W1_Pro

I would second this. I used one at a practice room a couple of weeks ago (the 2x8") and it was astonishingly good for a tiny little combo with a five piece rock band. Kept up prety well. Also very light and easy to carry, which has to be a plus.

I do have a spreadsheet...and most of them live at my work (we supply equipment for events) so I'm very fortunate there. The biggest problem I find when you have a slightly silly number of basses is what you do with the cases. They take up a lot of room!

I'd have kept it. Then again I've only ever sold one bass. An Aria PB500 Precise and I regret it to this day. I'm up to about ninety now. I know that folks have this 'it deserves to be played' thing going and I absolutely think that is a very cool way to deal with the issue of too many basses. However, for me, getting rid of a bass would be like selling one of the kids. Unthinkable.

Nice bass that there Mustang. I've been thinking about getting one. Such good value for money.

So originally, I had two shims in (Business cards, folded in three and held together with double sided). So quite a lot of shim. That angled the neck and got the action to an acceptable level, but it meant that at the end of the fretboard (the end at the body that is), the strings were completely bottomed out when I played anything above the 14th fret iirc. So I took one of the two shims out. That made the action higher and the issue with the strings bottoming out is still there, although maybe not quite as bad, but the bass is still effectively unplayable...

I attempted to reduce the shimmage (is that a word?) today and met with no success. I think its going to ned to have some material removed from the heel. This I plan to do by doing a little bit of gentle planning. I need to get a plane first though...the only one I have atm is a black and decker electic one and that will be much too brutal. Gentle touch needed, I fancy...

They are hard down Andy...chocking off accross the strings when I go above the 14th fret...

The action is now a respectable 3mm at the 12th. However the strings are bottoming out between the 22nd and 24th frets because of the shimming (which is still quite extreme). So I'm going to remove one of the shims and see where we land, but I think I might need to take a little bit of material off the heel of the neck.

The screws were from a kit I got off ebay. There were long neck fixing screws and shorter neck fixing screws, these are the shorter option. So when it was all back together the end of the neck sits a little bit proud of the body:

So, I had the neck clamped up all night and the bow seems better, if not entirely cured. This morning I decided to tackle the concealed fixings for the neck. I drilled a hole in the body using a 4mm bit and then the last cm into the heel of the neck, a 3mm. I then used a spare screw to thread the holes (in the neck) and make it easier to get the proper fixing in. Here's a pic

Having scoured YouTube last night, I think I know what to do.. I'm going to attempt to correct the bow today using heat and clamps. More news and pics anon.

Bloody hell. What a mess. They want the thick end of three hundred notes for that? It would be a cold day in hell before I parted with that much cheddar for a horlicks like this. Interestingly though, and speaking to Bassassins point about whether the high action (on mine) was a production defect or a subsequent development, this seems to have got it too, and it looks like they've attempted at least, to remediate the issue by lowereing the bridge. Maybe it was a dodgy batch?

As you can see, in theory, once its all back together, the cut should be pretty much invisible. I've done a test stringing (without drilling secondary fixings for the neck or doing any sanding as yet) and the action is much more sensible, however, there does seem to be a bow of about 1.2mm (at the 7th fret- the worst spot) in the neck. The 1.2mm is with the rod slack. Cranking the truss rod does not seem to make a difference. I seem to recall bow can be corrected using clamps and a rigid thing to clamp the neck too. Any ideas on the process folks?

So I've just got back after a rather splendid weekend in Alsace. The cheese and wine were, as ever, fantastic. Anyhow, thanks Andy, for all of the extra curricular activity. Excellent work. I have made the cut -I thought on balance that in the pickup rout might be best- some pics below..

Sorry if I misunderstood! No harm done. Its something I have had done (via a luthier) in the past so its obviously not so uncommon. Shimming the whole length of the neck will not alter the height of the action relative to the fingerboard I think, because its all one piece. All the shim will do is alter the height of the neck/ bridge block relative to the body wood, I think.

On balance, I agree about keeping the Ashdown. However...if cash was less of an object than it is, I'd be tempted by three Barefaced 110's and a valve amp to drive them. I've always thought that having three (or four?) single speakers is incredibly flexible. Individually very small and light, you could use as many as you need for any given gig and using the three together stacked in a column would give you a device with the line array effect and probably sound pretty damned good. Not cheap though....

Andy, great minds think alike..or fools seldom differ..😆 What do you think of the following... I've been staring owlishly at the bass for some time and I have come up with a variant of your plan which I think might be even less visible. Cut the neck at the pickup rout. It would need to follow the rout, rather than be a straight cut but it would be invisible nce the pickup is back on. I could then shim the neck in front of the pickup which would change the action height to something a bit more usable (I hope). This would probably need a couple of extra screws as you suggest...

I was looking for a diffferent sort of Hondo when I came accross this on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267387545803?_skw=hondo+ii+bass+guitar&itmmeta=01K9D2ZE42Y0W47QVFJ4V6XSPD&hash=item3e418a28cb:g:KKEAAeSweKxotb8Y&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1d32JFlZ9hR7zmL%2F4CyZdNyRH52y%2FiuPIWTFFqJUZtKCFIl2or5Qy5wp%2FcNvcl04axr1Pg5KeLURUDKf1U9hV0JOVcfKowWtX4upMeJi8KtRHKnTnxHWTowLVPNJGP64koTD%2FhvNNaekzeSFB5QoYoHgyegnmXlQcbNLsWbEsmzCSi5qHKs5yITflrV35wQerdR1QF7hlfRDWTHeBQ3RZHoJkT4OUGqjg6%2FxvgqC6w7Ud5Suo6NFTRiFLuhvOvwNCqHXgwqbqikvX0rpAkfMcCw1bjQa%2BLM6q2otzSyAuC6kg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6zi_aLLZg Its sold by something called 'Bristol Guitars' and if you look at their other items they seem to have just taken a Hondo Rick apart and be selling it piecemeal. Now I understand that these basses are unusual, and may have some collectability attached as its what Peter Hook used in the early years of Joy Divison, but if you add up what they are asking for all of the parts (right down to the strap buttons- a steal at £15.99 each) then it adds up to a faintly breathtaking £1220 odd. And you have to put it together yourself. You have to admire the chutzpah.....

So this leaves two options as as I see it. Andy's suggestion of taking some material off the heel of the neck and Bassassins idea about routing a hole for the bridge. I'm inclining towards the latter, as I've seen that done (twice now, once on a bass of mine and once on Bassasins Satellite up the thread) and it seems to be a workable if somewhat heavy handed solution...

So I moved to the neck end and did the same amount of shimming with the same result...by now it was dawning on me that the shims on their own are achieveing nothing, because the bridge moves with the neck. I sort of knew this and I should have been able to work it out using a bit of string, a nail and an oil drum but I've always been hopeless at stuff like this so the practical work does help.... What next?

So shims...first of all, I trued some pretty extreme shimming at the bridge. This is two business cards folded in three and stuck one on top of the other..that is the most shimmage I have ever used by a factor of about three. Doesnt seem to have made much difference to the action height...

I think, this as far as this particular bass goes that is destined to remain a mystery. I bought it for £90 (as it says further up the thread) and it was in a bit of a mess. There were no strings on it at the time and I must admit I didnt see this particular issue coming, although in all fairness the construction is not what you might call 'conventional' so I'll give myself a pass there. It is what it is and I'd like to try and correct it if I can, with a budget of precisely no pounds. I've been messing about with shims a bit...more info below...

As I said, the bridge and the pickups mount on both the extended neck section and the body so (especially with the bridge) a flat spot is needed to mount it...

It sits kind of jointly on both the end of the extended neck and the body. So it needs a level base.