LukeFRC

Not sure if im more excited at the great project you have or jealous its not me doung it!

Get well soon man!

wonder if you could do some kind of T40 market place where the price varies according to the weight....

this thread being bumped makes me want a t40 again

Is there a knack in getting them? Quite fancy a jazz...

that looks nice!

and a nice smooth finish all around! white goes on bit more and the pink

So the pussy pink went on.. and I didn't have much of that - so i turned to this blue colour I had leftover. Both the pinked and the blue were from our wedding decorations. and then sand the thing back Messy!

after a bit of sanding to finish it off nicely... we're ready to start painting. Now I'm doing this on the cheap - and I had a couple of cans of Molotow paint in the shed so rather than shell out loads for sanding sealer and undercoat and then car paints... I'm going to spray the leftover cans on as a grain filler/basecoat - sand it back flat - then do a white coat, pink coat and clear top coat - cost me £9 to paint the thing.... not bad! hmmm pussy pink colour!

Now the sensible person would drive 2 miles to see his mate who owns a couple of routers and use a machine to cut the wood away. Me, being an idiot and impatient, set about it with a drill and a wood chisel! and slightly out of focus but it ended up okay!

holes drilled for the bridge and marking out the control plate caverty

Lining up the bridge

Part 5 - Thoughts on construction. What makes a good bass? I have no idea. I've bought cheap things and they have been amazing, and played expensive things and they have been awful. I've played basses that felt alive and reverberant, and others designed to decouple that resonance and sounded great. I can buy a load of pre made parts from a supplier and put them together - or I could buy essentially the same parts put together by someone else.... and sometimes theres a massive difference - and sometimes you can build something brilliant. One thing I have always found to be important is how tight the neck is bolted on.... and stealing an idea from far far highly skilled luthiers based a few miles from me (Alpher) I wanted to use bolts on the neck. Body on the workbench... Threaded insert ready to thready.... Drill depth gauge bigger holes drilled and inserts installed.... and the neck bolted on as tight as a tight thing There was a wee lip on them inserts but a wee bit of work with a chisel in the neck pocket and it's super flat good.

Part 4 why this is taking so long and what I'm trying to do. In april we bought a house. I've always had wee projects and things on the go, then I got married and moved into a tiny little flat and couldn't - I missed that part of my life, the tinkering side of me. Anyway this bass was bought and sat there for ages - I could sink loads of money on this and find out the woodwork isn't great - or it could bolt together into the greatest thing ever - I have no way of knowing. So it's got to be cheap. and then we lifted our hallway carpet and found and are restoring this... ... early victorian floor... anyway - what finish? I spent ages over this, swatch books, a Photoshop file where I could retint them. I loved Jim Ryan's blue glitter finish and would like a sparkly bass. I would;t mind a british racing green bass. Sparkles would be good.... argh so much indecision! Apart from my indecision with glitter finishes I've had one idea in my head from the start.... There's a busker on Glasgow's Byres Road who plays a very old shell pink jazz master - its one of the sexiest old things I've ever seen. It looks amazing. It's got tort guard and the rosewood fb and this aged yellowed battered shell pink flesh tone finish. Now ideally I would build a jaguar bass and do that in those colours... but I don't have a jaguar bass. So I decided on the shell pink. More aged fender tone than the light pink sweetshop pink the stingray classics used for a short period. Oh and a matching headstock - just because.

Part 3. The one where I Improvise to strip the body.... So paint stripper... is rubbish - it hardly ever seems to do ouwt. And I have fundamental problems with the idea that sanding is the best way to get a finish off a bass body - you've got something finished relatively well and painted, and to get the paint off you're going to take heavy grit paper and rub the thing for hours - taking off the original paint - oh and that smooth finish to the wood - and possibly re shaping bits of it... and suddenly the whole thing gets a bit wobbly... anyway heat gun is the way forward - easy stripping of paint Except I don't own one. If you turn your head sideways and see the world differently... a gas hob is a little bit like a heat gun isn't it? Even got a fume extractor built in! So that's how I stripped, with a scraper and holding it upside down over the cooker! It got a wee bit singed on the edges but that doesn't matter. If Earnie ball can do roasted maple necks - I call this griddled ash body - improves the tone 13.224% This is what I ended up with. The red patch is a wee bit of paint I stuck on and wiped off. Its 3 bits of ash - two halts and a random bit on the corner. Grain wasn't sealed so it's still stained with the paint finish - that and the random corner mean we're going for a solid finish. coming up ... Part 4 ... why this is taking so long and finish quandaries...

risk of trigger's broom here...

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1440182502' post='2848976'] Another 75 Jazz arrived today. OK first things first... I've come to expect these deckos to be pretty much flawless, my last three even turned up in tune. Out of the box, this one was actually unplayable. back bow in the neck which choked the strings. So I assumed that the truss rod must be knackered... but it wasn't. Took three full turns and I had to lower the saddles about a centimeter afterwards but it now has a fantastic action. Routing is a bit rough around the edges but again... it sounds great. [/quote] that looks great! How much was it again

Im building a similar bitsa - ive gone for a push pull switch on the volume that will give me both but will default on whatever the standard stingray goes for.

[quote name='2elliot' timestamp='1433448590' post='2791234'] Wow, what a stroke of luck. A 2024x is still on my hit list, but for now my early 80s BB3000 fills that void perfectly. In fact, I havent used my Warwick Thumb for nearly a year. [/quote] to put it into context.... it's been ok for 12 months or so... ! I've got a thumb from 1985 and a BB1200 from 1977 and they are chalk and cheese in sound and in playing position.... and life is better for having both.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1439851170' post='2846309'] The same things always come out, "They colour the tone, they have a mid hump etc". IMO/FMP they sound better in a rock band with a valve head pushing it then a supposed 'neutral' sounding cabinet. [/quote] is that the old ones with the angled baffles or the new ones?

I usually get a variation: "oh LukeFRC you're a designer aren't you, I saw something you've done and liked it" -Cheers "I was wondering my business/charity/mum really would like a flyer/poster/logo is that the kinda thing you do?" -well yes "Well what it is is this [proceeds to explain]" - so what you're saying is you would like me to create a whole advertising and publicity campaign for you "well if it's not too much bother" - why don't you email me all this and I'll get back to you with my rates and an estimate on how long it will take for you "oh.... er rates? We don't actually have anything in the budget for design, we thought you might like to just help out..... " - ...... !

love to hear some unto date reviews comparing their new cabs to the current crop

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1439757978' post='2845587'] I'm not a trendsetter. I just like finding out about great stuff that's a bit off-the-radar (Limelight, Maruszczyk, TKS). And then I enthuse about it (or not, if I don't like it). [/quote] I dunno, I think if you hadn't raved about a walkabout for years I wouldn't have gone to find one to listen too (and buy) Mind you I think Warwickhunts love of thunderfunk led me to want one of them... years later when I did buy one I hated it! (luckily Warwickhunt had sold his so I could sell him mine.... )