Dom in Dorset

Guilty as charged. That particular build should be underway as soon as these two are complete.

If you hadn't already worked it out yesterday's post was an April fool joke. I posted it on several platforms and what I found interesting was how enthusiastic some people were about the idea of using wood ash to make a guitar. As a result I'm actually going to make a sample of "ashcrete" just to see what happens.... Meanwhile back in the real world -

Slight change of tack but I'm trying something new today - An experiment in extreme timber recycling.... building an electric guitar entirely from wood ash. I'd noticed that the pile of discarded ash from the fire when exposed to the rain turned into a clay like substance. I did a few experiments and discovered that the alkaline wood ash reacted with wood glue to form an incredibly hard yet light substance. I made a mold from cardboard and added the first layer of "ashcrete" , it will take at least three layers and a month to dry before it can be machined and turned into a guitar. Watch this space...... The thread title seems more relevant than ever!

Not denim but you'll like them when you see them, maybe tomorrow.....

Fretboard sanded, frets cut and epoxy poured.

The binding is on the double denim bass. The curves are about as tight as the maple binding can cope with before breaking. I might even get the next hit of epoxy on tomorrow.

Hi, It ground to a halt when I hit problems getting the epoxy to form a consistent layer. It looked great until I started sanding and then the denim was exposed. Someone on Instagram suggested a solution (a bleeding obvious one that just hadn't occurred to me at the time) to apply the binding and use that as the dam to give the fill level. At that point I got distracted by an acoustic (ish) travel guitar that's also ground to a halt due to problems with finishing the sides. After flying for the first time since about 1983 I decided that it would be good to have a guitar that could be dismantled and packed into a suitcase. This project was intended to be a quick one so I used a body and neck that I fished out of the scrap box. It has turned out to be prettier than I expected and so I'm taking more care than I originally planned.The body was a prototype Les Paul semi hollow mode from poplar and asit was just to test ideas and templates wasn't made with any great care. I've added a strip of veneer around the edge to tidy it up but this now means that I will have to double bind it. The timber used for the soundboard is Paulownia from a pallet.

I'm in a band that bar a twenty year hiatus has been together since 1990.

Doing it properly means neck screws from Screwfix. Hopefully they blew the budget on turbo gold.

There's a Johnny Cash tribute act called Cash Converted

I've had a lit of silly ideas over the years including an AC/DC tribute band who dress like the Flintstones. AC/BC

Hayseed Dixie play acoustic bluegrass covers of rock and metal songs. We play electric rocked up country music about 1/3 of which is original material.

More years ago than I care to recall after a stint depping in a large (six piece) country rock band I decided to do something similar but smaller and nastier and with more of an emphasis on humour. We started The Dooks ( a house hold name in Buzzard County and wanted in three states) and never looked back. Most of our set is fairly rowdy , including a countried up version of Ace of Spades. This is a video we made for one of our original songs based on the characters that inhabit Buzzard County https://youtu.be/jlD0NWzLYs0?si=8GLV5Kx9fRK1MW1M

I'm back.... I've been slowly settling into a new work/life/making stuff regime and hopefully things will happen a bit more regularly now. To catch up... The headless bass is on a back burner. The flying v is finished and I have gigged on it. The front burner is currently occupied by a hollow body travel guitar that I was hoping to complete by NYE but I'm waiting for suitable binding to be delivered. Simmering away next to it is the double denim bass. It's come out darker than I was expecting but I can't change that now. Also after thicknessing the body I've realised that I need to add another hit of epoxy as I've sanded through to the denim in a couple of places. Eventually I'll be fitting these jeans rivets for dots. Sanding the radius on the fretboard using a piece of salvaged mahogany to act as a guide rail for the sanding block. I have a jig for guitars but haven't got round to a bass one yet. This morning I installed the maple binding on the fretboard. I had to use the bending iron for the two bits at the end.

It's amazing what you find in Age Concern

Probably not serious enough to be considered "alt" https://youtu.be/jlD0NWzLYs0?si=Ec15z7jh2wdof79b

This thread has got me thinking...

We formed in a small east midlands town in 1990, at the time local bands all had names that were as uncool as possible. Our contemporaries included : Rupert the Fridge, the Amazing Screaming Willies and PWPIP ( pop will p1ss it's pants ).

Both are huge influences on my music making, particularly Bob. I do a passable impersonation of Bob's vocals if any Hawkwind tribute bands are looking for a Captain Lockheed... As for Nik , I may have to look for a tiger skin morph suit and get a more extreme haircut.

This season I will mostly be wearing.... As front man for The Dooks (Buzzard County's finest country rock band) I wear a Mack Trucks cap that was carefully reliced to replicate the hat worn by conspiracy theory nut Dale Gribble from the cartoon series King of the Hill. A matching Strickland Propane t shirt and double denim completes the ensemble. I also play in a glam rock band called SOCK... I a have a collection of things , mostly tiger print. The current theme is a nod towards Hawkwind's Bob Calvert and features jodhpurs and flying goggles. If you think I look daft you should see the rest of them...

The sight reading gigs I have done I was offered tab or proper dots, the MD would print the score off , the software allowed for either. I chose dots as I could use the experience to help with sight reading on other ( none string) instruments. Just sounds like he can only read tab and isn't comfortable with dots. If I was teaching I'd buy a cheap practice amp off eBay for my students to use. A ten second look on eBay revealed a new 20w amp £25 delivered plus many others.

I had to resurrect this thread after finding out that Timmy Mallet had just ridden his bicycle past my friends house.

He's gone for the Warman . I'm interested to see how it performs as I use their guitar pickups in some of my builds but have not tried their bass pickups so far Thanks for your help, Dom

Thanks for your help,I will pass it on I did try Maida Vale a while ago and was impressed. I did put one in one of my basses but sold the bass a couple of years later.

Asking for a friend... I recommend an Entwistle PBXN, high output, clean tone and only £30 but ...only available via the manufacturer and sold out. As I've only used these in my own p basses for years I'm a bit out of touch. What's good for less than £100?