Waddo Soqable

Well after another bar or two of OJ,  Iv'e done some more butchery with the Dremel, extending the neck pocket in the body to allow the neck back towards the bridge a bit further, it was difficult to get it right, impossible, I found, to get the back "wall" totally 90 degs to horizontal, but it'll do the job and doesn't look too bad I think... according to Rabone Chesterman's finest big steel rule I should just be ok for the 12th fret to nut measurement vis the 12th fret to bridge.

I started another thread asking opinions re making a six screw body to neck joint, like the Musicman, I felt with the extended pocket the normal screw positions were a bit far forward now and it might be cool to use six (with a home made 6 hole plate on the back of course) and may be a bit easier than Mr Spondon's  45 deg. 'Sheehan' version.  The jury's out on this so far and any opinions are most welcome !

I expect there's a few makers that use more than 4..... don't Ritter have loads of allen headed things here, like 9 or something?   I've lengthened the pocket to 106 mm ( don't ask!)  and it just looks to me like it could use the screws being rearranged as the back pair are nearer to the centre now ( see pic).. That said most of the string "leverage" is I'd think taken by the 2 at the front.

Hence "special filter"...It's the superior tone and sustain from the Gold finish ....

The existing ones are prob ok, the neck hasn't been drilled at all yet so going into untouched wood. I just thought of it as there seems to be lots of room at the butt end for an extra pair of screws, and it'd be more straight forward than the 45° screws a'la Mr Sheehan !

No doubt I'll be stuffing some card from a pack of 20 Rothmans in there too !

Maybe should just mention this on my little "build" thread but may be of interest to others so...

What does everyone think of Six screws on a P bass build, like they have on a MusicMan ?  The Sheehan style 45° extra screws thing was punted.. but having just lengthened the neck pocket a tad, It occurred to me that if the back pair was shunted forward a bit, there would be room for six as opposed to four. Clearly one would need to avoid the rear pair being too close to the back edge of the neck.  Obviously I'd have to make a six hole back plate, (which wouldn't be an issue for me as I do a bit of metal butchery in life!)

So what's everyone think ? ....Good plan, or not worth the bother and stick with the usual 4 ?

What a great bass, interesting to see another Jazz necked P bass, these have been a subject of discussion on another thread for a bit. Very nice indeed 👍 

46 minutes ago, BassTool said:

Aye Paul, that was my Mam and Dads way of not sharing it with us, it had rum in it 😆 

I bet there's not a lot of Actual rum in a bar of old Jamaicky though !... I used to like the old Xmas favourite liqueur chocs when I was a kid, the old folks weren't bothered if I scoffed a load of those, they did appear to be proper alcohol in them at the time.

How much duty, taxes and fees do they skin you for, (over and above the purchase price) importing these from Oz then ?

1 minute ago, BassTool said:

What he said...Old Jamaicky as me Dad called it...mmmmmmm  🤣

I looked on you tube in vain for the Old Jamaicky advert with the pirate, "Ole Jamaicky from Cadburys, Arrrr.." but couldn't find it, most disappointed !  Still, brilliant that you can get bars of it again... 👍

Good to know ! I have no doubt they'll be streets ahead of the random ones I have "in stock"! 👍

51 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

That looks very much like one I did.  I had similar issues with the neck pocket.

Yamacore

Just read thru your thread, v. interesting, liked the extra 45° screws idea too....pity the sound bite vid was so short, would have been good to hear some more of it being demo'ed...  Great job sir !

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Cool, I only asked because I fitted tonerider in one of my precision’s, they were cheap as chips and sound great 

Certainly worth bearing in mind as I've got enough bits and bobs to bludgeon another one together too.. 👍

6 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

🤤

I can strongly recommend buying several bars.

8 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

That looks very much like one I did.  I had similar issues with the neck pocket.

Yamacore

I'll have a squint at your build with interest..👍

4 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

What pickups are you fitting 

I've got a few random cheapo unknowns in the junk box, but I've got the Maia Vale set coming courtesy of Waveydavey, it'd be rude not to bung them in !

Having had another trial fit and a re measure, this time with a nice posh 2ft steel rule, I reckon if it trim the ar$e end of the body pocket to the line of the mint grn scratchplate where it naturally wants to sit, it'll be ok....I wasn't bearing in mind the fact that the saddles are unlikely to want much forward adjustment, generally they go sharp as you play up the neck so the whole shebang won't need to go back as far as I first thought. Apologies for a doubtless dull as fk 'build' it's probably just handy therapy for me 'thinking aloud' . 

.. this project, thus far, is fuelled by innumerable mugs of v. strong black coffee and (so far) 2 bars of Cabury's Old Jamaica chocolate... Remember those from the 70s ?  I'm delighted to say they've brought them back again, and being a greedy bastard I've got a catering size box of 18 bars.

Not hugely interesting, and really just bolting stuff together rather than a proper "build" , tho may include a bit of violence..

A jolly 'Fester Red' P bass body from the finest plywood our far eastern brothers could manage back in the 80s/90s ( by the looks) and a bunch of random stuff from the spares boxes, topped off by an extravagantly purchased NW gtrs Jazz maple neck ( I figured I can re-use the neck for something else if it turns out to be shite )  I had a P bass with a Jazz neck before and I liked it, plus NW didn't have any P necks left so applied the random factor and got a J.

the pocket in the body was a bit small so out with the emery cloth on a wood block to ease the 'walls' a bit, it was really just the thickness of a coat of laquer that needed coming off, got a nice snug fit, tho the butt end of the neck has a bit more of a curve than the body, but wasn't too fussed as a scratchplate would cover it anyway.... All good thinks I, but just thought i'd show it the tape measure, the 12th fret to bridge saddles ( middle average position)  is about 10mm further than nut to 12th fret !  That'd be a bit flat up the dusty end so good job I looked. if I desperately needed the thing for a gig tonight I'd just bolt it up and shunt the bridge forward a bit, but I suppose to make a half way decent job of it I'll have to get the dremel out and carve a chunk of body away to get the neck further back (FFS)..  one of the scratchplates I have,  a nice mint green job which may be a pukka Fender one, seems to want to sit further back too, so looks like I've a bit of butchery to do... any suggestions or comments are most welcome btw ( even "burn the b'astard" )  I'll add more as I "progress" 

Unfortunately does not seem to be easily available in the UK at the mo..

Zero Glide, that was the one ! ....Many thanks 👍

Wondering if anyone knows the name of the replacement nut kits that include a Zero fret. I lost the link I had and can't remember what they were called.

They were a straight swap type thing for a normal nut on Fender style necks.

The trouble is ebay have got so huge, totally mainstream now compared to their origins... they're the go-to place for buying anything for millions of folk, (and I'm sure we all encourage it to a degree!)  With that ammount of money and subsequent "clout" they can get away with pretty much anything ( just like many other "evil" corporations !! )

10 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Yeah I think you could, I just missed out on buying a 78 precision  a few years back, it had the letter A on the neck heel for the jazz neck , edit, this was it 

I think this one would nail the coffin of the naysayers, ( tho respect to HKH for not rising to their bait)... it's a P bass, made by Fender, marked as a P bass, sold as a P bass, and it has a Jazz neck, no doubt taken straight from the Jazz bass neck production line..   The defence rests.

12 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

I think the lesson here is that if you play 4 string bass you're some kind of awesome bass hero that can slay dragons while simultaneously slap-tapping every song every written at the same time while effortlessly curing all of the world's ailments and feeding every orphan in existence, but if you play 6 string bass you are the reincarnation of Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and Wario all wrapped up into one bastardish package. 

And no, I have literally never exaggerated anything in my life ever! 

You're making me wish I'd kept the six string now !

Had a look in my account, the payment from evilbay seems to have gone in, minus the couple of quid fees, it doesn't say pending or anything so assume it's finalised and ok...gawd knows what happens if there's some dispute or whatever, i assume they just grab it back from you, as you've doubtless agreed to let them in the new "agreement"  ...I certainly can't feel overly comfortable with the whole thing and as i said before I'll be far less likely to flog stuff on there in future. Be good if they saw a big downturn in people selling in the new regime and "reel their neck in" a bit, tho somehow I doubt it...

Well I had a cheapo six for a bit, it was certainly a lot of fun !.... I'm about the 180° antithesis of a royal college of music, jazz chords, theory type, last time I read any "dots" was at school !.... I got rid of the six after the initial novelty wore off though, I wasn't really doing anything with it so passed it on.

I can see how a six would be a very good tool to originate stuff on, in the sense you come up with ideas you wouldn't have had on a 4 stringer. For me instruments that are a bit different interest me in that kind of direction rather than some kind of mega tecnical math muso malarkey... But as I've said elsewhere, I'm essentially just a hammer wielding thug !