Rich

I couldn't resist the temptation, and ordered it anyway... it's on and it looks absolutely brilliant. No pics of it until the bass is finished, soz I would heartily recommend Rothko & Frost's service to anyone. Dead easy to arrange, fast delivery and a really superb product. First time I've used them, but won't be the last.

I think that's probably stretching it a bit. Or a lot.

And then of course there's Dell Amitri.

I switched over just in time to miss Sheryl Crow. Sounds like it was good, I'll get it on iPlayer. I did hear the Erasure tune though, and I'm impressed with how good Andy Bell's voice still is. When you consider how dodgy some peoples' pipes become as they age (I know my range certainly isn't what it was 30 years ago), his are still sounding great.

Nice what a lovely job. I hope my Skajazz turns out as well as that has.

Top coat(s) on the body are all done now it's going to hang for a couple of weeks to really cure properly before the bolting together starts. Must resist the temptation to rush headlong into it!

I wish I shared your optimism man. But we shall see in the fullness of time. Hope you're right and I'm not.

The music itself is fine, it's the actual live scene that's in a mess. A hell of a lot of pubs and other small venues will never open again.

'No value' is entirely subjective. The counter argument is that just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's valueless. Your musical top 10 could well be my worst nightmare, and vice versa. Live music, on the other hand, is in a right pickle. I'll definitely agree with you on that.

Oh damn, I'd forgotten about the busted screws. that's a shame.

For me, the Trace Elliot SMX is and always will be the daddy when it comes to onboard amp compression. Still my favourite pre-amp ever.

It's a shame they're too narrow for beefy speaker cables. I use velcro straps for those.

Feedback threads merged

I coil my cables properly with the twist, and then use these Planet Waves elastic ties to keep them tidy. All my cables live either in a Markbass cable bag (courtesy of @MoJoKe) in the back of my amp rack case, or in the front pocket of the carry case for my Pod XT Live. Coiling the cable snake takes a bit of care as there are three cables in it and the twists tend to fight each other a bit.

If it was me, I'd leave the pup where it is and see how the tone changed. Life's more fun with the occasional leap into the unknown. If it turns out to be absolute pants, you can always move it and do the pickguard faff.

Sounds like a very cool project. It will be interesting to see what difference the bridge-move makes to the tone, in terms of the new pickup position.

I did consider filling, but in the end I thought "ah sod it, it's gonna get banged up anyway" and left it. It's all mojo, right? OK, the final primer coat has been flatted with flourpaper and the body's top coats have started! I'm edging towards tung oil to finish the neck, so I'll get some of that and once it's on the neck will hang up in the corner and stay there for a couple of weeks so the finishes can harden off fully. I'm planning a special headstock decal for it based on this template, but I'm going to hold my fire on that until it's all back together and I know it works.

And there I was thinking 'hurdy gurdy' was just something this bloke said.

Did I miss something? When did you abandon the wooden bridge you'd made and opt for the Schaller instead? Awesome build, by the way. I tip my hat to you.

Ooh I say, that's a proper hen's tooth and a rather lovely thing of loveliness... but the headstock is, errm, visually challenging

Two minor disasters at lunchtime. I'd just done a bit of flatting on the body ready for the next primer coat, and as I was dusting it off it slipped out of my hands. I managed to arrest its fall with my foot before it hit the concrete floor, but unfortunately it grazed against the bench on its way down and has knocked a small dent in the body. I'm not going to lose sleep, it's not like it's an expensive instrument and I've never been too precious about them anyway -- if I was that worried, they'd never leave the house -- but I still muttered a phrase that would have made a docker blush. I've blown another couple of primer coats and luckily I don't think the dent is going to be too visible once it's finished. Between coats, I was going through the hardware and have come up short of a tuner ferrule. Four black tuners, three black ferrules. It will annoy the manure out of me if I have to spoil the 2 tone vibe by fitting a chrome one. Wanted ad duly posted.

Yes, I'm going to approach that bit with care. I've tried not to get too much overspray inside the tuner holes.

Just checked their website. Even with postage added, they still undercut Strings Direct on Elixir 5-string sets. Methinks I will give them a try.

Looks good. I like the idea of the check being on the skew rather than straight and level. I might do a similar thing. A couple more pics: Primer and more primer! The complete headstock. I might do a bit more flatting etc, but it looks pretty good in the flesh. Wood. Whatever