Dom in Dorset

Sorry mate! Lets try a visualization exercise : "close your eyes, relax...imagine a headstock, now take the machine heads off, saw a chunk off the end, neaten it up with a surform and sand paper, dismantle one of the machine heads and re-assemble it so that it turns in the opposite direction, agonize for hours over where exactly on the headstock to drill the new hole, drill the new hole,paint headstock, fit machine heads...." Maybe it is better with pictures. I hope the wiring picture makes up for it. As for the body that was about it, cut it out , rout, sand and paint.

Thanks Apa, I'll check them out. Thanks Paul, I'll keep the diagram for future use, however the cheapo Behrigner EQ pedal works a treat! It dosen't sound much like an acoustic bass but might well be very useful as it is now. i'll try it with the band ASAP. This is the wiring scheme that I went with for this incarnation of the MFSAFB:

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1343672399' post='1753521'] Amazing! Are there pics of the build? [/quote] Er... I thought I already showed them? The only thing of any significance I haven't shown were modifying the headstock to make it a 3+1 and hours of faffing about with sandpaper and spray paint. Apa - nice idea, if I can think of a neat way of doing it without too much fuss I might go for it. I only envisage changing it a couple of times a year, jazz bass in summer and P in winter (it's nice to have a P to hand in the studio or for pit band stuff.) I must admit the pictures are quite flattering, I could have done a better job but the whole idea was to be cheap and disposable , I reached a point where I didn't want to spend any more time and money on something that will be played until it falls apart then recycled as a future project (or lost in festival mud)

Things have moved on a little; I still haven't made any scratch plates for it yet, the fist one will just have a sound hole and output for the piezo, I'm going to try to use an eq pedal as an outboard pre-amp.You can see the choc block inside that will allow the change of scratch plates , the earth (and piezo) connects through that. It won't see much action until next year so the P bass scratch, the Jazz will have to wait. I'm going to try to sneak it into the car for this year's holiday. I can't find my Newton's spring scales thingy so no weight for you just yet.

I got mine here: www.yandles.co.uk

I had a customer who liked purpleheart : Whatever the instrument the results are striking! The yellow bits are boxwood.

No idea who the guy in the picture is but I did an image search and found lot's of pictures of white guys with those basses, that was the first one. I wouldn't be seen dead with it but that's nothing to do with race.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1342648239' post='1738855'] Nice work if you can get it. [/quote] The work's not bad the boss is rather strict.

Ploughing that beanfield as I type.

I've only got this one and I'm using it tonight.

If it's too generous I'll take it back.

Oddly enough I'd had a look at this wikipedia page earlier tonight.[i]" [/i]Wilkeson acquired a "Fenderbird" bass from [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Entwistle"]John Entwistle[/url]. The Fenderbird bass mated a custom made [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Thunderbird"]Gibson Thunderbird[/url] body to a [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Precision_Bass"]Fender Precision Bass[/url] neck. Wilkeson can be seen playing this bass in a 1975 [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd"]Lynyrd Skynyrd[/url] performance at the Old Grey Whistle Test" Thankyou Essential Tension , if I had a strap to give away it woulds be on it's way.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwWUOmk7wO0[/media]

I tend to play with my right fore arm flopped over the back end , Entwistle style, this will eliminate just about any neck dive + I have done a test (before routing) with the neck in place with a strap and it did hang nicely. I think having the upper horn , thus moving the centre of balance out to about the 12th fret seems to take care of it.

I've done some routing and contouring. I'm going to paint it black. the body cavity will also have a screw connector so that I can quickly disconnect the earth or piezo bridge should i wish to change the scratch plate/pickups. The weight of this body is 1.5kg or 3 1/4 lb.

It can be worthwhile investing in a tour buss:

Note the basic mistakes, too much gear, too heavy, inadequate mud protection.

At the festival gigs I've done there's been plenty of carrying gear about ( if you're low down on the pecking order - no vehicle pass) so keep your equipment to a minimum. I noticed that our guitarist put his case into a bin bag at the last mudbath we attended, consequently he didn't spend the next week cleaning mud of his gear! On most small festival stages you get a very short set up/ sound check + it's not uncommon to be able to hear what's going on on other stages during your set. Expect the worst , anything else is a bonus.. You can end up playing to huge crowds or nobody, it's the luck of the draw, don't be disappointed if everyone is over at the enormo stage watching my band, or outside enjoying a rare glimpse of sunshine. As others have said have fun but remember that you have a job to do.

having played a lot of music festivals as an "also ran" I have come to the conclusion that lugging my expensive and heavy Fender around through muddy fields is too much like hard work. So I'm building a new bass. Light weight Cheap relatively disposable Fairly compact I've come up with this body shape: I started with a precision shape, lopped off the lower horn, cut off anything beyond the bridge, took a 2-3" strip out of the center line then trimmed the upper horn. I'm using plywood (my fretless has a plywood body and I have no complaints) because I have some sitting around. Eventually I will rout out the centre of the body to reduce the weight and to enable me to mount all of the electronics on the scratch plate. I'll probably go for jazz pickups at first but I intend to make a series of scratch plates with other pick up configurations. Edit: it's just occurred to me that I have a piezo bridge, the first scratch plate might well be a faux acoustic one.

[quote name='Fubar' timestamp='1341513454' post='1720416'] I actually play for a professional Country Music band. You can be assured however, I would never ever wear a shirt like that!! [/quote] Three kids to feed and I have no kidneys left to sell.

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1341497824' post='1720070'] We've gone for the John Collier look these days. [/quote]aaahhh the Saturday Night Suit!

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1341493921' post='1719975'] The day someone tries to dictate what I wear on stage is the day I leave the band. Remind me again why I',m not in a band.....? [/quote] Because you wouldn't wear this:

Weird thing is the guy in normal clothes looks more embarrassed!