Fishman

I want to reduce the thickness of a baseball bat 70s Aria Precision neck – the truss rod sits some way up from the back of the neck and I'm wondering how much to safely remove and what method would work best, and are there any potential problems such as warping or whatever

I saw somebody on youtube doing this with a roundover router bit which looked quite straight-forward: 

Any advice greatly appreciated

Cheers

blimey! never seen one before, which is surprising considering the amount of time I spend on here, obsessing, gassing and generally wasting time 😀

@Andyjr1515 what's the blue bass earlier on in this thread?

Thanks Deedee, but it's for a new build – I have a neck, but no plate

There's a metalworking chap near me so I will probably sound him out for a price – might be cheaper if he makes more than one, if so I will post here, in case anyone else wants one

Anybody know who might be able to fabricate a 6-bolt neck plate for a Stingray 4?

Anyone got any opinions on neck radius (or radii, if you prefer)

I recently bought a Fender Japan Mustang, no idea what the radius is, but it's quite different to my regular bass, a 1976 Aria ProII Jazz copy, which is as flat as can be, without actually being flat

I'm thinking of having a bass built and I'm veering towards a flat board – opinions please

bargain! These really are great basses

just picked up one of these, same finish, similarly minty – great to play, but slight neck dive on a strap which i wasn't expecting

Anybody know what the body wood is?

Thanks @dood interesting article – I particularly like the Producer Switch bit !

Glissando – I suppose it makes sense thinking about it logically – I also liked his description of frets: railroad tracks clicking away

Very smooth playing on that Lukather track too

 Hello Basschat, can you hear me? Anyone out there?

The reason I ask the question in the previous post is because this chap mentions fret wire – I have to say that I've never given it much thought – seems like nobody else has either!

I'm having a P bass refretted and I wondered what I could expect from different types of fret wire

I like a very low action, don't use a pick and play a range of styles – if that makes any difference

Thanks @Grangur – the varnish is pretty much gone – it now looks a bit like a pistachio shell – I'll probably try a light coat of tru oil just to keep the sweat and grime out of the wood. I had a couple of Wals in the past that were sticky as hell but I never felt like i could just sand off the varnish, what with the value of them – this old thing was found in a skip before I revived it so such worries there – will report back once done

It sounds good – I swear I checked and double checked the wiring, but clearly I am blind!

It's a nice blend of the P and MM pickups - a bit cleaner than the MM and less edgy that the P – the East preamp is a nice addition too – I got the Bass Gallery to route a control cavity to fit the pots and preamp bits which are too big to fit the Stingray cavity – access through the back with a nice black cover – I'll post some pics  soon

Thanks @BreadBin and @bartelby, it was as you suggested – now all good, cheers! 

OK, will check and report back

So… I have a Stingray that also has P pickup in the usual place – I just swapped a Delano P for an Aguilar P and now the centre position on the blend is super quiet – previously, with the Delano P is was the same volume anywhere on the blend

Preamp is an East Uni-pre

Any idea why it's quiet in the centre position?

I wonder how much this (would have) cost Prince?

Interesting piece here:

Thanks – I'm leaning toward the true oil approach – will report back

Thanks mybass – ah yes, fine wire will could be it!

Sorry, I know you meant wool – I've got some Danish oil from an old DIY project so that could be an option

I just read another thread here where @Andyjr1515 mentioned tru-oil

Will report back

So… I sanded off the varnish from the back of the neck of my 78 Aria Pro II jazz bass and I'm wondering what to do next – it feels much better now without the glossy varnish – much faster

Should I worry about anything other than it getting dirty? Can the stability of the neck be affected?

As for a new finish, what about the virtues of tung oil, or some kind of wax or whatever

Something I noticed immediately was that the hard-edged, percussive sound of the bass (un-amped) was altered somewhat, now a bit more muted

All opinions and experience welcomed!

Thanks for the Wal link – I see that the rareguitarheaven outfit get some rather scathing reviews – I'll almost certainly get someone around these parts to build it for me as I'm a fussy git – I'll make a fresh post once the build is underway, don't hold your breath though!

Interesting!

I have to say that I've been through almost everything mentioned above and I've settled on DR Sunbeams, HiBeams and Lo-Riders for all my basses

You get what you pay for, as with most things 

I bought them from a fellow Basschatter about 10 years ago!