Prosebass

Come on folks theres a prize in this one for what I consider the most grungy piece of kit or bass.... Get them pictures in..... and a bump....

[quote name='fretmeister' post='281140' date='Sep 10 2008, 03:04 PM']Ask me again when the rent is due...[/quote]

[quote name='fretmeister' post='281124' date='Sep 10 2008, 02:43 PM']That is what I'm suspicious about... I think £5000 is a fair price to shake my hand.... [/quote] Is that "to shake your hand" or "a shake with your hand" ?....

Its probably worth what he quoted with the case and lead but will probably fetch less as it is pick-up only and so you instantly loose about 98% of your potential customers. I'd say £150.00

[quote name='steve-soar' post='280730' date='Sep 9 2008, 10:01 PM']Westone Thunder basses?[/quote] Bob on there, I have a soft spot for them and had 2 (a 1A and a Spectrum LX )but sold them when I decided to have a go at this bass building mularky. Next projects will be more like a Spectrum with the "Fender" headstock as I will be using Mighty Mite freless necks, mahogany bodies and Q-Tuner pups. The bass is at the stage of french polishing (shellac) I thought I would do a mix of finishes to see what it looked like. The rear of the bass is poly coated as is the neck for durability. I like shellac as it leaves the beauty of the grain showing and has a sort of "antique" look , plus is easy to repair should the bass be damaged. This has had 4 coats then its left for 24 hours, flatted and then another 4 coats ,flatted and polished. The edge on picture gives a good idea of the different finish / color between polyurethane varnish and shellac. [attachment=13191:IMG_1406.JPG] [attachment=13192:IMG_1409.JPG] [attachment=13193:IMG_1407.JPG]

As has already been said good web design and writing code are very time and brain hungry. Have a look at [url="http://www.frewebs.com"]Freewebs[/url] You can have free hosting but it will be "yourname.freewebs.com" which is crap and has ad banners but they also do cheap domain hosting and all the site content is web based and templates and no ads if you pay for the premium service. If you pick a good simple template you can have a reasonably good looking site quite easily. You can add video and music and pay dependent on bandwidth and hosting space, I found them quite good. You will be up and running in a day and about £45.00 plus you'll have your own www.********.com which always helps, nothing looks worse in my book than a website name with an extension (ie myspace) as no one will remember it.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='280510' date='Sep 9 2008, 04:52 PM']Very cool, I really like the contoured top. I assume that hole will have the electonics and have a covered top?[/quote] It will, and will have a rear plate for access to the electronics or battery if I put an EQ expansion control in it. I think the balance will be good as the neck is really thin with a short headstock. The whole bass is about 4 inches shorter than a "Jazz" The whole reason for building it is an exercise into weight saving to see whats possible. The veneer on the headstock is coming off to show the laminated neck. Can anyone tell what the inspiration for the shape is ?

Heres a few more progress pictures. The contouring was really difficult and it gonna have a "slab" type edge to the top It will have a pick guard with cutouts a la Gibson Artiste and I'm going to french polish the top tonight. It currently weighs 2008 grams which is 4lb 12oz in old money I think the total weight will come in around 6lb 4oz pretty light. [attachment=13152:IMG_1404.JPG] [attachment=13153:IMG_1405.JPG] [attachment=13154:IMG_1403.JPG] [attachment=13155:IMG_1401.JPG] [attachment=13156:IMG_1402.JPG]

Come on folks get them photos posted.... and a bump...

[quote name='Alien' post='280075' date='Sep 8 2008, 11:41 PM']Wasn't that the whole point of the anti nazi league? Let's face it, if they'd been up to their arses in nazis they wouldn't have been much of a league now would they? Andy[/quote] Ah yes...but without the Nazi's they wouldn't have had a cause, so no need for a league, bit self defeating I suppose

All this "porn" is well and good but I feel we need an antidote hence "THE ANTI PORN LEAGUE" bit like the anti nazi league without the Nazi's.... Show us your battered grungy , worn , crap, antiquated wonderments. I may even put a small prize up for the worst item of kit, (it will be small don't expect a bass )

[quote name='OldGit' post='279591' date='Sep 8 2008, 12:01 PM']"oh yeah, I play the bass/the bass plays me/the four-stringed, thick-bellied electrified monster, you know, the one that eats all other noises alive and I've gone walking down these four strings most every hour of every day, of every year and every busted heartbeat, just trying to get along to where the last riff kisses the dark/the subsonic groove, we call it dub culture/midnight's vibration/something to reach for some throat, some bottom, some neck and some deep clutch of riverpulse/gets you hot just strapping yourself into the thing/and the more you play, the hotter it gets, the slicker the slide/and all for nothing much because none of the songs you discover, ever come anywhere near to what you hear in your dreams"[/quote] From this extract I deduce the following... A. He has never played bass or B. Too many drugs...

How could you possibly make playing bass interesting ?

From a quick bit of browsing It is thought that Jim now works for Burns so you may be able to contact him there for some info on the bass before you sell it.

As someone who has imported inexpensive basses (but has now stopped) a few words of caution. This looks very much like a sample I got off one of my suppliers, its exactly the same body shape , same neck even. They play ok for the money, which is like saying a Kia Picanto is a good car "for the money" . The prices are being driven down by the big players to the point where they are making probably about $15.00 a guitar and relying on large sales numbers for their profits. This means the little guys cannot compete making basses and music shops with large overheads cannot stock them as the margins are too small. We will I think in the not too distant future have a situation where only specialist high end guitar shops will be able to survive and your local shop will go under. I have friends who own shops and they are worried ,especially with the so called "credit crunch" affecting sales.Preston no longer has a good guitar shop !, Apoco music in Chorley has had to shut his Lancaster shop. It will be a sad day when all you do is either order a bass over the web or pay a fortune for a high end bass with nothing between them available. I decided just to import parts and hand build "specials" properly built, set-up, shielded and with good quality parts on them Due to prices like this I have had to stop building basses for my main income and find a job elsewhere as I got no support from the bass community for my products as they were 200% more in cost than these imports even though they they sounded 300% better. Eventually when China has cornered the market , they will start to suffer inflation , wages will rise, product prices will go up and the industry will be ruined here at home. Now where have I heard that before ? Other than the moral / social aspect you can't go wrong for the money.....

No Joy all the so called "expensive " pots seem little different to cheap chinese offerings. The stiffest I have are balance pots at 500k with a center detent but they are very deep. I think the felt idea is a good one with the addition of a self adhesive circular pad under it. Something like thick selotape or sticky back plastic to protect the wood / paint in case some grit gets in there.

I am led to believe Thai ones will get you stiff. (I think the brand is Love you long time Jonny) Bargain at $20.00 Seriously though, I'll have a rummage in my workshop for you. oh er misses

[quote name='neepheid' post='277658' date='Sep 5 2008, 10:46 AM']Just snagged one of these from the states for £60 [b]delivered[/b] Looks like a good starting point for a project, there's still a few left - another one went for a fiver less last night! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360084496713"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=360084496713[/url] [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360084957244"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=360084957244[/url] [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360085267921"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=360085267921[/url] They seem like good sellers, prompt responses to my questions and +ve feedback received already. Of course, there's still USPS/HM Customs and Excise/ParcelFarce to make it through.[/quote] Looks good to me....and as you say its a risk you decided to take. National Music Supply are massive , just look at the feedback score, I'm sure you will have no problems with them and if you do I'm sure they will rectify it. Even if they don't you've lost the price of a few beers and a curry Do you need some humbuckers for it ?

[quote name='Peaty' post='276936' date='Sep 4 2008, 01:14 PM']That looks very good! Are the pencil lines on the front marking for a scratch plate or are you just going to let that wood speak for its self? all the best Pete[/quote] Hi Pete Unfortunately my wonderful Chinese associate when he made these body/neck blanks for me as prototypes had lost his ruler that day and routed the cavities both in the wrong place , wrong size and cock-eyed... As the aim of this bass is to make it as lightweight as possible (under 6lbs) I will actually be taking more wood out of the top and yes it will have a scratch plate but the lines are only an idea and not the final shape. cheers....Paul

With the demise of Prosebass as a business (had to get a job) I can now join the ranks of "normal" Bass Chatters and show you some madness from my shed. This bass is one of several I had made up by my Chinese associate and is a through body 5 piece mahogany / maple neck with mahogany wings. When I weighed it it was just 5lbs so I had the idea of shaving off all the unnecessary bits and doing a lightweight build to get it under 6lbs total. It will have twin humbuckers and a mix of passive / active electric bits. [attachment=12879:bass02.jpg][attachment=12880:Bass01.jpg]

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='276341' date='Sep 3 2008, 03:55 PM']*I also played a Warwick (Thumb I think you lot would call it??). It was like playing a tiny lump of driftwood with a 2 yard long neck attached. It also had a weird concave slab shape, obviously designed to wrap round the beer bellies of the 50 something, mulleted wannabe 80's session musicians who favour them. I'm joking of course. But lets just say I wasn't a fan![/quote] Thats because you need to develop the "beer belly and mullet" and play it with your thumb. They are much comfier resting on the flab....

[quote name='OldGit' post='74615' date='Oct 15 2007, 03:06 PM']Cheers Do I need flux in a tub?[/quote] I'll send you a really old tub if you like it that much........ [attachment=12874:Flux02.jpg] [attachment=12875:Flux.jpg]

[quote name='ironside1966' post='274818' date='Sep 1 2008, 06:14 PM']Are the USA fenders worth the money, are the Jap ones just as good? I always wanted a USA fender Jazz but after seeing this post, Found an interesting 'finish' quirk on my jazz bass, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26434&st=0"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26434&st=0[/url] this has really put me off fenders, such lazy workmanship in the routing send the wrong signals when they are selling a bass on American craftsmanship, so looking for other alternatives. I know you need to try a load of basses to find the right one this is just a hypothetical question at the moment Lakland skyline, G&L Tribute, Cort GB94 are they on par quality wise as a USA Fender? Also Geedy Lee jazz bass and other Jap fenders how do they compair with a USA Fender.[/quote] In a word "NO" unless you want one and then it doesn't matter what the price is. One review commented on sawdust still in cavities which is well poor for a £750.00 bass. I have played CIJ's that sounded better and worse than American made ones so you cannot generalise on that ! A Sadowski is better built with more attention to detail and I would personally rather have one secondhand than a new Fender. Just try loads of basses with an open mind and you may well find something completely different that suits your style of playing better and with a better sound. And remember its not just the bass that gives you your sound.......its you !

[quote name='BOD2' post='270565' date='Aug 26 2008, 09:07 PM']What ? You have a problem with potentially lethal voltages on the guitar strings ? I would refer you to this article... [url="http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electrical/safety/index.php"]http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electr...afety/index.php[/url][/quote] No I agree entirely with the article , what I cannot understand is that basses are still being produced and sold with a ground wire going to the bridge. Not only is this a potential shock problem, (either DC or AC from the amp) but it also turns your strings into an aerial. Its a cheap way of keeping hum levels down rather than shielding the cavities properly. Unfortunately if you use metal knobs the shock problem can still exist and I personally won't put my life in the hands of a capacitor. With all the health and safety requirements these days I am surprised that guitars are not regulated more with regard to this problem.