LukeFRC

so the 1 pup or 2 pup dilemma has been solved... convince d my friend to sell me another bartolini MMC

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1493623498' post='3289414'] My advice? Save up and get it done properly. End of. It's too special to warrant a trip down to Halfords. [/quote] this

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1493537588' post='3288935'] Bear in mind there's a 24% buyer's premium to add to the final hammer price. But even so, yes, some of those estimates are very (deliberately?) low. [/quote] apart from the status groove which won't make that

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1493480422' post='3288691'] Thanks! [/quote] like don't get me wrong - I think it's utterly mental. But it looks awesome so far.

Looks great!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1493322655' post='3287537'] Still think it would look better with black hardware... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4R-Black-nickel-JB-PB-Bass-Machine-Heads-Tuning-Keys-/272609839454?hash=item3f78d0095e:g:sB8AAOSwB-1Y24bW http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Pcs-Right-Handed-Machine-Head-Tuners-Tuning-Pegs-for-Bass-Guitar-Black-/152347269662?hash=item23789ada1e:g:8GMAAOSwux5YR9l~ http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-STRING-CURVED-BASS-GUITAR-BRIDGE-FOR-FENDER-ETC-BK-C-/150823371343?var=450080100963&hash=item231dc6024f:g:slQAAOxy2BBSVq9u http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-string-hard-tail-fixed-bass-guitar-bridge-B17-/140669608630?var=440037564877&hash=item20c08fe2b6:m:mywssYfJu-AmOhU-GRzvO_w Sell one of the kids to raise the funds.. [/quote] some the eBay cheapies were what wasn't great about the last ittereation of the bass - so want to use decent parts (which I've got) - and honestly don't massively like the black hardwear stealth look.... as a designer in my day job, trust me I'm going to to be able to make it look good.... less sure I'll be able to actually make it though!

So work, weekends away and then some bug means I haven't done much more than research stuff... The bug finally caught up with me and a day at home in bed meant I could get some scale drawings done... Searching the net I managed to find some: amazing scale drawings for Precision basses, amazing scale drawings for Jazz bass... and a mediocre one for a stingray. The shape and positioning feels about right. The one negative is the plan seemed to use a 4 bolt Fender style neck, whereas my Musicman one is 6 bolts and 21 frets.... Ruler out and a load of measuring my actual neck, and reshaping slightly the upper horn and bit that bolts on and I get to this.... I think I may end up needing to do a separate battery box. We shall see. I also wasn't convinced by the control positioning so mocked it up without the other lines - I really don't think those switches work where they are.... The switches will be serial- single (outside) - Parrallel for each pickup. Then the big switch a pickup selector. The musicman pickup is kinda designed not to have anything (resistive) between the pup and the input... hmm Oh and BTW if it looks like I'm just faffing around with drawings... well I'm a graphic designer so sorry! They are also life size plots so I can switch on the lines I need, print out and stick onto MDF to make my templates.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1492584473' post='3281308'] Ref your comments that weight has been an issue with a number of your previous builds, have you got any thoughts how to keep this one light? [/quote] buy a light bit of wood from Jon Shuker? bridge is aluminium too...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1492552923' post='3281241'] The one on the top, black... Although I prefer just the one pickup, if I were to use two I'd space them like you have. Looking promising! [/quote] that's the big choice I've got to make 1 or 2 pickups. I'm going to set it up with switching rather than blend so that I'll be able to set it in "musicman" setting and it would be identical electronically to a 1 pup bass. Would be quite fun to have two pups too though! (and give the answer to the "why build it")

Nah - I'm not sure I like the all black look with black hardwear. Nickel would be nice... but changing hardware is out of budget (unless someone wanted a swap) - remember this is the build I shouldn't really be doing after I spent all my bass spending money on the G&L Anyway, more mockups.... the one Eude (and me) like, chrome hardware I do like colour though: I've been really impressed with this build some german guy has done: ( http://www.kontrabassbau.at/stingray5pimp.html ) maple top obviously but nice

Might be able to get a second pickup - cant afford black hardwear!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1472199946' post='3119297'] Yeah, you're not alone. If you want to haggle, that's good, I'm prepare for it, but do it properly: make me an offer and let's talk from there Typical gumtree. At one point I put a few things on there, and I got an email for every single one either offering exactly half the amount or asking that question. They were all from the same person. I guess some people just blanket lowball and hope to get lucky at some point, to sell for profit... which is absolutely fine, I only have issues with their approach to me. [/quote] There's a couple of folk like that your way. One in leith and the other a big taxi driver from falkirk. Sold him a Warwick SS2 ages back, "too battered" for me mate, then kept trying to haggle via text. Told him to piss off. Came back the next day and paid the price I wanted. Up on eBay for £500 more within a week "selling my dream bass, played lots of gigs on it" (he couldn't play mind you) What was mildly satisfying though when it went for less than he paid me for it. Anyway on the main topic of conversation... I have a comparatively low income and what I do have I have even less to sell on bass guitars. My first bass was a status shark that I found in the back of a shop and got a good deal on - a few years later the Precision was he main gigging instrument, I realised that I could sell that and use the money and a bit to buy a warwick which were super cheap back then (which I am eternally grateful to warwickhunt for) So I did. Every other bass I've had I've bought for under going rate. For two reasons, one, that's what I can afford, and two I'm hedging that if I don't like it, or need to shift it I can without loosing too much. I'm probably not ever going to buy a custom made bass new - mainly as buying something that's going to depreciate so much just isn't affordable for me. Much like I probably wouldn't buy a new car. I've been lucky though and even though it wasn't my intention I have bought things that have tended to be more desirable when they've been sold a few years later than when I bought them - It's meant I've got to play some lovely instruments, I don't think that that is my fault!

Should have said no idea on colour yet - I like teal and the black would match the neck but open to anything- super quick to mock up different colours. I'm really liking the two pup with no guard or control plate - it looks stingray but also different

I'm liking the more naked one with two pickups, or the control plate with one pickup

So mucking around on photoshop - would be grateful for opinions... 1 - control plate, no PG 2 - rear rout, no PG 3 - control plate, black PG 4 - control plate, tort PG 5 - rear rout, no pg, 2 pickups 6 - control plate, no PG - and black stain - kinda matching the neck which is black 7 - sunburst? Of course guitar finishing is a hell of a lot harder than a 30 second photoshop job! 8 - teal version of 5 9 - like 8 but with a pg

So good bit of wood, nice bridge, nice neck...... think I've got a build going on here! So at the start:[list] [*]I'm not going to be going quickly on this. So don't expect lots of speedy building. Hopefully avoid any major mistakes! [*]It was going to be glittery silver body... but given I've got this nice bit of wood that might stay on display [*]It's going to be string thru body, so got to get furrells in a straight line! [*]I need to decide if it's going to have the control plate or be rear mounted. And if it's going to have the scratch plate. With a less stingray looking bridge I don't feel that it has to be a clone of a stingray, but wants to have enough there that it looks good. [*]there is an option of a $$ or HH pickup setup. I kinda like the idea that if I have HH and select the outside coils I might be able to get something that gets into Jazz territory. but at the same time you loose the simplicity of a stingray. [/list]

Attempt 5: So we need to fix the bad things with the Pink stingray. The preamp is good, maybe new pots. The tuners can't be faulted. and errr.. a nicer neck, a lighter body, a less cheap-screws-bridge.... So... someone on basschat sold me this neck... made in USA musicman - Think this will be an upgrade.... And then my BB1200 sold and I spent a bit extra on my G&L L1000... and wasn't sure if the wife would let me have more bass spending money... so I sat the neck in under the sofa bed and forgot about it for a bit... Then I saw this nice hipshot bridge on eBay at a reasonable price so snapped it up..... next some wood for a body. after a while looking around for someone who would have some wood that would be suitable I figured if I were going to do this I might as well do it properly and when visiting the in-laws in the peaks we went visited a certain Mr Shuker who sold me this bit of wood, already jointed and thicknessed for me!

New build time.... but first the background... In the beginning... Many years ago I was given this awful Vox Standard bass body - it weighed a ton. Varuious people on basschat sold me a cheap neck, a cheap Musicman pickup, cheap tuners and actually a nice bridge. etc. I cut a hole for the pickup, defretted the neck, sprayed the body with graffiti paint and the neck with ronseal diamond hard floor varnish. It all went wrong - it still weighed a ton, the finish was awful and the diamond hard floor varnish did do exactly what it said on the tin and I was unable to sand the radius back into it. It was an unplayable heavy lump of rubbish. But it was green which I like! Attempt two, and three... Many years later I try again.. this time I start off with a working bass (good start) and strip a 1990's japanese squier body. It was a bit of a mess to start with and I stripped it and attempted to repaint it. Let's just say it was such a mess that it went utterly wrong - that photo doesn't show the full horror of the green paint job, it looked the most unappetising thing ever and the "paint" stripping had revealed that body was plasticised wood covering some horrid soft stuff in the middle and it just was awfull. So I got a cheap alder body, again from someone on basschat and made it tomato-soup-red using molotov graffiti paint. Good finish except a parts where I finished - it also took a while to cure and I sat it in a case and got marks in it before it had fully hardened. Kinda missed the mark in being a stingray ... but Nice bass, fun to play, sounded good, why did I sell it? Attempt 4 a year or two back I made this... The body (ash) and neck (maple) were made by some local guy at uni when he did instrument building, the preamp is a clone of a pre EB 2 band that I made myself. The tuners are some nice schallers, the pickup is a lovely bartolini MMC, the bridge is a retrovibe stingray clone (with the inserts), more in this later and the paint is shell pink and looks good. (again Molotow) The good: it sounds amazing. Really really nice. The bad: It is a wee bit heavy and the neck is a dog. To be fair I couldn't make better but the frets arn't great and given I've got a few other nice basses there's no way I would choose to play this over them. It does sound good. The ugly: you can buy some lovely bass parts from chinese cheapy eBay sellers. That control plate for instance. That Retrovibe bridge is another chinese cheapy sold by Retrovibe here in the UK. It's a nice bit of kit, esp for the money... the downside, and a pet hate of mine, is cheap stews that the head threads as soon as you look at them. This one was so bad that not only did it thread the head, but when I tried to remove it with pliers it sheared off. Now maybe the pilot holes could have been bigger? but really awful screws and annoys me overtime I look at it. Also pet hate when it comes to cheap bikes...

Unless you know what you are doing I would stick with the Beyma in the plans. Otherwise your alternatives would be a kappa lite in a fearful design, or bills simplexx cabs which give recommended drivers and the rough spec for other cabs. If the reason you are substituting is to save money... buy a secondhand can!

[quote name='Rikki_Sixx' timestamp='1491660274' post='3274630'] I'm in Yorkshire too so I'd be keen to hear if you find anywhere selling suitable timber! These guys sell reject / b-stock bodies for pretty good prices on eBay, could be worth a look: [url="http://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=boobooguitarsuk"]http://m.ebay.co.uk/...boobooguitarsuk[/url] [/quote] I'm going to visit the inlaws over easter down in the Peaks so ended up phoning Jon Shuker and he's sorting me out. Not the cheapest lump of wood ever he would be buying something the right kinda weight for his stuff and he's picking up a bit extra. He's also going to thickness it for me which will save me doing that! Figured Iif I'm going to do this I might as well do it properly! Build thread incoming!

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1491127494' post='3270630'] One of the most unusual finishes i've seen. Love it. Enjoy and have fun. Dave [/quote] try and find them on Facebook - Luke's bass isn't the craziest finish they do!

Have you read the whole talkbass thread?

the opposite is also true when they have presumed that everyone is using small speakers and they haven't put a HPF or whatever on it and mid programme our sub starts going low rumbley for no reason whatsoever