neepheid

Prepaid, hopefully...

See you soon!

This Saturday, playing with Nine Lives in a tiny place in NE Scotland called Keith, specifically The Railway Club...

4 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Righty, I'm back from a week's holiday on the Devon coast (lovely) and ready to put the finishing touches on this project. 

 

In my time away, the lacquer has had time to fully cure. So the first thing to do was the both tedious and nerve-wracking process of wet-dry sanding the bass to get rid of all the brush marks and runs. 

 

This is always a fairly scary process, as you just have to keep sanding (constantly checking things) and trust that you applied the finish thickly enough to be able to smooth out all the imperfections before you go all the way through the clearcoat somwhere. If you blow through it, particularly if its in a very visible spot, you essentially have to just throw up your hands, do a lot of swearing and start the whole process again, which can take a week or two to cure. It's maddening, but I've gotten pretty good now. No issues with this job. 

 

Here's what the bass looks like now – I've sanded and polished and polished and polished and polished and polished.  I then applied the shielding foil to the control cavity and added the ground wire before attaching the bridge (with thurst bearings fitted now, thanks for @PaulThePlug for the recommendation). I boiled the strings and gave it a rough set-up for intonation and action. No electronics yet. One of the great advantages of headless basses (especially double-ball end ones) is that you can string them up and de-string them over and over again without any problems. 

 

 

I've just spent the last half an hour or so playing it unamplified and it seems pretty damn good. No fret buzzes, and it's really surprisingly loud even with just the wood for resonance. One thing that has thrown me a little is just how chunky the neck is – I'd taken measurements and so I knew in theory that it was a big boy, but I was still a little taken aback when I got it in my hands. It feels more like my dad's 70's EB3 than the jazz and stingray style necks on my custom basses. I'm assuming I'll get used to it in time.  

 

Even with the chunky frets, the action could probably go lower than its current position (with the saddles decked on the G and D strings decked) with no fret buzz. Not that it isn't playable now, probably low enough for most players, but I'm picky. I think I can file the bridge saddles down a smidge without problems. 

 

Tomorrow I'll prep the 3D printed components from @Jackroadkill and put the electronics together. My plan is to put a basic vol-blend-tone circuit in it for now, and then replace it with something esoteric, filter-based and active down the line if I like the general sound and playability. 

 

Totally feel your stress with the wet sanding thing - I had a hand painted design underneath my clearcoat - no pressure then!

Glad it went well, it's looking boss!

7 hours ago, Duroc17 said:

Anywhere UK to get replacement guards for Reverend Mercalli? - would like to get a tort one. 

I highly doubt you'll find one ready made off the shelf - I would just get the original copied.  Either Brian Pillans (earlpilanz on ebay) or Tinytone will do this for you.

Sax player in the 'Spoons doesn't drive (but bless him, he's learning) - I just give him a lift to rehearsals, I'm going anyway. He gets the biscuits in, it's all good.

5 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

Loving the Headstock Logo. Looks very professional  

Thanks! Anything beyond "intentional" is a bonus

3 hours ago, Grooverjr said:

Aha, fantastic. Yes, if you could get the actual measurement that would be amazing. I have one of those full sets but it is in a shipping box in a warehouse so not the most accessible to try different ones. The metric ones I can get work for the height adjusters but not for the locking screws. 

According to my callipers, the hex key I have is 0.061" or 1.55mm across the flats, or 0.0675" or 1.71mm at its widest.  In a pinch, a T6 Torx might also get in the corners of that hex and turn it, being that it is 0.066"/1.68.mm point to point.  We're talking tiny differences here - might work, might not depending on how well made your T6 is.

Or maybe he got fed up of the earache he was getting.

That is a Hipshot A-style bridge.  To adjust the string spacing, loosen the grub screw which sits alone on the right hand side of the saddle underneath the two saddle height adjustment screws, then move the saddle side to side by hand as you require, then tighten the single grub screw back down to lock it in place.

The screw will likely be in freedom/imperial units.  My A-style came with a key which I guard with my life.  I could get the callipers out and measure it when I get home, if that helps?

Slow down, talking in terms of whole turns is making me nervous!

What are you trying to do - straighten the neck, or allow more relief?   Because that's all the truss rod does - adjust neck relief.  It has an effect on it but it is not the primary means of adjusting the string action (ie. height).

14 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I contacted Hipshot re this and they advised to use aluminium HVAC tape, easy enough to do and works well.

I wouldn't like to use tape to make up a 2mm discrepancy, tape for wee wobbles only for me.  I'd want something a bit more substantial than layers of tape in there making up that kind of difference.

1 hour ago, LowB_FTW said:

Why would you have turnip with spuds?!?

Honestly, to me, that just sounds mingin'.

 

Mark

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapshot

23 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Re: "neepster"

on reading that word it just occurred to me that @neepheid should probably be pronounced "neep-heed", in a Scottish accent. 

 

Not "neeffeed" in an English accent, which is how I have been reading it in my head for the past seven years.

 

Am I correct, or now being thick in a yet another novel and embarrassing way??

 

You have indeed stumbled upon the correct pronunciation.  It is simply "neep" as in swede/turnip/rutabaga and "heid" as in head.  A silly person, basically.  I came up with it as my internet nom de guerre/plume because I was wanting a Hotmail address (in the pre Microsoft days, so around 1996?) with no numbers in it and I wondered what no American would think of.

2 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Oh you know me so well.  Fender seems not to like them.  Maybe they detract attention from the Land of the Giants' headstock logo too much...?

 

@neepheid

 

Neepster?  If I bought this could you change the neck for a nice Ibby SR series neck for me?  If not... knock the price down enough for me to buy one and I can take care of it m'self.

 

Joking aside, I bought a selection of metallic powders to see if mixing them with resin & hardener would work as a metallic looking filler to do an inlay on one of Jack's uke builds.  It didn't bling as I'd hoped but it looked eye catching anyway when flatted and buffed.

 

I've still got some somewhere if you want to have a play before you decide how you want to fill the water damage.  PM me and I can pop some in the post for you.

Girl, I'm just a Neepster for your love?

I'll get my coat.

PM incoming.

30 minutes ago, snorkie635 said:

Yes indeedy Neeps, easily the best thing to come out of Aberdeen since Denis Law. Well done that man.

Ha, Annie Lennox is going to be so annoyed at that.

These knobs.  I think they tie things together nicely with their half black, half shiny nature.

An alternative solution...

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/514065-it-came-from-the-black-lagoon/#findComment-5523942

Both bands, equal say on everything.

Just now, MacDaddy said:

 

Best or worst?

(I played through a TC BQ500 at a rehearsal studio and it was pants!)

Duh, it was in a rehearsal studio?

You've been unlucky.

Not last night, but Friday night, played a rare live outing with The Inevitable Teaspoons at Krakatoa in Aberdeen.  We played last ("headlining") and were treated to some fine acts first - Kaleidoscope and then Autohuman.  No pics, it was a bit of a rushed changeover because as usual things ran on a bit.  We played pretty well and went down favourably, heard someone describe us as "entertaining", and was speaking to the guitarist from Autohuman after and he was keen to do gigs with us again.  It wasn't super busy, but there was an enthusiastic gathering of about 20 folk up front and probably 10-20 more skulking at the back, so eh, as long as it wasn't empty!

Gear was the Greco LGB-700 three pickup bass into my pedalboard then out into Krakatoa's FOH, using a Markbass Little Mark Black Line 250W into an Ampeg fridge for monitoring.  Because why not?

3 minutes ago, SimonK said:

Someone asked me on the thread below about seeing some of the Trace Elliot cabs I've been collecting and fixing. I'd be happy to see how much I can squeeze in the car, although if there are thoughts of a cab comparisons I could probably bring a 1x15, 1x18, 2x10 and 4x10, and maybe also the classic 2x10 + 2x5 cab favoured by Mark King, albeit space may prevent this!

 

 

We're gonna need a bigger venue reinforced floor!

Well, a quick update - I've sorted the touch buzz on the Warman pickup.  My mistake, I bunched together the main pickup ground with the ground of one of the coil ends instead of it going to "chassis" ground.  Separated them then soldered the braid to the copper shield and that sorted it.

Weirdly enough, there's touch buzz on the bridge pickup, but only when it's out of circuit (well, it's not truly out of circuit because it's still connected to the blend pot), which is pretty odd.  No matter, I don't ever rest my thumb there so I'm not super concerned about that.

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

That's looking good.  I imagine you will have a lot of fun tweaking things like the knobs (as mentioned) and the control cavity cover.

 

I had a chuckle to myself when I saw how the G string obscures the view of your "deliberate" mistake of leaving out the line in the note's tail.  Did I see you had managed to fix it in an earlier image?

 

Why not make a feature of the rotted part?  Maybe a bit of faux gold filler to make it stand out.  Transparent coloured fillers can look good too.  Wire brush the rotten fragment out to leave an interesting texture and wah-hay!

 

It will be fun to have a play about with these minor things, but I'm mostly looking forward to road testing it with the bands later this week!  Sounding good in the cans, but it's not the same as having a thrash at war volume with a full band.

I did fix the little gap in the logo, ultra fine Sharpie and a ruler, then more clearcoat on top.

The rotten part is super low priority, but because it'll be nigh on impossible to fix it invisibly, you're right - I might as well make a feature of it instead.  Cool ideas, had a few others, will mull it over.

4 hours ago, Richard R said:

Multiple Wows!!

Looks great, but I agree you need to swap the control knobs. Black and grey to match the headstock?

 

 

Thinking black and chrome will tie it all in nicely with the large pole piece pickups and the chrome hardware.  Anyway, they're ordered, so we'll see if I was right later in the week!