Dom in Dorset

It looks like the G string is falling off the side of the neck! I'd have said that the pick ups aren't original but the neck one does look like it's always been there. One of the best basses I ever had was a tatty no-name jazz.

[quote name='crez5150' post='689654' date='Dec 20 2009, 12:14 PM']Or just don't look at your hands ;0)[/quote] I had tried not to but I think that it's hard to avoid it until you are forced to.

I made myself an acoustic fretless about three months ago and I've been taking it along with my fretted to rehursals since then. I've been using it on about 50% of the songs, either due to confidence , required sound or I prefer fretted if I'm singing. A few weeks back I was asked to join a second band replacing an upright player. I jumped at the chance to get some extra time on the fretless only taking that one to rehursals. We did our first gig last night and to my horror I noticed that under dim stage lighting the black lines where the frets used to be on the dark brown board become invisible! I had good on stage sound and I'd learned the set inside out so It didn't turn out to be a problem, but it was unsettling for a moment. A word of advice: if you are about to play your first gig on fretless make sure that you run through the set in a dark room!

The only problem that I can think of is that you may find that you are little too quiet and mellow when played unplugged. If you're using the bass plugged in then it's probably fine , I've got black nylon flats on my acoustic fretless, unplugged- dull and quiet, plugged -cavernous.

[quote name='TRadford' post='687654' date='Dec 17 2009, 07:32 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=70931"]£30 collected, not far from you.[/url][/quote] "Not bad at all & AMAZING value for money." -popped up in the next post. Only idle curiosity on my part, i'll not be snapping it up.

I'd love to know what these are like: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOHNNY-BROOK-JAZZ-BASS-GUITAR-BLACK_W0QQitemZ320419273106QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4a9a7a1992"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOHNNY-BROOK-JAZZ-BA...=item4a9a7a1992[/url] if I £70 to spare i'd get one just to see.

I've not seen The Return of (unforgavable for a Tap Head) in the original film I believe it's a BC Rich, he's now on Laklands

i see what you mean about the tangs. Looks like it's rosewood then, de-fretted and filled.

That's the one: looks like rosewood.

I'm happy to de-fret anf finish the board myself. I've done this before. I was thinking this time that I'd like to file the frets back leaving the tangs as markers, i've seen this done and it looked nice. The nickel dust would get ingrained in the maple and look nasty, so it may well be rosewood. I wish I could remember whos bass it was with the "stoned to the tangs fets", it was posted here a couple of months back, I can't remember waht the board was.

Both necks will be fretted, one will be de-fretted. I can't find fretless necks off the peg without spending hundreds.

The reason why I'm limited to maple or rosewood is because i'm buying two off the peg necks and that's what's available in my price range! The price is even more of an issue as i have to buy two of every thing. Pictures will be posted as soon as there is anything to see.

i'm not too concerned about ware to the board, I'l almost certainly be using black nylon flats, I'd have thought that the nylon would ware out before any damage was done to the board itself. My main concern is the effect on tone and response.

what pick up regime does your Overwater have?

I'm tempted to go with maple + nylons for the bright tone, I can always take the trebble of if it's too much? I'm going for P bass type pick ups, I think if I was using Jazz pick ups then rosewood might be the better choice. Maple is also slightly cheaper!

I am limited to maple or rosewood, as for strings , I'm using Picato Black Nylons on my acoustic and I'll probably use them on the fretless neck.

My home build project for next year is a twin neck fretted/fretless. I've made most of the desisions about pick ups, neck style etc The last big desision is what wood for the fret(less) board? Time, ability, budget, limit me to a choice between maple and rosewood, I have a rosewood board on my acoustic fretless , it does the job. Is there any big difference with maple?

I built myself an acoustic fretless with fribre glass body partly inspired by a Godin guitar. There is a sound clip here : [url="http://www.myspace.com/dominicallanbagpipes"]http://www.myspace.com/dominicallanbagpipes[/url] It's the last track on the media player, you have to scroll the tracks down to find it. At that time I was using new , roundwound, cheap strings, since then I've put Picato black nylon flats on (the guy in the video looks like he's using something similar). IMO the black nylons have a less DB like sound , but they are far nicer to play. This bass is now my main instrument. I tend to play nearer the bridge for a more focused tone , but the neck end still has a more DB feel.

This might be useful: [url="http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/bass/equip-entwistlegear.html"]http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/ba...wistlegear.html[/url]

I've recently realised that "I know what I like" - I'm in the process of designing my next bass, one of the things that I've agonised over is pick ups. I went to a couple of shops and tried out different basses, I kept coming back to passive , twin humbuckers. It does it for me, no batteries , natural but big sound , high output. I'd second the Ibanez SRX 360- not tried one but I've been impressed with all things Ibanez. I tried a Jet King and loved it- nice touch of metal in the tone, retro look. Also tried a Dean with two humbuckers, very nice, it was about £160? The body didn't have much contouring, a big slab of wood , lovely to play, big T bird sound, maybe a bit more edge to it.

I'll throw my 2p worth in with the Epiphone T bird, usualy about £199, huge fat tone and looks that only it's mother could love. Not everyones cup of tea, but most certainly mine.

Socks it is then.

I'm hoping for a twin neck t bird, 4 string fretted/fretless. I can't even find a pic of such as beast so I may have to make do with Keira Knightly again or some socks.

In the CD booklet it does apear to be the P bass that he's using.Many of the pics of Mr Entwistle + P bass that I can find with google appear show him playing with a plectrum. My personal choice would be to build a "Fenderbird" hybrid.

[quote name='Killstarz' post='663679' date='Nov 24 2009, 01:14 PM']I found replacement pickups impossible to find when i had one...that is why i got rid of it. Lovely bass though.[/quote] Is that really an issue? Unless you do some serious damage to the bass, the pick ups will last for ..? (I've never had a pick up die on me in 20 years) It's a £200 bass, by the time anything dies of natural causes the whole thing is likely to be giving up the ghost and you'll have probably moved onto an even more gorgeous bass. Generic soap bar pick ups are available (not easy to find , but they exist)