kodiakblair

Check the delivered item against the photo and don't tick the "item accepted box" unless you're happy. That said , keep in mind you've paid £60 inc delivery. Warmoth,Fender,WD and Allparts charge £200 and £400 up to cover their QC scrap pile ; these £60 sellers don't have that luxury. Small cosmetic flaws will get passed . Also as I mentioned the big names all warn you not to expect an alteration-free drop in , same goes for the £60 necks. The CNC instructions for cutting neck pockets vary across factories and even vary within those factories , it depends on how often they recalibrate the machines. Heavy gloss finish might mean a too tight fit needing a bit sanding. Matt finish could be slightly smaller , scratchplate hides that 🙂 That's the thing with replacement necks. Aye , they're meant for a certain type of body but it's a type of body made in different places over a long period of time. The best the replacement neck folk can hope for is "near enough" 👍 I'll keep an eye out to see what path you take 🙂

Freeing up money is good but for me time was more important. Maple blank, truss rod and fret wire come to around £35 ; then there's my time to shape and sand it. Was well worth paying the extra £20 for somebody else to do the work 🙂 £50 odd for a blocked/binding reverse Tele peghead with square heel , it was no contest 👍

Bought and used necks sold by "wang guitar store 1980" on Ali-Ex , their eBay presence is "Jinwan" https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/bass-neck/5615246_517813061.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.pcShopHead_902313684.1_0_1 They've been great , rock solid with no fret work required. Bit of a surprise that since Warmoth, Allparts and Fender all tell you to expect doing fretwork on their necks 🤣 I'm not the only one happy with these necks , spotted a few builds over on TalkBS using them 👍 A mate over in Kenya has also reported good experiences with them.

Hi Adam. Transparent Purple was a stock colour option , natural was the other. More than 12 made 🙂 In the years since my initial post , a few trans purple versions have come up for sale. None made more than £130. Here's the 2 page brochure. Aberdeen Bass 2002.pdf

Who cares about the logo , you certainly shouldn't. You've got yourself a nice wee bass and its brought a bit pleasure into your life 🙂

Nice wee bass. Had the pleasure of owning one sold on here a few year back.

Given the volume of purchases by factories there is little to no difference between material costs. 6 alnico slugs from Axesrus cost £10.50. 1000 alnico slugs from Rongchang Magnets* will cost £20 , 8 slugs make a pickup so 16p. Ceramic pickups not only require iron slugs they also need a bar magnet. Again Rongchang sell 1000 for £20 , 4p + cost of slugs for a split-P. * Rongchang Magnets chosen at random for prices Alnico pickups generally use more copper wire but there's no way I could give the cost increase for a single pickup , maybe 0.001 p 🤣 The Encore likely does have a ceramic magnet pickup , with JHS banking on consumers shelling out £20 more for the same bass but with the "more expensive" alnico pickup. Guitar companies make a killing from what the public are prepared to pay for so-called better materials.

It's dead easy to tell if your Encore has ceramic or not , there will be a magnet glued to the underside 🙂 BTW the final years of Encore overlap with the other JHS brand "Vintage".

The young lad I bought my Thunder III from is a guitar player (The Jackdaws, Hull area). He's your typical Fender/Gibson type but he's also on the lookout for a Westone Prestige 🙂

Davie is 20 odd year younger than me , about 7 ft tall , has ability miles beyond mine and makes a bloody good living playing bass at home. He annoys me too 🤣

Bloody scary pickups , good luck taming them 😆

@MichaelDean Looks great. I deeply regret selling my RPBX ☹️

Never had the chance to play a Chinese Dingwall but I don't recall seeing many complaints about them. Bamboo wing Sarzo Cirrus was pretty nifty. Over in the classical guitar world Yulong Guo has a good name ,start around £3k 🙂

@Tegs Makes sense to build sig models in Japan or Mexico, the lower labour costs help towards the artist kickback. Peavey did the same for the Ellefson Zodiac and Sarzo Cirrus.

No idea. Not really. Guitars and basses are simple things to build. St Leo's business model was ditch luthiers for semi-skilled factory workers. Hartley Peavey went one better, machines + unskilled labour. The only thing limiting factories are as @BigRedX said , the conditions set by the clients. Fender are a good example here. Fender Japan instruments for export are built to lower standards than the ones sold in the Japanese market. The same " build to lower standard" conditions apply to Fender Mexico and Fender China.

I doubt I've even scratched the surface 😃 Dingwall have a line built in China , Sadowsky have a Japanese and German range . Bacchus Japan and Indonesian lines.

The biggest has to be Ibanez , they have never had a factory of their own. Peavey closed their guitar plant in 2010 so everything since has been subbed out. Others I remember are. Cort have built for Squier, G&L , Ibanez and PRS. Saein built for Epiphone and Peavey. Samick did Squier, Epiphone and Peavey. Zheng'an build Tagima and some Ibanez. NBE Corp build the Spector Euro line, Esh and NS Design. They also do the Peavey HP-2 with yet another Cirrus reissue in the pipeline InYen Vina built for ESP and Peavey.

Was it a success ?

Aye, that's what the Wal Owners folk said . Less than 50 built .

I feel the same . He's also well behind the times , I played a mate's JB-40 7 year back.

For bulk purchases of fairly mundane stuff like hard maple , ash etc ; buy from Timbmet. It's a huge saving over buying from other places. https://www.timbmet.com/products/timber/hardwoods/ Most of their timbers come as 5" x 2" and typically in 8ft lengths . Not a problem since you'll have both chop and bandsaws in the garage. For smaller orders I'd also go with Alistair Reid in Glasgow. https://www.reidtimber.co.uk/

I would though message the eBay seller and ask about the 2nd fret. Tell them to seat it properly and send you the photo once they have. If they won't or make excuses then you'll know they don't actually have the neck themselves , just using Ali-Ex photos. Here's the wangguitar link , it's the same neck. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000812144992.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.37.2448ead4lOUUOW Mind , if you buy from eBay , using a credit card with PayPal , you'll get refunded if it doesn't pan out 👍

@Bassassin Sorry pal . Never saw your photo . Applying heat via an element (charcoal burner) helps things along , just be careful about the distance

Packed a bass of to Paul-S 2 weeks back using ParcelForce Express 48 , arrived safely 48 hours later. Another went out to Barrow in Furness this week , collected Monday before noon and delivered by mid afternoon Tuesday. Both went uninsured as they were not in hardcases, that an insurance condition . If you do ship a bass and hardcase then Parcelforce/RM do offer insurance but it is limited to £200 or £300 , insurance only covers the bass ; you get nothing for damage to the case.

Nothing wrong with poplar , its very similar to alder with regard to weight ,density and hardness. It was the timber of choice for many Peavey models.