Stub Mandrel

Wearing a PC&TBS tour shirt right now 🙂 Dest advice is choose a band name like Yes or Genesis, that way you are guaranteed loads of google hits...

Truss rod next...

There's a Rory Gallagher tribute called Brute Force and Ignorance, but they are in France...

Somewhat ironic given how the WWF pandas beat the crap out of them in the 90s 🙂

What is it about Europe and tiles!

I was in a band named after a seedy movie no-one has ever seen... although Wikipedia reckons it won a Razzie.

Possible logo...

So... I must admit I'm weighing up Candy Apple Red versus getting some dark blue transparent lacquer... but meanwhile: The fretsawing was hard work, the rasping nerve-wracking and the sanding had sweat literally dripping of my nose. Not sure whether to knock the bit on the tuner side off as well?

Inspired by @Teebs buld of a Harley Benton P-bass after much agonising I invested a huge £77 in one. After restocking delays, it eventially arrived from Thomann yesterday. Everything quadruple packed - bubble wrap, boxes for neck, body and accessories (even a cheesy lead!), outer box and a completely unnecessary huge outer box to make it look like I'd ordered a triple neck quitar... Teebs thought his was a 'pea-bass and painted it the colour of mushy peas. I was thinking if a '51 headstock would look OK, when @wateroftyne posted this pic of Billy Talbot:

I heard him play a couple of songs from it on the OGWT anniversary program, and ordered it before he had finished his set, it's awesome.

Practice room Wine cellar Love nest Dungeon...

Oh great @Teebs of Knowledge... My Hardly-Bent-One Teebinator 2000 pea-green-bass kit has arrived. To my untutored eye it looks like the body is already sealed with some sort of laquer, did you have to use sanding sealer?

31 here in my 'office'.

Its arrived toady. I'll start a build thread, but it all looks very nice.

Very nice, but not very punky! I hope you go by numbers not feel 🤣

I think some folks are confounding some principles here. Different frets and neck widths, fingerboard radiuses, string gauges etc. are going to have an effect on 'feel' too. If you get the right set up for one bass, transferring the numbers across to another bass might work for this reason: You wouldn't set the sights on a bow or a rifle the same as on another one and expect them to be spot on.

I've got a Harley Benton P-bass kit arriving soon after a long wait for restocking. £77 plus £8 shipping!

My Jag SS came with rolled fingerboard as new and beautifully finished fret ends (Better than my MIM Fender Jazz), I've always thought that's one reason why it feels like a much more expensive bass.

How very Ibanez 🙂 Still pictures or it don't exist 😉

Hope you get on an even keel soon Stew. BTW, I've got a Harley Benton pea-bass kit coming, I was su8rprised to notice it's got a double acting truss rod.

In the days before covid-19 I had to come up with basslines for several original songs guided largely by being told a 'feel' and having the changes shouted out the first time round as they were bashed out on an acoustic. As the writer was a typical singer/songwriter/busker the more vigorous songs had the embryo of a bassline in them already, especially where he was putting in bass runs to lead between chords. Others had a distinctive rhythm that suggested a riff. For the trickier ones a strategy is to play arpeggios over the chords, and as you get comfortable with the pattern start improvising over the changes and a walking line will emerge. The other thing no-one seems to have mentioned is - is there an existing melody? Does it have sung words? If so, they will define the key better than any amount of theorising!

I have wondered if some people react to nickel strings. Hope I stay lucky, I like the contrast, plus nickel seems to keep its sound longer.

By ear.

Tols are good 🙂 But it's a long slippery slope...