Dom in Dorset

My home made acoustic fretless is known as "The Brown Special" in homage to Brian May's guitar.

K P bass- damn nice considering what utter sh1te their stuff usually was. Nameless Jazz copy- SH and nackered but a dream to play, kept this one for a long time. Nameless rick copy-A heap of junk that bought when I wanted to be Lemmy. Hohner Steinberger stick 5 string passive - kept this one for years until I quit bass for a few years. Short scale cheap acoustic bass- can't remember the make, I traded the Hohner in to get this and fell in love with bass playing again. Epi T bird- SH, bought just for fun but I love this bass , set up well it plays beautifuly. Ibanez AEB- replaced the short scale, still with me. Home made acoustic fretless- er, probably my most used bass at the moment.

I have no idea if what he says is true but , if a neck becomes bowed (ie too much relief) it can be corrected by adjusting the truss rod. The problems occur if the curve in the neck is unneven , this tends to be more of a probllem on cheaper basses. as far as I know this happens during production and not as a result of how the bass is played.

Sold my five string a few years ago- never looked back.

Looks nice in black:

I tried the 200, very nice. Can't say much more , but in it's price range a great bass.

I know you said not ebay but I've used these guys a couple of times and have nothing but praise for them: [url="http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/CH-GUITARS__W0QQ_armrsZ1"]http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/CH-GUITARS__W0QQ_armrsZ1[/url] What initialy got me interested is that they give plenty of measurements of all their necks etc. I had two jazz necks from them , they don't seem to have many necks at the moment, might be worth asking.

I almost wish that this cost more than £199! I like the look of it. It owes a lot to the Jazz bass , it looks different around the cutaways. Has anyone here got one, I'd love to get a paper template drawn from the body (still messing with body shapes for my twin neck build)

The skeleton bass looks cool, some of their other stuff troubles me.... "A new addition to the Skylark range and based on the famous Ricky 4000 style bass. Gorgeous looks and sleek maple neck. Great tonal range and lovely weight. A very nice bass indeed." A Rickenbacker 4000 bass

Many years ago I walked into Bass Place thinking "the Steinberger Stick bass is a vile abomination and I wouldn't be seen dead with one" . An hour later after stupidly picking up a Hohner copy, I left owning it. I've not tried a Bongo but IMO "the Bongo bass is a vile abomination and I wouldn't be seen dead with one (it's also an insult to the sleek lines and clean design of the scrotum)"- but then I'm totally mercenary, If I'm in the market and try one....

Black nylons are great on acoustic fretless, I'd imagine they are a bit dull on fretted.

My experience- the only replies to my add were from people 200 miles away, bands who's style is at odds with mine and total weirdos._ I did take the time to reply to everybody. I was lucky in that I bumped into someone I knew at a gig, asked what they were up to , got the reply -"not much, we don't have a bass player!" I would second the idea of going to more gigs.

I didn't find that it made a lot of difference what strings i used on my cheapy acoustic. I tried £40 bronze strings , nice tone for about a month then dead. I found cheap electric strings did the job. In my experience a lot of acoustic strings are very light gauge, my Ibanez came with nice heavy bronze strings, i've no idea what they are._edit: I've just measured them 45,65,80,100, not as fat as i thought but a tad fatter than many. I'd go for the Trace - because it's the only brand i've heard of or - whatever is the heaviest gauge.

It happens in many different ways for me. I keep notebooks that I write down any lyric/melody ideas that I have, sometimes I put something together from those. Sometimes I'll sit watching tv late at night, write down five pages of gibberish, later on I might edit those into a song. Sometimes a song appears fully formed in my head, I just have to write it down, it's like I'm being possessed by the spirit of someone with tallent. Once and only once I wrote a song to order. I had been asked if I had another song for the band, later that week I sat down picked up a pen, wrote the song took it to the next rehursal. Not the best thing I ever wrote, not the worst.Usually get most of my ideas when I'm too bussy to work on them. I usually play guitar when I'm writing.

Yes, it's a bouzouki, he even plays it sometimes. There is a mandolin player too, out of shot. Yes there are six of us.

[quote name='4 Strings' post='786705' date='Mar 26 2010, 10:29 AM']Why not?[/quote] Your bass might end up looking like that car!

Would you do the same to your car?

[quote name='discreet' post='786658' date='Mar 26 2010, 09:43 AM']Just lend it to me for thirty-five years...[/quote] "real time" relicing is always the most convincing.

I'm the one playing bass (oddly enough)

Many years ago I had a nameless Jazz copy. It was a delight to play, I remember the sound being a bit stuffy, probably because I was too tight to change the strings. Former bass player From Dexy's midnight runners had a go on it once , he laughed when he saw it, picked it up , played it , played it some more, couldn't put it down. I think I sold it for about £25 , I can't remember why. I'd love to have any cheap jazz copy again. I'm still devoted to my Epi t bird, there are certain things that it does that I like. Ibanez Jet king - tried one , loved it.

If you were to fit a piezo bridge to a P bass , how/where do you plumb it in?

Many years ago i made an ultra rough thing that was a primitive version of that. I also used half P bass pick up. i used to play it with a bow and put it through a distortion! It sounded evil.

At one time (C19 and earlier) most woodwind instruments were made right or left handed (most were still RH), todays mass production makes this commercially unviable. I do know someone who made a left handed modern clarinet. Also it's now acceptable to be left handed, at one time it just wasn't allowed.

I occasionally work in a shop and if anyone asks for a left handed guitar or bass we always ask if they have tried right handed first. many leftys assume that they just wont be able to play a standard bass. If you can play right handed you have a greater choice. some left handed players can and some can't play right handed. I have a friend who is left handed , he plays classical guitar right handed , that's how he was taught at school. Later in life he took up bouzouki, he says that his left hand has a better sense of rythm and as he primarily strums the bouzouki he plays bouzouki with a pic left handed. Left handedness isn't clear cut , one of my daughters writes left handed, my mother (also a lefty) bought her some left handed scissors and she couldn't use them! It's just a matter of choice, I would always recommend trying a right hand bass first (our shop gives a good trade in if you don't get on with it). as I point out to new players , we have over 100 guitars and basses in stock , 10-15 are left handed ( and we stock more LH stuff than most and don't charge extra if possible.)

I've done two de-frets, the first one I used super glue and african blackwood dust (it's the stuff they make clarinets from). The second one I used scraps of veneer plundered from a scrap piano. The results are far neater and it didn't take much longer ,I glued the veneer in with wood glue and left it overnigh, the finishing took far less time than the wood dust. There are pictures in build diaries (twin neck project)