Bridgehouse

When I did a 51P build I did mine... ...Surf Green!!! And I love it! It certainly gets noticed!

There's lots of tutorials online about tru oil. Personally I don't do a huge amount of sanding in between coats - tru oil isn't like lacquer - the coats don't merge they stay seaparate and you can get funny lines and marks. It's also very easy to sand through. My favoured technique is to wet sand with the oil - it creates a slurry and fills in grain, holes etc. Once you have a good solid base on after a number of coats I would apply thin coats with no sanding in between. It builds up the finish. Very thin coats - less drying time - hardens well and with patience you can get a lacquer like gloss shine

I just went FRFR to do exactly this. No separate head or cab to cart about - 14kg, plenty of volume, convenient wedge shape so it's a proper monitor, and you can even have a normal monitor feed in as well.

I now find myself looking at lots of different Preamp DI pedals and thinking "wonder what that one would sound like?"

A ball of lint free cotton is good, and strangely so are fingers... bit messy but good tho

8oz will do way more than 3 or 4 coats - you need to go for light coats anyway

I have tried a set - kept them on a bass for a while. After settling I would say Chromes are about the same tonally (not at first tho!) I didn't like the feel of the Jim Dunlops as much tho - just didn't seem as slick

That's the spirit

I tried the DXR10 first and it sounded great. I was ready to get my money out. Then the guy said "Try the k10.2" Grrrr

Romford will have them I bet..

I had TIs on my 64 when I first got it. I never really felt that they were right, and tried Chromes as an experiment. At first the tension alarmed me too - I needed some real truss rod tweaking! However, some observations: - The tension means I can get the neck really rod straight - and with an action of 1.5mm across the board it plays really really well - It's more stable throughout the year - seems more balanced - The tension does let up a bit as they bed in. I use TIs on another bass, and some labellas on another so it isn't just me getting used to them - After 3 months they dull sufficiently to retain some chime but it's not dominant

That's a nice grain and would be a shame to cover it up. The Crimson stains are very easy to apply and get a nice colour so you could go with an amber/orange/cherry and then tru oil over that If you build it up tru oil gives a nice hard finish and it will protect the wood.

PMT in Nottingham. PMT stock both Yamaha and QSC. They also have basses handy to plug in

Experience of a bunch of flats on my 64 has led me to a few conclusions - those older Fenders like a bit of tension (the TIs didn't work as well). LaBellas were nice, but the Chromes gave the best tone - but only after about 3 months once they had dulled a bit...

I put Chromes on my 64 - 45-105 and they are really nice. The nut needed a bit of filing, but only a tiny bit to taste - I lowered the slots for an easier playing action. If it's going to be a player then get it set up for your chosen strings - don't worry about getting it to fit the nut as is - it won't affect the value a whole amount. In fact, in the real world even a swapped out but won't do much to the value. Keep the old one in the case. It could be refitted. For vintage I would always prefer something playable rather than original - so frets, nut, saddles, wiring etc are fine by me. I personally wouldn't spend that sort of money on a bass that was just to look at..

The k10.2 is 14kg. So the K8.2 will be a lot less than that. Another of my band mates (keyboards) uses a k10 gen 1 and the differences are quite large. The digital display on the back of the 10.2 is great - you can see exactly what's going on - no silly switches to look at in the dark before a gig It's actually very easy to carry about - the 8 will be even more so. It also just felt a bit better made than the DXR10. There is an irritating blue led light on the front - but guess what? You can turn it off in the settings! As with anything tho - it's worth going into a shop and hearing one...

To be honest, I've not experienced any f**ting out - if you go direct in from a passive bass you can set it to instrument level input (as opposed to line) set it to Bass Amp (which is some digital sound processing - i.e. a preshaped curve) and tweak EQ I've had it at 12 o'clock on the volume setting for that channel and had my preamp at about 75% volume - there was no f**ting out - I had to stop there as the radiator was rattling off its brackets and books were falling off my shelf.. any more and the windows would have been out. No f**ting out at all.

Having just got the QSC K10.2, how about the 8" version the K8.2 - it's real compact and has a Bass Amp DSP programme built in..(er, and it's 2000w peak/1200w constant....)

There are separate DI through connections for each channel to connect to FOH with no colouring by the amp, and a summed post-eq DI connection giving the output for all channels for running to another powered speaker/mixer etc

Well now. Check my other thread. I got an FRFR for use with my helix, and I think I might use the damned thing for this too.

I've fancied an FRFR for my Helix for some time. Always had my eye on a Yamaha DXR10 - for both guitar and bass duties. Mostly I'd DI Helix to front of house so the FRFR became a monitor - and it's useful at home too. In the local music shop today I decided to have a look at a DXR10. Yeah. It's quite nice. Over pops the assistant. I explain the setup and my need. "I wouldn't have the DXR10 personally. I'd have the QSC K10.2 instead. It's a bit more but..." The what now? Ok, I think. Prove it to me. Let's hear them side by side. So he did. Set them up for me. The QSC was louder. A lot louder. A lot lot lot louder. And it was a more natural reproduction of what you hear through headphones on Helix - much less coloured. "It's on the default flat DSP setting." He said. "Here, try the bass amp DSP setting" Uh? Well, not only was it interesting as a setting, but I plugged the bass in directly. There's 3 channel input - two have combi XLR/jack and one small 3.5 stereo. Channel A can be set as line or mic, but B can be set as line or instrument. So jack into B with inst straight from a passive bass and it does a pretty damned good impression of a decent bass amp - there's even eq on it to tweak it. Crikey. So I bought one. Got it home and tried my mini pedalboard straight in. Signal chain is smoothhound - tuner - Ampeg SCR-DI - QSC k10.2 I would say realistically it's about as loud as a 500w head into my BF Compact. Possibly a bit more, and with slightly less heft but a bit more top. But, it's 14 kilos and really very compact. And it's one less thing to drag to a gig. It's also a wedge so I can angle it and use it as a proper bass monitor with DI out to FOH. So this is my live rig (to be trialled!) Now I'm wondering whether it's worth bothering with another power amp for use with the BF cab for the board, when it looks like the FRFR I bought for the Helix can pretty much do both.

Yep! Thanks

Will do. There will be a lot of posting about wood stain and tru oil first I reckon, and then lots about pickups. I will get there tho

Oh don't worry - I know it's a rabbit hole In some ways, I think I'd prefer a shorter sustain on a semi - one of the reasons for looking at a wood or nut material saddle was to shorten sustain. Maybe. Or maybe not. Either way, I'm just going to have a play about. First priority is decent weight and balance, finding a decent pickup to match and getting the basics sorted. Then I'll think about messing about with needle files

I think a lot of it is the language to be honest. Brass is more twangy (hence brass saddles being a good thing on a Telecaster) and steel can be more "metallic" - but depending on the strings, twangy or metallic could mean either are "brighter" At the end of the day you have to pick a combo that works for what you want to hear. I'm actually most interested in the effects of the different materials on sustain..