kodiakblair

1 hour ago, Dolando said:

Pickup wise, not sure. Maybe a Lindy fralin, or bareknuckle, as I’ve installed on of theirs into another bass and liked it. I’m not sure though. 

I've 6 51/Telebasses here in the living room, another upstairs.

When it comes to pickups for this style of bass it's pretty much choose a brand then nail your colours to it's mast 😄

My pine slab body has had at least 6 different single coils over the last few year, from a 6.7K no-name alnico (£8 Chinese eBay seller) to a 29.9k giant. Single coils, split coils even a quad coil.

Magnets ranging from Alnico 2, 5, Neodymium and an alnico/neodymium mix.

Can't really say I've noticed much change between any of them 😐

Lovely 🙂

10 hours ago, velvetkevorkian said:

Probably twice as much material in the neck and hardware on the 7 too...

There was a thread on the guitar forum 'seven string. org'  about them, 50 odd posts. 

Not a peep about the weight 🤣

2 minutes ago, velvetkevorkian said:

My guess is that it will be pretty heavy...

My 4 string was about 12lb. OK, materials have change but that won't shave off a huge amount. 

4 minutes ago, Thump said:

I wonder who they are aiming it at?

Folk that missed buying them the first time around.

The BZ series launched back in August 2014.  There was a thread about them though I think only 3 BC members actually owned one;  I had the 4 string and a fella from NZ had the 6 .

Mind is a bit hazy tonight 😁

2 hours ago, deepbass5 said:

That's all Over to you guys.

Started out with roundwound. Went a few years with those until I picked up a set of Roto TruBass tapes for £5; that was early 80's when most folks were all about the bright and zingy.

Tapes stayed on until 1986 when I got lost in a sea of active basses and roundwound strings. 2014, I bought a single coil P-bass; it got tapes (Status Hotwire) then another single coil bass was bought and strung with TI flats.

Don't see a return to roundwound happening again. 

7 hours ago, WalMan said:

but, isn’t that lucky, qualifies for an Irish passport through his mother 🤬

About par for the course.

That boy I work with, harps on about immigrants yet his old man was Polish; doubt he can spell hypocrisy 😄

Back to the Tutmarc.

My mate, Rick Wilson, did a full restoration on one when he worked at Gruhn's. Didn't say much about it but marks it down as a cool experience 🙂

1 hour ago, Duroc17 said:

Don’t get me started. It’s been an utter disaster 

Aye.

Boy I work with is furious, hoped for mass forced deportation of everyone with African or Indian ancestry who've been here less than 4 decades.

Swears he's not racist but I have my doubts 😄

37 minutes ago, Duroc17 said:

Yikes! That puts that idea to bed 

Aye, B-word pretty much killed European sales on used basses for me.

Real shame, had 6 German fellas with first dibs on some Peaveys 🙁 

53 minutes ago, mrbacco said:

 

no, as I don't know the brand, let me check: I believe is https://chownybass.com/, correct? thanks!

That yellow bass is a Retrovibe,

David Konig does some design work for Chowny but runs his own business.

https://retrovibe.co.uk/product-category/basses/

5 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

Now, I like a big fat hairy bass tone, but I wonder if I'd feel constrained by only having that sound available...

The notion of some basses being a "one trick pony" is nonsense, get creative instead of constrained. 

Several years back I sent a couple of bass parts to a Danish guitar player, asking which he preferred. Response was "2nd one with the fresh set of rounds." Thing is there had been no new strings nor a change in settings; both parts had been recorded on a Westone Concord with no Vol or Tone pots.

His "new strings" was me shifting my right hand position to nearer the bridge 😃

On 14/09/2023 at 13:16, stewblack said:

just because it was so cheap really

I've 3 of the older CP-05 units for the exact same reason 😄

Very nice but I think I'll stick with my £160  'inspired by' from G4M.

I had the dual split-P model.

Cracking bass, regret selling it more than I regret selling the Wal. Top notch build, output from the Entwistle pickups will have Duncan QP owners weeping.

GLWTS. 

2 hours ago, Machines said:

We're both wrong - it's spalted poplar.

Those were sold as "Birds eye" poplar.

I had  the spalted maple version in 4 & 5 strings, cap on the 5'er was gorgeous.

13 minutes ago, Muzz said:

I'm sorely tempted to post the BZ-5000 pic on a tonewood thread over the water and just ask 'So what does this sound like, then?'

I doubt many there have a clue dark meranti exists let alone what it looks like.

Most revert to default setting, "it's $h*t",  when confronted with an East Asian bass from a brand they've never heard of; especially when said bass retailed for less than Squier money.

@mrbacco

You've got the right idea regarding swapping the nut, just knock the old one off and replace it with a right hander. 

Guitars and basses are not that complicated 👍

4 minutes ago, mrbacco said:

 

😉 thank you!

You're welcome.

Regarding Warman pickups, Josi charges what he does because pickups are not expensive to build. 

Take this .

https://www.axesrus.co.uk/TeleBASSPUPPARTS-p/51pbasspupkit.htm

Add £1 between #44 AWG & hook up wire to end up with this

https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/Seymour-Duncan-Vintage-P-Bass-SCPB-1-Singlecoil/art-BAS0004029-000

34 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

^ shows the neck taper, heel and same as pocket... its not 'square in'

By squaring the heel, moving it up in the pocket.. you will get a gap L and R...

OP has body with square pocket , he wants to pair it with a rounded heel fretless neck.

Body has square pocket. 

Neck has rounded heel.

Slide neck over top of body until rounded corners meet corners in squared pocket.

Mark tip of rounded heel.

Placed stop block (shaped to fit rounded heel) at mark.

Neck is butted up to stop block. Straight edges run down either side of the neck then clamped in place, never took photos of that. 

Neck is removed, leaving you with Square to Rounded Heel jig.

Result after router work. Red arrow points to end of original squared pocket. Yellow arrows point to new rounded pocket end. No gaps L to R.

4mm was removed from squared heel.

If the work was being done to a body where the bridge had already been fitted, saddles would need 4mm travel to intonate properly.

6 hours ago, mrbacco said:

I want to install the double humbucker I just bought from a small UK builder

Both me and my pal over in Kenya have those Warman Quad coil HBs. 

Pal is a big fan of Warman pickups, his current build is an EB-1 with one of Josi's Jazzbars at the neck. You made a great decision there 🙂
I'll double check but I'm pretty sure the Quad coil is standard humbucker dimensions, template can be made from web downloads.

6 hours ago, mrbacco said:

Do I need to fill the cavities left on the neck by taking the fret off?

Aye. Simple task, just glue strips of veneer in the fret slots then trim/sand smooth.

6 hours ago, mrbacco said:

I will definitely have to sand off the heel of the neck as it is rounded and not flat as the pocket on the body. Any suggestion on this latter matter ? I plan to use my manual router to do so.

Another simple task.

You can either square the heel of the neck or round the pocket, I've done both plenty of times.

Squaring the heel is just a case of making a temple from the pocket, transferring it to the heel then taking away the excess wood; I normally use a rasp + flat file for that.

To round the pocket, you lay the neck on top of the body. You'll need to prop the peghead up thickness of the body and put a 16mm block in the pocket to give the heel something to rest on. Slide the neck down until the corners of the heel meet the corners of the pocket; mark the tip of the rounded heel on the body.

You'll also want to extend the neck lines down the body. If you have centre line down the body you can keep everything is in line  with 2 straight edges running down each side of the neck and measuring across. Since I do this fairly often I knocked up a jig but anything straight will do. You'll follow those lines with your router.

Lastly shape a stop block following the rounded heel.

Clamp 2 straight edges to the body, placed on the extended lines, the rounded stop goes where you made the first mark.

The attached PDF has the 51 centre line, print it out and transfer it to your body.

51Body.PDF

3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

he knows it's a fake.

Of course he knows, he had to remove the Harley Benton logo before putting the butterfly sticker on.

It's a BZ-4000 with swapped bridge, tuning pegs and knobs.  Think mine cost £214 split new.

57 minutes ago, alyctes said:

It looks as if it's probably decent quality

Is that code for POS ?

Pretty collection of centre punch holes on the nut, only someone truly talented or very drunk could make that pattern 😄

Coming from someone who as built several 51 style P-basses, this is an absolute steal.

Good quality components paired with a lovely visual, whoever buys this will make plenty folk envious.

@JohnDaBass sorry to hear circumstances are forcing this sale 🙁 

Much as the Entwistle PBXN impressed the hell out of me, the mega high output can be difficult to cope with.

For a great sounding, affordable, drop-in split coil; Tone Rider would be my choice 👍