Big J

Wedding ring never bothered me, although I should note that I play a lot more, and a lot nicer, bass since I stopped wearing it. I suspect that’s due to the divorce and not strictly down to wearing a ring or not.

I’m slightly more surprised that it actually plays better than in did since I’ve put it back together 😂

Arrived today, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Looks amazing, detail is spot on, sounds great… a nice alternative to my P and J and the 5 strings (my first) are pretty easy to adapt to… bonus. i think I’ll need to work on my muting a bit, and the string spacing is obviously closer, but that’s no biggie. ill have to work out what all the knobs do mind 😂

I like it. It’s got a nice used vibe to it, I wouldn’t do it personally, but it wouldn’t stop me buying it. each to their own.

You can’t beat some of the offers in this thread, restores your faith somewhat. if you get stuck let me know, I’ve been down on my luck a few times and made it back up in time. Happy to help with a loaner or contribution. jason

Sounds like I’m not a freak then…. Unless I’m on a forum full of freaks😳

Tried for 35 years… so far failed 😂

Paid £650 I think, maybe a a little less.

Probably the latter…

Yeah I cut them, but ones right to the skin or it catches

Same. I play both pick and fingers and I think the only reason I play pick so much is that bloody finger nail

Odd question, but I’ve never found another bass player (in person) with the same thing. my middle finger on my plucking hand catches the strings. I have to keep it cut to the skin to avoid a clank noise on the string? do you guys get that?

This. it allows me to plug in and play in 10 seconds without any faff. Bluetooth to my phone do Spotify lets me jam along badly to anything I select.

Came out ok. prep could have been better, paint sank a bit …. But what do you expect painting 24 hours later in 10degrees C. I wouldn’t do that on a car 😂 I might relic it and do the acid on the hardware too, we will see. I’ve got a new bass coming tomorrow so I suspect it will be on the back burner whilst I play my new toy. cost £100 to do, that includes a used drop D tuner… so can’t complain.

Hopefully I get on with 5 strings, sure I will, I switch from guitar to bass without thinking so I’m sure a few weeks practice will be fine.

@BillyBassBeen here for years, but lost my login details so I joined again a while back. It’s a good group with some good info on it if you ignore the occasional strop 😂

First fit, neck needs the shim with a ramp. action is high with the old wedge that was in there so I’ll make a smaller one. Christmas tree adds extra mojo.

Born in 71. Loved rock music, wanted to be a drummer, had no where to put drums, bass seemed the closest thing, and a few mates played guitar so I didn’t want to follow the crowd. got a used Kay bass at 16 or 17 with a fret buzz like a chainsaw, I learned basic fretboard from listening to records or watching VHS. Got an Ibanez budget bass at 19, played it for 10 years. Drifted into guitars, bought too many of them considering how diabolical I am on one. Started to drift back to bass in 2010. Bought too many basses (but not as many as I had guitars) and didn’t focus upon skill. Dad died 2017 and I bought a nice jazz with some cash he had left. Got into playing more and more. I never had the time, inclination, or patience to joint and stay in a band. Bass is something I do that’s a bit like chilling out, or even meditating. I just feel better during and after it. Some areas of my playing have improved over the years, some have got lost. But I guess I’ll play bass all my life.

so, after searching the internet for inspiration and missing out on a couple of choices for something different to stretch me a bit from my usual Fender J/P 4 string choices I was about to buy a Gibson Thunderbird, I like to look of them, I play like Nikki Sixx, and my back is fragile… so it all made perfect sense to me. Then I spotted the obvious… long scale, 4 strings, somewhat traditional….. urgh…. I had failed my main brief of “something to stretch me a bit”. Like a 5er/fanfret/shorty etc.. I had looked at so many basses that I was starting to fosters myself off. So. My plan was simple. 1. Drink some beers. 2. Open the iPad. 3. Don’t pretend to be deep, be your shallow self and look at things you think look nice. 4. buy it within 60minutes. narrowly skirting a mustang shorty (which I still might buy) and an Ibanez with 5 strings, fan frets, 7 knobs and an equal number of random letters and numbers for a name, I bumped back into a Sire I’d seen a couple of weeks ago locally. From what I can gather, there’s a “spread” of opinions here on Sire basses. So, I ignored them, and tried one myself… liked it. But it was a 4 string. Back home I browsed for a one second hand, then moved to new ones… and found one for a good price. Initially looking for a blue Sire Version 2 Updated M7 Alder 5 String but found one in Brown Sunburst that caught my eye. So bought it. It arrives Friday. 😬 looks like this….

I’ve been done about 5 times😂 I’ve just sold half a dozen guitars and I have one lovely electric one now… which I rarely play. I’ve got one good jazz and a bitsa P that I fiddle with. I reckon in a couple of years I’ll be back to cursing all the guitar cases lying about and selling some new stuff again😂😂😂… after I’ve bought some new ones

Shot the lacquer this morning, three coats, looks ok, but the temperature started to drop so I did what any self respecting bachelor would do… and I moved it into my downstairs toilet to keep warm.

Shot the colour this morning, had a bit of a blip when the spray can nozzle blocked and splattered across the body 🤦🏻 but I think I managed to blend it out without running. Temperature isn’t ideal, about 10 degrees here and that’s the lower limit for spraying this stuff. with it being a metallic pain they sometimes don’t flat very well so I’ll let this dry properly, check the finish is ok, then I can start with the lacquer. it’s still wet in the pictures below;

One thing this has taught me so far is that I desperately need some brighter lighting in my garage. Sanded the body off the shot a mist coat of primer, waited a couple of minutes and layer a proper coat on. Not I can see some of the imperfections better. I’ve filled them and I’ll sand back tomorrow. im still in two minds about giving it the relic look.

Because they like the vibe, or they don’t want it left blank, or in the minority … to fraud someone. currently got a MIM jazz and a bitsa “p” that’s got a fender stamp on the headstock. The closest that’s been to a fender factory is sitting in the Forrest before the wood was felled. I couldn’t give a toss if someone disagrees with the fake badge, I’ve left it there for me. If it said “unfender” or “Squier” I’d have left it there too, and that’s ok because it’s my bass. if I sell it, it’ll say “this is not a fender” in the ad. if someone gets ripped off buying a fake fender second hand then there’s not much I can do about that, but I’m not about to remove the decal. I build a Mini Cooper replica 20years back…. No cork snobs were offended… it was a nice car done well. 😂