Dom in Dorset

If you like the look of a T bird then a bit of neck dive is a character trait , not a design flaw. I got back into bass after a long abscence when I found a second hand T bird. The neck was curved big time but tweek of the truss rod and it's superb. The string spacing at the bridge (outside of E string to outside of G) is 55mm, so I doubt that there are many replacement bridges that would fit ( P bass is about 62mm?) This gives an almost paralel feel to the strings on the neck that I like a lot. I prefer a passive two soap bar set up but I'd have an active Tbird pro if you forced me. I like the Epi so much that I'd buy an Epi pro or Gibson without trying it (if I had the money and a good excuse to spend it)

"Stoned to the tangs"- sounds like you were prety wasted. I play a home made acoustic fretless , with lines (black lines on dark brown neck) I would have liked just side dots, no idead what it's like to play such a beast but they do look the part.

What pick up(s) do you have on yoiur fretless , why? What do you wish that you had? Active /passive? I'm thinking of making a fretless , I was wondering what the most popular pick up regimes were.

i've found that throwing in the odd open string is a good way to check your intonation when learning fretless. [b][/b]btw DEREK SMALLS IS GOD!

I'm trying a set of Picato Black Nylon strings on my acoustic fretless. They are a flatwound string with a black nylon coating. The acoustic sound is very quiet, I put them on just before a rehursal last night and didn't have time to hear them through my amp before i went. I was a bit concerned that the tone would be rather wooly. They sound and feel great!, I was also worried that visibility would be a problem ( black strings on rosewood fretless neck) -it's not. I've always avoided flatwounds because I don't like the fel of them, these are "silky" my fingers slide effortlessly with no hint of drag. has anyone else tried them, how do they age?

I had something very similar, natural finish. It was quite loud acousticaly, but very clanky. it was short scale and I found the strings too bendy (whatever type i tried) I spent a lot of time fiddling with the set up and got it quite nice. I got p#ssed of with the E string being quieter than the others. Mine was £120 in a shop, might be worth a punt at £50. A friend of mine turned his into an extra long bouzouki. November 5th is coming soon.

It's been interesting to note that there haven't been any "wow, just get one , no other bridge comes close" responses.

[quote name='Roffa' post='632886' date='Oct 21 2009, 09:57 PM']Actually, I think its a 8-stringer and a 4-stringer [/quote] You're right! Derek Smalls isn't the god that I thought he was. Oh well there's still his 5 string ,6 pickup , exploding earth Lakland.

[quote name='Mikey R' post='632750' date='Oct 21 2009, 08:09 PM']have you considdered the shaller 2000 bridge? Im really happy with mine.[/quote] I'll look at that one too.

Two identcal necks, Derek Smalls is a genious.

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='632574' date='Oct 21 2009, 05:11 PM']Here's mine and my cooker: and here's one that includes the kitchen floor: The first pic is a better representation of the actual colour.[/quote] An amplifier with a gas hob, now I've seen everything!

It's an option I'm considering on a new build.

are they worth the extra money? I was thinking of putting one on my next bass.

Stumbled on this while doing vital research on Derek smalls: [url="http://www.lakland.com/the-decade.htm"]http://www.lakland.com/the-decade.htm[/url] I love the look of the body shape , TBirdesque , but not actually that much like a TBird when you look closer. Only in America as far as I can tell, about $2000 mark. about £1200 Dear Father Christmas...

I'm probably being no help at all when say say that it has to be pre-1984 if that pic is from the film. I don't recognise to two guys right at the back so it might not be. He's been playing Lakland for a long time now. Saw Tap at Glastonbury, life has been downhill since then.

That would be great! I intend to do the whole thing with cheap and salvaged bits until I hit on the perfect recipe.

Thanks for all of the advice. it's all part of my master plan to build my "ultimate" bass. I'm going to test various pick up types, positions and combinations as well as body shapes , necks etc. Then build the perfect bass for me. Easy. I like the idea of a humbucker at the bridge that could be split and maybe a p bass pick up at the neck, who knows. I'll see what I like best.

[quote name='Darkstrike' post='631407' date='Oct 20 2009, 03:11 PM']Mainly that you don't use very high gain Jazz pickups. Depends on a few things really, How do you plan on wiring them, series, parallel? Where do you plan on installing it?[/quote] My plan is to use it in the bridge position, in series. How are the pups wired when in thier conventional settings (individualy mounted) on a jazz bass? I'm going to build a test bed body , ie a thin board with built up neck block and tail piece so that I can experiment with pick up types and positions , I want to be able to slide pick ups in and out from under the strings.

[quote name='Darkstrike' post='631255' date='Oct 20 2009, 12:10 PM']I've made them myself out of Jazz pickups, to great effect, real nice powerful humbucker sound, can be muddy if you're not careful.[/quote] What do you need to be careful with to avoid the muddiness?

I saw it here : [url="http://www.fender.co.uk/products//search.php?section=basses&cat=jazzbass"]http://www.fender.co.uk/products//search.p...mp;cat=jazzbass[/url] it's on the black bass, big pic on the right. Looks like a pair of jazz pick ups put together to make a humbucker. Oops! it's a different pic each time the page refreshes, but there are other basses with this pick up. I was thinking of making such a beast out of spare parts as an experiment, I had no idea it had already been done. I can't find the bass in Fenders catalogue, I might just be looking in the wrong place. Anyone know what bass it is, or tried one? I like the idea of four pole pieces per string.

That's stunning! Is it going to be fretted or fretless?

I've put up abetter demo , I'm still getting used to the fretless and this ones a bit better played. This time I've recorded it with a mic and played through my amp ( Laney RB7 ) , it's ritcher and warmer now.

I've posted a rough demo here: www.myspace.com/dominicallanbagpipes (yes, that's what I do for a living.) Track 5 I'll put up something better when time and tallent allows.

[quote name='Longmayyourun' post='609540' date='Sep 26 2009, 07:59 PM']I think that is truly amazing. Congratulations. I particularly like the soundhole shape (I looked at it for ages deciding it wasn't just a weird perspective) Nice one.[/quote] The ellipse is based on the position of two harmonics, I put pins into to soundboard at those points ( one for G string , one for the E) then put a loop of cotton round them, put a pencil into the loop and drew the sound hole. There is some science behind it, though I'm not sure what difference it makes! It looks good and looks like it's in the right place.

[attachment=33558:007.JPG] I've just got this up and running, it's based on a de-fretted Hohner neck with a fibre glass body. The shape was taken from a Stagg Jag coppy , I just liked the style. This bass has a spine running through it for greater stability, the wood was salvaged from an old piano. The same piano gave up it's spruce soundboard , it's it's about 8mm thick. There is a piezo pick up with pre-amp, the bridge and tail are made from boxwood (dense stuff). I'm still tweeking it at the moment, I used it at a rehursal last night and loved it. The sound is surprisingly double bass like but with more top and less bottom end. At the moment it's strung with brand new cheap medium round wounds and is a tad zingy. I intend to experient with different strings. I learned a lot doing this, ie cut the soundboard so that the grain lines up with the strings! the dark finish is an attempt to hide this! Don't attempt a sunburst finish unless you are prepared to go mad.