henry norton

I would try filling the slots and lightly rubbing down first. Play it for a while and see if you like it as it is. Bare wood and epoxied boards are different in both sound and feel, not forgetting the amount of work it takes to apply an even, flat, bubble and witness-line free epoxy coat a curved fingerboard. Tens of thousands of fretless basses have been made with just bare rosewood boards and have lasted for years (even with stainless rounds). I wouldn't worry too much about oil for the moment as if you decide to go the epoxy route oil will only hinder the coating process. It'll be perfectly playable without lemon(snake) oil.

Would you consider selling your Mk1 and ordering a new fretless using the profits plus your £1500? I would buy a new Wal if I had the cash. From what I've seen buying a new Wal is a unique experience.

The main thing is to clamp the neck into the pocket in exactly the place you want it. Once you've done this the neck plate screws are pretty much self tapping and can be screwed straight into the neck through the existing body holes. A bit of candle wax on the tips of the screws helps allot with screwing them in. Pilot holes can help but aren't essential and just add another process that can go wrong. Anyway, what about a recipe for this lemon drizzle cake????

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1324233347' post='1472139'] With a little luck I'll have some updated pics to post in the not too distant future. R. [/quote] Indeed. More pictures on the way this week. Some workspace issues have held this build back a fair bit this Autumn but it's progressing steadily. A fretless plain maple Jazz - I'm really looking forward to seeing this all together. In fact, I like the idea so much I'm going to build myself one when Dave's is all finished

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1324214256' post='1471821'] A simple question that I am sure has many answers/reasons, but if you had to put it into one sentence, what makes it the king of the basses for you? I am sure that this has been asked (tried a search) but.......Squire Versus Fender....[i]that[/i] much difference? I have never owned or even tried one (except in a shop playing a R/H upside down) so I want to know how I might be missing out! [/quote] +1 on all the above but for me, I bought my Precision in the late eighties when there seemed to be the beginnings of a backlash against all singing, all dancing, multi pickup, multi laminates and multi active tone controls. The limitations of one pickup, one volume and one tone make the player work a bit harder to achieve the sound they want using their choice of strings and (most importantly), their technique. They're not a one trick pony - they've got as many tricks as the player has. Having a Precision has improved my playing although I must admit I ended up adding a Jazz pickup at the bridge when I was really into Jaco harmonics, but I use the P pickup alone 90% of the time.

Sounds very nice indeed. Now I really want some.......

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1324129809' post='1471112'] The Dark Star sound is not that far off the Bisonics and I'd say it was the sound that mattered most, not the looks. [/quote] I s'pose it's down to the listener (I can't tell much difference). I like the sound too but I like the fact that they're not soapbar, P, J or MM shaped more... I like mudbuckers, wide-range Fenders and chrome T.Birds too so I'm kind of prejudiced.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1324120686' post='1470962'] See the looks are the one thing I'm not keen on- I don't know why it has to be so big. Like if the steel pole pieces were threaded and so was... I guess one of the laminations so it was adjustable that way. [/quote] Yeah, that could work. The adjustable poles are pretty similar to the old DeArmond single coils fitted to Gretsch guitars in the fifties, which were needed because the DeArmond's poles were actual magnets, which can't be threaded. Maybe the DarkStar poles were adjusted this way because they were in some kind of iron that's difficult to thread - if they were just bog standard steel they could be threaded easily like you suggest which would probably halve the cost of the pickup. Pole adjusters asides, the DarkStar isn't that dissimilar to a P90 - easy!

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1324056814' post='1470451'] Again I wonder how hard they would be to make? ..... [/quote] Yeah I took some measurements and notes a while back with just that in mind. All in I can't see anything particularly tricky other than just getting all the bits together to get it done. If you had the facilities like a lathe, a press and a pillar drill you could probably make it totally from scratch but it would take an age to do just one. I'm assuming Fred had his steel laminations punched out and his pole pieces machined up for him, leaving him free to concentrate on assembly. That means needing some spare cash to invest in having parts made in some numbers, so you'd need to be sure it was right and would work beforehand. That said, I've heard the Dark Stars sound is quite a way off the original Bi-Sonic sound, so maybe Fred just did it the way he thought was best rather than slavishly copying every detail. Let's face it, with Dark Stars it's as much about the looks as it is about the sound

Looks like Dark Stars are approaching 'Wal' status - at least Wal before they started making them again! [url="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dark-Star-Pickups-Legendary-Bi-Sonic-Replicias-/220913079137?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item336f721361#ht_744wt_1270"]http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dark-Star-Pickups-Legendary-Bi-Sonic-Replicias-/220913079137?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item336f721361#ht_744wt_1270[/url] Dammit, why didn't I buy a few sets when Fred was still trading - I could have covered all my Xmas bills with the profits

[quote name='Nostromo' timestamp='1323892451' post='1468498'] Yea . . . . . guess what . . . . its a Maple fretboard on this one. I really fance the idea of option C) ie, fitting a replacement fretless neck . . . . but I know finding a worthy one is going to be a very very difficult task ? ? ? [/quote] Well, what would you consider 'worthy'? Does it have to have a Fender decal? If you want a lined rosewood board you might get lucky but if you want plain rosewood, ebony or maple (my own fretless favourite ), you'll have to look at some aftermarket necks. It's a tricky one because you don't want to devalue your bass by modding the neck but if you sell the neck to fund a new fretless neck you'll devalue the bass just as much, if not more as it'll no longer be original. If you love the bass and plan to keep it I'd go the modding route (you can still mod a maple fretted into a rosewood, ebony or even plain maple fretless), otherwise you're probably better off selling.

Welcome to the forum aacred. You'll find a fair few South Londoners on here and a fair few more ex South Londoners. I had my bike stolen from my workshop down Coldharbour Lane - I hadn't left it outside either, the thieves smashed their way in through the roof, so I can imagine seeing a nice looking instrument left in a doorway would be far too tempting for most thieves! The thing is, I thought Brixton turned all nice, safe and middle class after I left

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1323457204' post='1463683'] I bought a 33" Shuker 5 string last year. It was exceptionally nice and the scale did not affect the B in a bad way. [/quote] Yeah I think quality of construction, hardware and electrics have a more profound effect than scale length does. Most people who don't like shorter scales have only played mega-cheap budget instruments or Gibson Mudbuckers (an acquired taste if nothing else). Birdsong do a 31" 5 string and it sounds pretty damned good.

looking forward to seeing this come together. I think we'll be seeing allot more basses with something other than a 34" scale. Did you make your own pickups for the last one?

I've just had a look at the Status Vintage range - looks really nice. Interestingly they mention the J pickup as being a Status but don't mention who made the mudbucker so, given the single row of polepieces you can probably assume it's a fairly standard after market mudbucker copy. You should be able to raise or lower the pole pieces a fair way - if they're there, they are there to be used. Don't worry too much about screwing them down too far as it's pretty easy to tell when they've gone as far as they can go. The DiMarzio Model 1 Mr Foxen mentioned is a very different pickup to a normal mudbucker so you shouldn't have any problems with cracked resin.

You can't argue with 99 notes, is it new or used???

YOU PATRONISING **#@@@%%%##!!!!!!! Actually thanks for the explanation and the other link. Yes I'm getting there with it now, although I'm not sure I'll ever have any kind of 'deep' understanding of it. I've tried the equal temperament formula and found it worked well (so long as I used my scientific calculator), and maybe one day I'll build a bass with a 19 or maybe even 31 tone equal temperament - it'll be a talking point if nothing else although like you said earlier, if you're playing with anyone else it's unlikely they'll be using anything other than Western style 12 chromatic notes. As for just intonation, I'll probably wait 'til I come across a Warwick JI, or Hansford Rowe, whatever happens first

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1322851090' post='1456737'] True Temperament: Interesting idea, but it's still using Equal Temperament. This technology is being used to compensate for the inherent tuning issues that all guitarists have as they move up the fretboard. Bottom line - it's a trade name and a specific alignment technology for use on fretted instruments, whereas Equal Temperament and Just Intonation are ways of tuning an instrument (any instrument). Quarter Tone bass. Again, an interesting idea (although I'm not sure how you'd use the extra notes it provides to play anything that would fit a western chromatic tuning system - I mean you could no doubt contrive something, or even write your own music around the instrument - but then who else would be able to play it?). If you plan to use it to play in a band, what's the point of all the extra frets? Come to think of it, you can achieve the same if not more with a perfectly standard fretless bass. [/quote] To my relatively untrained brain the 'True Temperament' necks don't look like 'equal temperament' but do look to be 12 tone, so presumably play an approximation of the bog standard Western scale, but more 'in tune'? But like I say, my brain is relatively untrained.... The quarter tone bass looks to have 24 intervals equal temperament so would presumably play everything a normal fretted bass would play but with a sharp/flat note in between each 'normal' position, maybe players would use a bit of a fretless, melodic approach to it. The real 'just intonation' basses look like something else entirely, with different positions for each string. Yeah I'd love a go on one, it's got to be worth it just for the experience. Here's a Youtube short of a bloke who made his own [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekjzKg3B30"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekjzKg3B30[/url] Thanks for the link by the way and all the other replies

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1322812475' post='1456054'] Without wishing to seem immodest, I've done a series of articles on the 'Theory and Technique' forum that cover Just Intonation (amongst other things) from a theoretical viewpoint, in case anybody needs a bit of background. Articles 2, 4 and the appendix to 4 are the ones than cover Just Intonation. [/quote] I took a look at your Greek article. It's quite allot to take in but I'm kind of getting the gist. I've been trying to get my head around alternative equal temperament scales (& the equations needed to calculate the intervals) yet this 'just intonation' is a whole new level of terrifying theory to learn. Can you give me some links to your other articles?

I've just been reading about alternatives to the Western 12 note scale and found this; [url="http://www.hansfordrowe.com/just.html"]http://www.hansfordrowe.com/just.html[/url] I haven't found anything online with him playing this weird bass but there are a few you tube shorts covering the same kind of thing. Has anyone on here had a go on something like this???

You need to tell us more about this mod you're thinking of doing. ET's suggestion of a capo is a pretty good one as it goes and I would definitely do that before you get the saw out. Other than that, I'd go for it

+1 on that. PJ pickups with an ebony board is the classic combination for a fretless Precision.

Probably the easiest way to go would be to get yourself an unlined fretless then stick some transfers/Tippex/white pencil crayon/stickers where the lines would otherwise be. There are allot more plain fretless' for sale than semi lined and you can always take the markers off if you feel more confident in the future.

Your main problem will be finding chrome soapbar shaped humbuckers on a budget. There are a couple of people making T.Bird replica pickups (Mike Lull and Thunderbuckers), but they're both up in the boutique price range. There was a thread a while back that mentioned a Far Eastern company that made T.Bird replicas with authentic looking chrome pickups. I can't remember their name but apparently they were happy to supply the pickups without the rest of the bass. Maybe a trawl around the forum will dredge up some information.

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1321700595' post='1442071'] The parts have been shipped off to Lawrence and the final design signed off, I have ordered the headstock decal which will be similar to my 5 string one but contain the initials of my Great Uncle in the model name, there is only the matter of choosing what shade of teal I'd like before everything is in place... I think. [/quote] I've ordered some new, spirit based wood stains that can be mixed and matched so post allowing, you should get some samples in the post very soon. I can't wait to try them out