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And...the finished shots

Indeed, even The Sex Pistols in the Matlock years had fluid melodic bass lines.

Comedy Gold..!!

I’m experimenting using the Shaper to create a headstock logo. I used a 0.5mm bit and infilled with blue resin. It turned out super crisp!

Getting a bit fed up of reading how Pino played on "Lady in Red" ...that's me folks.

Have been thinking the same, but decided to just get furniture, electrics, heating and light up to the building, but not store anything. I’d be too worried all the time. We have a Rottweiler, but she’s likely to “cute” an assailant into submission currently, things will change in a few months mind. Is the building near to the main house? That is a factor.

I'm still on with the final settling down and tweaking of the fretless and the Wal save but I have another live project on the drawing board - a single cut shortscale (30") for our very own @Matt P I get the impression that this has been gestating in Matt's mind for some time and, to be honest, Matt has done a lot of the hard work - which is great - that is, designing the concept and broad shape in the first place. This is my rough cobble together of Matt's sketches ( there should be round bits where my rubbish Inkscape attempt has given me sharp corners) with a broadly scale neck (albeit this shows a 4 string width rather than the correct 5 string width). This will have a headstock - this is just a quick full-scale view mainly of the body length and positioning for me to check out one of the critical design criteria...that is must fit into this: ..which is a 6-string electric Fender Jaguar guitar case. It will be a - through necked - single 5-string SimS Super-Quaded - Hipshot bridge and tunered - Ebony fretboarded - Mahogany backed - Laminated necked - top to back demarcated - sucked lozenged carved - 7lbs beauty - with this top: And I'm VERY excited

You're all lucky. All I get is Ikea wardrobes!

I really like 3M charcoal and psychedelic flip. We did a Tesla at work in matte Psychedelic Flip. And it looked great!

This evening (Sat 6th March) is good one for old punks! I am going to watch The Public Image Is Rotten (2018), a £0.99p rental from Amazon Prime and try and finish that just in time for... 21:00 Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (2021) 23:00 White Riot (2019) 00:40 There’ll Always Be An England (2008) 02:05 The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead? (2015)

Dunno about that but the link shows that one person is asking that much money for one. I'd be surprised if anyone would be daft enough to part with £260 for it, but then again in 2016 I thought only the terminally daft would cast a vote for an orange reality show conman.

... and rightly so.

You know what's not punk? Debating what is punk! If I say it's punk, it's punk. Now f**k off!! 😆😆😆

I am devasted reading these comments. I bought my Kay and spent many hours lovingly caressing her back to a pristine playable condition. She had gone through nearly 50 years of being chopped and changed around, but most importantly, being played. Then she came to me where she was given a new look and new lease of life in readiment for the next 50 years of her journey. To hear that she is considered "tat" is, erm, well, bang on the money actually. 😄 It started out life as cheap tat and will end its life as cheap tat, but that's what I like about it.

Nice - looks as good as the real thing...

BL always takes me back to 2006 when a DJ pal put together a band and had us learn one of the great man's albums. We then gigged with the DJ. As he faded the track out we took over, then after a suitable time he brought up the next tune. I miss that guy, and owning a music venue. When I was in my 30s it felt as if anything was possible. We would regularly form bands for just one or two gigs. Every other punter was a musician - or so it seemed. Our Christmas and NYE ensemble bands were something to behold!

Fascinating. Great info - thanks. Well, last couple of jobs before final reassembly are done, including the strap buttons. For both buttons, but especially the one on the top horn, nowadays I always inset them - it's neater and much more secure. I just use a forstner to give me the rebate and then use the centre hole from the forstner to drill the pilot hole for the screw. And yes - this IS in the centre of the horn Then a drop of stain soaked in to the cut edges and they can be fitted: Final assembly to do - and then just the finished photos

With apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda: "After his tea Andy went to the cellar (Despite what he says he's a clever little fella) He finishes his cocoa and he does his lutherie 'I practice lutherie, Jabba lives not far from me' Even though they started at the very same time Andrew J Rogers began to climb How to account for his rise to the top? Man - the man is non-stop!"

I was hoping someone else would answer this, but they haven't and I've had a few pints now,. Can't make up my mind whether it's trolling or ignorance

It’s a Levy day today ☝️

In all seriousness and to answer the OP's original question more directly, I did have a plan for my 50th birthday regarding a celebratory bass purchase. I decided on the bass in question a few years before with a view to getting it built for completion around the relevant time. A few e-mails went back and forth between the manufacturer and I regarding options and pricing, but it was going to be a very long wait unless I was willing to accept one of the couple that had already been built. For a number of reasons, I didn't pull the trigger and before I knew it, the moment had passed for a new build to arrive anywhere near on time. The day of my 50th came and went free of any significant bass purchases. I did buy a few that year, so don't get the violins out, but I didn't get to scratch the particular itch I had....until three years later! I found my '50th birthday bass' for sale and completely by chance, it had the exact spec I would have chosen - it was like it was meant to be. It was/is in absolutely mint condition and one owner from new - also a lot cheaper than a new one!

Where does the tractor attach ? I assume the upper horn cuts the earth and the strings and lower horn sift it and turn it to the side before you start the next furrow ? The frets are for measuring depth of furrow cut ? is the brown colour from clay soil staining?

yes - simple. Remove all the hardware, take of the fretboard, fill the pickup routes, cut the wings off, put the new wings on, shape the new shorter body, attach the new fretboard and frets, put the bridge in it's new place, rout new pickup cutouts... put it all together and viola! I mean I guess you've saved yourself installing a truss rod compared to starting from scratch but hey ho!

until you try a 4004:

So the Sire arrived today. First impressions weren’t great as although Andertons had boxed quite well the inner sire box wasn’t sealed and th bass was hanging out the bottom! Luckily no damage (local DPD guys are pretty careful with parcels). Onto the bass. The finish was a lovely subtle sparkle blue and the paint was near flawless - just a couple of tiny marks near the neck pocket and on the painted headstock as it joins the fingerboard. The board is ebony with some lighter steaks and blocks and binding are flawless, as is the fretwork. Nut is good - E and A string slots need to be filed down maybe 0.5-1.0mm, which I’m happy to do, but playable right out the box. A quarter turn on the truss rod to straighten up the neck and it feels great to play. No need to adjust action or intonation. Neck pickup a little low on output but was too low so a quick tweak to raise it up a bit and all is good. Pickups aren’t hum cancelling but aren’t noisy even panned to a single pickup unless you crank the treble and high mids. Overall output isn’t massively loud but the payoff is active and passive are almost identical in volume. Passive tone is great, eq flexible and it sounds like a proper Jazz. Not thin and wiry, but not woolly and poorly defined. The bridge pickup maybe doesn’t have exactly that 70s ash Fender bark but is really be splitting hairs as it’s very usable as-is. Low B is really good - I mean as good as my Us Sterling 5 and is deport and clearer than any Fender 5 I’ve played or owned. A real surprise! Downsides? Well the tuners weigh a ton - I popped one off and on the scale with screws and ferrule, 1 tuner weighs 125g! However I have a spare set of Ultralites that fit and will knock about 350g off the headstock, which is a good thing as it’s got quite serious neck dive when seated (but then all jazz 5s do because of the offset lower cutaway). I predict it’ll be 4.3Kg with the new tuners (it weighs about 4.6-4.7Kg out of the box), which is lighter than most of the rest of my collection. Bridge is fine but the stacked pots are a bit awkward - move the the top pot and the lower one moves too (although I think the bottom pot can be lowered, might just have been screwed in too high). The finish inside the truss rod cutaway looks like it wasn’t quite sanded smooth before painting but that’s the only negative I could find with the finish overall, other than the two small marks I mentioned earlier. The main thing is overall the bass looks fabulous - but I did say I have a soft spot for sparkle, matching headstock and blocks and binding... So, the verdict? Stunning. For £450 I’d have this over a US Deluxe/Elite Jazz 5 anytime. I even prefer the tone to the Sadowsky MetroExpress I owned and returned. When you look really closely at every detail It’s not as high end a finish as those basses (but it’s 99% as good) but the tone is every bit as good, if not better, B is great and it looks fantastic. Even the rolled fingerboard edges in the binding are well executed. Everything is well executed, no rough sharp corners of obvious evidence it was built to a price. I’m well aware that at this price point you may get a duff one, but if this is representative of the average Sire, I can see why they’re selling like hot cakes. I’ve owned pretty much every high end bass out there (Ken Smith, Modulus, F Bass, MM, Warwick, Sadowsky etc) and if I had to take one bass to any gig, I’d take the Sire Well done, Marcus!

Thanks @ped 4 sets of your finest Basschat merch received safe and sound this morning! Soon to be fitted to my basses.. Cheers Nik

Buy cheap basses like I do, then nobody will want to nick them. But seriously, I would be highly dubious about that idea because peace of mind would be a priority for me. I wouldn't dare go away on holiday without taking every steal-worthy item indoors. I would have to have a big sign outside saying "Snake sanctuary"

Be interested to know how much you lost on the Sandberg and if that was a brand new purchase and you just lost the normal new to used depreciation or if it was some other reason? My HB was £90 and I already had the pick up. If I route it for a reverse p I’ll still hang on to it and it currently sounds better than the cheap bass we have at work for our music/choir group. Worst case the HB will be left at the music room and I’ll use it there. Might fit the tone styler too and hear what that brings - the joy of doing the work oneself so no additional labour costs. Add a soldering iron to you upgrade costs and learn a new skill too while saving money! If you’re after a near mint used Sandberg then naturally you’re into four figure territory but then you could wait for the spec you’re after and I suspect there’s no rush your end. There are some bargains out there though. As you know I’ve pimped a Squier bass and very happy with the results so I’d still say just buy the HB, do the upgrades and if you sell it down the line you can shift the parts and not lose too much on it.

I always find it hilarious that some of our "American Friends" think that Liberal means some radical, far left, neo-communist revolutionary dedicated to bringing down the good old capitalist establishment, whereas in the UK in stands for wishy-washy, dull, ineffectual middle of the roadism...

I keep watching this over and over again, so funny.

Hi Bass freaks, attached pics from the final Bass Bridges

Babylon’s Burning by The Ruts is pretty decent, and worth checking out Booze & Glory - mainly the Chapter IV album - their bassist at the time, Bubbles, was a very busy bassist.