Ander87

We shall blame @Lozz196 for this. defo right on the spot regarding build quality and sound, much prefer this Pro line and super easy carry. both cabs spec’d the same, I think I’ll learn each of those two separately and send the cab sim I prefer on each situation 😊 play time! Ander.

Hm I was thinking the same way, ie. have one of each, send the cab sim I like most to PA and then use on stage whichever I prefer more for oomph and monitoring/requirements depending on stage size etc. They are both 300w/8ohm either way so I was hoping the power distribution would be even...! Thanks for the tip on the Pro Neo range mate, I was convinced the ABM cabs were 25kg and over, but those Pro Neos at 14kg... I may have to do a quick exchange depending! Defo more money but probably longer lasting too as you said... Plus the all black rig with blue cones may just do it 😀 Best, Ander.

Hmmmm I will do some digging in about that indeed!!!

Ah thank you so much! I appreciate it 😊 I am indeed getting the RM500 v3, dispatched soon! I'll be getting the 2x10 RM v3 cab too - I am not sure that they've been changed but for the money and the weight it made sense. The 1x15t v3 cab is out of stock right at the moment via Ashdown, so I'm happy to wait until the next batch if I still want it. The ABM line sure looks more solid but pricier and defo heavier, so I rather travel light. Anything over 25kg has my biceps clamping onto whenever we have some 100m and over from van to venue 😂 Any inclination as to why should I choose 2x of the same cab? Would you/anyone say the 1x15+2x10 isn't a good marriage? Aware of the cab sim limitation to choose either, but I was hoping to have one of each physical cabs to switch it up. ie. I may take a single 1x15 or 2x10 depending what works better for a particular gig or situation, but both in most of them anyway. I am very used to 2x10 cabs so that's one on the way for sure... Will share pictures and details but yeah I'm excited! Best, Ander.

Hey hey hey gang...! As you may/may not know, I've recently been endorsed by Blackstar - they do good and super local to me in Northampton. I may be too snobbish about Blackstar, they're good but feels a bit too general consumer and even if they've been super nice and loaned me stuff, the power amps I used with my ADAM had a horrible shelving noise in the background - not sure if this is loaners fault or quality issues, but maybe rather not commit and find out the worst way... Now, enter a new player...! I've managed to usher and blag an sponsorship offer/artist pricing for Ashdown, and I feel a 'now we're talking' moment. I've had an ABM 600 evo IV in the past and really liked it - god, it was with the Barefaced 610 and that was epic tbh. At 40% discount with a brand I do like I think I will go for it... I was torn between the ABM EVO V 750 and the RM800/500 MKIII. For £800 I could go for the ABM but again, 750w may be overkill, and the lightweight cabs they offer are mostly 300w/8ohm or 600w/4ohm so not enough for the ABM 750 - and I don't want the 30kg+ stuff... Think I'll do the RM500 (same features as the 800w) with either: a) 2x10 + 1x15 - modularity to do each cab at 250w and a mini/reasonable stack (100cmx50cm both cabs together) in case I want to front a little or use the full 500w... 15kg each cab b) kill it in one shot and get the 4ohm 4x10 (21 or 25kg depending on sites) and have 500w on tap always in one cab My questions: a) Assuming the ABM EVO V does not work well with the RM cabs (750w, most RM cabs 300w/8ohm or 600w/4ohm). Any combination that would bring the ABM in the options? b) RM500 with 2x10+1x15 OR 4x10? c) can anyone confirm the 21kg vs 25kg specification from the 4x10? Thanks! Ander

Well! Hot - branding iron lessons have been learnt Of course I tried a bunch of times...> First go not deep enough (that's what she said) Of course now, raising tension since I had to realign it to try again - not aligning nicely would double print it etc etc... But I HAD TO MOST DEFINITELY BLITZ IT on the 2nd go 😢 The trouble is that the neck has a matt finish so it was different woods to try and sort, however I didn't have a sample of it - in hindsight, maybe the neck pocket would've been good but anyway... However, I've learnt that 90% of problems of my life can be fixed with sanding - and even if not perfect, I've managed to salvage it methinks: Project is FINISHED and Quality Control passed:

Three little updates...! a) because the neck is matt finished, the waterslide decal falls out every couple days - I am not gonna refinish/strip the neck etc so I have ordered a hot stamp / branding iron from Etsy for £20 to permanently brand the headstock. I'll update when it's here. b) I chipped the pickguard in 2-3 spots around the screws - maybe a bit too white but those can always age/tint/coffee to yellow up... c) wore down and installed the mandatory pickup cover and thumb rest - the ashtray cover is the only Fender part, much as I've looked for generic options seems only Fender had the right measures at least at the time... Ander.

Oh shoot sorry @Gaucho 5 I was too brief! Yep, 19 for the 4s, 17.5 on the 5ers.

4s are 19mm, both on z3 and z7

CONGRATS, YOU MADE IT! DETAIL AND FINAL PRODUCT REVEAL! This is one of the most accurate pictures in colour and texture I would say: Lovely undercoat reveal, wood exposed darkened with an extra dark grain thanks to the wax... Some more from the back with light against it... All in all, I have to say I am genuinely shocked it came out that nice - I have made tons of mistakes but I've used those blemishes to my advantage to apply wear around them and make them more believable (ie. I dinged the instrument and peeled the paint in a particular spot where I had a heavy run of sherwood green, same as I wore and sanded it near the upper horn to disguise the silvery run I made by accident etc). I am super satisfied on the outcome, the bass sounds and plays like butter, really nice actually! And a very healthy 3.5kg weight indeed. Considering I did this in the windy cold snap of November outside in my garden, I don't think I could've asked for a better result! Another consideration: I tried to crackle the nitro but either my nitro wont crackle, OR it is not fully cured yet - I did the hair dryer + air duster trick and nothing happened... I may try again in some 2 months once it is certainly dried up - we shall see! Ander.

OH! I forgot to mention, I did spray 3-4-5 coats of glossy lacquer, but in all honesty, I felt like it did nothing to it. Possibly, again, weather and inexperience to blame. Also I did NOT wet sand the finish cause again, I was not confident there was a gloss lacquer there to polish/shine up and didn't want to trash the whole progress/finish... I was happy with how it was looking as it was - very similar to Limelights if anyone has had them. Right, first tester of scratching... The next few steps were the most nerve-wracking, constantly double, triple guessing if I was making a mistake and should've left it as mint. A bit of a dig into the E string 'ala Limelights'... particularly happy with this shot: I then proceeded to drag the bass around the driveway, but what worked best was a scalpel to scratch around and lift the finish. I also digged a screwdriver and a jack lead onto different parts of the bass to make it more believable and add different types of damage... This moment nearly made me want to give the whole thing up, pack a suitcase and move to a different country under a false identity: What you see above is the ultra light swamp ash, indeed, alongside some tester in the buckle rash for Montypresso relic wax that I applied back and front I applied it yesterday at 2pm and promised myself I'd leave it for 48hrs til Sunday, but then again, sorry, I'm too impatient. I good the wax down with lots of blue paper roll towells - using a piece of cloth was impossible as one wipe would load up the cloth in it making it unusable (great to spread, useless to remove the wax). So, after 20hr of wax... the results have been amazing, if you ask me: After this picture I worked more on the pickguard as you could see it was uneven, too new on the corners. Let me share the back, too: I want to say it is very believable, and the montypresso leaves a nice smooth feel on fretboard and body.

Right... first assembly: It did need a lot of work on the setup, as expected, and a shim for the neck pocket to balance it out and make it playable... It looked great and started to feal like a real bass. However, it did need lots of detail and the actual relic. One of the most important parts to make it credible, was working on the pickguard - I will share outcome later, but it was glossy as it gets. I sanded it down and scratched it initially in the areas of play... 600-800-1000 grits... However still, the glossy parts were ugly/too new glossy so I ended up doing most of the pickguard. It'd look frosty effect, but I did clean up with some buffing product for bodies from Guitar Nomad and now it looks amazing (will share at the end) I dulled down the metal knobs that didn't want to cooperate in the 'white vinegar with salt' tupperware experiment - happy, these revealed some funky cool coppery edges:

I made my life easy with an EMG Geezer Butler kit since I can't solder (I say, looking at my industrial engineer in electronics degree gathering dust). Great, the neck arrived! the holes for the tuners are 18mm and the tuner 'thingies' (can't recall the name) are 17.5mm... after all that wait, I'm not gonna re-spec the neck, so, super glue and done. Also, the decals came through via Rothko (more on that later) The moment the neck came I felt very encouraged to near-finish the bass... placed the hardware on a tupperware floating inside another tupperware bottom-filled with white vinegar and salt. It worked great on the tuners, not so on all else - the Gotoh 'badass' like bridge was stainless steel and it shows, no tarnish... however tuners...: Very happy with. INTERLUDE: For those asking about the neck... flipping brilliant! £120 for a genuinely roasted neck, with no fret scratching noticeable, good nut slots and lovely finish.... would 10000% recommend. HOWEVER... The neck came tight packed in styrofoam, and my impatience (AGAIN) opening the package with a folding knife meant I STUPIDLY scratched the back of the neck. I nearly lost my mind here, however, having sanded my life away the last few weeks, I used grit 400-600-800 and it worked a treat. I added a tad bit of fretboard oil, and I cannot feel it under my fingers. Plus, I did this on the dusty end, frets 10+... From there... to here:

Now, onto the paint job... Primer application - still the grain was kinda there, but this was the first coat: I built a little booth with a guitar box that worked quite a treat. I warmed the nitro on boiling water for a few minutes... Please bear in mind I spray painted the body in the middle of that November cold snap where temperatures were 0/1C, so, again, I am positive much better work could've been done indoors, or in spring/summer, however I wasn't gonna wait that long for a relic'd home made personal use instrument. In goes sherwood green - Northwest guitars says a can would work for 2-3 guitar bodies depending on application skills... I used the whole can. This was slightly frustrating as I could feel that sometimes a variance in the distance whilst spraying would make 'runs' of more silver than green for example. Also, the paint was more turquoise than I wanted - I wanted that 'almost racing green' look but again.... with the project fully finished, it all makes sense and I am happy with the result. I do have to say, again, that the awful cold and spraying outdoors in my garden did really make me feel like half the paint was up in the air rather than resting on the body - that and inexperience probably explains the whole can I used This was at about 2 coats: Final coat with the aforementioned 'slight silvery runs' No orange peel however the grain did remain, even if I bathed the body in grain filler earlier... Again, happy as it was a relic job.

Ah @JPJ thank you so so so much for the detail here, that should be useful for future projects...! Being the impatient soul I am, by the time your post landed I had finished all painting... So, apologies for not keeping this up to date, but a massive bunch of progress... (it's finished now I'd say)... SPOILER ALERT: I've made a good deal of errors and mistakes, scratches and whatever - the end result was super satisfactory, however I am lucky I like/wanted a relic job. The steps and tips that follow do not help if you want a pristine 'as new, glossy' look. NOT. AT. ALL. Built the spray jig - quite a good solution for some £40ish to let the body dry - I know folk would say 'use a hanger' but then again i wouldn't have where to free hang it without touching anything at all, so that would've meant buying some rope to hang it between two points or something and I couldn't be asked. This did a great job: Next was grain filler.... I started stupidly applying it bare, until I realised that mud-like consistency needed white spirit as a thinner to apply. I did apply a good couple layers that were THICK as it gets...: Sanding it was an absolute nightmare - started sanding with 400grit as Lonestar guitars advised in their youtube video, but it wouldn't take - this meant I ended up going down to 80 grit, working my way up... 4 sheets of each grit: 80/12/180/24/400/600... Insane. I am dead positive that there were much better ways of doing this and a smarter way of working, but again, impatience and inexperience... A billion sanding sheets later... wood is out again: Good wash up with white spirit, and ready for paint. PS: the heavy sanding I had to do to remove the awful thick layers of grain filler meant lots of scratches in the body, but again, read the 'spoiler alert' up above... 😀