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Baby Universal - Tin Machine

Well, today was a landmark in the project - the neck's on! Thanks again to the Mechanical Engineering Workshop at my work, as a drill press is not one of the things I own. Of course, it's never easy and there was a small miscalculation regarding screw length... Thankfully an easy fix, the chip wasn't lost and it was a simple fix - push some glue in the void, then clamp it down with a caul covered in tape to prevent the glue adhering it to the fingerboard. A bit of sanding afterwards and it was like it never happened. So I put some old strings on it, just to see how things were. On the plus side, the strings align with the neck nicely. I have some work to do though. Even with that 2mm plate I glued into the bottom of the neck pocket and a 0.6mm shim, the action can't quite get low enough with all the saddles on the deck. Have ordered those "whole neck pocket" shims off Amazon (the ones which actually get good reviews) which will hopefully arrive on Friday. Also I have a bit of work to with regard to pole piece alignment. I enlarged the two cutouts for the mounting lugs on the left of the hole and managed to eke out a mm or so. There is still some finessing to do and then I might be able to eke out another mm and I think that'll be as good as it'll get. Anyway, a big step forward. Oh, and the bridge pickup is ordered. To get the one I want - https://roswellpickups.com/product/jm4-bridge/ - I had to order it from a dealer in South Korea of all places. So I don't expect to see that particularly soon. I have a spare pickup I could pop in there in the meantime, so it won't slow me up.

Any thoughts on the Nux Melvin Lee bass DI. No compressor but liking what I hear - I only need light compressor at most and light drive

Regular dust will do but it has to be seasoned and blessed by Fender pixies

Sod the tone wood police, LOL! I can say from experience that the woods, or at least the density of them does make a difference. Rob Green told me long ago that yes, most of the sound is from the pickups/strings/the percussive hardness of the fingerboard, but you can definitely colour the tone with a walnut tone block, etc. I've always noticed a difference when I've played a nitro bass. They definitely have their own voicings.

Interesting. I thought jazz bass 1 sounded more open, like there were more frequencies in its range. I would wonder if the body woods had an impact but that would alert the tonewood police and I don’t want to go to BC jail in this heat.

Shared on. Some nice stuff on there!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickguard You'll have to live with this I'm afraid 🤣

Basically, yes. Though I'm more a free stroke kinda guy, relying on the left hand for muting

I ended up getting the Albridge linked in the first post as they messaged back and said they had one ready to send. The Halon guy is away from today for a few weeks so even though I’m not in a rush I went for the Albridge which worked out about the same price.

Sales tax varies by state, some states have none. None of them are anywhere near our 25% VAT. There is no US-wide sales tax. "The five states with the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates are Louisiana (9.56 percent), Tennessee (9.55 percent), Arkansas (9.45 percent), Washington (9.38 percent), and Alabama (9.29 percent)." - from https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-sales-taxes/

Ooooh I have been looking at some Charvels online recently, mainly for that headstock! That and they seem like cool basses. Is the Charvel headstock much different? It looks the same in photos and AFAIK they were made in the same factory no?

I got mine about ten years ago from WD Music when they had a branch in the UK. If you look on their US site, or the Hosco site, there is a Wilkinson bridge where the saddles looks about the same.

Oh good, that's what I was going to say here if I hadn't already via email. Glad that was it!

You've got me wondering now... I'd say "Mr.Grey's" is marginally heavier, but there's not a lot in it. It has an Okoume body as opposed to the Flea's Alder. Apart from that, the only real difference is the roasted maple neck vs the slab rosewood neck. Given a moment tomorrow, I might record the same passage on the 2019 American Original and see how that comes out in comparison.

Thanks, so you guys are switching between rest strokes and free strokes depending on the line then?

Out of interest which is lighter?

Dave bought my Mini P Bass. He was an absolute pleasure to deal with from start to end and I would recommend him to all BC’ers without reservation. Thanks again Dave👍