certainly a talented, if under appreciated musician, composer and producer.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Tried bronze acoustic strings from Ernie Ball. Not for me. Put some black nylon tape wounds on. Much happier. No scratchiness and the volume was usable unamplified. As with most acoustic basses though if you want to play with anything else it’s really going to need to be amplified.

It just isn’t the same

Another lifetime member of the battered bass fan club here. I do own shiny unmarked basses, some quite expensive stuff. Where are these shiny expensive basses? All hidden away in their cases being precious and unloved....... The current favoured two? A heavily reliced Limelight P and a very used Ibanez Ric replica. Occasionally a Warwick Dolphin 2, but not even the big costly SNTCS or Pro1 versions that are both tucked away being pristine. Go figure.

I had heard tales (couldn’t vouch for them personally) that the necks sometimes were prone to warping - not sure if this was only on the 36” scale models they made. Not the current versions but the older ones. Often been tempted by a Schack though myself being a headless fan.