Johnny Wishbone

Slow going but I’m up to the 12th fret. Nearly there but, to paraphrase Genesis, “it’s half past twelve and time for lunch”!

Nah. I quite like it, plus it hides a slightly non-spec pickguard cutout!

I’ve been on these for a while. Best I’ve found, just wish they did them in steels. https://www.gak.co.uk/en/daddario-exl160bt-balanced-tension-bass/88882?gclid=CjwKCAjwzqPcBRAnEiwAzKRgS0_YKAIlx8cngqLnt9swdHBb828pR3eW1nlhP9iKFZREVLSLYlQYIhoCGB0QAvD_BwE

I like the tone of the Superbrights and the range of heavy gauges available (I downtune to drop C# most of the time) but I couldn't get on with the low tension. Certainly good sounding strings for not a lot of cash, all the same.

Neck has arrived a week early! Got a gig tonight (the blue Jazz bitsa’s first public appearance, no less!) so I have no time left to get cracking today, sadly. I’ll get the fret marker stickers on tomorrow and hopefully also get the screw holes drilled at the heel. It’s probably sensible to await delivery of the headstock decal and get that applied, dried and lacquered before getting the tuners on. However I’m an impatient so-and-so at times so maybe I won’t!

Sold me some Squier tuners at a very good price and was happy to hold onto them for me until payday. Arrived within 48 hours of payment. A pleasure to deal with.

@Jimothey Heel looks to be 63mm.

I’m out at the moment but will return in due course with measurements! £20 plus postage, maybe?

Redundancy has its advantages - had some time between job searching to knock these together. Just need the drivers and then to construct and fit the front grilles. Got the “black cab with coloured baffle” idea from a pair of Vanderkley cabs I was fortunate enough to borrow on a shared backline gig recently. If I’m honest, these havent turned out as well as I’d have liked due to slightly inaccurate cutting (not by me). It’s not been a breeze to put them together as everything was slightly out of whack. Made the best of it with silicone sealant/caulk so hopefully they’ll work well enough to at least give me an impression of the sound/volume they’re capable of. If I’m as impressed as I expect to be, it’s likely I’ll get my brother-in-law (a joiner) to knock me up a new pair that are actually 100% square and true. He has the advantage of proper tooling and a full workshop at his disposal, plus he obviously gets quality timber at trade prices. At a glance they look pretty good - just don’t look too closely at the little details!

Build has stalled due to my fickleness. The light maple neck has what I’d call a “modern” Fender headstock with a straight edge along the bottom (see first pic) which I don’t really like as much as the “vintage” headstock (second pic) with the curved bottom profile. I have therefore purchased a replacement neck with the desired headstock shape and am awaiting delivery. This may be considered an extravagance but (i) it’s a ‘custom’ build so needs to be as I want it, and (ii) I used some Amazon vouchers I was given as a leaving gift from my last job to purchase the new neck, so effectively it’s cost me nothing. I’ll maybe use the old neck on another build or perhaps sell it on. Block fret marker stickers have arrived from the US and will be applied in due course. Stand by for further developments!

I would have thought flats would be the antithesis of the sound you’d want for punk. When I think of punk bass a bright, aggressive tone is what springs to mind - i.e. roundwounds. No amount of EQ will make flats sound like rounds.

Thanks mate. Obviously I'm not reinventing the wheel here, or even exhibiting much in the way of craftsmanship, but it's amazing what sort of "custom" instrument you can build for less than 200 quid these days if you're willing to put a bit of graft in. The lacquer isn't nitro or anything - just Wilko's own spray lacquer. About £4.50 a can IIRC. I don't think I'd use it on a prized instrument, but on a £30 Chinese neck it's got the job done! The key part is sealing the decals from the lacquer - it'll just eat straight into them if you're not careful. I took a bit of a punt using some spray fixative (I think it's meant for protecting pastel/charcoal drawings) that I had lying around and that worked fine. 10-15 mist coats of that, with a few seconds drying time in between, then left to dry properly for an hour or so. The lacquer went straight over that in 4-5 light coats and, as mentioned earlier, I'll knock it back with wet-and-dry tomorrow. The rest of the neck is satin finish so a gloss headstock wouldn't really work! Satin spray lacquer seems to be quite hard to get hold of for some reason, but with a bit of a rub down you can get much the same effect using gloss. On we go!

The tinted neck originally intended for the yellow Jazz is now on “the P Bass that started it all”. Pretty happy with how that looks. The headstock on the paler maple neck has now been sanded back and re-lacquered with a new decal. Will probably leave that overnight before giving it a tickle with some wet-and-dry just to knock it back to satin rather than the high gloss it currently is. Took the opportunity to fit a new Tusq nut as the original one was pretty crappy plastic. Once the lacquer is dry I can get the machine heads and string tree fitted and complete the yellow Jazz build. Sadly I won’t be able to get it strung and set up until payday next week as I’ve got about a tenner to last me until then!

I did try these for a short while and IIRC I could only get them from either Amazon or Thomann (who obviously aren’t in the UK). Bass Direct advertised them but they never had them in.

First part is definitely correct as they effectively become a humbucker. As to the second part, the P is already a humbucker. You will get some noise from the J in my experience.

Yeah, I’m leaning that way but still not sure. The lighter neck WILL be getting blocks whatever happens. Just sorting out a bad lacquer job on the headstock and adding a new decal.

Well, despite their original “dayglo” appearance the tinted necks have actually mellowed really quickly and don’t look half as bad now. The plan was to transplant the lighter maple neck from my P bitsa onto the yellow Jazz, but now I’m not so sure? 🤔

Entwistle and Warman are both very good, and dirt cheap.

Wiring harness and pups installed in the “Jazz Banana”, plus pickguard screwholes filled and re-drilled. I’ve run out of the more “conventional” wire colours so why not purple and orange?

http://youtu.be/kDuX10v77Ao Worth a watch. Very interesting product.

Sold Colin a bass recently. An absolute gent and a pleasure to deal with 👌🏻

Round one completed! Neck shimmed, set up done and got the decals on this morning (obviously the blurred bit isn’t there in real life!) - just waiting for them to dry before I get a bit of lacquer on them for protection. Thankfully the previously stiff tuners have loosened up a lot now so they’re at least useable. Will probably end up replacing them at some point. Couldn’t resist taking it to rehearsal last night to hear it through a proper amp and, well, wow! Great range of tones, plenty of bottom end and the series/parallel mod was definitely worthwhile. Everything feels and plays great, and the rest of the band were impressed too. Got the wiring harness/pups to put in the yellow one today, but not too much more I can do on that until I pick up P bass bitsa number two and swap the hardware and neck over. Still, great fun so far and has kept me thoroughly entertained since being made redundant last week.

No apology necessary. If anything I think that colour scheme suits the P better! Carry on!

Looks somewhat familiar 😉