All Activity

Busy evening. Got home and fitted the new pickup ring to the pickup - fit great first time, except the pickup height screw holes were a bit tight but they pushed though OK with a little persuasion. I decided to get stuck in and make some more progress, so I got down to dismantling the bass. Found some interesting things: The channels which the bridge saddle grub screws sit in are actually stamped into the bridge plate, proud and so there are shallow channels routed into the body to accommodate them. # Wonderful documentation - separate date stamps for body (Sept 1998) and neck (Oct 1998). Anyway, after unearthing some hidden treasure, I made my plan: That's a lot of wood to get through (about 47mm)! Body clamped securely in the bench vice. But I wasn't ready just to gung ho so I grabbed a scrap bit of wood for a test run. I deliberately picked one which wasn't much bigger than the 20mm bit so I could see how good my aim was. Turns out my aim is pretty good. Also checked that 20mm was indeed big enough to accommodate a jack socket. It is. Time to take a deep breath and drill for real this time. As you can see I did deviate a bit from the original pilot hole, but not in either of the directions which would matter. The drill did wander a little at the beginning when it was trying to break through the finish, hence the white mark on the bottom edge. But by the time I got to this depth, my drill wasn't making much progress. So I decided to stop there (about 10mm short of breaking through into the control cavity) and simply enlarged the old pilot hole a little to allow space for wires to come through. Jack socket loads in from the outside. A tad unorthodox, but hey, it's an unorthodox bass! Done. As luck would have it, I found a "football" jack plate in my spares box. So that saved me ordering one. Made a couple of pilot holes (using the hand drill this time - had quite enough of power tools for one day!) and fitted the plate to the side of the body. Last of all, I moved the jack socket properly (as in desoldered it, moved it to the side and reconnected it - which would not have been necessary if I had gone all the way through with the forstner bit but it's a small price to pay for sanity etc. Now there's a hole free in the top of the body for a pickup selector switch. But that's for another time.

We played the Vulcan restoration trust beer festival again this year. Firstly it’s the coolest venue - a hanger with a Vulcan bomber front and centre, nice size stage. The crowd are sat around tables and are a bit reticent to leave them to have a dance, but we did lure a few up, at least! The sound on stage was terrible to the point that I didn’t enjoy the gig at all, and Mrs Buccaneer said my face was displaying subtitles that demonstrated my displeasure. However watching the videos back we sounded ok out front, so I’m far happier now. We ran short on time and had to cut the set a tad, but that meant we finished with Paranoid - and in our first gig since Ozzy’s death, that felt apt. Rock against Leukaemia in Ipswich next week!

I'll sell you a set for £38 😈

I’ve got a load, still in the cellophane! Give me a day or two to dig them out and get some pictures. I have some 1590BB as well, can’t remember which colours but i’m sure there’s an orange one there if that tickles your fancy

I love my Triad 5 Nice to see there's a reverse headstock now too, I asked about this before ordering the above, but nobody replied, I guess now I know why, it was clearly in the works. The bulbous bit of the headstock (the bit at the end) looks larger on the 4-string than it does on my 5-string. Mark

If anyone is looking to sell a set, I would be interested in buying them. Haven't ordered from Thomann in over two years.

I've got an HX Stomp. I'll get investigating. Thanks for the steer.

I'm Looking Through You - Beatles

Could always add threaded inserts and use bolts for the pickups if you need it a bit longer. Alpher use M2.5 bolts in mounting their pickups. I have used a bit of laminate flooring offcut when I routed some P90 cavities a bit too low in a project this year. Turns out fake granite laminate is an excellent tonewood 😂

Vincen Garcia (ace funketeer) at the Hootenanny Brixton next Wednesday 6th. Last live music i saw at Albert Hall was Meshuggah so ..... next definite outing Bruckners 9th Prom 8th Sept. Should be massive

Yeah, I don't even think about it on my Dingwall. My thumb just rests on the curved edge. Plus it's properly rounded over onto the top of the pickup. No harsh edges. Much comfier than a p bass pickup, and better than the sharp edge of some jazz pickups. I often wonder why more aren't curved - the Mustang pickup looks really cool to me. And then I remember the massive Delano things and I reconsider my position... They're too oval and I can't see them as a "cool" option. Quirky? Yeah. Cool? Never.

I belive the neck pockets are speced the same... experience would be down to tolerances of neck and body and QC. Might be nice 'n snug, might be a place to store a plectrum! Heel thickness may also effect bridge saddle height, 'decked' saddles? More frequent is the P with a J Neck (like my bitsa) swap so they fit.

...and the first 3 pics were going so well... like #3 T Bird Ledge. Then... #Noseybonk

😅😂 well, all I can say is I’m jealous of you and not Tony Levin!

Pics Please...you know the score...

The DI is mixed on the XB driver. Not that I'd get one at £600 when you can do that and a lot more with an HX Stomp. Or just get a Dug pedal which is much cheaper.