BassTool

Time to rescue my own thread...... as requested by @Pea Turgh

From this...   

....to this..

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

I am fond of the occasional mollusc or two actually now that you mention it.  African Snails are amazing.

Now I have MC Hammer's I like Big Butts on repeat in my squirrel cage of a brain!  The bugger keeps saying I like big molluscs and I can not lie...!

That must be why he kept jumping around in big pants... he was smuggling African Snails across the border in them and was forced to fidget to hip-hop music to get past customs whilst being molested by concealed molluscs about his nethers.

I'll go and lie down in a darkened room for a bit now.

And SpondonBassed wins the award for most diverse thread deviation 2019...

🤣

On 07/03/2019 at 15:47, SpondonBassed said:

I like that Wilkinson has recognised that there is more potential string movement at the nut than there is at the bridge when you tune up.  They've put roller bearings where they are of most use.  I was unable to find the equivalent for bass however.

Great idea, but they'd all have to be individual rollers for each string surely? On both six string guitars and four/five string bass... if they do them for bass of course -  IMO I think they've messed up using one roller for a pair of strings in pics above ... 👍

The nut is a crucial, but so often overlooked, part of an instrument  

On 07/03/2019 at 18:59, Soledad said:

Random thought came to me today, thinking about this bass - if I could ever have had one - I'd ask to call it a MAN-RAY (Dada / surrealist like)

But you'd be forgetting to incorporate a nod to the donor bass remember   the Man and Ray both come from the original bass 😎

Oh.

And an open string between those two lumps of brass does sustain for hours.... 🤣

19 hours ago, Soledad said:

Very smart work indeed. Applause. Brass nut seems a good idea, I'd imagine the harder the nut material the better. All right tasty.

Back in the day when I subscribed to the magazine 'The International Musician' (showing my age now) 😆 there was a free Di Marzio booklet issued with one of the editions. Almost every bit of stuff they were making as add ons was crafted from brass. The nut in particular was hailed for its inherent transfer properties back into the bass, as well as sustain - something I've never quite got as I've always tried to control the length of the notes I play anyway.

But as @SpondonBassed says, it's a great metal to work with, and I put a brass nut on my fretless years ago. It's dead easy to refurb as I've demonstrated, and I love the look of it too  

The chance to upgrade the pretty crappy plastic one on the Blazer was too good an opportunity to pass up.

21 hours ago, gazhowe said:

Great job Johnna, that’s absolutely fantastic! 😎

When I saw you were following the thread mate it ramped up the pressure to get it as good as possible!  😆

(For the uninformed my mate young Gaz is an aficionado of the MM Stingray, he's owned a few and is a very fine player of them too!)

We'll have to catch up as I really have no idea what a genuine Stingray sounds like 😖

Be good to compare with the real thing to see if I'm in the ballpark - but bottom line is, the BlazerRay sounds very good to my untrained ears.. 😂 Thanks Gaz!  

3 minutes ago, Norris said:

Never been a fan. A proper time-served, well gigged bass maybe. I've always tried to look after my kit and mostly it is in decent condition. The odd knock is inevitable, and something that has been played for hundreds of hours may show some signs of wear. However something that looks like it's been run over by a tractor is just "fake news" and trying too hard. All imho of course 

^ This^

As someone who has always looked after my gear, I just do not get the relic thing - at all.

Don't get me wrong, my own basses show many signs of years of gigging, but to deliberately 'damage' a bass to make it look used just does absolutely nowt for me 🤔

Just my opinion 

6 hours ago, Jimothey said:

Great job your attention to detail is exceptional! Love the finished look! Only problem now its got me Gassing for a Stingray!! 😁 

Love your builds Jimothey, glad you've enjoyed it 👍

Forget those Stingrays..... and build yourself an imposter 😁

😎

6 hours ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

Brilliant end result mate! I've never been keen on 'Rays but I'm dying for a noodle on this! The quality of the finished piece is amazing!

6 hours ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

Oh and I can't stop looking at the close-ups of the fretboard after you went at it, it looks so good! Got me wondering whether I should do the same on my JM Jazz's maple fretboard... you bugger!

Thanks very much Rikki, honestly, if I can do it, anyone can  go for it.

Incidentally I used 2000 grit to get that orange lacquer down. 👍

All my other basses except my P have rosewood boards, my own first Blazer back in 1980 however was a maple neck like this one (it then became my fretless in 1983 when I defretted a Cimar Grabber maple neck with RW board and put it with the Blazer body, still got it) I'm loving the revisit to a maple neck and board, and as you can probably imagine, I can't put this down at the moment 😆

9 minutes ago, Sharkfinger said:

Truly a job well done! We need some sound clips now, don't we?

That pup and pre you sold me are a fantastic combination   👍  

Headstock decal was provided by Rob at www.guitardecals.co.uk 

After being quoted £57 by Rothko & Frost for my 'complex design' request I found this guy on ebay who did me two waterslide transfers for less than £10. Great bloke to deal with, and got my decal exactly as I wanted it - recommended 😎

3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I'm not sure whether I like this or not...can you drop it round so that I can test it? I'll give it back in, say...a couple of months...promise...😉😉

Seriously though...nice job

3 hours ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

That’s a really nice looking job!  You must be very pleased.

Completely agree - John East is a really helpful chap.

Look forward to your next project.

Cheers

Jez

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Super job

You three chaps were instrumental to this transformation. @TheGreek your amazing bass as I've said earlier - maybe a swap? 🤣WOW the job  @Andyjr1515 did transforming that into the stunner it became, and his threads were my go to for advice from all the stuff he's done generally  @Jabba_the_gut amazing work and incredible designs, yourself and so many other fabulous builders on here - too many to mention - whose threads I've followed and learned from this last couple of years, thanks to you all for sharing your skills 👍

Really enjoyed doing this and well pleased with the end result - I forgot to say that it sounds exactly like a BlazerRay... 😲 

I'm going back to being an avid reader now 😀

Oh, and I messed up with the battery cover today! But as the sun was shining I thought I'd get my pics

I've literally completed it today, and I have got to say a big thanks to John East for helping me via email to get the wiring right. (No welding rods required!)

I emailed him with a query at 8.50 this morning and he had got back to me with a detailed answer by 9.30!

Brilliant service John if you're on here 😎

2 minutes ago, BassBus said:

Mighty impressive. Looks like the real thing. Well, it is the real thing. There's only one Blazerray. 👍

Cheers BassBus 👍

2 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Bloody brilliant!  Now for some side by side before and after shots, then another project please!

I'll try and sort pics @Pea Turgh but I started with the bass in bits and am gutted I never took a full on shot of the Blazer before starting - and I don't know what I'm going to do next if anything! This truly was a first for me, a big undertaking and I've learned a lot from it. I took a punt on the gluing thing first and it just snowballed from there! After following build diaries for so long and finally doing my own I've got to say I've loved almost every minute 😆