DF Shortscale

Yeah, I really like his basses but I contacted him many years ago about a build (nothing fancy or out of the ordinary) and didn't get a very friendly response, put me off dealing with him tbh. Also ideally I'd like to support a UK builder if possible, partly because it's nice to support people closer to home, and partly to avoid the stress of taxes /shipping costs etc.

Fair enough, will drop him a line - thanks!

Lovely basses but his P's are 33/34/35", I'm hoping to find a 32" scale..

Looking into getting a custom medium scale precision built, or maybe a PJ, Fender-ish vibe with a few upgrades. I know Manton would probably be a good choice, are there any other UK builders that are worth looking into? Budget - let’s say £2k max. Thanks!

Yeah, me too usually! Or Feline down in Croydon, those guys do brilliant work and they’re very quick. I’d happily trust them with any bass.

Best for me was probably a Genzler 350 head. Worst was a supposedly reputable guitar repair guy who wrecked one of my basses when I took it in for some mods. I won’t mention any names but if you’re thinking of having any repair work done in the Greenwich / Woolwich area, I recommend looking elsewhere.. All fixed now but lesson learnt - use only people you really trust for mods and repairs!

I find that some flats age differently to others. Chromes are interesting, they start off sounding metallic and noisy, but they settle into a really nice tone fairly quickly and seem to stay there for a long time. I'm only about a year into a set but after about a month of playing they started sounding very good and they've stayed consistent since. You have to put some proper playing time in for Chromes to find their true character. I like old rounds too, tired old Rotosounds can be great, as can old HiBeams, and I really liked old NYXL's too on a jazz bass, I kept them on there for years. I have Dunlop flats on another bass which are maybe 3 or 4 years old, they sound completely lifeless now and not in a good way, they feel nice but have no character or personality whatsoever. Will be changing those for something else soon, not quite sure what yet..

First time it's happened to me but I rarely put stuff up for sale there. Didn't realise Reverb was also rife with this stuff, no getting away from it.

Not sure if anyone still falls for these but this popped up in my Reverb offers today, thought it might be worth posting here, if you get one of these obviously avoid. Doesn't make any sense but I'm sure someone out there will still fall for it. There doesn't seem to be a way of reporting the account on Reverb which is weird.

I’m sure the fact that lots of builders come from design / illustration backgrounds will have something to do with that, I think the general standard out there is pretty decent right now in terms of aesthetics. Even the visually ‘meh’ is usually a solid and functional design.

The single colour / minimalist approach can be really nice, I love graphics like this on pedals. Although this may still be a UV print, I’m not sure.

I would love to, but there’s a full time job, a freelance career on the side, plus gigs, practice, and two mouths to feed* which unfortunately doesn’t leave much time for new hobbies.. *ok they’re just cats, but they do eat an awful lot

I guess that’s similar to people who build pedals using old tin boxes, that stuff looks great.

I guess printing will up the cost by a certain amount, and paying the artist will add to the cost if the artwork is not being done in-house. From what I can find online it seems like if you want full colour, the way to print these things is using UV printing. I think the place I work at has just bought some new equipment that can do this so I might buy a few enclosures and have a go.

Getting artwork onto pedals is quite a challenge, I’ve been looking into this over the past few days. Scribbling directly on the casing seems like the only method that isn’t a huge commitment, which is maybe why some boutique builders choose that as their ‘aesthetic’. Screen printing is probably the nicest method but it involves using inks that are pretty toxic, the studios I would normally print in don’t allow those materials.

Yeah, having looked around a bit it seems like lots of builders have a design background, if there were more hours in the day I’d go down the DIY route and start building stuff myself. Such a great platform for artwork.

It's not so much about buying pedals, I work as a designer / illustrator, I wanted to see if any builders needed help with artwork. Not for financial gain, more as a fun side project - I have a FT job so I'm busy enough but I always wanted to create artwork for pedals and really want to contribute or collab with a new builder.

Who's out there making cool / interesting / one-off / DIY pedals in the UK at the moment? Doesn't have to be bass specific, and if you're building pedals feel free to post your pedals and works in progress here too.

That’s only a quick drive from me, that would be great - I’ll send you a DM. Thank you! Thanks everyone for the great suggestions, really helpful.

Thanks Gary, I’ll send you a DM.

I need to get a body refinished, seems like it’s a little tricky to find anyone who does paintwork in London, is there anyone here on BC who does that sort of thing? Alternatively any recommendations in London / South East?