Dave Vader

[quote name='Bassassin' post='890715' date='Jul 9 2010, 07:26 PM']Is a bargain, was more so before he came & researched it here! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93928"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93928[/url] J.[/quote] Damn you helpful people, should have told him it was firewood, and offered to take it off his hands for the price of a pint.

I would say this was a massive bargain. Sadly I don't have £150 about me at the minute, enjoy [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150465304122&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT[/url] 79 Roadster, or so it says.

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='890444' date='Jul 9 2010, 02:27 PM']I have a big box of assorted springs from ebay. Send me a pm with the width and lengh dimensions and I'll pop a couple in an envelope for you.[/quote] Thanks Al! Pm on the way...

HI, my rickenfaker came with springs that are too short to hold the bridge pickup down far enough. Sadly the ric springs I did have got cut down to fit my Seymour Duncan Humbucker setup, so I don't have any springs wide enough to fit round a Ric pickup screw, or long enough to hold the pup down. Does anyone know where I can get long, wide springs that will do the job from?

www.lemonrock.com Has a few on there as well.

Turned out nice in the end actually (well I say end..) See? Looks pretty good, here's come close ups... You can barely see the crack now. However, here's my leftover hondo plywood..... My stereo jack hole (which I may have mentioned, I did not do very well at all) looks a hell of a lot better than this one, which may be a hondo factory standard, or may have been done later by some muppet, judging by the paint, I would say hondo. Unlike them, usually their holes and pickups are quite good, if nothing else. Made me feel better about my chasm though. Now whether to sell it, burn it, glue it to a wall, or make something even weirder with it, perhaps a Rickenfender? Oh, and the other teeny problems with the Rickenbastard itself, stereo doesn't work (and I didn't test it before so it may never have worked) easily solved with a wiring diagram and a soldering iron I'd have thought. And, my pickup doesn't go low enough into the body, so we have Jack Bruce fartyness, and not in a good way. Check that out for close. Plan A for bodging is to drill 4 small cavities in the main cavity for the two scerwheads on the back, and the mounting bolts to go into, thus allowing longer bolts, and the pickup to lie flat. Plan B, is routing the whole cavity down a mil or two. But that relies on me buying a new bit for my router, after last summers bodge project "fitting a neck pickup to my old Ibanez Roadstar" which I mercifully took no pictures of, as it resulted in the end of my router bit. I do learn from these mistakes, honest... Will let you know if I get it right for the gig friday.

Gigging all weekend, so can't. But would point out that I saw Den with the Rock and Roll Outlaws last weekend at my wife's works do in Tavistock, and they are great. They do the songs properly, and I would be more than happy to take this dep, if I weren't busy. Little bump as well, in case it dropped down too far too soon.

[quote name='spinynorman' post='887951' date='Jul 6 2010, 11:50 PM']This is why I rarely attempt projects or mods. Good fun though, and if you're going to bodge it, you might as well do it properly. [/quote] I have a huge collection of bodged guitars ands basses, I live in hope of one day doing one properly and it all working out to the original plan. However, after 20 years of bodging, I can't see me getting any better at this.

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='888038' date='Jul 7 2010, 01:50 AM']Index finger, I just use the two. A question for the 3 (or 4 even ) finger pluckers, do you not have problems with your middle finger being longer than the others and making notes uneven? I play with my bass at a bit of an angle so my index isn't that much further from the string, but my ring is miles away, if I played it with my hand more at a right angle, it's odd having my index and ring futher away. I'd love to be able to get it, for some reason, my right hand doesn't like fast groups of 3s (triplets or accents).[/quote] I did to start with, but much like flamenco guitar playing I just bend the finger joins to even the distance out a bit, and it all seems to come out fine and even.

Well, it's pretty much finished, but I didn't have a camera this afternoon, so you don't get to see the wrong way to drill out a big enough output hole for a stereo jack, nor how to drop soldering irons into ashtrays and break them while simultaneously burning the carpet. Also, you missed out on making bolts out of screws with a hacksaw, and a whole load more fun with files. Switch tips you can't switch round, and many more bodgit and leggit jobs. Will put up pics of the finished article tomorrow, for now, just be glad to know that after all that effort, the low E is quite farty. Might be the room, will take it to a practice on Thursday, and a gig on friday, just to make sure.

Use Flats on all my basses now, so never really. Don't like the zingyness of new rounds, they need to be played in for a week or two, then they sound good for maybe one night, and then they go off again, though I do sweat a lot, used to have to change my strings after every gig when I played guitar, or they would snap, usually they did anyway. As to string cleaning, WD-40, spray it on, wipe it down, zing comes straight back again. Perhaps not the most cosmetically pleasing option, but if you like your gear cheap and messy, it works.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='887118' date='Jul 6 2010, 11:17 AM']slow drill speed needed on perspex, put some tape over it and drill through that and it should keep it from snapping.[/quote] Yeah, I remembered that, this morning, just after you mentioned it, not so helpful now. Not buying more bits, will work with what I have, and then spray the original TRC black when I give up...

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50579126@N03/sets/72157624303698305/"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/50579126@N03/...57624303698305/[/url] You're absolutely right, I must have forgotten to paste. Doh! Here's my woeful evening's work on this link. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=94062"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=94062[/url]

Okay, so I decided to take my Rockinbetter (currently set up with Seymour Duncan Humbuckers, and a Hipshot bridge) and make it stereo and single coil with a Hondo rickenfaker I blagged from a mate of mine. I also wanted it fireglo and black, with a Rickenbastard TRC (like Lemmy's) and got Jon (Bassasin) to make me a TRC. Got the 2 fakers, got a can of black enamel spray for the scratchplate, all ready to go.... So spray away, away, away... Looks pretty good... And here's an unhappy rockinbetter, with all it's guts hanging out. Now comes the fun bit, getting the TRC in. I held it up to the headstock, only to discover that it was a bit too wide... Easy fix, here comes the hacksaw... And with a little filing, sanding and polishing... and recutting Jon's marvellous card insert (thanks for the extras, turns out I did need them) And so on to drilling the holes, this is where things took a turn for the worse this evening. Cut down so far, the drill bit decided to have it's way with the top of my TRC. As ever, undeterred, I went for the superglue, and I reckon I can get away with it, I'm not one to get precious over looks. I've sanded it off a bit since, and it looks a bit sh*t, but then after a while most of my instruments do anyway, so why not start as they mean to go on. I've also ripped the rest of the guts out of the rockinbetter, and started taking the hondo apart, more pics tomorrow if I get some more work done. Want it done for Fridays gig. Feel free to point and laugh at my shoddy work.

Very much Ply inside. Here's a link to the flickr set I did of the TRC, it's got some kind of sticker inside, makes me think of fakery. Oh, and Jon, if you want to see what I did to your wonderful TRC work, I'm about to make a build thread on the Rickenbastard. It might make you cry...

[quote name='sprocketflup' post='886078' date='Jul 5 2010, 09:44 AM']Im a (relatively) new face - hurrah!! But I need to know - Dave Vader, what is going on in your avatar? It looks like the story of the Titanic remade using bass hardware [/quote] That is how to get a Jazz pickup out of a crappy bass from a car boot sale, when the screw heads have completely stripped. Drill 'em. and watch the mess. Was a shot from a project thread on another forum, I liked it enough to make it an avatar.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='885719' date='Jul 4 2010, 07:26 PM']Is it a Talkbass overspill?[/quote] Yep, got tired of the yanks, wanted people who understand the british sweaty pub gig, and get Irony...

Didn't have a gig last night, but whilst at the end of year ball at the school my wife works at, i ran into telebass playing with the Rock 'n' Roll Outlaws. Ruined my usual entertainment of slagging off the band by being really very good. Nice to meet a BCer in the flesh as well.

Will be ripping it apart this week to get the pickups out, so will take the TRC off, and get some close-ups then. Watch this space.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='885362' date='Jul 4 2010, 11:57 AM']Terminology snob? Me too, although I prefer to call it anally-retentive in my case! (A throwback from a Canadian g/f many years ago!) Now that's an impressive sounding technique, Dave. One step further on from classical guitar! [/quote] Might be why I do it, since I do play classical guitar as well. Steve Harris gets less impressive the more i hear about him mind you, I can't move two fingers that quickly, not without getting serious cramp.

Okay, so I got this by swapping it for a broken Jen Synthetone SX1000, with the guy who broke it. I could have got it for £20 two hours before he got it back in '97. But I had no money, and the guy who needed cash in a hurry sold it to my mate instead. Nice to finally get it. Over the years we've decided it's a hondo, but as it has a rick TRC added to it, we cannot be sure. So any help would be nice, also, if anyone (Hi Jon...) could identify whether the TRC is a genuine RIC one, that would be nice too. Here's pics... Now, I couldn't give a flip what I can get for this as a whole, 'cos I', nicking the pickups out of it, and the stereo output, slapping them in my Rockinbetter, having a kick-arse Rickenfaker, as opposed to the nasty SD pupped one I'm playing at the moment, and flipping the leftovers in ebay for whatever I can get. Now obviously, if that TRC is genuine, I can probably buy all the bits I need for my other project and have change lfet, which would be nice. So, is it a hondo? And does that TRC look like a real ric one to anyone? It's smooth and transparent, with all the colour and writing on the back, not like the raised ones that you usually see. Any help much appreciated.

As the awkward bugger I am, I'll have to say that I hit the lead note with my little finger and work back to my index finger. although I might be the only 4-finger plucker I know. Spent ages teaching myself to do it due to being mistaken while watching Steve Harris... he only uses 3 you know... I didn't Handy for speed though.

Playing with a pick finally knackered my right wrist a few years ago. Had to learn fingers properly, all new different kinds of pain... wish I'd kept the finger thing up 20 years ago.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='883046' date='Jul 1 2010, 03:04 PM'][i]Dave's efforts in training his dog to "fetch the bass" were not as yet yielding the desired results - Will he run out of complete basses before he runs out of patience...? [/i][/quote] Not as bad as the chewed up brand new necklace we came home to find last night, wife not happy.... Rizla enjoyed it though, and her bass dismantling is coming along nicely

Okay, I'll play, got these took just before the rain started, phew! P-bass by the veg patch Mighty Dave fretless, leaning on a chimenea Rockinbetter by a BBQ Recently acquired Hondo on a tree Pair of Rickenfakers by a plastic table couldn't resist getting a picture of the 2 together. And my not quite finished/started summer P-project, with Rizla, my build assistant looking on