Dom in Dorset

these guys do a green tort http://www.chguitars.co.uk/hardware/scratchplates-brackets/pg6-jazz-style-bass-scratch-plate-1922.html

Looks like the pickup has been replaced, the one that's in there was made for a bass with much wider string spacing and doesn't fit the hole in the scratch plate.

Antoria

The only known picture of a no name jazz bass i played for years during the mid 1980's. I sold it for £30, I wish I hadn't as it played like a dream and was the first bass that I really got to grips with. I hadn't seen this picture until an old friend tracked me down. I'd always thought that it was a fairly standard fender copy but the pickups look like mini chrome humbuckers and there's something odd about the bridge (unless that's an ashtray style cover) It's new years eve at a caravan park on the Welsh border and I'm wearing a pink jacket.

I tried an affinity precision once and the only thing I didn't like about it was the pickups. The tone was muddy and not at all a classic P bass sound. I have a bass with a £15 budget P pickup in it and it sounds far better than the affinity that I tried. Spend your money on good pickups.

Top edge of the bass parallel to the bottom of my rib cage on fretted , for fretless it's a tad higher but still well outside the "Haircut 100 zone".

Fred Flintstone signature bass.

I find it fills the band sound out more, I use fingers mostly but also a pick and mute the strings with my RH palm on a couple of songs where I want that old fashioned flat wound sound. I think most of us spent the first week on fretless sliding around, after that I started just to use it for playing properly but with a different feel/sound. After a few years of experimenting (having tried and moved on from active acoustic,Precision, MM style) I settled on passive jazz as my weapon of choice. What I hate is when (usually none bass players ) say " have you trued that with a chorus pedal?" - No, I don't wish to sound like every band from the 1980's that I hated. And remember - the slide is still there for when you absolutely need it.

I thought Steinbergers looked awful and that I wouldn't be seen dead with one....until I tried , then bough the Honher copy. The only thing more cool than a Steinberger would be a double neck Steinberger, the onlyn thing cooler than that would be a Steinberger double that only has strings on one neck.

The fingerboard is now boxwood, it's very tough, tight grained and dense , it's also beautiful close up. I'll try and get a close up of the it when the light is better.

A lot of people are naming people who may not be great technicians on bass but serve other functions in their band : ie Rodger Waters, not a virtuoso but if he hadn't been in the band would they have come up with Dark Side or The Wall?

A set of michine heads, a bridge , a truss rod and a set of jazz pickups that will fit perfectly on the fretless bass I'm building, how my wife and kids got it so abolutely spot on I'll never know. It's as if I ordered them myself and they just wrapped them.

From the dim and distant past : Me - have you sent X that demo they requested yet, you said you'd sort it out a few months back? Anon - No Me - how come , that was months ago???!!!!! Anon - I haven't got any jiffy bags.

[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1356603608' post='1911472'] And on a more personal level, during a pause in our sound check at a corporate event, the guitarist of another band on the gig walks past me and says, with heavy sarcasm: "Ooh. 5 strings. Gosh." I managed to resist the near-overwhelming urge to pin him to the ground and break his arms... [/quote] No need , I would imagine the bassist from his own band will do that at some point.

It's a good idea to make your bass active if you like active basses, I prefer passive basses , the tones I like , no batteries to let you down, simple controls. However , I believe it is possible to fit an East pre-amp to a passive bass.without any modification to the body.

I played a fretless/fretted for a couple of years (profile pic) I did get into playing both necks in a single song , great fun and totally progtastic! The main reason I moved on was that I needed a better quality instrument, even building it yourself a twin neck isn't cheap, a high quality twin is serious money.

If you do an image search for "Bradley Wiggins Entistle bass" there is an interesting picture comparing the two, for some reason I can't post it here. Can't find a picture of the bass though.

aren't MM poles individually wound then put into the pickup? I can't find a pic on the wedb but there is one in "Make your own electric guitar" showing this. Edit: further research shows that I am probably mistaken, I'll check in the book tomorrow. My mistake, it's Wal that wind the poles separately.

A bit of an odd one - Back Before Breakfast at Frome FM's Live Lounge. Five of us packed into the studio and played with no monitors (so acoustic guitars unamplified, unamplified vocals and hardly any sound coming from our lead guitarist's corner) Our drummer had to strip his kit right down, he modified his bass pedal tp play the bootom of his floor tom. I know I could have played better (fighting off a cold, just can't concentrate on anything at the moment), I did fluff a bit on a new song , I have to change between bass and flute and sing lead vocal, nioce when it all works but can be a bit of a ballancing act. The show was live but should be available as a podcast soon.

I made a bass body out of some 18mm ply that I found in the garden, it sounded great. IMO influence on tone of the body is largely a myth. I suspect that some super dense materials will give slightly more sustain and brightness but 90% of woods (including ply) make no discernible difference.

Well done, it's a satisfying job isn't it! I fell for the plywood body, I bought a cheapie off ebay and planned to strip it, thankfuly I spotted the play before I started. I fitted it with a wooden scratch plate in the end. Always be suspicious of cheaper bass bodies , you do get some wooden ones , even on cheapies though.

It's worth checking that the body is actually made from wood (as opposed to ply) before starting to strip it. You should be able to get a look insode the neck pocket when you take the neck off.

I use damson for bagpipe making, I get it from another maker, it came from the Wilkins of Tiptree marmalade company's damson orchard. It's all beautiful straight grained stuff but I'm not sure if there is anything long enough. I'm going for a gnarly look so I'm keepinmg my eyes open for something more rustic. I have a load of logs to process in the next few weeks , something may turn up. I'd love to use blackthorn, like damson gone mad but prove to warping , splitting, rotting , it does look beautiful though.

You may find that it's no easier (and probably not as neat) as removing them completely. Try one , see how you get on.

Staedtler, Berol or sharpie? Come on , it can't be that simple , we need a heated debate.