neepheid

2009 - my first gig with my first originals band Panda Eyes, at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. 28/06/2025 - Me disproving Thunderbird neck dive theory at Maud Football Club with Nine Lives.

What have stairs got to do with it?

@rwillett - you're up

Hey, I'm super helpful! Where's my damn badge?

I wouldn't stay changed, more refined. I have a definite list of no-nos (mostly based around Jazz basses and short scales). I've always deliberately steered clear of regular Fender Precisions (apart from early on I put together a bitsa Squier P), mostly because I think they're boring. Even when I do stray into the territory, I can't help but do it differently - a G&L Tribute LB-100 here, a Cabronita Precision there. The one thing I have strayed away from is Gibson USA - they haven't done anything worth looking at in bass for years now, and I got tired of waiting. For years I was their biggest apologist, but I'm done now. The prices on the older, interesting stuff have gone through the roof, which I find hypocritical in the extreme considering the amount of dog's abuse they used to get. I've been priced clean out of it. TL:DR - If I like the looks of it, and it isn't a Jazz bass or short scale, I might buy it.

Right, that's me finished mucking about with this bass, which has been christened the "Ratlet", because the budget was half what the original "Rat" bass cost (G4M LA Select + Lace Aluma P) I fitted a Sire/Reverend style 3 string retainer on the headstock, and I put a £19 Guyker bridge on it, just because it's fancier looking and it hides the ball ends of the strings. So at the beginning of this, my challenge to myself was to have a "giggable" bass for under £150 - all new parts, not including shipping costs. Final total cost = £144.67. Definitely "giggable" - I gigged it on Saturday night!

No, you haven't - gifts you are involved in any way with the choosing of (which you have basically confessed to above by announcing your prior knowledge of the bass in question) are a fail - so you have the choice of failing this year or next, depending upon when it becomes yours.

What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road? I started bass comparatively late - in my very late 20s. A potent combination of Jack Bruce and Steve Harris made me do it. I had owned a guitar before that but never really got into it or stuck at it. I still had that guitar when I started bass though (an Epiphone Les Paul "Special" II) because one day I just thought to myself "eff it, I'm going to get a bass" and proceeded to learn "Peaches" by The Stranglers on the lower 4 strings of that guitar, then headed to my local music shop (Bruce Millers on Union Street in Aberdeen - sadly no longer open) and bought my first bass - a cherry red Epiphone EB-3, because it was (kinda, very kinda) what Jack Bruce played, along with a Laney 30W amp (which I still have and still works). I piddled about for a few years, honestly tinkering with basses more than actually playing them. Then in 2008, my wife (fiancee at the time) basically dared me on stage as she put together a ska/2 tone covers band to play at a birthday party and nominated me on bass. In 2009, I joined my first band - an originals band called Panda Eyes where I met my drummer who I've been playing in bands with ever since. Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it? Yes, more so now than ever. It's when fun neep gets to come out and play. I love playing live, so much so that I really don't care for playing at home very much - because it's boring. I do it when I have to (composing or learning songs at home) but all things being equal, I'd rather be in a room or on a stage with others. What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses? What changed? I'd like to think I got good(ish). As I've got older, I find myself listening to music a lot less. As far as basses are concerned, I've maintained a healthy distrust of the mainstream (ie. a Fender P) and I have learned to recognise the things I do not like or care for, like Jazz basses, short scales, more than 4 strings (and yes, I've owned all of those so it's not an irrational dislike!). Even when I did own some of the Big F's products, I couldn't be trusted to do it right - a Cabronita P here, a Starcaster there, a Squier Jag H. What was the first bass? And what’s the latest? As mentioned in the first answer, my first bass was a cherry red 2003 Epiphone EB-3 which I must have bought new in 2003 or 2004. No, I don't still have it. The latest bass to arrive chez neepheid is a Fazley Hot Rod. The 72nd bass to pass through the revolving doors inwards.

Thanks, but these are not applicable to the situation - Hipshot Ultralites are screw fit bushings and the spacers are simple round rings which fit entirely inside the tuner hole and go around the supplied screw fit bushing to fill out the gap: https://btnmusic.co.uk/products/hipshot-licensed-ultralite-adapter-bushings The product you linked are press fit bushings which sit proud of the surface of the headstock and are for "traditional", non threaded tuners.

I was merely responding to your original post in isolation. But blocks (or crowns) in general, yes yes yes.

Shaping/smoothing out of the area I just routed away. Refinishing of the area I've just been working on. Bridge pickup is on its way from South Korea. After that arrives, pickup installation and wiring (got an Artec SE-2 waiting for the remainder of the guts). In the fullness of time, something decorative on the headstock. If you're super desperate for news, the felt washers for the strap buttons should be arriving tomorrow, but that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel!

Binding and blocks are not the sole preserve of Jazz basses, and thank deity for that!

I know exactly what #7 is but I won't spoil the surprise...

I've heard them referred to as "Fartolinis" - very mature. Honestly I think they're the three point bridge of the pickup world...

You didn't even notice I was wearing a hat, did you?

I'm 5' 9" and I don't give a monkeys what anyone thinks about me playing a T-bird.

Babicz and Hipshot are the only ones which spring to mind. The makers of lower priced hardware make money because of selling in large volumes - making a three point replacement doesn't fit into this kind of model because it's just not called for that much. You can fit any bridge you like to whichever bass you like, but as you recognise, it won't a straight drop in. A lot of work just to get away from a bridge which basically works just fine and it's just fashionable to rag on it IMO. There are worse bridges out there (even if Gibson made about half of them, lol). I don't think you'll notice a change from 17.7mm to 18mm string spacing. We're talking the outside strings being less than half a mm further out from where they are now. Height might be an issue - the three pointer does sit quite high. You also don't mention what bass this is on? Flat top or carved? Are the bridge post ferrules flush with the top of the body or sitting proud? But at the most basic level, I'd say that if you "hate" the three pointer that much then put your money where your displeasure is and buy one of the drop in replacements.

Who would like to join me in Tribe "don't be a d!ck"? It's an aspirational tribe...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C3V74M27 The 0.25 degree one is really hard to see the taper on, but the 0.5 and 1 degree ones are definitely tapered, and the 0.5 one demonstratably works - the neck heel is on the deck at the front and there's a gap at the back.

Christ, does it devalue the bass if you clean it (internally)?

Wow, that would be some cutter (and some router, frankly)

Oh, and a little catchup on odds and sods I had been pottering around at but forgot to mention... The top horn strap button was in at a funny angle (at least for the strap buttons I intend to use, and it annoyed me, so I filled and redrilled it (only got a pic of the filled hole - plus waiting for the felt washers to arrive). Also did that final fettling of the MM pickup route and now I'm a lot happier with the string to pole piece alignment. Seen worse on an actual MM, ooh, neep, you shady biatch