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An alternative, more visually pleasing approach would be to tie a large, colourful helium balloon to the headstock. The more neck heavy the bass, the bigger the balloon. Thunderbirds generally need a giant rainbow coloured unicorn. 😎

Sorted, bought an Ibanez SR500 of a fellow BC member. Thanks Stuart!! Off to find an amp!!

So kind of you But no - this is paying forward what others have helped me with. I suggest getting yourself a massive jug of Pimms on this summery day!

I've experimented with many solutions and the most effective was still a little inelegant. I have a canvass pouch designed to hang from a belt or bag whilst out hiking. This pouch holds a water bottle. So when I cycle to my rehearsal with my tiny travel bass I take the bottle from the bike, fill it with water at the rehearsal room, clip the pouch to my guitar strap (at the bum end of course) and the weight of the water precisely balances the instrument without me having to carry anything heavy on the bike (which would kind of defeat the object of travelling light). I carry the bottle anyway and it becomes lighter throughout the ride as I consume the initial quantity of H2O. So I rehearse with a bottle swinging at my hip. Perfect if, as I say, inelegant. I am therefore adapting the idea for when I'm actually gigging with a neck heavy bass. Quite simply velcro attached to the back end of the strap and a certain number of curtain weights sewn into a flat pouch with the other half of the velcro sewn to the pouch. Balanced bass? Remove the pouch, neck heavy? Velcro it on. The 'certain number' of weights is arrived at through trial and error but by using three smaller pouches rather than one big one I can stick on differing amounts of weight to suit each bass on a case by case basis. Or a bass by bass casis. A bag of curtain weights, yesterday: Pictures to follow. When I've actually done the sewing.

Looking for a jazz neck for my P bass, found this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202542172424 I think he has assembled it wrong. Shouldn't the strings go in the front?

Right, photos time. My Stanley Clarke.

I'd use whatever the manufacturer says is good for bass fishing

Orion is a very comfy set-neck ride

If you think it would help I'd be happy to give that a go, as long as it was fully funded of course. Maybe the hotel in Antigua where the rehabilitation would take place should have a catchy name like Antigua Support Scheme Inclusive Therapy Care Home, although a bit long it could be abbreviated.

The difference is it doesn't shine - it glows.

Relicing = a very good thing. IME.

To stop neck dive on my EB3 I pass the strap behind my belt.

I'm very much in the realms of a cover being a version of a song, not a slavish copying of the original. That, in my opinion, is the job of a tribute band.

Sounds a lot more organised than any I've attended! Chord sheets are a great idea. I'd also start a Facebook page and encourage any musicians to nominate songs they'd like to play (e.g. posting a YouTube video), that way you could end up with a bunch of strangers agreeing to learn them before the night and playing some lesser known tracks that otherwise wouldn't have a chance.

Now there's a prog band just waiting to happen

Relicking most definitely exists in lots of other areas, shabby chic furniture, ratlook cars and bikes, ripped and faded clothes, tarnished and dented brass instruments, scratched and faded string instruments, etc. All fair enough, whether you like it or not doesn't matter as it's most definitely a popular style, the one thing that does matter is that Antigua finish exists and only exists in the guitar/bass world and should be stamped out. Even the bizarre world of fashion or the unemployable that declare themselves 'interior designers' wouldn't stoop this low, so what does that say about lovers of Antigua. Wronguns the lot of ya!

Cuzzie.. That blob of solder was absolutely it...near it there was a bare wire in amongst the birds nest. I have resoldered to wire to the blob and guess what.. It is absolutely quiet.. No more fizzle. I have maxed out the treble on both bass and amp everything remains quiet. Please PM me your PayPal addresses and I will send you the price of a pint.

As @dmccombe7 says, the black labels have twin pole pieces per string. The pups in the photo above are definitely Sandberg’s “standard” models, hence the little Sandberg logo (4 dots) on the corner of each pickup. Black labels look like this:

Totally normal for that model, bridge weighed about the same as the rest of the bass

The web site from which I nicked the Antigua wall of shame pic alleges that the Antigua finish was born back in the late 60's when the body binding process employed on the Coronado II accidentally burned the edges of the body. The site continues: "Instead of chucking the bodies, Fender developed a color scheme that burst from black on the burned edges to a type of mustard yellow on the inside of the burst". So, not quite the same as the Antigua we know and - er - love. It's even nastier (or nicer, if one is that way inclined).

Looks like someone has smeared their bum all round the edges of those poor guitars

If you like your Briefcase, a Suitcase will give you the same tones but with quite a bit more power and weight. There's a decent looking used Suitcase on eBay at the moment, currently at a reasonable price. It's the older model with the larger cabinet, which I think is better for upright and will certainly give you what to my ears is a more natural low end than the newer, smaller version, which is based on the C4 cabinet with built in amplification (I use both C4 and 4B cabs, but with a separate head). The older Suitcase is a bit of an awkward carry, although nothing too terrible - it's the shape rather than the weight that makes it so.

Ah well, that's the end of that then I guess Such is life. I'll have to nick borrow @BreadBin's copy

Or an anvil.

😐

The venue put up some photos from Saturday

Oh, I see, you're gassing on behalf of others. 'It's all right, honest, it's not for me, it's for a friend!' 😉😎

That reminds me. The black & maple P that was originally yours, that I bought from Pestie and then sold back to you. That was one I certainly regretted selling. A beautiful bass. 😟

Done this a couple of times, and then moved them on again. I’m pretty settled on what I need now for my set-up so can’t see it happening again.

TV Casualty - Misfits, one of the simplest bass lines ever.

I've cut a new fretboard for this bass and this time I measured twice and cut once!! The previous neck was 31.5" with 24 frets, for the new neck is 29.5" and obviously has to fit in the same neck pocket and the bridge has to be in roughly the same place. So this works out as the replacement neck being 22 fret for it to fit correctly. As the chance of me getting the intonation exactly right having not tried this scale length before I think is minimal, I'm removing the original brass inserts for the bridge and filling the holes so I can repositioning it later. I'm also going to redrill the holes for the string anchors as I have a better version I'm going to install. This is done by widening the top 4mm of a 10mm hole to 12mm diameter. to do this I have a small piece of mdf with a 12mm hole in it that is placed over the original hole. One of the string anchors is used to centralise it before clamping the template in place. This is the body with the brass inserts removed Then this the body with the holed infilled The body had also picked up a very small dent which I sanded out. I tried refinishing but couldn't get it to match so I sanded the finish off the walnut and started to finish it again. Fussy, but I want it to be right This is the body with the topped sanded and the string anchors holes redrilled.

When you say 'finish' do you mean the 'look' of the bass (on that subject, each to their own) or did you mean the quality control / way it's been put together? In which case I'd say that was a BIG claim!

That’s just how you set up a bass with nice low action, gotta get those strings behind the fretboard to get that authentic snappy tone.

If you are in Arduino-territory, then I'd recommend the Teensy instead, it's like an Arduino with build in MIDI support (Also over USB). I'm using it myself for a MIDI-fied expression pedal, and a (preset)switcher I'm currently working on. PM on the way

Great guys and we've been using their stuff for about a year now: Map Bass, Airline 3P and Rivolta Mondata in the band. We do have a casual non-endorsement relationship with them so feel free to take this whole post with salt to taste, but I'm happy with the quality on all the stuff we got and none of it was special order or anything. Wouldn't be using or defending it otherwise. General thoughts on the Map Bass are that it's incredibly heavy but also possibly the deepest bass I've ever played. Get a lot of other players asking if I'm using a sub octave or something but it's just a very strong fundamental and a lot of output and low end. In fact there's so much low end that I struggled a bit to start with but after lowering the pickups it's now got a nice vintage growl to it. Still very high output and I have to severely rein the gain in on my pedals to keep it clean. We went up to the demo day they did last year with most of the range in and I was impressed with all the higher end stuff. Lot of nice decorative touches across the range that you wouldn't find on a Fender of similar price but the lower stuff definitely felt like it could do with a setup. They're very interesting guitars and get a lot of attention - lots of other players and audience members asking what they are.

That's a stunning looking bass. Very rich colour. Dave

You can get some cheap and cheerful drills off eBay such as these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7Pcs-Extra-Long-Wood-Drill-Bit-Set-12-300mm-Woodworking-Tool-4-5-6-7-8-10-12mm/162806105922?epid=4011493968&hash=item25e8000742:g:YJwAAOSwmWNclKKx if you are are running wires pretty much the length of the body you would be best routing a channel before you put the top on. You might also want to do something to protect the channel from glue ingress. There would be nothing worse than having the channel blocked by glue once the top is on. I have used things like milkshake straws for this - sounds daft but works for me!!

The Separation of Church and Skate, a brilliant song by NOFX, from The War on Errorism

I dread to think what 'Come On Eileen' is about 😲

So what we're saying is that Bohemian Rhapsody has nothing to do with the Czech Republic?

Solo to Elevate by Winery dogs: Some More billy Sheehan: And some Cliff for good measure I do play things other than Metal I promise........

That's really not a very sensible suggestion. At the very least, you're going to need a new set of strings, and a thorough cleaning job.

Cleaning?