hiram.k.hackenbacker

Episode 2: ‘The Search for A Body’ Part of this comedy of errors is retrospective, but you’ll be up to speed in no time. My first thought about utilising the neck was to recreate another very special early ‘60’s bass. Up until very recently, that was what I was set on doing, then I had a change of heart, partly due to conversations I had with a couple of well known luthiers around these parts. This other ‘60’s bass might come to fruition in a compete custom build at a later date - not by my hand I should add. So I started looking around for jazz shaped bodies on eBay, Basschat, Reverb etc etc. There are quite a few out there, ranging from fully loaded to new and unfinished. I wasted a lot of time thinking about what body finish to go for, without giving any thought to a possible refinish. It never even crossed my mind until seeing the work of David Wilson on @AndyTravis Marcus Miller and one of @walshy’s. Around the same time Andy sent me some links to a couple of jazz bodies for sale that he had come across. One of them was this Squier body on Basschat.... Given I know stuff all about the variations of Jazz basses and their clones through the ages, it looked OK to me. Slap the neck on, string it up and we’ll see if it works - or is likely to with a few tweaks. This is where I started to get ahead of myself. The seller of this fine body said he would be willing to sell for a reduced price without the pick-up’s. I had kind of decided I wanted to go the stack pot route anyway, so we sorted that and I received the body as above without the knobs, jack, wiring and pick-up’s. Here it is without the scratch plate.... Yes, it does have a lot more holes than I have screws for, but David will be vanishing a few of them for me. I still can’t make my mind up about a finish, but that’s a way off yet (sometime in September hopefully). It occurred to me sometime between paying for the body and receiving it, that it might be an idea to get a neck plate and some bolts to bring the two together (you were warned that I don’t know what I’m doing). It seems that a lot of Fender spares are not making it over the water in goodly time these days thanks to COVID. All neck plates are out of stock at my usual haunt (Strings Direct), so I bought (a quite possibly not genuine) one off eBay. It wasn’t until I started researching neck plates that a learned there was such a variety. Thickness of metal, gasket or not, different logos, custom logos. Anyway, I decided it wouldn’t be right to have anything ‘Fender USA’ due to the neck being Made in Mexico. A ‘big F’ would have been my preference, but this one was cheap and looks like the thick metal variety so I went with that. I digress. When the body arrived, with fevered anticipation (it might just have been the heat) I married up the neck to the body to realise a slightly unforeseen technicality..... ....no access hole for the truss rod. I know, it’s not the end of the world, but I’m just kicking myself for not seeing it. Obviously I couldn’t bolt the two together (see above), but the heel sits in the pocket very nicely, better than I could have hoped for in fact. Stay tuned for Episode 3: ‘Out of Control’

Mmm. I could do, but it’s not very Jazz shaped. It would also have the worst neck dive in the history of basses 🙃.

So am I 😂

I wasn't going to do a build thread for this. In fact, I wouldn't even call it 'building' as it's more 'putting together', but judging by the way today has gone, I think I'm going to have get my hands dirty anyway. So this is more for your comedy value than anything else as it's the first time I've done anything like this - and will possibly be the last. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This sorry tale starts with my purchase of a Fender Flea '61 Jazz Bass just over four years ago. It was a very nice bass. They are made in Mexico and my one bettered a few of the USA Fender's I've had pass through my hands. You may have read this elsewhere, but one day in 2018, I went to play this bass and found the strings were about half an inch off the fretboard. Definitely not where I had left them the night before. Long story short, the truss rod had failed. Cue long boring discussion with Fender UK who appeared uninterested. Such was my frustration with the failed neck scenario, that I ended up getting a graphite neck from Status fitted to the Flea body by Rob. It's still on it and I plan to leave it that way. Some time later, Fender sent me this.... It's sat around doing nothing since I received it and I thought I had better make use of it. In hindsight, it was nice of them to send me the neck fully loaded with tuners and string tree as I had stripped the faulty neck when I returned it to them. Stay tuned for the next episode: 'The Search for A Body'

☝️I volunteer to manually delete them one by one.

Yes, I agree. If that means I have to remove my one (which I don’t think is excessive - please tell me if it is), then I shall do so.

Not knocking the guys, but if I was a Mod, I would be all over that. Who the f8ck is interested in what basses and amp he used to have? I’m borderline uninterested in what he’s got now, let alone what he had before.

Got two of them, had one of the others and the Zon I would really like to get my hands on. Sorry I can’t help, but I wish you luck in your search for a three way 😂

I don’t know if you’re aware, but you can turn a lot of the stuff you have in your sig into links. So, you could just have the word ‘FEEDBACK’ or ‘FEEDBACK for The Greek’ instead of ‘https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/118513-feedback-for-thegreek/?do=findComment&comment=1088965’. You can do the same with all your sale items. It might even fit all in one line.

I would say, go for it. It’s an opportunity to learn something possibly, so has to be a good thing. You’re in the same situation I’m in. I have a neck which Fender sent me as a replacement for the one that went wonky on my Flea ‘61. I replaced it with a Status Graphite neck which is staying on it, so this neck needed a body, which I’m waiting to be delivered and will go from there. My first attempt, so will be interesting. Hats off to you @walshy. They look fab 👏👏👏👏

Very much so. We want to try and do something a little different. Might not work, but going to give it a go. It might be the opportunity to try something songs that don’t normally get looked at by other tribute bands. We have more time to create the patches and sounds we’ll need to pull them off.

Not strictly speaking live, but it will contain new video of us performing live, maybe some photo's and some other random stuff 😂. All very much a work in progress, but it's going to happen. Coming soon, stay tuned!

Go for it. We were offered a gig at Garon Park at the end of the month, but our drummer is unavailable. Do ‘em when you can.

Yay. Nice one 👏👏👏👏

‘Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?’ Welcone.

A Polytune of some kind I would think.

Not particularly badly for me, but I can't see me getting through a whole year without buying a bass. In fairness, I sold three basses and one amp, but have bought two basses and one amp: 1) Spector Euro 4LX-TW 2) Lakland 44-64 Bob Glaub 3) Darkglass 900 V2 'Euryale' I'm also in the process of putting a Jazz together, so fairly hopeless on all counts. I don't think I'm going to put my name in the hat for next year.

Yes, best shot of I think mate. Sounds like a bit of a c8ckwomble.

You can make all the excuses for him you like, but if Andy’s latest post is anything to go by, the guy isn’t even trying.

Sounds like a complete twunt. I think you’re right to be a bit peeved. He’s taking out his lack of talent in the music writing area on you, which isn’t fair. Unless he can come up with alternatives, he’d better get working on what’s been sent.

I don’t think I’ve visited this thread before, so here’s the last video we put up on our channel from just over a year ago. From happier times before social distancing was a thing 😬.

Ha ha. I get your drift 👍

What does it have on the headstock @Chiliwailer? None of the pictures show it.

Excellent news. Very pleased for you 👍