The Guitar Weasel

Not Chinese this time. It's funny I thought Chinese-ium was that metal used for some Far Eastern guitar and electric bass bridges that has the strength and durability of a cheap mild cheddar. It seems there's a wood version too! But this is more like wood grained rich tea biscuit!

I have to say it was spectacular - I found the other bridge foot nearly twenty feet away! I said a rude word too!!! And new bridge ordered ...

So the big day of stringng her up to sort the action - put on the Supreme Bassworks Deluxe Dirty gut - All went well tuning steadily up until the G string almost came up to pitch .... then there was a huge explosion and ... Scratch one cheap Chinese bridge! God knows where the other foot even flew to! The bass had already been up to pitch once with the green Weedwhackers - so I think it was a fault in the maple - it simply couldn't handle the downforce of the beefier Dirty Guts and gave up in a sliding shear fracture. It's bloody galling as I don't have a spare bridge, so things will be on hold while I get another one ... hopefully not made of Chinese biscuit!

Yay, you started about three months after me .... good job! And determination and a real love of the instrument can sometimes be better for an individual case than a blanket 'go to a teacher' approach. And double bass has changed my life too. The pandemic left me struggling with agoraphobia and a fear of driving - well you can't rehearse or gig with a double bass on public transport so I had to cork my bottle of demons and get on with driving myself about with my bass.

Ooooo that's nice

So we have black stain and a first coat of Tru-Oil on the neck More coats and lots of flatting required ... but it's really starting to look the part - old but well looked after - rather than utterly borked. 😁

Couple of coats rubbed on ... perhaps ten or more to go ... at least this heat dries the Tru-Oil quickly.

Yep the grain shows through - not easy to see in the pic. As an ex metal guitarist I've absolutely no desire to see how my double bass fits into a metal band ... the feedback issues alone would make my hair fall out 😁 The see thru black finish does a good job of hiding all the repairs this old girl has had in her life ... plus makes disguising the new neck a lot easier.

So I pick another stifling hot day to sand and stain the bass ... hey ho So before I attacked it with the 240 grit .... A couple of coats and the look is pretty much what I wanted ... old looking. Not stained the neck yet ... that will be a next week job. Put an experimental rub-on first coat of Birchwood and Casey gun stock oil after I took this pic - and it's starting to look really good. I want the end result to be satin - and still retain the look of an old and battle-scarred bass ... just with a brooding aged black patina and no obvious chunks missing

Firstly absolutely not a dying art by any means ... there are many many gigging psychobilly and rockabilly slap players - I went to an all day psychobilly festival a while ago where out of seven bands playing there were six slap players (and one lady with a Rickenbacker). You have hit the nail on the head with the fact that there are VERY few teachers who have any clue about slap - and worse - a couple I have met regard it as 'not proper double bass playing' and somewhat look down their noses at it. Not everyone wants to play jazz or classical and and rockabilly appeared to be the OP's thing. To my mind for a rockabilly player there is infinitely more use in some of the YouTube slap lessons than in six months of learning stuff you have no desire to play from someone who doesn't get the genre you want to learn. Also learning about pickups and amplification (without feedback) is super important if you want to gig - and very few teachers have much of a clue about that. And as you said, high tension strings (and low jazz actions) are a sure way to screw up or at least not sound great slap playing. I love jazz by the way ... just not me playing it 😉

Thank you @Burns-Bass.

This thread will be carried on on Fretboard forum here Catch you guys around 😁

Do you know I really don't think I'm suited to Basschat - you have convinced me. Shame as folks seemed to be enjoying the bass rebuild thread. Those who want to continue to read about that quest can find it ob Fretboard forum. Take care chaps.

'Low tension strings that twang like washing line' your prejudices are showing old chap 😉

And she's fully stripped! That was a truly epic job - which I don't want to repeat again in a hurry! The heat didn't help in keeping me sweet tempered while the brown gloop came off but I got there - sweaty and triumphant. I picked up a sander from my local B&Q at lunchtime - but the 31+ degrees in the unit's yard made me decide to take the rest of the day off! So next jobs: I made up some hide glue pellets and water - ready to use later in the week - sawdust and hide glue is a brilliant filler that easily takes wood dye ... so the odd bit of damage etc will get plugged. The whole bass will get a sanding - Then the dye can be applied ... my favorite bit.