kodiakblair

Peavey Grind ticks all your boxes. Control cavity on the back has ample space should you wish active EQ, pickup cavities accept EMG 45s. Probably pick one up for £250 tops.

Ebonol. Wore roundwound for the past 35 years, very little evidence of marking. I'll take ebonol over ebony every time.

Apart from there being absolutely no reason to, you'd be at it forever. You have the pencil and template, mark outline on the back of the peghead. Take a pullsaw or hacksaw and cut away the meaty bits, don't try and cut curves; just a series of straight cuts getting closer to the outline. Clean away the peaks with a flat file then sandpaper smooth. Whole task takes about 15 minutes.

I'd have worn a disguise too 👍

Nice. Went Fender shopping in Denmark St summer of 85. After playing 8 meh Fenders, I tried a Hard Puncher 🙂 Cracking bass, the the others to shame.

Naw. The alcohol evaporates so you're still left drinking crap coffee.

My choice would be a pine 51 slab body P-bass but resale for such a niche model would be difficult so I'd go for "Fender Cliche". Cliche would go up for sale, I'd build my own pine slab then take a holiday with the change. "Master Built" was around £5.5k, even if I went daft my build wouldn't cost more than £600 so it'd be a bloody good holiday 😀

By law Chinese and Indonesian workers must have a contract after 12 weeks. They're also legally entitled to severance pay, medical ,sick pay, maternity leave (also paid for a miscarriage) and paid leave for family funerals. These are benefits beyond the ken of most factory workers in the USA. In truth workers' rights are pretty poor in the US and as @Woodinblackmention business actively looks for ways to avoid them. The reason Gibson moved their factory from Kalamazoo to Nashville was 'workers' rights'; Kalamazoo had a union whereas Nashville is in a non-union 'Right to Work' state. It was more than a stigma. Cor Tek's 2007 closure of their Korean factories caused a major uproar. They were cleared of any 'wrongdoing' in 2012 but corruption claims lingered, the judge who cleared them was later arrested and the Korean president was impeached. Sacked workers ended up being compensated but it took 12 years.

Are USA labour costs high when you look at the big picture ? When FMIC had 360 staff they were knocking out 360 units per day. Zhunyi Shenqu are an Ibanez builder in China, 600 staff producing 600 units per day. The Cort and Samick factories in Indonesia have similar ratios of workers-guitars/basses. Roughly 1 instrument per staff per shift. $200 labour + $200 parts/materials from a $1500 - $1800 makes for very happy investors. Last time I looked G&L were paying $19, which fits nicely towards their $2k average retail. EBMM buck the trend, their going rate is $16.50 against an average $2500 to $2900 retail. Most US production line instruments are expensive because the bosses know Americans will pay the price.

Lazy research on Googles part 😄 Fender careers do list $56k as top whack at Corona but the small print tells applicants that's its unlikely they'll receive it, screen grab is from today's 'factory floor' vacancy page. Rate for 'guitar inspector' is lower, $26.6k to $48.9k. $18.50 to $20 per hour might appear great compared to the $6 earned by Chinese factory workers but loses the glamour when you consider cost of living. Average costs in the USA are between 75% and 80% more expensive than even places Shenzhen.

If you do a search on TalkBass, there's a fella called 'kohanmike' has built a few. He's part of a Uke ensemble, has 54 bass ukes in classic guitar/bass styles. To save you searching here's a link 👍 https://www.talkbass.com/threads/sub-short-scale-talk.644956/page-92#post-27365955

They're called 'O ring' guitar knobs, about £3 each on eBay. Hold off ordering for a couple of days, I should have a set in the spares box 👍

I picked up a J&D short scale P-bass for £50, course that was 2nd hand ; twice that from DV 24/7. DV have more shorty options than G4M or Thomann so maybe have a look there. Nice enough wee bass, pity I'm not a fan of short scale basses .

Aye, it's a load of nonsense. The 'may require work to fit' is a standard disclaimer carried by most aftermarket neck sellers but there's no reason for an uncut nut. This is a CNC machined product and pre-cut bone nuts can be bought, its a simple case of setting the nut slot depth to suit the string slots.

I'm with you every step going down this road 🙂

Not 'fairly big', it's the main factor. There's almost £500 between an AllParts/Mighty Mite and a Fender replacement neck yet they're produced the same way and carry the same "may not fit/might required work" warning. 'Crafted in Corona' is a nice way of saying where the CNC machine is located 🤣 FFS, £679 and you still need to cut the nut slots 🤬

Have I picked you up wrongly and you're talking a fully finished neck for less than a blank ? If so, where are you looking to buy blanks from ? Alistair Reid in Glasgow sells 39" PAS 22 x 100 hard maple blanks for £19. Vist a timber merchant and you'd be half that, OK it'd need dressed but it's not a huge task. Most expensive blank G&W sell is Wenge 50 x 110 x 990 at 55€, you could get 2 blanks from a chunky bit like that. Standard hard maple is €19 🙂 A 2 way TR and stainless steel fretwire would cost you 16.50 from Alistair, double that from G&W. Reid's fretboards start at £6 for maple rising to £33 for blackwood, G&W run about 50% more but have a huge selection. https://www.reidtimber.co.uk/guitar-blanks https://guitarsandwoods.com/

Look no further than the Tone Monsters from Guitar Fuel. http://www.guitarfuel.com/home.html Ty has 2 styles with 5 or 6 options for each. Preamps can run on 9v or 18v. Absolute doddle to install, connect pickups. Not as affordable as when I bought my first unit, £40 maybe 7 years back, might be double that now. eBay store has no provision for UK customers, just message him and he'll sort it out. To hear them in a variety of basses, jump on YT, Johnny Lee Long installs them in just about everything. edit. Stereo jack socket comes prewired on every version.

9th option in drop down menu. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174484691587

If you had 4 like-minded pals then drumwrap might be the answer. £42 for a 1550 x 400 sheet on eBay, free shipping from China.

In most cases there's FA 'upgrading', its all about 'Brand Name' dropping in the hope strangers will appauld and echo the poster's choice 😶 I don't think it's quite as bad here but over on TalkBS it's rife 😄 Little ryhme , reason or thought is given just throw out some buzzword names. It's rare to see a post going "I've X bass but the pickups are lacking 'Y'" or "they've too much 'W'"; "swapping to pickup 'Z' got me ....". Posts normally go "I fitted 'current buzzword'" and that's it. The 'current buzzword' angle is pretty important since there's a definite pecking order to this consumer p!$$in contest 😄 You might think I've went a bit OTT but if that's the case why do the buzzword companies all sell T-shirts ? Instead of "Team Aniston/Jolie" it's "Team Lollar/Nordy" 🤣

60 days, I was doing so well 😄 Aria Pro Mosrite thing sat in the BIN basket for a week. The thoughts were many, "under £400", "could do Klarna", "could I build one for that ?" Another 'must-have', weird but cool Italia with 4 lipstick pickups parallel to strings. Fantastic look, bet it plays like a dream and sounds as good as it looks only x 2. The many pros were quashed by a single con: I'll never play the bloody things !! With loins girded by "I'll never play ...." , the rest of 2023 was secure; until yesterday 😐 Yesterday the Heavens conspired against me. Off work and bored ✅ Bored leads to web surfing✅ Web surfing to Gumtree✅ Gumtree opens with preferrences intact ✅ Top of the pile is Telecaster bass 3 miles away ✅ Ad has been up 1 hour ✅ Seller on the ball, calls me within 2 minutes ✅ Yes, he still has the bass and £60 is the asking price ✅He will deliver ✅ I never stood a chance 🤬

Any idea why they didn't make the 'Westboro Baptist Church' Top 10 Fantasy series list 😄

Danelectro was one of those basses. Only the back and top are hardboard, about 4 mm thick. They sandwich a frame, on the early models frames were just plywood stapled together, think today it's glued poplar. Core of Danos is like this.

Why stop at concrete ? I've owned basses with bodies made from acrylic, Luthite and plywood topped with hardboard, all sounded great. Other materials I recall being used include CF, aluminium and one year a marble body guitar appeared at Musik Messe; it weighed a ton and was mounted on a stand 🙂 Companies build bodies from wood for 2 reasons, it's relatively cheap and tradition; creative types are generally very conservative when it comes to instruments 😄