Dom in Dorset

I've been thinking of building a tele bass for a while now when this came my way: It's off a Mexican Fender and seems to be solid maple. It's big enough to make a bass but it has routings in unsuitable places. I could: Make a scratch plate/ bridge that covers up the holes. Fill everything up and re-finish. Just use it as a template , make a body from scratch and give this one to my brother to make himself a guitar. Discuss...

I'd contact the vendor with a view to sending the gig bag back and put the saddle screw back myself.

I bought some cheap machine heads for a bass I'm building , they seem fine but the screws that came with them break if you look at them (one broke because I though about them. There goes another. Damn.) I'm thinking of getting some of these , anyone tried them , any good? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guitar-machine-head-string-tree-screw-choice-finish-/370519687251?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D5377824044524304993%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D370519687251%26"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guitar-machine-head-string-tree-screw-choice-finish-/370519687251?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D5377824044524304993%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D370519687251%26[/url]

I'm sure I can live with it, it's about as far into the dusty end as you can get.

I can't think of any problem that the knots might cause in this situation.... unless you know otherwise?

I found exactly to fretless sound I was after with a bitsa bass costing about £80 with pickups off a Lindo bass (about £120 new)

I couldn't resist screwing the neck on for some pose testing: Close up of the boxwood board : Along side the second prototype (I'm so pleased with the proto that I'm keeping it as a rough gigs backup bass)

I've been kicked out of a couple of bands who've gone on to achieve bugger all.

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1359583605' post='1957203'] The whole Ziggy Stardust LP, The first 10 mins of Quadrophenia and Dreamer by Supertramp. [/quote] I have played Five years and Starman live but not Rock n' Roll Suicide

And a rather massive guilty pleasure! I just love the enormity of it when it get's going. I just can't see any likelyhood that circumstances/need/appropriate musicians/opportunity will ever come along. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9saX9cF248[/media]

I spent last night shaping the neck: Close up of boxwood board, it really doesn't do it justice, I'll get a better picture when I've polished it up, it will take a high gloss finish without any sort of varnish or coating:

Sell it as a "reliced" neck to cover the cost of a new one! Seriously, If you like the neck you should think about getting that one re-finished

The neck is taking shape: Trial fitting:

I do it because I like to and it does nobody else any harm. Most languages assign gender to inanimate objects as a matter of course, it's only English that doesn't.

I just fondled my flute, no idea what it looked like, the song went down well.

My fretless is ply , sounds great. I suspect that crappy sounding plywood basses would be crappy sounding even if the body was replaced with solid wood, until someone built identical basses one wood , one ply , we'll never know for certain.

I've got wood:

My biggest fear is that i'll absent mindedly end up doing this:

I've often sung while playing bass and in my current band I do lead and backing vocals. We started out with a fiddle player and had quite a folky feel but when she left I started adding some flute here and there to keep that element in the band's sound. Until now I've resisted the temptation to hand the bass over to someone else for a song , I've always found ways to fit the flute in without having to do that. Anyway , on a new song I have done just that so I'm on vocals and flute and someone else is playing bass. We are playing it tonight for the first time and I don't think I have ever sung in public without a bass or guitar - What am I going to do with my hands????

My fretless (I'll be playing her tonight): The neck was a £50? from CH guitars Body - scrap found on ebay £15, routed out for jazz pickups and a bit of plywood stuck under the neck to pack out the joint. Pickups - £10 of ebay from a scrap Lindo bass. Scratch plate - a bit of old plywood. It does have black knobs now, taken from a broken distortion pedal. Other parts from my spares box. Plays like a dream and gives me exactly the sound I was after.

Thanks, I'd been agonizing over what headstock for my Fenderesque Fusion Fretless jazz build until I saw your bass.

Would you mind posting a link to the template for the headstock? I could do with one of those for my own build. Nice work by the way, I had misgivings about the orange colour but itworks really well.

Glue...

Well spotted! Yes, Yandles, That's half of the piece that I bought , I'm going to try making a fretted neck with the other half as practice for building a through neck Thunderbird later in the year.

I found some time to rout out the neck for the truss rod. I was getting very excited about it until I realized that I've run out of wood glue, oh well tomorrow I glue... PS I'm thinking of a tele head stock.