Rumple

I've spent the best part of my adult life retouching out 'orange peel' paint and a multitude of other imperfections from images of cars for a living, I'm not sure I could live with it in the finish on a bass. It's all big learning curve for me so I'll strip the body, if that goes well I'll make a decision on paint type, leap in and see what happens. I have some automotive filler primer in the shed, can that be applied straight to bare wood or does it need some sort of barrier? BTW I've seen your work here on BC and it's an inspiration, I take my hat off to you sir.

Thank you for taking the time to pass on that info and guidance, I'm a bit concerned now though as £150 would effectively double what I've spent on the bass I was thinking it was going to be about £50. On the plus side I might get to see flying pink elephants Would I be wasting my time going down the route of using grain filler followed by car paint aerosols then a clear lacquer? £150 quids worth of materials and I mess it up could make this grown man cry.

I'm a bit new to all this so I'm not sure the best way to go to make my 1st attempt as easy as possible, I was thinking modern car paint rather then Nitro? I probably need to do some research! feel free to chip in with advice I quite like the idea of a dark gold/copper colour or a kinda warm metallic brown-ish, I think it needs to be a dark colour look right.

Well the weather is starting to improve so I've ordered a heat gun and a scraper so I can have a go at removing the old finish.

Some nice playing in that second video and quite funny when his Daughter pops into frame for second I sold (well almost) my 76 P today, so I have some £££'s in my pocket and I'm seriously thinking of getting a black one to try out, as you say if it turns out not to be fit for purpose then it's not the end of the world and I can sell it or give it to a charity shop, obviously you'd be welcome to come and have a look at it, I'm going to mull it over this weekend.

Wow, quick response from my enquiry. [color=#800000][i]Hi Dave,[/i][/color] [color=#800000][i]I am sorry but I really don’t know the size of the neck pocket.[/i][/color] [color=#800000][i]Best reagrds[/i][/color] [color=#800000][i]Met hartelijke groet,[/i][/color] [color=#800000][i]Michel Kronenburg[/i][/color]

Message sent.

That's far too sensible I'll give that a try - thanks.

[quote name='synthaside' timestamp='1425406580' post='2707028'] I own a status Graphite vintage P , So I can vouch for the playability of the necks ;-) if you ever find yourself in Kingston you can find out . As a source for a 5 bitsa the bass sounds like a good doner , but i'd probably want to change the pickups I've bought ultra cheap n cheerful Chinese stuff in the past and its been surprisingly good once ive ripped out the 2pence pickups and popped in some cheap entwistles . [/quote] Thanks for the offer, I'd like to try your P at some point. For little over £100 it's worth it for the body alone, I just wish I could rule out the uncertainty of the neck pocket size without buying one but after talkiing to another shop recently it seems they are shipped straight from the manufacturer so the shop has no actual product to measure.

My MM3 is in bits at the moment as I might use the neck on a possible project but I quite liked the passive sound of the bass, nothing like a Ray I admit but pleasing none the less. It's a bit expensive but Nordstrand do a replacement OLP sized pick-up http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Nordstrand_Pickups_MM.html

I blame work commitments but really it's a crippling [size=4][font=Arial]fear of playing in front of people[/font][/size].

I thought it would be a good starting point for a classic looking SR5, I have an OLP neck I could use with it IF it fits, assuming it did work then the neck could possibly be changed for a Status on at a later date. I might have to buy one just to see!! I own a passive OLP 5 (it's in bits!) and each volume works on a different coil of the single pick-up, it's quite a good idea, even though the changes in tone is pretty subtle.

[quote name='No lust in Jazz' timestamp='1425397262' post='2706921'] Dunno - I found that it was Ok for a couple of numbers, but I didn't want to replace or mod the nut to accept the B. [/quote] I used light gauge D'Addario's when I did it and the nut only needed a tiny tiny adjustment, it went back the EADG without any fuss.

I've tried it ( funnily enough on Discreet's old J&D ) and it works really well but I did miss the G string on occasions though so I'll stick with fivers.

[quote name='Mattmit' timestamp='1425332416' post='2706368'] Hi there Rumple! What's crackin'? I don't have one and I don't know what it is. Hope that helps. Xxx [/quote] Not really but thanks for the bump. BTW it's one of these, cheap as chips Musicman style 5 strings. http://lighthouseaudiovisual.co.uk/dimavery-mm-505-electric-bass-5-string--black-54607-p.asp

It does sound like you need a mid 70's on Jazz then. Some Limelight basses can be seen here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/243644-the-show-us-your-limelight-thread/page__pid__2532333#entry2532333"]Limelight[/url]

Are you set on the later Fender 3 bolt 70's style? if not I really love my Fender Road Worn Jazz and Limelight make some nice 60's 'reproductions' J and P basses, the early 60's one I played was lovely but maybe a bit too distressed. If it's a block and bound neck you prefer there's the Fender Geddy Lee, I've not played one but they get a lot of love on here.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1425297373' post='2705875'] Is it a possibility that it might be worth recessing the bridge in the body would sure help the action and is not a big job [/quote] Like people did when they retro fitted Badass bridges back in the day. I'm going to have another go at adjusting the shims to see if I can get it any better 1st just in case I'm being stupid and doing something wrong, sometimes I find if I leave a job for a few days when I come back to it everything falls into place.

Over the weekend I finished fitting the tuners, put the neck on the body, filed the excessively high nut down and fixed the bridge in place, then the fun started! off came the neck again and a shim added, neck attached again and so the process went either adding or removing shims to part or all of the neck socket, at the moment it's got nice enough action but the bridge saddles on the E & G string are at there lowest possible height and the truss rod is slackened off so it's not right yet but I seem to be going in circles! I'm far from an expert but I usually manage to get this right in a couple of attempts, not this time though. Anyway I got bored and frustrated so moved on to electrics instead, CTS pots, Russian NOS Paper In Oil cap and an old input jack were fitted to the scratchlate, I added wires and the connectors to try out different pick-ups but as it stands only one set (Aria STB) fit in the scratchplate so that kinda made the decision of what ones to try 1st redundant. So it's far from finished as the necks going to have to come of yet again once I work out what I need to do rather then guessing The input jack is a bit intermittent so that needs looking at too. Here a quick phone camera snap before it comes apart again. [attachment=185306:IMAG0725 lr.jpg]

Excellent

Since my last update, I've managed to find time to fit the tuners to the headstock, I've also been putting some lemon oil onto the fretboard which has improved the look of it, it's less milky looking and more dark brown/black now. As for the scratchplate I used a concoction of Mustard, Turmeric and a bit of Ketchup to help it stick, I left this on over night and again it worked but only time will tell how much it fades back to white. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have time to get the neck and bridge attached to the body, then string it up and see what's what.

I thought it might look quite cool with white but black is good to. Look forward to seeing it when it's done.

So are you having the pick-up in the MM position and cutting part way into the scratchplate?

Out of interest what strings are people using on a 33" strung BEADG?