Grooverjr

That could be an option. It would look great in an off white. All the dings are surface chips of the finish so they could be filled in easily enough in prep. But I will likely come up against the same issue with finding someone who can do a decent job.

That is kind of my position. It's great because of the neck and the pups, not the body shape or colour and I think instruments are to be played and enjoyed. Also, I think the headstock is very attractive and the pups, bridge and knobs are all great so if the body can be a better colour I am doing the bass a favour, regardless of its vintage.

Points taken on the need for chemical assistance and the corrollary of professional assistance. Unfortunately attention to detail and high skill levels are not hallmarks of the trades in La Paz so I am not too keen on getting a random carpenter involved. There is a furniture restorer nearby and what's in his window looks ok so if I have a spare hour or two I'll strip the body of all the gubbins and take it down to him to see what he can do.

If I was in the UK I would probably think twice but I now (and presumably forever) live in a place where there is no chance of me ever getting anythig like what I paid for it, or anythig over about a hundred quid, so there is no point thinking about it in those terms.

I prefer to avoid heavy chemicals due to the lack of ventilation but the neighbous are away for a couple of weeks so the shared landing might be an option. I need to go and get some other painting and wood finishing bits anyway (1980s build flat, doors and skirting need a bit of sorting out) so I'll see what I can pick up. I'm not worried about resale value as Bolivia has no market for this kind of thing and I couldn't play it standing up for more than 5 minutes without giving myself a serious shoulder problem so even if I do make a mess of things noone will see it.

Lovely stuff! Reminds me of the old Viz Mud on Road, Sweet Trolley, The Pips single frame groaners.

That looks like nice stuff. I used mineral oil (stuff they use to help seal chopping boards, not the brake fluid!) and beeswax on a table with a rather uninspiring grain and colour and it does a great job of accentuating what is there without changing anything too much, so that may also be an option when the time comes, although it does need quite regular retouching.

Ah, I was dreading that kind of answer, but at the same time it was exactly why I asked the question so thanks for the warning. I can see from the area under the neck screw plate that the finish is very gloppy. I don't have a power sander or a well-ventilated space to work in (small flat, basic toolbox - good name for an experimental album 😁). Looks like I might need to just live with it being an ugly duck until we get going on a building project we have in mind for the next year or two and then I should have access to both. I have been warned about the surrounds and the whole pup fixing / height adjustment sensitivity so I will be very careful with that when the time comes.

Thanks @Beedster. I wasn't aware of wood wax, but that looks really nice. Agreed on the grain being a bit dull but it might be better once it is stripped and revealed and almost anything looks decent in black!

I got a Kramer 450b last year and despite the fact that it weighs a ton and it's not exactly the easiest thing to play I love it. What I don't love is the colour of the body (and the less said about the wooden inserts on the back of the neck, the better). I don't know if it was originally a kind of orangey-brown or if it has changed over the years but I suppose it is 'period corect' for the 70s - i.e. nasty. It also has quite a few little dings and chips, but nothing serious. It's a 4 piece walnut body and the pieces match pretty well but they're not all that interesting, figuring wise. In the neck pocket where it hasn't been varnished the wood looks quite pinky-red and I am thinking of stripping it down to the bare wood and seeing if I want to keep it that colour or, if not, staining it black. With the ebanol board and the aluminium I think it would look pretty good. Certainly better than what it is now. I am hardly an expert at woodworking (a couple of pieces of furniture rescued and revived is my lot) and I have no decent tools but I think I can manage a sand down and refinish if there's no spraying involved. That said, I have a solid history of underestimating the difficulties of just about everything so before I mess it up completely I thought it best to check if any of you far more experienced lovely people have any advice / top tips / recommendations.

You should be able to get some pills for that from the pharmacist. 🤣 Absolutely gorgeous bass, though.

Bravo! Is that the first ever use of "antimacassar" on BC? Weirdly enough I had reason to use the word antimacassar only this morning. They're like busses!

Thanks both. I have got pretty close now by fiddling with the chorus settings and changing the compressor model.

Thanks. I was wondering if there was a bit of chorus or similar in there. I'll have a fiddle around and see what I can do. It's such a lovely, plummy sound, kind of ballooning out and back again.

There's a really lovely roundedness and fullness to the bass sound on this track and I have no idea how to go about getting it. I assume there's compression involved but what else is there? I have a Roland VB99 so I should be able to recreate most things but I don't have mush experience with how different noise makers work. So, over to the BC collective genius to hopefully help me out. It's a great bassline as well, simple but really effective.

Stained black ACG.....where have I seen that before? 😜 That's going to be a monster, mate! Can't wait to see the finished article.

Make sure he hears you clearly or he might take a snap of Scotch and then the rhythm could be all over the place! 🤣

I'm trying to really nail Do The Strand by Roxy Music at the moment and that line seems to exemplify a lot of what is being said here. The rhythm of the song, which is an absolute classic mover, is driven by the bass which is working largely as percussion and it's busy in a sense with the notes without over complicating the choice. I also find you get a fantastic sense of how much the bass of a track is holding the rhythm when you pull the bass out and listen to the tune without. Sometimes it is still largely the same (a lot of pop stuff) but with others the whole thing falls apart and feels completely empty. Roxy Music's first few albums are a great example, as is Roly Wynne's lines on early Ozrics stuff. They are often quite busy tunes and quite a lot of the time he is noodling but the bass is nearly always the dominant instrument in terms of the tune feeling like the tune. What a player, gone very much too soon.

Some kind of straplock perhaps? Might take a bit of adjustment but I reckon it would look pretty cool on the top horn.

What have you done with the skull volume knob? Seems a shame not to do something fun with it.

Given my avatar I will obviously be putting the car and children up for sale immediately so I can buy this and then learn how to extract DNA from skin cells left on the strings and create a serum to inject into myself so I can not only play like Bootsy but also have his voice. The name´s Jacksy baby! 😆 In the real world, I am now off to YouTube to watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sh9cezHNec

I love a midlands accent, the vowels are really fruity. Having a flat North Kent accent myself I loved my university days in Coventry. I have history witht he name because we used to go for a thali and a barfi at a North Indian sweet centre on the Foleshill Road and there was a signpost for Nuneaton on the way. As we would have starved ourselves to get full value from the food we'd do a silly studenty play on words as we passed as part of the ritual. Anyway - neither Nuneaton nor Coventry qualified as rubbish in my book back then. I haven't been since, mind you and I'll bow to your superior wisdom on Nuneaton.

Yes. I don't suppose it was deliberate but I quite liked the symmetry of it. It's also just a great place name, especially said in the local accent.

Nuneaton....I see what you did there 😁

The thing is, with music or any art form or, indeed, loads of other stuff, there are broadly two ways to measure them - popularity / utility and 'quality'. Sometimes the first is a function of the second, but not very often. It's quite difficult to keep these two separate and attempt to be objective about it. It's a good mental exercise and stops you turnig into either a pub bore or an intolerant tw*t but it also makes for potentially dry conversations or exchanges of views. So in the spirit of objectivity... Morrisey is not 'rubbish' in either of the senses - he has written good songs and can hold a tune and his music has been very popular. Wetherspoon's food: no idea, only ever been in one of thier pubs once and the beer was cheap but the floor was sticky. Not for me, Clive, but people want somewhere to meet and have a drink and some food and we can't always be making those kinds of decisions based on our agreement or otherwise with famous owners. I am rarely in England and when I am there are lots of excellent pubs I can go to and get beer I like in a pleasant atmosphere, which I accept I have to pay more for. Ian Brown can't sing but I still enjoy his vocal delivery, partly because I can sing along to it and not sound awful! Liam G can't sing and I don't like thier music but I understand they are popular. Coldplay I just don't get but I think they are largely music for people who don't like music and they perform a valuable function of making a lot of people feel happy. If you want to find genuine total rubbish you just need to put a random word into Spotify song search and have a listen. Plenty of qualitatively awful music with almost no listens. It gives people somethign to do and an outlet to make them feel better and it hurts noone sitting there so it is harmless, but it is absolute twaddle.