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All my ps in one basket

Got this little Encore short scale from a fellow BCer, decided to mod it a bit, now it's a 50s hybrid P shortie. Wilkinson tuners, Kent Armstrong Hot Vintage pups, CTS pots and PIO cap, Dunlop straplocks, 51 control plate, box string tree. Came with Fender nickel strings, after a full set up it now plays and sounds really cool. Best bit is it only weighs around 4.9 lbs - crazy lightweight, and it's a proper thumper - goes from JJ Burnel with tone fully open to deep and fat with tone rolled off (James Jamerson territory).

yep I had one. It was a lovely bass. Fantastic neck and I loved the glass like finish. It sort of purrred when you played it. Not a sound I've ever really heard again from a bass. I sold it when i took delivery of my Bravewood (gratuitous pic opportunity)

Lozz playing a 5 string?!! Blimey you'll be getting @bassfan to pick up one of these devil's instruments next! Not as long as there’s a hole in my rear end

"Some years ago, while I was touring with King Crimson, there was a terrible fire at my barn. Everything in it was destroyed, including many basses and amps. I heard about it the same day, and drove home after that night's show. Of course I was saddened by the loss, and sifted through the remains. One charred relic of a bass caught my attention. Its blackened body was shrunk to half its size, with the pickup melted right onto the charred wood. The neck was gone - the truss rod had survived, but the heat had bent it in half. All four strings were annealed to the bridge, and stuck out at odd angles, one with a tuning peg melted onto its end. A sad sight. I took the bass to that night's show with King Crimson in New Haven - we set it up on stage next to the other basses- quite a sight. And it smelled awful. In doing that, Michele, my tech, noticed that it had no volume controls, which meant it must be the 3 string bass which Music Man had custom made for me, and which had been featured on a magazine cover only months before. They had put so much work into the bass, having to redesign the neck and pickup for only that one instrument. How could I break them the news that it was gone? I shipped them the bass, and preceded its arrival with the following fax: Hello Sterling. I am having some trouble with the neck of my custom 3 string, and have shipped it to you to adjust. Sincerely, t.l. Days later, I received this answer: We have received your bass. Please be advised that this instrument is out of warranty. California no longer allows smoking in bars, which has substantially reduced the odor problem your bass exudes. We have otherwise checked it out and everything appears to be to factory specifications. Regards."

I've been watching Ben's guitar build videos a lot recently, beacuse it's so good to see a master craftsman at work, and he's a good presenter. Now, for the first time, he's doing a bass biuld. A P-bass from scratch, with interesting choices of materials. Now seriously considering whether I can afford to go one one of his courses.... Enjoy !

But that would be shear madness, I’ve mutton left to say on the matter.

The music room is coming along but I think I’m going to need a bigger room soon!?! I still need to put up a little shelf for my soldering iron and electronics stuff which is going to be on the other side of the door and there is a shelf is going under the guitars so I can use it to do setups on etc........👍

A spot of superglue will sort that. We'll have you plonking on a 5er in no time, don't you worry.

Well my job has become a lot more fun. We are dealing with a number of the UK consortiums building ventilators and have been ramping up all our production lines of the pressure gauges used so we can supply the thousands needed. Many conference calls later we're already committed to 13,000 pieces in the next few weeks. INteresting being on the other side of the news stories I have to say...

He does. Check this out!

Maybe you should treat yourself and your bass to a new wiring loom with solderless installation + you'll get the best out of your new pick ups 😎

He's started to do little blog thingies... here's the first.

And early mockup number 2:

Scandalous! (Who are we talking about again?) This is interesting from Acoustic Masters:

Yep, top of the 12th fret to the underside of the string. I think you’re underestimating how lightly some people play, and that, as previously discussed, some of us like a sound that incorporates a little buzz (but not clank). I both fret and pluck very, very, very lightly. 2 of my 3 current basses have just had a fretstone and have been set at 2mm 12th E, roughly 1mm 12th fret G, but I may drop the E side a hair. I’ll add that I usually play with a pick in a very guitaristic manner, but I wouldn’t want the action any higher when playing with fingers. Personally I struggle to understand how anyone can play most of the basses I play in shops, I can barely even fret most of them.

I hear heavy guitars for everything - makes life a lot funner.

Could have used ewe to get a more woolly sound... 🤐

Reverse of the headstock veneered - now to do the front which will be a little trickier as not to get glue in the truss rod. As I posted before, I'm not doing this in the correct order as I decided to do this a little later down the build process than you would normally plan!! Glad I've done it though as I think it looks quite nice so far.

Current collection (all 4-string): ACG Custom J-Type fretless ACG Standard Recurve fretless ACG Custom RetroB ACG Standard J-Type ACG Classic Finn 32" scale Anaconda Crusher CES-4 Fender Precision 1966 Fender Precision Highway One Fender Jazz 65RI CIJ Spector Euro 4LE '77RI Spector Euro 4LE '79RI

If you really want one in a particular colour and it isn't available here, probably cheaper to buy a plain one and get it re-sprayed.

Today I have mostly been playing 'All Tomorrow's Parties'. I find it is one I can actually sing while playing, because the bass line is quite simple and the key is quite low (for a gurl). I've been channelling Nico at the top of my voice - hope my neighbour appreciates it 🙂

I daredn't do anything WITHOUT a volute. Said nameless lives close enough to here to arrange for a mob with burning torches to come round for a visit! Lots of squaring up, etc, today. This is clearly essential because the neck squareness will affect the squareness of the top, which will, in turn, affect the fit of the back wings. Again, I find a hand plane as good as anything to take teeny amounts off the main faces to ensure they are completely square to each other: Once that was done, I needed to pop a 0.5mm extra depth in the trussrod slot. Then I was able to cut my notch in the neck blank for the top to slot into: Yes, John, there IS a volute. So tell the mob to stand down - again! And this time, make sure they know the difference between standing down and burning down! MrsAndyjr1515 still hasn't forgiven them... So basically, the top of the notched face (incorporating the neck angle) will sit flush with the two rear wings: And then the joined yew top will lie on top of that, leaving the top face flush with the top of the neck. And, talking of the yew top, I also squared up the gluing joints of that - and it's glued and clamped as I type And that means that the main components are getting close to assembly

Cheers mate, and from being on one side to potentially the other, I'll do my best! I'll see if I can get a basschat hotline installed 😎

I think we should all make voluteless instruments from now on, just to put HWSRN off his morning toast and marmelade

It's just a very expensive Ibanez Talman

PS, this is only free to stream until 5th April. Its very enjoyable and wide ranging in its scope (various musical styles, politics, social history, great anecdotes etc)

Here’s someone you don’t hear about very often, reggae George Davey, great bassline

I like the idea that he wants to use the actual bass that he used on the original recordings.

If Acoustic amp/cabs are good enough for the Family Man then they are good enough for me ...

Adrian'll do it for you. Drop him a mail.

Precisely. There‘s a useful saying in German “auch er kocht nur mit Wasser“ - which loosely translates as “even he cooks using water“ i.e. we‘re all human.

The Ibanez SR2405W is made incorrectly and slipped out of the factory with 18mm string spacing (w for WTF is with this spacing?).

I think I read the same story. If I remember correctly, at some point the keyboard player informed him that this was going on. Tony Levin says that up until that point he’d always been quite relaxed and had never thought about it, but from then on in his pants were full every night at that spot.

The Sadowsky sound!

I remember him saying somewhere that the crew always stood to the side of the stage to watch him when he played 'Don't Give Up' as chances are he wouldn't make it though the song without screwing it up. For anyone that's ever played it, it's one of those songs that has a riff that is played in two different places and the run up and down are slightly different. It's a bit like trying to say 'red lorry, yellow lorry' a thousand times with a mistake. He is human 😀

If I have to pick one, Roscoe Beck.

This ...

Holy thread revival Batman!! Well this has been a while. I can't even make up an excuse as to why this went on the backburner, but it's back. I'll update some pictures as the old ones all went in the photobucket fiasco. Right that's that caught up with. Now to some progress. As I'm painting my Kay tomorrow (maybe) I though I'd get this one and my Hohner prepped ready to do at the same time. I flatted the mint green ready to apply the glitter tape (remember that?), I hade to trim it down to size which was easier said than done. I decided that 1 inch masking tape would be the perfect width for the side tape so I stuck a length of masking tape to the glitter tape to give me a guide to cut along, fairly simple but when I peeled the masking tape of it took the sparkle with it and just left clear tape, hmm. Freehand it is then. I stuck the sparkle tape on and then put a thinner black tape line either side of it, rather than the traditional Danelectro cream textured tape. I think I'll be needing a white Tux and frilly shirt to play this bass. When I painted the headstock all that time ago I managed to drop it and get dirt all over the face of it, I have some of the mint green left at home but I really don't think it's going to be usable and mixing some more at work is out of the question at the moment, so tomorrows decision is to try and redo it green with what I've got or use the tape and do the face of the headstock silver glitter, the neck was going to be left natural. The three ready to paint tomorrow, this Longhorn, my terrible Kay and a Hohner Arbor Series fretless, both ply bodies.

It didn't take terribly long to cut but - because the neck incorporates the neck angle which means you need to know exactly where the body is going to join - it took an age to draw, calculate, check, recheck and check again! But the side profile of the neck blank is now cut: And, hang it, let's have the first mock-up

I wish ebay had an "Ignore" button!

This is quite funny, and very true, especially the intro’s bit.

Just wait till he uploads his part on Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' and the amazing stuff he did with 'Toy Matinee'. It's only gonna get better!