Dom in Dorset

I'm the only one who knows that you can't fit 32 songs into a 45 minute set. This conversation happens before every gig- Band member : Lets do the set list...I want to include every song we've written. Me: We can't , we have 45 minutes, that equates to about 10 songs. Band Member: Ok but I really want to play songs 1-25! Me: We can't, we have room for about 10, maybe twelve at a push. Band Member : Ok, let's not do song 9 Other band member : but I like song 9, and what about songs 26-30? Me : remember 45 minutes, that's 10 songs with intros + guitar changes Band member : ok so just songs 1-45 oooh and we must play song 67 and 56 ooh and 46 etc Me : why don't you just let me pick our 10 most rehearsed / appropriate songs? Band members : Ok, that's a good idea......make sure you include every single song we have.

I used to live next door to Andrew (the laptop guy) probably the most talented musician I've ever known. He could just come up with the most amazing stuff on the fly. We all thought he'd disappear into obscurity because he never seemed to have any direction or commitment. It was great to see that he's met his match, hard to believe that's my old mate Fernie up there. Love Sleafod Mods, hope to see them next year.

Hi Froggy!

Sorry I could only put in a brief appearance , it was good (great in fact) thanks for putting this on.

I'll pop in for a while, can't stay for the whole thing (family in tow) I'll bring the new bitsa tele.

How does it sound? Like a precision, which is really what it is! I may still make a special gadget to cure the neck dive, it's not too bad after trying strap buttons in different places but could be better. More on that soon (maybe)

Done! I had a bit of a jam with a guitarist I'm starting a new project with this evening so it's been blooded. (yes those are my curtains and yes I have a red sofa)

" I've been playing guitar as a singer songwriter for X years and now I'm looking to form a band"

Some sort of P/J maybe , Aerodyne Jazz?

I've got a big one! I have a fairly serious drill press you are welcome to use. Drilling into an existing hole can be problematic as was said earlier. Running the drill in reverse may have something going for it but I think it would just generate heat rather than actually drilling. I'd try grinding the drill bit to a "butterfly" profile so that it cuts at the edges first and avoids grabbing and taring. Also practice on some scrap before you do it for real.

I put a bit of time in this evening and thought it was worth posing the body with the broken neck just to get an idea.

It's been a good news/ bad news day. The bad news is that the neck (that I already had doubts about) is now firewood. I broke off the truss rod nut, I do have a spare truss rod and partly removed the fretboard to see if it would fit. The original truss was housed in an aluminium box section thing that meant the new rod wouldn't fit . No major problem as the neck was to put it mildly "dubious" The good news is that the body has moved on :

Not entirely sure as I'll have my children with me that day, however it will be my birthday and they'll have to indulge me! I'll post a wish list for present ideas on here nearer the time

My story : I had agreed to stop when my wife was pregnant, I didn't want to stop and intended to go through the motions for a couple of days until she got so pissed off with my foul temper that she'd give up on the idea. Day one I came down stairs and lay on the sofa sulking, she popped out to the chemist and got me some patches, I put one on and ten minutes later it happened! I didn't feel any need to smoke, I realized what a hold smoking had over me. Until then I had to make sure that I had enough tobacco for that day/night/first fag of the day etc. I would do late night trips to the shop to buy tobacco ect. Using the patches broke the hold it had over me. That was 2000, haven't smoked since.

gorgeous! How is it for neck five? (sorry to drop a potential negative in here)

I'm glueing bits of the upper horn into the control cavity, I'm going to re-rout it to take a tele style metal plate. I'm also trying a cut down precision scratchplate.

The neck is pretty shoddy! It looked cheap and nasty.The fretboard was coming away and it had a nasty kink towards the nut. I've glued it together and managed to adjust the truss by putting a nail through the holes and turning it with mole grips! It was massively bent and stiff (ooh er!) but I think it will survive. I buffed the headstock today, it's looking like a seriously worn relic.

Ok, it's moved on a bit, I still need to re-rout the neck pocket and get sanding before I get the spray paint out: Incidentally, this is the junk bass I bought as a donor for neck: after removing the neck it became obvious that the body was in fact made from wood and not ply as I had assumed. A bit of stripping revealed this: So I may have two bases to make.

It will have a regular modern P pickup, the one that came in the junk bass seems to be really good, nice powerful output and a surprisingly wide range of tones. I have no idea what it is but it has white casing. Talking of the junk bass, more on that soon, I bought it for the neck and hardware but the body turned out to be better than I thought...

A previous owner of the body added a control cover to the back, I presume so that they didn't need to remove the scratch plate to access the electronics. I have the plate , I may keep it or cover the hole permanently.

I bought a junk bass on ebay as a donor , the neck needs some attention , someone really didn't want me to know who made it because they chiseled of the trade mark! As it's going to be a bit of a relic I can live with it. Tomorrow I'll take it to work and give the lower horn and headstock a trim.

Looks like sapele to me (I think it's a relative of mahogany)