Rexel Matador

Two tied together was plenty

Indeed, plus I may end up building a bass for someone else one day, so should probably learn to do things other people like! I've still never made one with more than four strings for example.

Not sure why I went so all-in on the high fret access. It's not as if I use them.

A bit of progress. Frets are in, some finer body outline shaping, pickups and control cavities, tuner holes. I'm never hammering frets in again. Definitely time to invest in a press/caul of some kind. I wanted to route a roundover in the body but I need to wait for the imperial bolts required to attached the router to the table to arrive, so I'll have to wait. Next up, carving the neck, heel, volute, body contour.

I've always resisted Stewmac, because they're pricey and ship from the US, but these little treats are going to make my life so much easier this weekend and arrived much faster than I expected. In other news, I made the most idiotic mistake with the fretboard radius. My jig has a perfect 14" radius for the router to run over, but of course the bit hangs down below that, so it's ended up being more like 12, despite me going at it with a 14" inch sanding block. I'm just going to go with it, it seems consistent and level anyway. I tried to take a pic of the reflection on the sanded surface but it didn't really work... As you can see, the 21st fret slot is very close to the end of the board. Another rookie mistake, but I'm learning as I go! Hopefully it will hold when the fret goes in! I've come too far to do anything about it now!

Given that the Rolling Stones continued to tour after Charlie passed away, I find myself wondering if they'll gradually all be replaced when the time comes and keep going forever.

No mention of Sugababes either.

I'm not planning on doing something exactly the same, but personally I like it as a solution to staining a neck thru bass without having to do the whole neck (also an option). The technique could have other applications too, like doing some kind of burst on a body.

Hi all, this isn't a build diary, but I think this is the place to ask in any case, hope that's ok! How would I go about doing something like this, ie fading out the stain on the neck? Could you do it by applying stain and sanding it out, or could that kind of effect only really be achieved by spraying? Any thoughts welcome!

I can't unsee the mismatched horns. One round and one pointy.

I've roughly shaped the body. It's very light, which I was hoping for with this project. Obviously the hardware will add some weight but there's also still a fair bit of wood to be removed - roundover, control cavity, neck and heel carving, etc. I'm away for two weeks so this will be the last update for a while.

Wings!

I swapped the necks of a Mexican Fender P and a Matt Freeman sig Squier once. I forget why. But anyway, they fitted each other. And I think fitting a J neck to a P has been a common mod since the jazz bass was invented. Fitting a different scale length neck would leave the bridge in the wrong place.

Body wing templates

If you PM me in a bit more detail what you want doing, I'll have a look and tell you honestly whether I'd be able to pull it off.

Bought a brass rod from B&Q on my way home from work. Only sanded to 80 grit so far but I think we're onto a winner.

Yep. You have to pull them nice a nd tight as you wrap, but it worked perfectly.

Is it neck-through or through-neck? I haven't done one of these in a while. I made a massive mess in the garage building a TV cabinet and couldn't face tidying up for months, but I finally did it and here we are. I'm making a 32" scale bass with a 5 piece wenge/padauk neck and poplar wings. I finally made a radiusing jig - still a lot of sanding needed, but it's made thigs a bit easier and more accurate. I've never glued a pre-radiused fretboard to a neck before - the bike inner tubes worked remarkably well for clamping. And yesterday I just sat in the garden with some sandpaper seeing how shiny I could get this truss rod cover. Next on the agenda: I messed up with these Padauk inlay dots - they weren't deep enough and have just about gone through a couple of them in the shaping of the board. I wasn't sure about them anyway so I'm going to drill them out and try something else. More to follow...

My current main gigging bass is a Squier P and it's Mexican Fender equivalent is my backup. The Fender is great but the Squier just sings.

I've built myself a couple of "signature" basses. When I was in a Death Metal band it was this: 35.5 to 33.5 inch scale, Cherry, maple board, BEAD tuning, EMG humbucker (5 string one to accommodate the angling). Now I'm in a cover band playing long sets of classic rock I'm working on a 32" neck-through with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup. Jazz nut width, 14" radius. Will post a pic when it's done!

I'm going to need a hard case for a bass I'm building. It's 32" scale and the body shape is my own design so finding a ready made one to fit it is likely to be difficult. Is there anyone who makes them with the padding shaped to order? Should I buy a standard one and replace the padding myself?

This has been my approach when it's a tricky rhythm. I had to learn to play and sing Outside Woman Blues and I started by going very slowly and figuring out which notes of the basslines the vocal syllables fell on, after a few goes it fell into place and I can do it without thinking now. So just start (very) slow and it will come.

It's already been said here but I would agree that humbuckers are not necessary for a good metal bass tone, despite most (modern) metal players using them - even at the more extreme end, though, Glen Benton of Deicide is now using a passive fender with P/J pickups - so maybe the tide is changing and you'd actually be putting yourself ahead of the curve! Regarding 4 or 5 strings, I personally prefer to play the low tuned stuff on a four-string, with thicker strings to accommodate the B E A D tuning. Tuning regular strings down that low will make them too loose, but Ernie Ball actually makes a 4-string set (Beefy Slinky) that are perfect for this purpose. Regarding how to learn, I would usually say go ahead with youtube and the huge amount of tabs available online - just start slow and it will come. I have found though, that metal bass tabs (and indeed youtube covers) can be inaccurate in a way that is specifically quite off-putting for the novice bassist: Because they can't hear any different, the tab author assumes the bass doubles the guitar part exactly. Take a song like Raining Blood by Slayer for example: hard enough to play on guitar - and I have seen tabs online that claim the bass part is basically exactly the same but an octave lower. Bearing in mind that Tom Araya also had to sing while playing this was enough to make me want to give up for ever. BUT, you can find the isolated bass track on youtube and find that he is actually doing something a lot simpler, holding down the low end while the guitars do the fancy stuff. My point being, don't get disheartened thinking you have to be a superfast shredder, playing everything the guitarist plays with the added encumbrance of larger strings, string spacing, neck length. Metal bass is about playing in time, solidly and gluing the frenetic drums and guitars together. Just my thoughts - all totally subjective of course.

Thanks! I've bought loads from Reid Timber over the years - he's a good dude. I'll have a look into those laminates 👍