Johnny Wishbone

It was outside business hours by the time I got home - I’ll try at lunchtime tomorrow.

I paid with PayPal so should be OK. I don’t think it’s a scam as they have/had been around for years.

Has anyone had any recent dealings with the above? I ordered a couple of sets of pickups over a week ago and, after receiving a standard confirmation email, have heard nothing since. Thought I'd chase them up but, after first checking the funds have debited my account, I'm somewhat concerned to note that both their shop website and Facebook page have both been taken offline - they both still show up in Google searches but the actual links are dead. Not had a response to my chaser email as yet (only been a few hours) but just wondered if any other BC'ers have had similar issues? Website Facebook

I never trusted solderless until I tried the Evidence Audio ones. Very solid. Not cheap, but certainly comparable to George Ls etc.

Thanks @Jimothey but this one has to be rosewood - I don’t think maple will suit the body colour. That said, I may well place a bid in anticipation of another build.

Update: the seller has offered a partial refund if I wish to keep the neck. How partial has yet to be determined, but this seems an agreeable outcome until a replacement can be sourced. Nothing on eBay or Amazon as yet (not for under £100 anyway) but I suppose I can at least have a playable bass in the interim.

True enough. That certainly seems to be the path of least resistance, so to speak.

This did occur to me, but I think in actuality the curved headstock is slightly larger - it’s almost like that’s the bit that’s been cut off with the straight line. I may be able to reshape it but in all honesty I don’t think there is actually enough wood to do so satisfactorily. I really didn’t want to go to all that effort in the first place, otherwise I would have just bought a neck with a ‘paddle’ headstock and cut it myself. Woodwork isn’t really my forte if I’m honest. Almost every low-priced rosewood neck I can find has this modern shape headstock, so I was pretty pleased when the one I thought I was getting showed up in the listings. Unfortunately it looks like they just send out whatever is to hand. As bottomofthbarrel says, eBay is always a bit of a gamble but I’m still disappointed to have come out the loser on this occasion. I’ll see what the seller has to say but I suspect I’ll just get offered a refund. Whilst that’s better than a kick in the teeth it does rather leave the build at a bit of an impasse. The only other suitable necks I’ve seen are around £150 minimum, which is easily more than the rest of the bass put together. Admittedly it’s not an unreasonable price, but certainly more than I’d want to spend, especially when you consider this one was £32. Having had problems with purchases from the Far East before, I suspect I’ll probably end up with a refund and not having to return the offending neck. That at least means I’m not left out of pocket and will also likely be able to sell the neck on to someone with less discriminating tastes. My best option long-term may well be to wait and see if something suitable comes up in the BC marketplace, but that could take months.

Well, after waiting several weeks the neck has finally arrived and.......it’s not as advertised. I specifically ordered this particular neck due to it having the “classic” Fender headstock profile (see first picture, taken directly from the original eBay listing) with the curved bottom edge. The neck that has arrived does not have this headstock shape - it’s the more modern Fender shape with the straight edge along the bottom (second pic). Not impressed. Have raised a return request with the seller via eBay as this neck is exactly what I DIDN’T want. I have all the other parts ready to complete this build and the neck was all that was required - very disappointed at having waited this long only to get the wrong part. Sure, it’s only a small detail but (a) I hate this headstock shape, and (b) the decals I have are curved specifically for the other shape. *sigh*

Had one for years - no complaints. Miles better than the Korg it replaced.

Just bought a TC Spectracomp from Peter. Turns out he only lives a few minutes away so he dropped the pedal off himself within minutes of payment being made. Nice chap - deal with confidence.

Signed. Sick of this happening.

Chas was the pianist, Dave was the bassist. They were both bloody good at what they did and certainly “earned their stripes” before they became famous in their own right.

Bugger. Quite frankly a gentleman and a scholar. Love a bit of C&D. The bassline to “Rabbit” is ridiculous, AND Dave played and sang it at the same time. Musicians of that level remain a mystery to me. No way they’d be as famous as they are in this day and age, but I’d politely invite anyone who refers to them as a ‘novelty act’ to Foxtrot Oscar. Bit miffed I never got to see them live.

“Favourite” and “best” are very strong words, but in terms of what made me personally want to play bass:

I have a vero layout of a Boss OC-2 somewhere. It’s a stripped-down version without the 2nd octave down (which is largely pointless on bass anyway). I’ve built a number of pedals the last 3/4 years and most of them are fuzzes/overdrives/distortions - the Darkglass clone kits from Schalltechnik are great - but I do also enjoy a good tremolo, phaser and some other modulation stuff.

Life’s too short. As the late Tony Wilson once said: “Jazz musicians enjoy themselves far more than anyone listening to them”. *Other opinions are available.

Wired up ready. Purple wire is the bridge ground. I never (possibly wrongly) bother using the ground tab on the jack as the socket is already grounded through the shielding tape. AFAIK something is either grounded or it isn’t, so as long as I have continuity (checked using a multimeter of course) across all points that are supposed to be grounded I just leave it as is. I don’t see what difference a bunch of extra wires makes.

Yep, that’s to be expected. I already have a similar neck on another build and it needed half an hour with a file for sure. For £30 I think that’s probably fair!

Success on the neck. eBay has come up trumps with this little number - Jazz width, rosewood board and the all important curved headstock - all for the princely sum of £32.99. Obviously delivery won’t be for a couple of weeks, but consider I was becoming resigned to paying about twice that price for a Precision-width neck, I’m pretty chuffed. These are obviously the eBay stock pics, but I’ll update when the real thing arrives. I’ll probably get the pots/jack wired up and mounted today, in anticipation of collecting the newly refinished body at rehearsal tonight.

The pickguard. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. No doubt some subtle filing of the pickup hole will be required - it’s always that part that doesn’t seem to quite fit properly. Ordered the bridge (same Gotoh-a-like as the Jazz builds), string ferrules and string tree this morning. Think I’ve got everything else (pots/strap buttons etc) lying around, but no doubt there’s something I’ve forgotten.