lettsguitars

[quote name='henry norton' post='1098132' date='Jan 21 2011, 09:26 PM']Yeah a good hard polish with the Brasso will bring up the chrome plate underneath the gold a real treat. You might find a better price for Hipshot hardware on Ebay.com (as opposed to the .co.uk version - it's dependant on exchange rates, post and stuff like that but in my experience it usually worked out cheaper.[/quote] really? 17% vat +shipping, only when i haveto ie; ordering hipshot tuners by the dozen! love it!

just kill the bridge pickup.

[quote name='Johnston' post='1109782' date='Jan 31 2011, 06:04 PM']Big Poppa Puppies[/quote] and of course the final sequel that took it too far. big poppa puppies 5

[quote name='skej21' post='1109765' date='Jan 31 2011, 05:51 PM']Surely 'music' discriminates against those without any musical ability whatsoever? How about 'Soundpeople'? [/quote] bassbuddies

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1109719' date='Jan 31 2011, 05:10 PM']Musicmany.[/quote] nice one. thinking outside the box.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1109379' date='Jan 31 2011, 01:01 PM']musicmans[/quote] thats that then.

so which is it?

scratchyplates! not for me.

aah, sorry didn't read the postr properly. basically, sounds like the neck was not stabilized before coating. still the same procedure though. just becareful not to sand thru your clear coat.

oil or wax once a month foir the first year of it's life. then 2 or 3 times a year and lemon or almond oil on your fretboard whenever you change strings will prevent your neck shrinking like some kind of sandi toksvig mutation. if it's too late and your frets are already sticking out, you can file them if they're really bad. filing frets is a job that you get confident with after a few attempts. it's easy to f up the side of your neck which you don't want. if they're only slightly sharp, just mask off the neck/body transition area of the body, take a fine sanding pad from b&q and smooth em out. you can polish up with wire wool. you could also use a falt 'stick' with sandpaper which would be better than a sanding pad. either will do the job though. keep the board fed!

not sure about the lowend basses, who makes em etc. i do know that they stock pete hiltons stuff which means there alright as a shop in my book.

amazing. how dare he? he obviously does though, and respect for that. my only worry would be the weight. gotta wiegh about 10kg

whats the bass in the last pic? the natural finished un.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='1108196' date='Jan 30 2011, 02:58 PM']I've got two placcy basses - an Ibanez EDA900: [attachment=70417:EDA900.jpg] And a see-through P wot I made: [attachment=70418:pink800.jpg] Makes a change from plywood... Jon.[/quote] did you make the perspex body yourself? if so how? is it just like working with wood (generally speaking)

i know how you feel. i think most comapanies long scale is max 34" with your average hardtail bridge. anything with a bridge tailpiece or as you say, string through is a pain to get strings for. some strings say extra long but i think they mean that there regulars are already extra short. i seem to remember warwick strings were ok and regular slinkys also long enough for my 34's. i'm actually going to deepen/lengthen a neck pocket for a customer, just so the strings he bought from the U.S will fit the bass. silk creeping over the nut slightly. bizarre way to go about things i know, but if he likes these strings, and they are real beauties, he's gonna have em.

you're actually bang on. most non players tend to think they are plastic. i think my dad still thinks my wooden guitars are not proper guitars, strange. the paint they use on most guitars is plastic, so it's quite understandable.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='1108044' date='Jan 30 2011, 12:31 PM']Hi Jon, I'm not in a position to justify buying a handmade custom instrument. But I'm really pleased to see local people actually making stuff. I wish you well for your luthurial future! I think I saw one of your basses, a 5 string fretless in Intasound Music in Narborough road. It looked very well made.[/quote] hi mate. yea one of the early ones. i may take another one down sometime. i think the guitar workshop in ibstock would have one as i know warren and duncan pretty well. but you know, all the shops want 20% and i've always managed to sell em online so far. speaking of which have you seen the [url="http://www.lettsbasses.co.uk"]website[/url]?

it looks well made. and smacks of 'offcuts'. though i'm sure that aint the case. cool bass, not sure about the back of the nut.

actually, having said all that, i'm going on my experience using nice quarter sawn mahogany. a stiff maple neck may take a little longer if you have to wait for the wood to respond to truss rod movement. they say quarter turns and 24 hour wait but i'm not so sure. just experiment and keep your eye on it and you'll figure it out.

where was it made? something thats recently been built in a humid country that comes to live in blighty is gonna go through some changes. truss rods are no problem at all. this is what i do. get your action set so that the height is the same from the 12th up. there should be a minimal amount of upward bow in the neck. if the height decreases from the 12th, your saddles are too low and vice versa. to get the correct relief (upward bow), just turn the truss rod clockwise to tighten (back bow) and anti-clockwise to give more relief (ooh). the height at the nut/1st fret should be almost zero, actually about .010 to .020 (20 thousandths of an inch). when you have your neck relief and saddles set, you may have some fret buzz. to fix this, look at the neck relief and remove the strings. now, turn the rod in order to acheive the same amount of upward bow the neck had while strung up. find a very flat 6-8" 2" wide block of wood, or preferably buy a radius block matching the radius of the fretboard (ebay). with your 'leveling stick', and some 320 grit sandpaper, lightly go over the frets nice and evenly while constantly checking your work. what you are looking for is a very slight flat spot that is present on every fret. some frets may have larger flat spots due to them being the higher frets that were creating the buzz. clean up your board with a light rub over with a fine grit sanding pad, any gunk will need scraping off the fretboard with a razor blade, frets shouldn't need re-crowning after only a slight level, but if those flat spots dont dissapear after smoothing over with a sandingpad, you will need a crowning file and some other grits of sandpaper. the final step would be to mask off each fret (i use a metal fret protector which cost a few quid and makes polishing a breeze) and polish with wire wool. it sounds like a lot of work but if you try and visualise each step bfore you set off it really is a simple and enjoyable process that is only an hours job at the very most. whew, in fact typing all this sh*t took longer.

adding a great piece of metal over a pickup has the effect of 'opening up' the pickup the sound and balancing the fields of the pole pieces. i think. something like that any road. metal and magnets have a huge effect on each other so i'm told. needless to say, yes, they were there for a reason and not to rest your hand on or whatever.

anything you can imagine is an option if you go custom, (beerholder anyone?) but yes, you should make sure you know exactly what you want before forking out 3 grand on a bass that won't change the most important factor, CAN YOU PLAY? tonewoods, neck thru adds sustain and all that hocus pocus means nothing. it's all in your playing. having said that, custom instruments are the only way to go if you want something special that will turn heads. factory made basses have absolutely no soul, and someone like acg build some absolutely stunning instruments. as for wood choice, just go for colours/grain pattern that appeal to you and forget about tone coz none of that matters until you start playing.