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As you can see from the bobbly lines, I still have the final sanding of the neck to do and will finish off the volute at the same time - but this is pretty much where I want it to be in general terms: Not quite as butt-ugly as its creator

Bob Dylan, his songs always seem to sound better when someone else sings them

Last 20 days to go on the Crowdfunding page, if anyone would like to donate to the cause get in now as this will be coming to an end shortly, thanks again to all you lovely peeps on here who made a donation to help us out , as we have said before you are all legends. It really will help soften the blow for both of us. Our appreciation of what you have all done is beyond words Stve and Funkshui

I do understand some of the frustration about other events being affected by this, but at the same time I am astonished almost every year at the short-sightedness of various venues and organisations - have they never heard of the World Cup, the European Championships, the Olympics? As soon as I open my new diary for the following year, the first entries are the major sporting events that I really do not want to compete with. I won't accept evening gigs if they're scheduled against, say, the Champions League final, or afternoon gigs if they're up against the British GP at Silverstone or the Men's Singles Final at Wimbledon. I mean, come on guys, this is hardly rocket science.

This ticks all the boxes...

I only went in for a strap for a new bass, an Ibanez SR100B-NT (that has yet to be delivered) and ended up walking out with a 5-er, an Ibanez SR1405E-GWH.

Without wishing to state the obvious, why not get an Orange?

probably just me, but producers messing about with the drum sound seems to age records, in the 80's it was the fashion to have enormous sounding snare drums high in the mix, sounds awful to me, now it seems to be clicky sounding kick drums, why can't they just record the drums how they're supposed to sound? some albums sound good because they do sound dated (mainly because they're recorded almost live) Elvis's sun sessions and the Beatles Please Please Me (mono) spring to mind

or my favourite cover version, ever

That poor piece of wood looks terrified. S.P.

I once went out to buy the Robocop trilogy on DVD and ended up buying a new car

Another one off the list - and one of my least favourite ones. Fitting the tuners. And fitting tuners shouldn't be as fiddly as it often seems to be. Also - a bit of a repetitive gripe - hmmm, I do like Schaller but... They make some REALLY nice products Their customer service, in my experience, is FIRST CLASS BUT they often don't seem to check how difficult it is to fit their own products. And they often don't provide the basics to allow the fitting to be done successfully and/or easily. The worst case of this was this piezo Hannes bridge. Flagship product. Total nightmare to fit. And I pretty much know what I'm doing! And I've got lots of standard and obscure tools. And I still needed to buy another specialist drill bit. Yes - a drill bit!!!! : Looks nice. Until you see the back: ..and then read the instructions of how to bolt it, and the instructions of how to string it, and the complete lack of any reference, whatsoever, of what you do with all the piezo wires and collector block - important in the context of the 10 or so precision drill holes (tenth mm precise at the guitar top and tenth mm precise at the guitar back after drilling through 30mm of wood or, trust me, it isn't going to fit) you've already drilled perilously close to each other and very perilously close to where the piezo wires are going to have to be. Anyway...I've taken a few more pills and calmed down a bit. And compared with a Hannes bridge, fitting a Schaller pegged tuner is, I suppose, a doddle. But is it asking too much - and surely it wouldn't be too much trouble - to pop a little piece of paper in the box with a full size drawing of the centres of the bush and two pegs to use as a template? Anyway, for what it's worth, this is what I do nowadays with pegged tuners if I don't have a template or the exact dimensional drawing to hand (and trust me - you can't measure the actual item accurately enough): I drill a hole for the bush in a thin piece of hardwood. I pop a drop of paint, or snowpake or wet sharpie ink on the pegs, pop the bush on, tighten until the pegs touch : I drill the peg holes on a drill press to ensure they are vertical and test fit the tuner. I then use this, with a bush pressed through the template and headstock hole, as the drill guide: Then, if everything is flat, square and vertical, the tuners should fit without having to 'ease' out the peg holes at all: Anyway, that's how I do it. And maybe it's just me that finds pegged tuners a PITA... Next job is carving that slightly ugly volute

Unless you were really going for that brittle, crunchy sound. Who needs pedals? Just chuck a glass guitar down the stairs (with the guitarist if you want to flesh out that tone with some warmer notes).

Guns n Roses Use your Illusions 1 and 2 Its all the Honky Tonk Piano Axl added. It has really dated those albums. Also Metallica justice for all that guitar sound with no bass, a lot of bands came after copying that awful caterwauling whiny guitar sound, just pitiful.

Been there. Wandered into Sound Control Preston years ago whilst visiting a girlfriend, because I was bored and had nothing better to do. Ended up buying a Spector Reboot DLX - a truly stunning bass. It was so good I then sold my Status Stealth I 6 string.

Not anything to do with the thread at all, but just a bit of info' - the 80's JBS (PJ-555) actually had a jazz neck. However the one that Duff McKagan ended up with as his career exploded interestingly had a Precision profile neck. It was this bass that lent it's specifications to the currently available MiM Duff McKagan Jazz Bass Special. I agree that this is way more of a Precision Bass Special.. or, you know.. a standard PJ without a pick guard lol...

pm'd and working up prototypes with mr jebroad

The cab that won the Essex cab shootout was a Bergantino with two Faital Pro PR300 drivers in it. Same as the Genz nxt Ebeneezer mentioned. So I'd expect it to sound very similar. £300 is a good deal. At the bash the votes (out of 25 in total) were: Bergantino CN212 - 9 Schroeder 212 - 8 EAD 2x12 - 5 (no longer manufactured) EBS Neo 212 - 2 Barefaced Super12T - 1

Is it Adam Clayton’s latest Signature bass?

Unfortunately that's bollocks. The reason you tune down and then back up is because the windings on the string catch at various points along their travel - at the nut, over the bridge saddles, as they pass under string retainers... Tuning down lets the windings drop past any "obstructions" and then you tune back up to pitch. It's got nothing to to do with how good the machine head mechanism is. Hipshot machine heads might be better made than the competition, but they still won't help when your string is caught on the nut or string retainer.

Trace was always “my” tone, back in the day. Years after getting rid of my Trace gear due to back problems, I went through pretty much every amp in The Gallery trying to find something I liked. The last thing I plugged into was a Trace combo and there it was. Sadly my back was even worse by then so I couldn’t buy it. I keep thinking if I come across one of the original 11 band Trace AH150s (like my old one) in decent working order I’ll buy it, as much as I like my Tech 21 VT500. Unfortunately the matching early un-ported painted-wood-only 200w 4x10 - easily the best cab I’ve ever used - is out of the question. They recently had a slightly later centre-ported red stripe version at a local cash converters for £45, but the missus kept reminding me of my back issues and wouldn’t let me buy it.

If you want to minimize your losses (ie if you’re not sure you’ll get on with it), buy used. Otherwise I’d estimate you’ll lose about £500 selling it on based on the ‘new’ price, give or take. Si

Super stuff, I'm going to show that to our singer and give her a bollocking!

When I convert a T40 to 5 strings I put La Bella Jamerson flats on it. 38 year old neck subjected to extra strain of 5 quite high tension strings. Handled it no problem and it stayed like that for over a year. Only changed over to La Bella low tension flats because I got a used set for £28. IMO a good B string depends more on the brand, if it works on a bass tuned BEAD no reason it wont work on BEADG.

Totally - Appetite is another one i had on vinyl at the time (with the original banned cover...) but then bought again about 10 years ago and fell in love with all over again. Still sounds dangerous. But Def Leppard have been an odd one for me. I loved them at the time, and still like to read interviews with them etc, but hearing the music again after all these years it did strike me as being very 'of its time' with extremely polished production etc. There are some good tunes tho, you're right.

I'll let you know when I've finished but I can't see how putting one extra string will make that much if a difference to neck stability My Ibby 5 string has a 45mm nut (which is 3mm wider than my P) and the heel is 75mm (which is 11mn wider than the P) the neck thickness are the same and both have a single truss rod

Yep, same year, 1987. Both big albums for me when I was in my teens. Agreed, ‘Kick’ still sounds fresh and punchy. I too bought the remastered ‘Hysteria’ when it came out recently and like you I thought it sounded very dated, or just very much of it’s time. Luckily the songs are so strong I can kind of live with the dense production. Interestingly the other big rock album from that year was ‘Appetite For Destruction’ which still sounds remarkably fresh and current to me. Guns n’ Roses’ organic, live sound has travelled far better than Def Leppard’s Fairlight overload.

I have been watching the latest build with interest, a true craftsman :-) My current bass weighs in at 12lb so hopefully I can get something lighter in the future without having to shell out on custom, for now I sit down a lot 😄

I’m primarily a drummer, and I play bass as a secondary instrument. Ive been able to read charts for years - it’s really useful for dep gigs and stuff with big bands etc. I was recently asked to play bass for a sort of ‘casual orchestra’ and I realised after 20 years of playing to drum scores I really struggled with reading pitched scores!

I tried very hard getting into Ziggy Stardust and thought I might be a bit gone in the head as all my mates liked it. Many decades later I still don't like it. Also agree with you about Heroes. I bought the lead single, with V 2 Schneider on the B side., which I played to death. I bought the album on the strength of this but should've just stuck with the single. Low on the other hand still sounds good to me after all these years. His best after Station.

"Too easy"? - what are we bassists like? Manufacturers make things a bit easier for us, and we have to go and make our own lives difficult again! lol I prefer a Jazz profile neck myself - but then I also like some Precision necks. I don't like ones that are wide, as well as being very chunky / deep Oddly enough though Lozz, I know what you mean. I had a really nice AVRI 70's Jazz (with the bullet trussrod adjustment at the headstock) And it looked and sounded gorgeous - but the neck was thinner than any other Jazz I'd owned or played at that time, and for some reason, I didn't quite like it as much as I thought I would.... In the end, I got offered slightly more than I'd paid for it - so I sold it.

As far as I can ascertain, EGC operate as an independent builder, but also produce Travis Bean guitars (and an interpretation of the TB2000) now as well. I'm not sure how the Travis Bean licensing works. The EGC, Travis Bean and Kramer headstocks are all different.

Yep, and I'll raise you a anything by Rush after Signals ('82).

It is indeed. We’ve played email tennis for a couple of days to figure out what the cab is. Why don’t Marshall make bass gear??

...or a £1.6k starting price for a completely hand-built Shuker...

FWIW, here's my oval USA UL's..

Quick pic to show a nice and simple active install for a P type bass.. Extra switch (so I now have Series/Parallel and Active/Passive) and two stacked knobs..

Not bass guitar related but when I was into motor bikes I had a very nice Honda CB350 twin. The headlight bulb blew and I called into the local motor bike dealer to get a new bulb - and left with a Honda 750F1 Four!

I like Muse - brilliant drumming, bass work and guitars - but I think Matt gets lost in the 'I am a polymath, I must add more keys and noise to this' - and it gets a bit like the last days of Queen - pompous for the sake of it. They do have some killer tracks though - you can't deny their technical craft, they just get a bit OTT with it. I suppose it's the split between making what they want and what the fans want - a similar problem Dream Theater have had.

Why not just tilt your cab back so you can hear it? Seems like that would have sorted your issue without buying the SC in the first place let alone a whole new amp to pair it with.Try an adjustable stand and an Ikea laptop tray: https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories-c2/stands-and-hangers-c70/amplifier-stands-c461/athletic-w2-professional-guitar-amp-stand-with-tilt-adjustable-lever-p10608 https://www.amazon.co.uk/IKEA-BRADA-Laptop-support-black/dp/B00GMM74T0

The way I look at it, is because the effects/amps/cabs are just models I can use any of them without worrying about them getting damaged due to feeding them with inappropriate signals in terms of frequency or level. At the moment my favourite amp model to use on the bass is the one based on the Roland Jazz Chorus amp. Because the worst thing that can happen is the end result won't sound very good, I'm just getting in and experimenting. Everything and anything is available for me to use. Stop thinking that you have to use models of bass equipment for processing your bass guitar and try something different.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a power amp for an experiment into bi-amping a cabinet with a woofer and mid-range speaker. Like lots of ideas I toy with it might never happen, but if it does I'll probably be going for a Crown XLS 1502, which are about £325 from Thomann at the moment. If you have simpler requirements than that then the XLS 1002 would probably be ample for a normal set-up - 700W bridged into 8 ohm or 1100W bridged into 4 ohm, for about £245. One of the attractions of these amps is they have switchable input sensitivity, 1.4v or 0.775v, with the 0.775v probably being more appropriate for preamps like the ToneHammer.

Hi All I’ve just finished a Thinline tele which came out pretty well…. However, I’ve found that the only time I have to practise is in the evening, when my two year old has finally exhausted herself from saying ‘no’ repeatedly and vehemently to everything. We live in a flat so to ensure I don’t disturb her I’ve also found that I play it unplugged. That works pretty well but I wish it had just a tiny bit more acoustic volume. So…… I’m wondering whether I should building something like this, that is fully chambered rather than only half chambered as the Thinline is. Me being me, though, I want to simplify things a bit. I’ve found that for me I really need to build in an incremental way - making each build only slightly more complex than the last. I know there are builders here who can seemingly conjure painfully beautiful guitars from clothes pegs using only spoons as theirs tools. That’s not me unfortunately. At the moment, I don’t want to do a set neck or a carved top or bent sides but I’m wondering whether a flat top, bolt-on neck, fully chambered (ie routed) Les Paul build might do the trick? If anyone wanted to offer up an opinion, I’d love to hear it. Specifically, I’m wondering about the following: Acoustic volume - do you think a fully chambered (routed) body like this would increase the volume a little bit in comparison to the above thinline? Should I also be thinking about making the top thinner than the standard 5mm or so which I would normally put on a chambered guitar? 4mm? 3mm? Is there any reason why a Les Paul can’t have a standard bolt on neck? I know the LPs have the neck at an angle. Is that because of the carved top? Or the bridge design? Or both? Does anyone know what the minimum height of that sort of bridge is? Lots of questions, I know. PS. Now clearly I realise if I want a bit more volume just a pair of headphones would take me about 100 less hours than building an entirely new guitar. But if I did that, how would I fill those 100 hours?

I have the genzbenz nx2 212, great cab, only 47lbs, loaded with faital pro 12 pr 300 drivers and compression horn 4 ohm and vertically aligned!.....oh and built-in wheels.......there is one for sale at the moment at £300 think