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The build took about 3 weeks, I made a lot of pink torpedo-ups, learned a lot, but thoroughly enjoyed building this bass, and it sounds like a 'proper' P-bass - the supplied strings are a bit crap, but functional (I'm going to replace them with Roto 66s). As mentioned by others, I might change the hardware at some point, but not just yet. The kit cost £85 plus £15 delivery from Thomann; the paint cost cost around £40 (it might have been less if I hadn't been so cack-handed!), transfer paper £5, copper tape £7, finishing compound £10. I already had the lemon oil for the fretbord and carnuba wax for polishing, and the Schaller strap lock pins, so that saved about 50 pence! One tip that I think I picked up from the Build Diaries threads was to coat the screws in candle wax to make it easier to screw them in - it works! Some of the reviews of this kit said that people were snapping screws - I managed to not break any - so thanks for the tip BCers So, the finished item: @Bridgehouse - the Aria on the left was the one I stripped the poly (dark brown tint) and polished with beeswax and carnuba. It has a lovely tactile satin finish Thank you for reading my build thread

I've wanted to build a bass for quite some time - I had a go about 20 years ago, but it did not go well. Mrs Teebs had decided that under lockdown, what I needed was 'structure', so she resolved to keep me busy with DIY tasks around the house and garden. I realised that what was required was a distraction; something that would keep me busy doing something that I would enjoy, whilst keeping me free from Mrs Teebs' evil and onerous chores. I stumbled across an old email from Thomann, and followed a link to their website, where I noticed their DIY kits - thinking that this might be a good introduction to building a bass, I bought their Harley Benton P-Bass kit (was a tricky choice between the P or the J). Despite the lockdown issues, it was delivered from Germany within a week - excellent service! Thank you Thomann. I had already found a headstock template, and slimmed it down to save a bit of weight - I'd read that these kits have a bit of neck dive. THe first thing that I did when the kit arrived was to shape the headstock using a fret saw and sanded 'til I was happy with the shape. The kit: Headstock shaped: I rough sanded the body and masked body & neck: Despite having a Fender headstock, I wasn't intending to make a replica, so I designed a logo that looks stylistically like the Fender logo, but wasn't. (Il Pavone is Italian for 'peacock' ) The name comes from the colour that I was going to paint the body and matching headstock - a darker version of Fender's surf green, but more bluish. @Ricky 4000 said it was Woolworth's green - but he's just a lout! Even @Bridgehouse stuck his oar in! *sotto voice* I hope his dinghy sinks! I think that it's a lovely colour! (Used a yellow primer x 3 coats under the blue/green) More to follow...

Hi, it´s me again from Argentina. I want to show you this time a bass that I made taking all the things that I love from Leo Fender basses. The ALL IN ONE bass or the Feo (ugly) Lender (funny name jeje) Body: Lenga (guindo) Neck; american maple Pickups: 2 Wilkinson Platinum MM style 1 Volume (500k), 1 tone (500k+82uf), 2 kill switch Color: Rustoleoum metallic apple red + sherwin williams polyurethane clearcoat

I decided, once the varnish had fully shrunk after a week's curing, that it did need flattening and then a couple of final coats of varnish applying. While I'm happy with ridges that are following the grain lines, I'm trying to get rid of the ridges that are from accumulated brush strokes and other lumps, bumps and dust buggies but taking care not to get back down to the timber. And I've mentioned it before, but it is worth repeating, that unlike nitro and other 'melting' finishes, with this kind of finish you flatten before the final coat and not after. : I have used here some 1500 grit wet 'n dry used wet and with a sanding block. Almost there. Again, I'm trying to flatten the varnish itself and not get down to the underlying timber - gently does it! : I then give one or two thin gloss coats - here I generally thin the varnish around 5% to ensure that it flows and flattens. This process often takes a few goes. This is after the first go - close but no cigar: While it's a whole lot flatter than before and the lumps, bumps and dust buggies are sorted, the surface finish is a bit bobbly. So it is simply a case of letting it cure a day, then repeating with a very light flattening (usually 2000-2500 grit) and another go...and this whole process repeated as often as needed. Here, patience is your friend - you are only affecting that final couple of coats, so at least one time it's going to be OK! This is better - much flatter than before and decent surface quality that will gloss up nicely with a light polishing in a week or so when it's fully hardened: But it's already hard enough to be worked on, so I can now carry on and finish the build Today's job is going to be fitting the magnets to the control chamber hatch that has also been varnished: And then it's the other dozen or so finishing jobs, final polish and done! Probably by the end of the coming weekend Must chase up Matt and see how he's getting on with pickups for it!

I may rename this as the slowest build ever, but I see that thread title has already been taken – I've been waiting for the return of my ACG-01 preamp from the repairman for ages now and have bought a replacement to get things moving – once that's arrived it's final sand and re-dye, then lift off. I snagged a minty, cheap used Schaller 2000 bridge from Reverb and have nicked the chrome bits and put them on the black bridge – idea stolen from the Simms Lionheart basses. Not long now!

Can't help with the technical bit, but reading through the threads on this site, perhaps remove the tort pickguard?

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

I wish I could do fretboard inlays I'd change the dots for TeebsEyes

Ah you're a comedian.... Here it is once I'd bolted the stick on it..

I sanded back the body (again! ), and resprayed (again), let the paint dry for a few days. Added the headstock transfers and clear sprayed:

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This was unexpected indeed, but hey ho; it sort of gives me the full set now (one P Bass with flats, One with Rounds, a Stingray and a Jazz Bass). I don't think I'll need a fiver (I've managed so far for 30-odd years) and I have a fretless I can borrow as and when. A friend if mine bought this new thinking that it was a 70's Jazz as he wanted the 70's pickup spacing (don't hear much difference myself) and after carefully installing the bridge cover etc. realised he'd made a mistake. Coincidentally, I'd always fancied a CAR Jazz and so a deal was done, just to help him out you understand. Having sold an Alto Sax and a few Basses recently I was in a position to do so. I've fit it with a set of TI Flats, just to mellow it down a bit and go the action nice and low for me (took a while with the 9.5" radius, but nowhere near as painful a process as a 7.5" radius) and it plays beautifully. It's very well built and put together nicely, but you don't half notice the difference when compared to a Music Man which is on a whole other level of quality to my eyes at least. I'm usually a fan of tortoiseshell pickguards but I really fancy a white one on this. Strange times...

Finished and set up. Wow this 3-Leaf preamp is the best I’ve come across so far. The Lollar pickups are very warm and vintage sounding in passive mode but in active it comes alive and all settings sound good. It’s similar to an OBP3 as it has a mini switch for mid frequencies rather than semi parametric. I couldn’t be happier with the sound and playability

😃

@Reggaebass predicted (above) what happened when I rushed into assembling the bass to test the fit & the electronics... ... dented & marked the body finish all over So sanding back; respraying etc. was the order of the day. I took the opportunity while the bass was disassembled to shiled the control cavity and back of the scratchplate: Not my neatest work, but functional And then print the headstock transfers: Some random test-build pics: The good thing about doing a test-assembly was that the sound was okay through the amp, and that it showed that the neck needed a shim.

Pay no attention to them, Young Teebs. You’ve done a grand job there and I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures of the finished article. Out of interest, how long has the build taken? And would you do another one - or has this scratched the itch? Whats your next plan to avoid Mrs T during lockdown? Build a glider in the loft? Or a 1:1 scale icebreaker? Seriously though, that looks like a nice job and I’m looking forward to your impressions on playability and tone....

This is where I absolutely don't say anything that might incriminate myself, right? Got any pics?

23” and 27” scale. The headed one is my new favourite toy!! So much so, I’m making another.

Fixed.

Shame on you 😂

To be fair my “free” offer wasn’t exactly genuine...

How short are we allowed to go here? I've recently acquired an amazing ACG Micro Bass, a 6 string based on the Reiver ChubstRR guitar. It's 26.5" scale, currently tuned E to F, but I'm going to try out B to C as down tuning has actually worked quote well, and that's with a 115 string... It's got a Flamed Maple top, and Quilted Maple back, hand coloured by Mrs ACG, on a White Limba body Bolt-on 5 piece Ash/Bubinga neck with a AI Maple fingerboard. Two FB humbucking pickups with an East Uni-pre preamp and Chrome Hipshot hardware. The look of it is something else, I given how different this instrument was going to be, I thought why not go a bit crazy and I absolutely love it! Cheers, Eude

You guys need to watch out for the “Free to a good home - 1964 Precision” thread then.

Well I had a bit of a play with the other basses last night. Started with the hollowbody 51P - yeah, it was okay. Not bad. Decent handwound pickup so should have been. Moved on to the solid body 51P with custom one off Ric style single coil - better.. bit better. Then on to the ACG Finn 4 - a step up again, rounder, more complex.. And then onto the 64P - yet another significant step up - really good as I remembered (haven’t played it for a couple of months or so) Then back to the Shuker. Yeah. After 5 mins I didn’t want to go back to any of the others. Still felt better, still sounded more complex and detailed and more pleasing. Still much preferred it. Well there you go.

Updated my board with a Boss Harmonist:

Personally, I am convinced that even once this lockdown is over, pubs and gigs will be the last thing to get back to normal. Shops will open again under stricter social distancing rules but lets face it, pubs and gigs cannot by their very nature, allow social distancing. I think we will have to wait until a vaccine is readily available before they will allow pubs and gigs to go ahead. Even restaurants will be able to open before pubs unless there is a limit to the number of people allowed in, which will make for a poor atmosphere anyway.Very soon we will be pining for the pub gigs.

Watched it earlier this morning. Had me rolling about laughing with his spaniel comment. Dave

I have gold knobs on order but thought I’d see what Sadowsky style aluminum knobs look like. Not bad

An update. I’ve been off the bass for a wee bit (just a break) and a few weeks back decided to start practising again. Once lockdown is over there’s a whole series of jams and gigs to do, so I figured it was time to start up again. I’m usually a creature of habit.. but this time I picked up the Shuker to start with. It’s the only bass I’ve played for the last few weeks. I look at other basses, but no. It’s actually better than it was. Solid, stable, more sustain and more tone. I have no idea why. It’s now officially the best bass I’ve ever played. I have even looked at the 64 Precision and thought “I should probably sell you”. I know, right?

I've sweat it out for a few days, changed my mind many a time, .......but i finally pulled the trigger, just hope they live up to hype

Yesterday we did a Nirvana set in support of a bar I have played a million times over the last 12 or so years with multiple bands. Clearly a live show on location was never going to happen at the moment, so we did a livestream from our studio using an iPad, 3 iPhones and a Shure MV88. This meant we could keep a decent amount of “social distance” as well, since our studio is pretty large. 2 iPhones for visuals, 1 iPhone with the MV88 stereo mic for audio and the iPad to receive all signals and stream to Facebook. A first for us all, and it was bizarre how well this setup worked. We streamed at 720p and 192kbps to ensure we didn’t have any issues. Next time we are upscaling and will add a signal from the mixer to just lift the vocals a little.... but from a mic in a room the result is pretty okay. In case you want to take a look, the stream starts 5 mins before the gig so skip that part, we were also a little rusty but that made it very Nirvana .... apologies for all the Dutch, but then I have lived here for far longer than the UK. Enjoy

This is it with a bit more light on it, artificial house lights though.

And another one (I blame lock-down fever myself 😉). Just picked up this Cazpar from Mensinger (Adrian Maruszczyk's other brand) in a trade on here. 30" scale and a beautiful example of top craftsmanship from their Polish workshops. http:// Ha, just found this video showing my bass. https://www.public-peace.de/mensinger-guitars/m-basses/men-cazpar

Slightly off topic, but I also nabbed a used Markbass Little Marcus 250 from the Ashdown Reverb store. It'll be a great, cheap backup!

BDDI is not the answer damn it!!

Fixed

I hate to admit it but that does look really good mate. You’ve learned some valuable lessons on spraying and next time you do a build you’ll use tru oil 😂

Top job teebs, I love a build 👍 , my only advice would be to let the paint harden off for good few days before you put it together, because although it appears dry it will mark easily 🙂

Pair of Gonks!

Any ideas how to start a crowd funding page?? 😃

It depends entirely on the type of pubs... and how much you enjoy playing in pubs, because there's always some degree of 'hassle' so the question is whether the amount of fun/cash offsets the hassles. Back in 2017 I joined a band that was travelling around the UK playing all kinds of gigs. We were doing supporting slots in decent music venues one day, a festival the next, and a small pub another... Pubs were my least favourite, because in those places we used our own PA and we set up everything ourselves, and often it required waiting around for people finishing their dinner before you could set up... you don't always get enough room to dump your stuff so soemtimes we had to wait to even load in... But I enjoyed playing that music, I enjoyed being with my band mates, and the gigs themselves were great fun (ska/reggae band playing a mix of originals/classics). So, for me, it was ok. BUt everyone have different preferences. I would not turn it down just because the gigs are mostly pubs. Not all pubs are equal. Some are consistently bad, and some are consistently enjoyable... I am sure you can learn which ones to repeat and which ones to avoid as you go along. Of course, all this is thinking of a pre-Covid19 world... the future may be a little different, depending on how much pubs suffer. I can see a decrease of live music available, so in that case perhaps I may even be grateful for not-so-nice pub gigs... edit: while I've seen some bad situations... the vast majority of my pub gigs have seen nothing but a reasonable crowd. Fights, drunk punters falling on you/equipment is not the norm. Or maybe I am choosier, but I certainly don't associate those with pub gigs. One thing that I always try is to make some kind of physical barrier to deter drunks. Space is often limited, but it's not difficult to put some small stands or beer crates between monitors. A bit of plastic tape joining them create a 'stage area' that seems to psychologically stop all but the most persistent.

A policy I try to follow but, the resistance is ebbing away here. The draw of Noggin the Nog, one of my all time favourite programmes (with Mr Postgates' wonderfull narration), is causing a wobble !!

Heres the latest video https://youtube/gKFJsxEMHMQ

Now that’s the true BC spirit. 😂

Ive just fitted a MM pickup (Nordstrand MM4.2) to my fretless Jazz. I’ve put it between the jazz pickups as recommended by a member on here so it’s about 15mm (I think) further from the bridge than it should be. It’s passive. As it’s on a fretless it’s a bit tricky comparing tone to my fretted ray34 but I’d say it sounds a bit fatter but still got a good bit of the stingray tone. I wasn’t sure about fitting it there initially but I experimented by taping the pickup wires onto the end of a guitar cable, connecting it to my amp and holding the pickup in front of the strings whilst randomly plucking. Worked surprisingly well!

Cut out the body shape today - the holes are from where I attached the template, but they will be obliterated/obscured but the forearm contour, scratchplate and neck pocket respectively.

AFAIK Foxton used an Ibanez faker for the band's earliest gigs and the sessions for the first single and subsequent album. After the release of In The City the band secured an endorsement deal with Wing Music and Foxton acquired a real Ric, relegating the faker to back-up status. Foxton believed the Ric lacked low end and at one time considered having a P pick-up fitted,. In the end he simply swapped over to a Precision using it for the All Mod Cons album. The Ibanez later sold for about £12k at auction with a set-list still taped to the body, including songs which appeared on the second album The black Precision later went up for auction in 2009 and re-appeared in 2016. I cannot find the sale prices achieved.