prowla

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1486312783' post='3230805'] You have to start somewhere. I have built motorbikes, cars, kit cars and even a hovercraft. I haven't had a days instruction in any of it, just had a go and learned as I went along. I recently picked up a bass as a project (thread on here) and had a go. You will get a great deal of satisfaction from doing it. The kits aren't stupid money and as they have everything you need are a good way to dip a toe in so to speak. [/quote] Now, a hoverbass - that would have been impressive!

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' timestamp='1486299490' post='3230637'] Love that fretless! Did you go with warmoth or similar or just scour BC and eBay for the parts? [/quote] The orange fretless started as Squier Affinity P-bass project which someone had started on and gave up (they sprayed the body orange); I got it for £51 on ebay, in bits. I got some better pickups (£35), put on a Badass II bridge I had in a box of bits, made a wiring loom with CTS pots, Sprague cap, Switchcraft socket from ebay (£25), bought the Mighty Mite neck (including machines) off a colleague who'd upgraded his bass (£50), got a Hipshot D-tuner/Xtender for £55 online and put some Fender flatwound strings on it £20 in a local shop). Add in a few sundries like screws and a neck plate and it owes me under £300 (and also leaves me some leftover parts). If I replace the body (and I'm in no rush to, because it's not bad, actually and a decent body will cost as much again as the rest of it!), then I'll reassemble it as original and flog that on. The aqua fretted one I got as-is, at a price well below the value of the parts; someone else had built it but then sold it on to a shop. There's a separate thread on that, so won't repeat. The thing is, though, both of those basses are really good and they are assembled from parts from different suppliers and manufacturers; it's just a matter of fitting them together and you can chop and change or customise as you like. If you're not confident on setting up the neck & action, then you can get a guitar tech to do that. I've also built a (Strat) partscaster from bits, including a bare-wood body I've stained a nice dark oak colour, which I'm very happy with (though it's probably not worth a lot). The body cost me £25 on ebay (and the stain & finish probably cost as much again), the neck was £10 from a local shop and machines for it were £35 (I could've got cheaper on ebay, but I decided to support the local shop), the bridge is a Chinese Floyd Rose which had a fault so they refunded me in full (£0!) but I replaced the trem arm with a Schaller one (£8.95), a couple of Strat pickups out of my parts box (turns out they are really good ones!) and an Iron Gear humbucker (£35), and sundry other bits. I haven't decided whether to stick with the Squier neck (which is actually rather good) and put the locking nut on it, or to go with something more droopy or pointy. Again, all pretty easy to do (except drilling the holes for the Floyd Rose bridge mounts and opening things out a bit with a file). Staining the wood took a lot of time, but it was really rewarding seeing the end-product. I'm also working on resurrecting a copy bass (whose name may not be mentioned), and that's coming along nicely. With that one, the only serious thing I've had to do was tidy up a 2nd jack socket hole (which the seller had rather roughly drilled/gouged) with my Dremel. So, to summarise, it is not hugely difficult to build a guitar from parts, there is relatively little risk in doing so, and in the worst case you may well be able to sell on the parts if you lose interest and give up or mess something up (perhaps losing the value of the particular component you've stuffed up, probably a hit on the wallet the equivalent of a takeaway and a beer). Incidentally, I found myself watching James May's "The Reassembler" last week and got a certain point where I thought to myself "hang on - you've got some bits yourself to solder and put together, so why don't you do that instead of sitting here watching someone else doing the same blooming thing???", so I switched off the telly and got on with it.

I've never tried a kit - I think they will be cheapo. I have built a bass from parts, though, getting body, neck, pickups, etc. separately and assembling them; it's not to difficult for a Fender-based instrument where they bolt together. You can also swap and change if you feel like it; I've started with a Squier P-bass and only its body is left now - I may change it, but I kindof like it. I've also got a more up-market one, which was made from parts, but I bought as-is. This is them.

I've sourced a bridge tailpiece, so that should be arriving next week. I just need the treble pickup sorted now... ...whether to by or get the one I have repaired, or to try my hand at re-wiring (it's only something like 1200 turns using wire thinner and more fragile than a human hair, followed by a dip in some melted wax - what could possibly go wrong?).

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1485950422' post='3227907'] They have a flea sig jazz in Guitar Guitar Camden & I think they do credit. There are also 27month+ free interest credit cards out there at the moment which would probably be cheaper. [/quote] What are these 27 month interest free cards, please?

If I were looking at a celeb endorsed bass, I'd probably check out the Fender Geddy and the Yamaha(?) Sheehan ones. (But I'd put gaffer tape over the signatures, 'cos I'm not a clone.)

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1486234883' post='3230285'] I just sold the neck from my MIM Precision bass on here. I purchased a Fender Jazz neck from Amazon of all places, the last Mexican Jazz neck I could find for sale with a rosewood board! I'm still working on the neck, as the frets needed leveled and crowned. The board also needed scraped and oiled, as it had a mist coat of lacquer on the wood. It came without tuners or a string tree fitted, and the nut definitely needs filed. A big step towards getting my ideal bass though, as I've been wanting a Jazz-necked Precision for a while. [/quote] Yep - the obvious thing is to buy a P and put a J neck on it.

I think there's a reason it's extremely rare...

Quality!

I've never found them particularly inspiring and I wouldn't pay as much as £100 for one.

The machines don't look stock Far Eastern to me. But the over-glossy body does. The control cavity though - it's almost worth going just to check that out!

[quote name='Joebethell' timestamp='1485983022' post='3228318'] Don't do that sell me the fretless neck and buy another status fretted. [/quote] I'd be up for doing a neck swap...

Ones which are tapered over the bridge are better.

I'm not so struck on Fender/MusicMan/G&L, because I'm not 6ft tall; I think they look a bit daft on a 5'7 short-ass. I like Rickenbackers, just because... I like Status Graphites because they are comfortable.

Darn - I was chatting to someone who had a 'faker, but it turns out its treble pickup doesn't work and the bridge has tail-lift, so that's a bit of a damp squib.

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1485900105' post='3227640'] So is that for sale for the same money? If you don't have it I will pay you to buy it amd send it to.me! [/quote] I think I'm going to have it, though I might look to get it re-fretted...

[quote name='Joebethell' timestamp='1485892048' post='3227588'] Big deal again? [/quote] Yep - the same person had the two made. I may have that one too; just having a conversation with myself about head vs. heart...

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1485880697' post='3227469'] I think it's obvious that i was exagerating a bit on this . Active is active and passive is passive, etc... My example was to point out the amount of users saying that they use a passive bass so they don't have to fiddle endlessly with the EQ section of an active bass but then they go and add a preamp pedal to their signal chain to be able to obtain the desired tone. The forum is filled with threads about "achieving this tone" that end up with the addition of a sansamp/vtbass/BDI/etc. In those cases the fiddling avoided on the bass will move on to the pedal, don't you agree? [/quote] Well, I think it relates to the design of the given bass's sound; in the case of a passive one it has been optimised in one way, whereas an active one will have been targeted at the result after the electronics (or even the versatility of the electronics), even if they are just simple volume and tone.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1485806420' post='3226886'] You could argue that if you used a passive bass, passive amp and a passive pa mixer ALL of the sound has been produced by the instrument as only some of what the pickup 'collected' is being amplified (same but louder), once you introduce an active eq in the bass, amp or PA mixer that can create something that didn't happen the final amplified sound is not what went in at the bass pickup and is essentially synthetic. It's not an active bass but it's no less synthetic once it goes through an active EQ. How many amps are purely passive these days and who has a passive EQ PA system? [/quote] You can't have a passive amp. There was a short fashion in Hi-Fi of having passive pre-amps, but they were really just a potentiometer in a box front-ending an active power amp. If you want passive end-to-end you have to have acoustic instruments.

Mine is my Status. It was preceded by a Warwick, which I didn't get on with at all. The Status is rather nice.

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1485773632' post='3226490'] Mine wasn't much more impressive. I was shocked at how much it went for, without complaint. Jon - Bassasin - made me a new one from clear plastic and laser-printed paper for much less (you can see it in my avatar). Holographic sounds fun though. [/quote] It looks good in the avatar.

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1485783826' post='3226629'] Now that would be neat! - I'm sure someone could do it [/quote] Something like "Rickenbacker"/"Rickenfaker" alternating. Now, you can get cards & sometimes magazines which have them - I think I might keep an eye out for one and see if one might work for a background. I had been thinking about having a guitar body painted in the dual-tone finish (like some TVRs) - maybe a deep blue and a deeper crimson.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1485797896' post='3226789'] Using a preamp pedal allways on EQ'd to achieve the desired tone (as i've read about a lot of BC users doing) between a bass and a amp isn't different from having a preamp mounted inside the bass, is it? [/quote] The difference is it's not in the bass. Actually, I have a SansAmp which I use to boost passive bass to match the active. I do get the point, and indeed I have said on occasion that the instrument includes the amp and speakers too! However, looking at the component parts, an active bass is one which has onboard active electronics and a passive is one which doesn't.

Oh dear - it has a cousin... (Fretless, EMGs.)