3below

Just another perspective, gained from refretting a defretted bass (go figure, it was an Artcore bass, cheap as chips project to learn how to refret a bound neck). Once you have defretted you may well have chips and / or tearout with the slots. Obtain some PTFE sheet (same thickness as slots) and cut to sit in the slots (scissors or Stanley knife). Use some rosewood (or whatever the board material is) to make some sawdust. Compact the sawdust into the divots against the PTFE and then drop CA glue onto the sawdust. I use a magnifying glass which helps with this. Repeat this for all the divots and chips. Allow the glue to harden and then sand. Clean the sanding dust out of slots and then carry on with veneer inserts. My take is that this method will give clean, 'sharp' slot edges against the veneer. The CA and sawdust will hide some surprising damage. This is just a technique I found on the internet.

Celidh band, 42 years ago - I was a young 15/16 at the time. Downhill ever since really, where did all those years go?

Purchased a P neck from John. Excellent chap, great communication. Buy/ Sell with confidence. John also knows how to package kit really well which defeats rogue couriers . Many Thanks.

ColinB, thanks for suggestion. They are good but the cost will add up for several. I am' just' up the road from you, near Kerry. So there are at least 2 of us in Powys.

Thanks again for kind words . Next mission, being a 'cheapskate' I am going to build a radiusing jig to route concave fingerboard sanding blocks. A one off at £20 ish is ok, if I build other radius fingerboards it is not tenable. Have to consume all this oak strip flooring I have

Small steps onwards. Headstock shaped and showing very approximate position of machine heads (stuck on with blu tack). The design will work with straight string pull, it is an amalgamation of two basses in my possession. As always after the event I can see minor details that I would do differently next time. The upper 'A' string oak strip should be a bit larger, in keeping with 'd' string piece. However next time I would stick to 5 laminations and not put the extra stripes on headstock (another miscalculation). It is as if I have to make mistakes in order to fix them and the underlying issues in my mind and thus prevent next time. This might be due to needing to do more woodwork

Looking good, must get moving on mine again.

Keepers - G&L SB1 1986 which I traded a John Hall R* bass against and have owned it for 26+ years. I got the best deal. Second is a Kramer DMZ4001, I always wanted one when i was a student in the 70s/80s but had to make do with a new Fender P bass in 1977 (long since gone). Both basses are keepers due to the difficulty in finding equivalents again. My main playing bass these days is a Gibson SG bass. No problems with this one going, replacements are readily available.

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1474319362' post='3137168'] Here we go again with the sexist assumptions... I'm still of the opinion that a bassist whose other half is constantly complaining about instruments and gear around the house has hooked up with the wrong partner. (Yes that sentence is carefully non-gendered because it really doesn't matter which half of the couple does the complaining.) [/quote] Totally correct However if you get a fail on this, you can with time wear the resistance and complaints down. YMMV [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1474040322' post='3135229'] What, this one..? [/quote] That is not backline. It is in fact the latest on stage monitoring system. It allows you and your fellow band members to simultaneously hear and perceive the 'heft' of the bass sound. Backline, no, not at all, wherever did that idea come from.

[quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1474319021' post='3137163'] I would go further, I have a mixture of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and USA instruments and the quality of all is excellent. G&L's and stingrays (Ray35's) are a good example. [/quote] The Chinese Rockbass 5 stringer I owned for a while had an outstanding build and finish quality, totally on a par with my USA G&L bass and Telecaster guitar (and that is a well made one). When these well built Chinese, Korean, Indonesian etc basses are made with quality timber (ash, maple, mahogany etc as many are) what 'magic' does the name and 'Made in USA' ticket carry anymore?

[quote name='Schnozzalee' timestamp='1474311010' post='3137048'] Buy yourself a G&L. [/quote] 'Buy yourself a 'vintage' G&L'., some real value for money about. Failing that just buy used German Warwicks, quality all day long at very sensible prices. I have owned a plethora of US guitars and basses, 5 at present, I have a liking for them but now feel that far eastern and Chinese basses offer 85 - 95% of the quality at bargain basement prices, especially s/h. Quite what Fender can do to compete remains to be seen. I have seen the same with my wife's business, luxury specialist products turned into high quality, low cost 'white' consumer goods over time. Country of origin no longer matters. I no longer buy German or Swedish cars either, better value for money elsewhere.

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1474308947' post='3137017'] Swoon - be still my beating heart. Absolutely fantastic! ...however, is there anything that I can say or do that will make you reconsider fitting the 3 point bridge??? An instrument of this quality deserves better [/quote] Retrofit of Hipshot 3 point bridge will be quite feasible. I could live with the lack of individual string adjustment on my SG bass 3 pointer. What annoyed me most was having to make and use an extender bar so that the silks stopped before the saddles. I thus went to Hipshot from this parish. Hipshot is not perfect either but I worked around that.

A simple less sophisticated solution is a surface mounted plate (early Musicman Sabre style) that just sits on the back surface. No reccess needed, the plate can be large enough to hide the 'mess'.

Basses, unlike children, pets, cars, houses, significant partners etc do not usually consume money. Seems OK to me on this basis.

The body will look very 'classy' in natural. A good 'hidden' bonus.

In a sort of related way, I had the Koa? truss rod plug in my USA telecaster gradually come adrift and work its way out. Pushed back in and sorted with thin CA glue. You are unlikely to have the skunk stripe coming adrift but as advised above get someone who knows to have a look.

In my youth I had a 58 EB2, well made, serious quality but muddy. About 2 yrs ago I bought an SG bass from this parish. It has become my get to go bass with TI flats ( I have a lot of bass choice including several 'classics', Warwicks etc). The SG does Instant Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser when needed. It will also approach a DB tone. It has a thick compressed tone at low volume (think singer playing acoustic), Nothing else I own gives me 'thick, compressed, 'CD playback' bass tone at low volume. DI recording just needs mild compression. Neck like a baseball bat which suits me. Light weight and compact which suits the vertically challenged bass player (me). Now for the bad: Mild neck diver and the 3 point bridge is in need of some updating (now done on current versions and on mine). Bridge on mine was out of alignment by about 2mm - sorted with s/h supertone bridge but not really acceptable. The satin finish is 'pants', shows every mark and scuff. Once I gave it furniture wax it has become a thing of beauty. What is not to like, especially as SG basses crop up at bargain prices.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1473621876' post='3131762'] The bit where I'm a bit unconventional is that I do the final, final scraping once the bass is finished and all strung up. Then I can really feel whether it plays comfortably. [/quote] And thank you again . I can see myself doing a final scraping / fettling with the bass strung up before finishing . I am finding that my level of 'perfection' and attention to detail is increasing as the build progresses (some old skills being re-awoken). 'Top Notch' will be getting a finish approaching one of yours, you have set the bar high Andy!

Neck now profiled, fingerboard and headstock still to finalise. Did back of neck first as this allowed clamping against the flat fingerboard. The Fender type bolt on heel and headstock style will give a flat clamping surface when the fingerboard is radiused. I am leaving the headstock shaping until the last stage thus preventing damage by dings (my careless handling) etc. Pictures not great, should have used different camera angles. Neck profile was all done by hand: shinto, file, scraper, sanding blocks and emery cloth (the oak is so hard it just ignores sand paper). Initially I was apprehensive about profiling the neck. After watching videos / Internet research I had considered: jig(s) for router, sanding belt, sanding belt and cam jig, 3/4" radius router bit in jig or router table (yikes). I thought I would need various profile templates to get the shape correct. In the end I just got on with it by hand, after all double basses, cellos etc are all hand shaped. It was straightforward and did not take much more than an hour from start to finish. The most surprising part was that I did it all by eye and hand with only one measurement. The one measurement was to confirm what my hand was telling me, there was a slightly thick portion at one point. Measurement revealed all - 1.5mm in 26mm. It is fascinating how hand / eye coordination intuitively sharpened up as the level of detail finishing progressed. All in all I am pleasantly surprised at how easy and satisfying this stage has been. I have a neck that suits my hands, it is a "baseball bat" as planned. No mistakes today

Capo 2nd fret and tune accordingly will be the way to go then Dots will be in all the wrong places, could be interesting unless playing Jazz.

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1473191733' post='3127920'] Definitely worth bearing in mind but for people limited to shorties it's not really an option. German short scales are really rare and go for a lot more when they do pop up [/quote] +1 and I would rather like a German short scale Corvette but have not seen one yet.

The colour is funky and 'fun', will be unlikely to see many of them about. Will be interested to see the pickguard develop, I have an old Peavey Fury that needs a pickguard, another project another time....

Why thank you A much better day than the last time. Headstock now profiled to 15mm (allowing for smoothing) and neck bandsawn to slightly wider than template. It now starts to look like a bass neck (Photo to follow). Creeping small errors though, my laminations in the neck have ended up not being square. Again not a critical show stopper, just annoying when I get into perfection mode. I am reminded of my school woodwork lessons, 'Face, Face edge', all those lessons with a try square are flooding back. Somewhere on this journey, despite taking time to square up planer etc, check stock I have blundered (thinking about this some more I suspect I know where the issue started). Next time perfection