Stub Mandrel

My first electric guitar was this KT-2 bought second hand in 1980 (about the time Running Free came out...) It has the same PUPS and I can confirm that they are microphonic (well they would be, the coils just lie loose in the pickup body). It actually sounds pretty 'vintage' and feeds back like a monster... (I fitted the tailpiece and tune-a-matic to replace the plain bar bridge and sub-sub-bigsby trem. And knobs and switches)

? Surely the original thread is a valuable documenting of the build? (BTW you could have changed the original title by editing your first post in the thread).

Still they appear to've lost the other basses and >gasp< the gorgeous Masterbilt guitars 😥

The obvious route is to temporarily plug the holes in the bridge pieces before ageing them, then fit un-corroded grub screws. This appears to be how Fender did it on my relic bass.

Not according to some sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029258/ The “Spanish” Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919 In early March of 1918, several severe cases of influenza were reported in the United States. This would mark the beginning of the first wave of the “Spanish” influenza pandemic (reviewed in [1]). As massive numbers of US military troops were deployed in Europe, the virus spread too, leading to outbreaks throughout the United States, Europe, and possibly Asia. Spain was neutral during the war and its press was therefore uncensored. Accordingly, the Spanish newspapers were filled with reports of the disease, especially when the king became ill. It is believed that these published accounts of the spread of the disease explain why the virus became known as the “Spanish” influenza. During the first wave of this, like other, pandemics, mortality rates were in the normal range, though morbidity rates were high. However, while the first wave killed relatively few, by the time the next wave came, in the fall of 1918, the virus had undergone numerous passages through humans, had changed dramatically, and was now lethal. Together with a third wave, which occurred in the winter of 1918–1919, approximately 30% of the world's population (500 million people) is thought to have been clinically affected by the 1918 pandemic [1]. Unexpectedly, the 1918 pandemic attacked particularly young adults, who usually have a low death rate during influenza epidemics. As a result, influenza and pneumonia death rates for 15- to 34-year-olds were more than 20 times higher in 1918 than in the previous year (the mortality rate associated with the 1918 virus was more than 2.5% among infected persons compared with less than 0.1% in other influenza epidemics; [1]). Most deaths were caused from secondary bacterial pneumonia due to a lack of antibiotics [1]. The 1918 pandemic virus, however, also killed quickly and directly with a violent viral pneumonia, often with either massive acute pulmonary hemorrhage or pulmonary edema. The disease course was frequently less than 5 days [1]. ::: Although the complete sequences of the viral RNAs of the 1918 pandemic virus have been determined, the viral genome does not contain any motifs known to be associated with high virulence [5]. Therefore, to understand the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 pandemic virus, it was important to re-create the virus and examine its pathogenicity in animals. The recent technological advancement of reverse genetics, which allows the generation of infectious influenza viruses entirely from cDNAs [11], made possible the re-creation of the 1918 pandemic virus. Tumpery's group at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [12] and we [13] succeeded in rescuing viruses bearing all eight RNA segments of the 1918 virus by using reverse genetics. Now that we had all of the materials required, we could study the molecular properties associated with the unusual virulence of the 1918 pandemic virus. ::: Which viral factor(s) contribute to the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus? One of the key players is hemagglutinin (HA), which is the viral surface glycoprotein that has two functions in the early stage of virus replication: receptor binding and membrane fusion. The interesting thing being that, unusually for flu, it killed through viral pneumonia, the same way as Covid-19.

Than normal flu. The 1918 strain was far more lethal than ordinary flu.

The 2018 flu pandemic killed a quarter of a million people in the UK. It's calculated that 50% of the population was infected. The death rate was probably around 2-3%. A the time one could equally have said: " The first thing to note is that the vast majority of influenza cases produce symptoms similar to a cold. Of those that are more serious than a cold, the vast majority produce symptoms similar to flu. Of those that are more serious than flu, most sufferers develop very nasty symptoms that can be life-threatening to a minority of the population. And finally you reach the cases that the media are drooling over ... people dying. " The main difference is that it appeared to have an additional peak in mortality for 30-year olds: Coronavirus seems to be just as infectious, but may have a lower death rate - we really don't know as there simply aren't reliable figures on how many people are infected without symptoms (or who hide them). The things that are certain are that we still have too little data to really understand how the outbreak will progress; it could be a year or more before we have a vaccine to enable us to do more than we could have done for historic pandemics; and if this one does fizzle out, there will eventually be one that doesn't.

Crikey Ped, when did you last change those strings? Hourglass wear at the 20h fret?!

Mysteries of the universe... eBay (and the wider shopping world) is awash with cheap Jazz bass pickup covers, J-bridge covers and P-bridge covers. But you can only get P-bass pickup covers sourced from Fender. Does anyone know why?

Past a certain age, nothing is better than a clean loo!

I line my control routing with lead sheet and use depleted uranium pole picks on my pickups. I never get neck dive and get great sustain 🙂

The corona virus has been contained more effectively than flu, but possibly spreads more easily. The 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic is possibly directly comparable. So it ain't going to wipe out civilisation, but it could have a profound impact on us all, as even 1% of the current population is about 70 million people.

A few of weeks ago we got free beers before the set, and after. The landlord was most upset I only wanted a half afterwards (driving) "The Worthington's virtually alcohol free anyway!" In the 'green room' for a 5-band gig my brother's band were playing at a month ago there were two huge trays of sarnies and free cans of beer and cider (but the bands were playing for nowt as it was a fund-raiser for a free festival). 🙂

The attention to detail - it's a 5-string bridge 🙂 But refreshingly honest " This is probably the Worlds Ugliest BASS Guitar on earth if You can call it that. Fretless 2x4 Primative UGLY 1 OF 1- 3 Strings. Sounds worse than it looks almost unplayable. High action. Condition is Used. "

You'd better take a lie down, having such a good idea can be dangerous for those of a delicate constitution.

There's no universal 'right' for a setup, it's mostly dependant on an individual's playing style and choice of strings, but with some variation according to other factors - for example if you fret hard (especially with 'jumbo frets') you will tend to lift the strings a little just past the fret reducing buzz at low actions (try it!)

I'm trying to blag us a spot at a festival where dear Cheesney is a headliner...

You might not find that getting the right angle and position of the bridge with the default saddle arrangement gives you the best compromise (all strings within a few cents of spot on). Adjust it to get the best possible result, and if one or two strings are still significantly out, consider changing the slot their saddles are in. You MIGHT find that (depending on the strings you use) the best setup is with the E saddle in slot 3, A and D string saddles in the slot 2 and the G string in slot 1. You may even find another arrangement works best like this one: Personally I would angle the bridge to get the best

Then fit the castors on the side! Those Mesa castors look like bog standard off the shelf items to me, why not buy some ordinary locking castors with the same size plate (you should be able to get better quality with proper tyres and even a ball bearing hub for less than the cost of those ones!)

I would rout a groove into the back, to about 2" in from the edge then fit a cylinder jack - this would remove the risk of a protruding jack catching and splitting the body.

But excellent for smiting down ravening hordes of goblins...

Aptly named...?

R's (Try saying it...)

1/4" originally...!