Leaderboard

So with this second body, I plan to have a P Bass / Stingray cross. The Stingray pickup will feed into the Stingray clone preamp and the output will go to a switch. This will have the standard Volume, Bass and Treble pots. The P Bass pickup will go to a concentric pot with volume and tone both on there. The output of this will be wired to a switch. This switch will allow me to flip between an active Stingray and a passive P Bass but will not allow them to blend. There are issues with impedance doing this which could be overcome with a buffer but I have no desire to go that far yet. I may in the future but not now. The first thing I did with the original body which was sent to me with the bridge holes in the wrong place was to use some cocktail sticks and wood glue to fill the holes. Once sanded back, this wasn’t too bad at all but I'd still prefer to have it covered. I re drilled the mounting holes in the correct position. I’ve got lucky here though, the KSM foundation bridge that I bought is quite chunky at the back and this covers the bridge ground hole and the newly filled screw holes. I've fitted a side jack: The control plate was made from a sheet of 2mm carbon fibre. I taped the original control plate to this and used a belt sander to shape the carbon fibre sheet to the shape of the original control plate. I then used a Dremel to open up the screw holes and pot holes. You can’t really use large drill bits on carbon fibre as it frays and splinters so these had to be done with a small grinding bit. These holes aren’t perfect but they’ll be covered by the pots. The screw holes were counter sinked and its ready to go on. I’ve still got to order my Status Graphite neck so can’t really do much more with this than the body bits. All fitted together with pickups in place looks like this. Please note the pickup threaded inserts are yet to be fitted to the pickups aren't screwed down properly yet: For the preamp, I used a PCB from OSH park. In one of the other forums, Uncle Fluffy did this but a user called MNATS (thank you) did a redesign of this PCB and I chose to use this one as the wiring is neater. For the components of this, I tried to use the highest quality audio components I could find which fit. I used Nichicon Fine Gold for the electrolytic caps and polypropylene caps where I could. I used one ceramic cap for the 120pf but ensured this was C0G NP0. There are 2 Polyester caps in there which will be replaced with some Wima FKP2 caps soon. This was my preamp after it was all soldered up: And that's where I am with both of these so far. I'll update this thread as I progress.

Uses it as pick?

I used to own a Spector NS2000/4 bass which was nice but I’ve always had a want for a Musicman Stingray. I was never too keen on the price of these and the fact that modifications are highly frowned upon. I decided to sell the Spector and try to make my own Stingray and put a bit of a spin on it. I bought a bass body which was made to the same spec as a Stingray body. Don’t ask me where I got this as I suspect they’ve had some legal problems as they no longer offer this anymore. It was made out of 2 pieces of swamp ash. It was routed for the standard Musicman pickup location, control cavity and neck pocket. The bridge holes were drilled for a fender 5 bolt bridge. I also asked for them to route a P pickup directly next to the Musicman pickup route. This keeps the Musicman pickup in the “sweet spot” and moves the P pickup towards the neck by a few millimetres (hopefully not enough to change the P sound). The Stingray sound was more important to me than the P so the compromise was better taken by the P pickup. My plan was to have an active Stingray sound and a Passive P bass sound and never mix the two due to complications with impedance. So my original spec sheet for this was to create a natural old school looking bass with some modern materials thrown in. Carbon Fibre and Natural Wood: · Stingray Body · Status Graphite Musicman Neck · KSM Foundation Bridge · Nordstrand MM4.2 Stingray Pickup · Tonerider P pickup (cheap pickup to get me by) · Home Made Carbon Fibre Control Plate · DIY Stingray Preamp (Thanks Uncle Fluffy) · No Scratchplate (I may make one out of carbon fibre if I don’t like the look without) · Gotoh GB350 Res-O-Lite Tuners · Graphite Nut This was what was delivered to me. It looks stunning but I noticed that the bridge holes were very close to the edge of the bass which would throw the scale out. The blacked out bits on the neck pocket are just my name from the order. After some too-ing and fro-ing with the place I bought this body from, they realised their mistake. They modelled this with a Fender neck rather than the slightly longer Stingray neck which threw off the bridge mounting holes. They proceeded to made me a new body and told me I could keep this one. They sent me a one piece swamp ash body which was nice. So now I’m left with 2 Stingray bodies with P pickup routes. So… what to do with the other body? The original body was routed with a side jack but the replacement body they sent out to me wasn’t routed for this. This picture is the new body after I drilled holes for scratchplate and control plate. I still need to put some threaded inserts into the pickup mounting location: I decided I’d build an unlined fretless Stingray with an Ebony fretboard. I’d use the replacement body they sent out to me as this didn’t have the side mounted jack and, as I'm going with a 2 band preamp, I can use the 4th hole in the control plate for the jack. I’d try to stay true to most of the Stingray design on this one. I commissioned a Stingray fretless neck from the same place I bought my body from. This is what arrived: I cannot state how good this fretboard feels, it’s like glass. I've put a light coat of TruOil on the back of the neck but nowhere near finished. So, onto speccing this one out. · Stingray Body · Stingray Fretless Neck, Maple with Ebony Fretboard · Hipshot Vintage Bridge (Has a similar curve to the back like a Stingray) · Nordstrand MM4.2 Pickup · DIY Stingray preamp (Thanks Uncle Fluffy) · Original Stingray Control Plate · Original Stingray Scratchplate · Hipshot Ultralite Clover Tuners · No P pickup on this one I have no intention to try to pass any of these off as a Stingray (just want it to sound like one) so there will be no Musicman branding anywhere on the bass. These are the bits I've bought so far for the fretless: This is where I am so far. I'm yet to TruOil the body but I'm planning on some very thin coats as I don't want to yellow the wood too much. I think this raw look is real nice: I'll update this thread once I've completed this but I'm pretty close. the next post will be where I am with the original bass I was going to build.

My third pedal in the Ironman series, this came up on the Bay and I won it for a very good price. Joyo are three for three as far as I am concerned. Solid construction, nice design, simple responsive controls - oh and it sounds great. I'm a big phaser fan, if you think of Phil Lynott's sound on Dancing In The Moonlight, you'll have an idea of the sound I like. I'm less keen on the smudged, overly thick phaser sounds and this pedal produces a lovely clean , well articulated phase. Even with the Width and Feedback fully clockwise the notes are clear and unmuddied, the passing is just more pronounced. Winner!

Father Christmas has delivered a bit early. A couple more pedals (an Aftershock and a Programmable Graphic) to help complete my transition from menus to knobs...

I've been a bass player for 40 years. I, like many of you have had hundreds of basses over that time, every make and model you can think of. Around 5yrs ago I hit hard times. Horrendous times, personally and financially. So everything went to pay rent and survive. My last basses.... 2 Stingrays, 78 P bass and a Gretsch Thunderjet plus my TC rig, all gone. I've had nothing since. Literally 6 weeks ago life turned around financially, new job, new hope. So..... I'm starting to rebuild gently at first.... In: Yamaha RBX460 Hohner B Bass TC BG250 Totally delighted with all 3, under £500 for all 3.... the TC was £40!! Looking forward to a P bass, a Jazz and a Stingray joining the gang next year. The RBX460 was the start of my new journey, a gift from my new partner....and I couldn't have started with a better, albeit modest instrument, and honestly the Hohner is immense, up there with basses 3 times its price. NEVER give up fighting. I'm proof that life can turn around, even when there seems like there's no hope.... keep fighting. It WILL get better.

So, sell the Fender and spend the money on having the BB stripped and painted LPB, yuss?

Imagine the day when there's a Fodera thread and no-one mentioned Fedoras.......just imagine 🤔 Si

For me, just the anticipation of what Jabba and Andy will bring is sufficient motivation to keep on organising the S-W Bass Bashes.

New pedalboard day. Pretty damning awesome.

I’m so oar inspired that I’ve decided to copy his work and make a bass from this excellent piece of timber...

In my previous posts, it looks like an innocuous battleship grey… shine some light on the bugger and it turns into a rainbow…

My new Jabba special just arrived. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME

Well this is so much fun. I'm a simple soul and I like effects I can master in a reasonably short time. And I like them to produce a pleasing noise too. While I could probably approximate the sound of this 'micro' pedal with the other synth options at my disposal, it would be an awful lot of work. This pedal is an absolute belter with all the controls doing something simple and obvious to the sound, and it took mere seconds to find a usable setting.

So you won't mind being paid in lentils.

So the high point of Yamahas bolt on designs vs a mid spec fender japan jazz that’s not really a jazz and happens to be the colour you like?

I've never played a forces venue, but I have jousted. I can confirm that no good came of it.

"A number of Fodera basses for sale atm" BTW, which ATM is it? One in Chorley? Let me know please and I'll send my driver to pick them up from there.

I was just about to say that. Should be a Pinned Thread for people wanting that to match up. Plan in advance and even get the fretboard wood you want.

Those people just need to find the P-body J-neck people and do some swapsies.

Fiery Gun Hand - Cardiacs

Sandberg VS4. Job done.

It’s here. I confirm…it has a weight. needs my preferred strings etc and a tweak to my taste. it is lovely

Experts talking cr@p.... Where to start with that. I won't bother. Lucky all this covid stuff is just a hoax isn't it? And you taking your own chances is fine but you're actually risking other people's health too, is that fine? Just because you're not bothered?

Clicky bit Oooh want. Basically (I think) the YYZ pedal with added Boost and shapeshifter functions. Obvs will cost a fortune.

Next on Open University late night specials - super hard quantum physics.

Is that the Zippo one? I've heard it's a little lighter 😉

In the early 2000s our band played a Sergeants Mess in one of the camps on Salisbury Plain. It was in early November but it was a Christmas do because they were going to to be in Iraq for Christmas. After our set we started leisurely packing away until a group of MPs turned up and told us to pack up and leave as quickly as we could because it was all going to kick off at any moment and they even guarded our van while we loaded it.

If you usually have the front pickup (or back) too close to the strings, you get wolf-tones, the further up the board you go, as the string begins to get closer to the pickup. Try dropping the pickup a little under the B

I wooten have believed it unless you informed us, are you saying that the Fod era is over? Now cannon foddera?

Marketing opportunity surely missed here for a Fodera Fedora?

Hi! Yes, I do have two Power Jazz Bass Special basses! I adore them. They are the kinda bass that would have to be prised from my rigor morticed hands, you know? I never really cared for the on-board electronics and thus I stripped the lot out and replaced them in true 80's style with a full active EMG circuit. They sound amazing. Interestingly, they actually both sound different - but lets not start the "tone wood" debate here too lol.. As for the Tri-Lam neck, yeah I never really cared for or bothered to chase up what was actually meant in the somewhat vague marketing literature. Being something not visible, I wondered if they had inserted rods in the neck like many brands do today to "stabilise" them. I've no idea, but these are two basses that I don't think I have ever adjusted the truss rods for since an initial set up, years ago. They are rock solid, the necks are amazing and they have a great sound. Gotoh OEM hardware too, if you can find a good example they will p*** over any modern Mexi - and I like some of those MIM basses too

Just to be clear, I am not saying wood doesn't make any difference to an electric guitar. I am saying that I can't hear any difference. It's purely my opinion. I wanted to say that before I am flooded with replies saying you are wrong and citing examples of expensive woods making certain luthiers guitars so much better than the next. In my opinion an acoustic instrument benefits greatly from the material being of superior quality but on a sold bodied instrument the body does not resonate much if at all. The sound is made by the pick ups resonating to the string vibration. The strings are just there to oscillate a magnetic field on the pickups, and besides the body (and neck, bridge, etc) is usually pretty solid anyway so not much change for the small force of fingers on strings to resonate such a dense object.

No. No fee to pay, at least by the supplier. We got paid exactly what we invoiced, and we didn't have to add a percentage for the handling fee, unlike what we used to do with Invapay.

I hear that this bass comes with a special tuner that has Anita Dobson singing the Eastenders theme tune when you switch it on.

Here are three different Pbasses I recorded just yesterday. Hope You will enjoy the sound 😊.

In: - our second daughter - Bravewood P bass kinda 1961 style and won’t be going anywhere - ibanez roadster from 1981 that I only got this week and already know Isn’t for me! - a Nordie bass mute thing - loads of secondhand strings trying things out: some of the secondhand strings I didn’t like

It's easier to hear the sound of the cab up close more like what's heard at a distance when there's no short ceiling or side walls on the stage. Those can cause boundary sourced low frequency null zones close to the cab, killing the lows if you're standing in one of those zones. Those zones go away the further you are away from the cab, explaining why the lows can sound much louder out in the audience than on the stage. This phenomenon lead to the myth of wave propagation, the notion that a wave can't be fully heard until one is a certain portion of a wavelength away from the source. Like most myths it was a seemingly plausible explanation for an observed result arrived at because the true explanation was unknown.

Don't confuse similar with same. Wood is a way too inconsistent material to achieve constant results. Luthiers go to great lengths with selecting and storing and selecting and controling and selecting again in favor to achieve the desired result. Companies live with a broader variety. A 5-string is a different animal than a 4-string. They are not the same instrument. They just share brand and product name.

Of course he was out of tune, he didn't have a tonepros bridge, Buzz Feiten compensated nut, locking tuners, carbon stiffening rods in the neck or a tuning pedal on his pedalboard. He was lucky not to have dropped that guitar without straplocks. To be honest, he probably thought intonation was a Polynesian colony. Disgraceful carry on, altogether.

Neither, it's definitely a bass. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Brian-May-Bass-Guitar-Antique-Cherry/1R29?origin=product-ads&gclid=Cj0KCQiAk4aOBhCTARIsAFWFP9GLgizGEaVNX6GQjrLg_T2nDObFnCV166Ci7PmyTElfNO7pcad19uoaAjBGEALw_wcB

I have knocked something up which is very not safe for work so don't play this for your kids , well I guess it depends how old they are A bit of a rush production wise, but very much in my usual take/stylee of this months challenge I think. The Fugly Duckling

Here we are

My band are out again tonight with another guitarist depping for me. This one hasn't even met them before never mind rehearsing with them. Now I have a clearer picture of how important the bass is to them , it's fair to say their regular bass player will be displaying a markedly more relaxed attitude once he returns.