LordAvon

Ok, I finished it... Comments about the kit. No instructions, but it wasn't difficult to figure out with a bit of thinking and planning ahead. They sent the wrong pickguard (I ordered black and got sent white), so there's no pickguard currently, which I actually kinda like. Obviously I need to spend some time setting it up, but it's actually not too bad, the E and D are almost spot on, nice action, almost perfect intonation and no buzzing. The A and G intonation is way out and the action is way way too high. Only annoying thing is that the pickups seem to be miles away from the strings, I'll try and raise them, though I'm not going to sweat it as I've got some seymour duncan STK-J2s on order. On the plus side, it looks good and the neck has a nice feel to it. Also it weighes *SO* much less than my Zoot, I hadn't appreciated just HOW heavy my zoot is until this. I'll post some more comments tomorrow once the neck has settled and I've set it all up. Paul

I bought a white les paul guitar copy (I dabble with guitar), I love the look of the Les Paul style guitar (oh for a les paul bass in black). Anyway, I'm lucky enough to have a line 6 variax 700 electric (in red) and I have to say the wesley LP copy was crap. The intonation was *miles* out, the action was crap and it just sounded week. I speant about half a day setting it up, and got it better, a lot better, but I sold it pretty quick... I had a fretless stagg, and it sounded pants, but it's action was a lot better (I can't comment on the intonation as I just couldn't get on with fretless). I guess for a *first* guitar/bass the wesleys are good, but having played good guitars, I wouldn't buy a wesley again. Paul

Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass, in black, with the strat socket....

Thanks guys, I had figured that a lot of the sound was down to the Jazz bass and pickups. I'm currently lusting after an Aerodyne bass (in black), but I'm wrestling with the decision to sell my zoot to pay for it (I can't afford a £550 bass without selling something). Paul

FWIW, Mine is a Zoot Bass, around 7 years old and it plays fantastically. It also sounds totally awesome. Two custom Iceni pickups, Active Electronics and black hardware. It had a new neck fitted by mike walsh about a year ago. Paul

Ok, so here we go ;- [url="http://www.myspace.com/TenFifty"]http://www.myspace.com/TenFifty[/url] Recorded on my VS2480, bass run through one of the channels compressors. For the vocals I used an LA2A plugin. and all mastered through the T-Racks mastering tools. Again all within my VS2480. We've also got a webpage, with excerpts of our other tracks - [url="http://www.TenFifty.co.uk"]http://www.TenFifty.co.uk[/url] Any feedback/comments would be much appreciated as this is the first time I've really speant a lot of time on mixing. Paul

Guys, How can I get a sound like Duff McKagan, in particular on the contraband album by Velvet revolver? It's bassy, yet has a reasonable amount of mid without being over-powering. Paul

Neepheld, Thanks for the advice, I plan to take my time and enjoy the process. as for it not being cheaper from the US, well I did a comparison based on the 'allparts' website, even with vat mine should come to £330, I couldn't get a neck and a body for that here in the UK! Anyway, I plan to build it as it comes, then modify/change bits. I have some wacky ideas for pickup arrangements I want to try, but I want something that's not too precious to hack about :-) I'll post pics/images as time moves on. Paul

Elros, That's a nice looking bass! I like the fact that there's a huge cavity for the electronics (I plan to build my own active electronics) and that you can choose the knob positions. Paul

Guys, thanks for the input. I looked at the warmouth site, but quickly racked up $1100 in parts :-) I figured I'd go with a cheaper kit to start (the complete bass kit from WD is $500), around £250. Looking at all parts (thanks for the link, it's saved for future ref) their bodies are £155, add in the rest of it and it'd get quite pricey real quick.. but for my nexy project, assuming I do one, I'd certainly look at them. Cheers Paul

Yeah, I don't think I have the skills (or tools) to build my own from scratch, so I figured if I got something that was relativly simple to start with. Made some mods to it and got confident, then I could have a go at making a guitar from a block of wood. There's a chap in scotland that runs 2 week courses in guitar/bass building, where you start with a lump of wood (you choose the wood) and you design what you want and then build it, but it costs £900 (plus accomodation). Sadly I can find no-one in the UK that stocks bass bodies, I can find necks, pickups, bridges, nuts, etc, but no bodies! ho Hum. Paul

All, has anyone done any DIY bass building? I've seena few places offering kits (I assume the £65 kit is going to be pretty naff), I was thinking about a bass from here - [url="http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm"]http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm[/url] anyone got any experience with them? Paul