henry norton

I would go for one of those cylindrical connector thangs - the main thing is to get a decent one (not a cheapo one that'll disconnect the hot if it's not perfectly in line with the plugs), then I'd connect your extension lead and tape it all up so there's no way it could be accidentally pulled out. Alternatively, you could make an extension lead that consists of a normal plug and an in line socket. You should be able to get all the bits from Maplins or maybe even Richer Sounds. My wife needs lengthening, she's only 5'1"

If you take your time and find a decent used one you won't lose money so if you find you hate it you can sell it on and go for the next on the list... I personally think all bass players should own at least one Stingray in their lives; pre EB, 2 band, 3 band doesn't really matter. It's kind of a right of passage that changes a players outlook. Oh just get yourself a Stingray for crying out loud!!!!

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='663780' date='Nov 24 2009, 03:26 PM']Plug the holes with 15mm dowel. Sand it flush. Re-drill. S.P.[/quote] +1 on that - it's the safest way unless you have a milling machine. I would also clamp it down to a block of scrap wood so when the drill passes through the back of the headstock it won't push out and splinter.

[quote name='Metalmoore' post='663146' date='Nov 23 2009, 09:36 PM']Just wondering if anyone knows anyone who can make me a custom nut or know a place where i can get one from. I need a 5 string nut for a 4 string P neck, it would have to be 1 5/8" and the usual fender size. If it helps its a Mighty mite 4 string P neck i am using, i know it can be done as Ric5 from TB has done it but he says he makes them himself from blanks. I you need more details on the neck drop me a PM. Cheers[/quote] You can buy nut material from most shops that do setups but I'm assuming you're looking for someone to actually do it for you. To do it properly it really needs to be rough cut then finished on the bass itself to take into account string gauge, fret height, nut slot depth and the neck/board profile. Otherwise, [url="http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/"]Try Here[/url] if you want to get one mail order...

Changing the strings should be the very first thing a player tries if they're looking for a new sound from their bass. It's where 'the sound' emanates from and the medium that interprets the entire physical construction of the guitar. Lucky you by the way. Interesting experiment but have you strung the three basses with identical sets of strings and played them back to back through a flat EQ so you can see the difference each neck/body combination, magnet age, finish option makes on the tone of what are otherwise supposed to be identical instruments?

[quote name='Faithless' post='662645' date='Nov 23 2009, 02:39 PM']That's also an option There's a variant, to buy fretless Harley Benton, buuut, it's drawback (for me) is that it is not lined. here it is: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/prod_bdb_AR_163614.html?image=1"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/prod_bdb_AR_163614.html?image=1[/url] So, [b]big question[/b] here, guys - is it possible/hard to make it [i]lined[/i]? Faithless[/quote] It is easier to defret a bass and fill the slots with light wood than it is to line and dot a neck that's already fretless. You could just get it marked along the edge (if it isn't already), which just involves drilling a few tiny holes whereas lining a board means accurately measuring, marking and cutting fret slots, then filling them with slivers of wood as you'd do with a defretted bass. Isn't there a fretless variant of your Ibanez? Maybe a fretless owner would want to swap...

The question that's always burned on my mind is 'will a piece of alder or maple machined in Indonesia or China sound any different to a piece machined in the Good Ol' U S of A?' If you have a decent pickup and get it set up properly it should sound fine. Having said that, I wouldn't buy a whole bass guitar ("made from the finest materials...", for that price it might well be the 'finest plywood'). If you want to hack it around, rip the frets out, re-carve the body and re-wind the pickup then go for it but if you're only keeping the body then just buy a second hand body.

If you've already got dots on the board I'd go for maple - dots on their own might look a bit weird. If there are no dots then I would fill the lines with rosewood, ebony , walnut, or any wood that's dark enough to not show from a distance but will still give you lines up close. Edit: There's not much point arseing around with colouring and applying epoxy if you only want to fill the fret slots, wood's quicker, easier to finish and will have the same wear characteristics as the fingerboard. Even if you wanted an epoxied board, I'd still fill the slots with wood.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='661725' date='Nov 22 2009, 01:52 PM']the single humbucker stingrays are very very versatile, it's all most people need really, though i like to have two. I've also never found it to be a problem when slapping... Though as mm20 says, the option only became available in 2005.[/quote] +1 on that, you just have to do a bit more work with your technique to get the sounds you want. The 3 band does have series/parallel/single switching to give you a bit more control over the sound although I found my old pre EB two band was plenty versatile by itself. It's easy to forget MusicMan came out with the 2 pickup Sabre more or less the same time as the Stingray, but it was nothing like as popular.

Respect due to BH2 but I wouldn't have the frets stoned down - it's probably not much slower in actual working hours to whip them out and fill the slots - this way you won't get uneven wear, sharp ends sticking out the sides and empty slots when they (inevitably) fall out! That is unless you want the whole lot encased in 3mm of epoxy....

Yeah you kind of got the answer there yourself Kongo. Barts aren't known for being particularly hot or especially aggressive so it's not surprising you're not getting a loud, aggressive sound. The wood adds allot to the sound but if the pickups aren't picking it all up you won't hear it through the amp. Presumably the money went on the woodwork rather than the fittings so it sounds like a perfect bass to hot rod. Have a trawl on the net for pickups, most alternatives will be louder and more aggressive than the Barts.

There are often one or two bare bodies(!) floating around on fleabay for not much cash. So long as it's solid wood you won't go far wrong with any.

[quote name='clauster' post='661074' date='Nov 21 2009, 04:09 PM']The UV lit Trace stuff has always done it for me on, with the Ampeg fliptop a close second.[/quote] +1 on the Trace UV heads. I used one on top of EV cabs. Looked fantastic but I can't believe I used to drag all that gear around. Sorry, no photo Just remembered, I used to have a Peterson combo that was just beautiful mahogany - like a piece of furniture. Sounded good too but was always scared to use it live 'cos it was just too nice and too nickable.

[quote name='Kongo' post='660700' date='Nov 21 2009, 01:27 AM']I'm looking to mod some of them but, if the wood will always affect the sound...is there any point? Can any preamp and pickup combination overcome this?[/quote] There's always a point, the number of threads regarding electronics and pickups on this forum alone will tell you that. Some pieces of wood just seem to work better as a bass body/neck than others - that's why you can pick up two otherwise identical Fenders and one sounds lively and resonant and the other sounds dull and lifeless. The type of wood will have some effect on the timbre (the frequencies that make up the sound), but even the most seasoned electric guitar luthiers are at the mercy of the wood to some degree or another. An archtop guitar luthier will carve, scrape and generally work a top & back until they get the desired resonance, something you can't really do with a two inch slab of hardwood. If the bass sounds good to begin with, fitting better pickups will make a huge difference, as will a good pre. Whether you'll like that difference is another matter

I've seen this question before. Why don't you email Hipshot - they're very helpful and friendly. Their website's pretty informative too.

Is the screw protruding out the other side at all? Alternatively, if it's only gone into the neck by a few millimetres you could remove the other screws, force the the neck off and screw it back through with a pair of pliers. Even if it's stuck, if it's as soft as you say it shouldn't be too big a deal to drill it out.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='660333' date='Nov 20 2009, 06:00 PM']Not really because a 55-01 is not a Ferrari in quality terms..more of an Audi?? im really liking the thought of tricking up a Yamaha 1005 maybe[/quote] Yeah, fair point - the Yam could make a good mods project, a good quality base to start from, like a Swindon built Honda You may have to do some woodwork to get the pickups of your choice to fit...

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='660203' date='Nov 20 2009, 03:57 PM']That's really very nice. The nut's a bit ... erm ... quirky.[/quote] Don't know whether they still do it but Warwick used to use a similar (somewhat neater) adjustable nut on their basses. Cool idea I thought. Nice bass too - I remember Jackson used to do a thru neck Precision shaped bass with their signature pointy headstock and some rather lurid colour schemes. Not as nice as this though (unless you're into big hair and spandex...)

Isn't buying a Lakland then swapping out the pickups & pre a bit like buying a Ferrari then putting an Aston Martin engine in it? What about a 5 string Standard Jazz? You could put an ACG filter pre and have a massive range of hot pickups that would drop right in, no mods needed.

[quote name='Faithless' post='659997' date='Nov 20 2009, 12:34 PM']So, I've got a 'spare' [i]fretted [/i]5string Ibanez GSR, and I'm thinking of giving it to luthier to make it [i]lined [/i]fretless. It looks so..: Thing is, I know almost nothing about the finer points of stuff like that. My Ibby has rosewood fingerboard - I've heard that it's not the best wood for fretless in terms of sustain and such.. (should be Ebony??) What else should be done in that conversion process, not to mention ripping out frets? Making fingerboard [i]lined[/i]? And... What could I expect (worst/best) after conversion (bad sustain/playability, such?)? P.S. there's other story, but.. My bass was strung B to G, and, I'm thinking of stringing it E to C. Any problems here? All comments are welcome Faith[/quote] Defretting your bass shouldn't cause any problems if it's done properly. You will have to decide what colour of wood you'd like in the fret slots; most people will go for something like maple which will look rather like the frets that have been removed, or you could go for a darker wood like walnut which will still give you a line but it'll be much harder to spot from a distance. Then you need to decide if you want it coated with epoxy or polyester lacquer or left plain. Plain fretless boards in rosewood work absolutely fine and will only suffer wear and tear after relatively long use with round wound strings. A coating will give it a brighter sound (more Jaco jazz and less double bass growl), and looks pretty cool too, but it works either way. Of course ripping the frets out will affect the sound - it'll sound like a fretless! 'Sustain' is a much misused, much misunderstood term. If your bass sounds OK now it should sound fine defretted, so long as it's been done properly. Ebony is a good fretless wood as it's a bit harder than rosewood it sounds a bit brighter and won't wear so fast. It has a nice silky feel when it's unfinished but it'll probably cost you more than the bass did to have an ebony board grafted on, especially galling if you decide you don't like fretless after all. One thing you need to think about is how much money you want to throw at your bass - if you chuck a hundred quid at it for a defret it won't be worth a hundred quid more.... Good luck and let us know how you get on. HN Oh, a conversion to high C will cost you a new nut, a bridge adjustment (height & intonation) and possibly a truss rod tweak.

I don't know what a 'duck tail' is in relation to guitars but I did have a problem with the neck slot in a mid eighties Jap Jazz, wherein the slot was angled forward rather than flat as a Fender should be, or angled back, in order to give it an angled neck for lower action, higher bridges etc. This meant I had to shim the neck in order to get it sitting flat in the slot. As you'd expect, everything else about the bass was immaculate so it was probably a machine setup or jig issue at the factory, but I was very surprised it got past quality control.

Yes it shouldn't be a problem spraying over the existing finish - it's better if you haven't broken through to the wood, otherwise you'll need to seal it and maybe fill it if it's rough, but as long as you've given it a good key (240 grit was always my favourite), you can go ahead and spray white primer. Grey's OK but use white if you can get it. If you're using an off white top coat you'll be able to tell easily what's been painted and what's still primer.

Yes, prime it unless you want a patchy, uneven top coat. 2 or 3 thin coats of white primer will ensure you've got a good base for your off white. The difference is an hour or so of work and another can of paint but the results will be worth it.

[quote name='redstriper' post='657345' date='Nov 17 2009, 07:52 PM']I have a 1963 Fender jazz bass that I'm now finding too heavy for long gigs. It had a home made maple precision body fitted in 1978 which is what makes it so heavy. It also had a new maple fingerboard at the same time, the neck is original, but the headstock has been cut in the musicman style. The electrics and hardware are all original. These are the options, I've considered - 1: Get a lightweight bass for gigs and keep the old jazz for recording. 2: Sit down at gigs. 3: (This is my latest plan) Have a lightweight jazz shaped body made and maybe also a new neck or fingerboard. It's been my main bass for 30 years and I love the sound, So what should I do ? Any suggestions ?[/quote] I'm not surprised it's so heavy, especially as in the 70's allot of players and luthiers seemed to think the heavier the instrument, the better the sound (the old sustain thing). What does surprise me is you find it good for dub sounds with two skinny single coils and about the brightest body wood you could use. I'd still go the new or used Jazz body route, the majority of the bass will still be there and you might even prefer the sound with an alder or basswood body.

History's one thing but if I had your bass I'd have a look on fleabay and find a used alder Jazz body. Something like this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jazz-Bass-Body-BLACK-COMPLETE_W0QQitemZ150388363359QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2303d8505f#ht_500wt_1182"]jazz body[/url]. You can even get new, unpainted ones for just under a ton, posted. (That's money, not weight!). This way you'll have a nice looking , relatively light Jazz bass with fantastic vintage electronics and hardware for rather less than a cheapo, chinese beginners instrument. The majority of the sound will still be there and you'll still have your maple body if you ever wanted to swap them back for that slipped disc effect....