neepheid

[quote name='bremen' post='1362800' date='Sep 5 2011, 12:55 PM']Are you sure? I thought it was more like if the item was worth more than £20 or so, £40 if it's declared a gift.[/quote] You are confusing VAT with Import Duty. They are two distinct and separate charges.

Just delete the wiki now, I mean seriously - what's the point in it? Not only does no-one look at it, I haven't been able to log into it since the VAT rate increase to change the sums in the article which covers this very question. Hmph.

Why not do something different? It's not different enough to pique my interest, but hey, at least they're trying.

[quote name='2pods' post='1360143' date='Sep 2 2011, 05:18 PM']The thing is that it was a cheapish guitar that was delivered to day, and I'm bit reluctant to send it back, though I was thinking of asking for the price of the repair off the price. I don't mind a bit of fretbuzz, as it rarely comes through the amp, unless I dig in and I want it to, but this is a total no note. I'll get in touch with DV24 and see what they say Thanks for the wisdom again [/quote] If it's new, send it back. Instruments should be free from these kind of defects from the get go.

The notion that an instrument is somehow automatically better than another because of where it's made is nonsense in my opinion. There are only two types of bass - good basses and bad basses. Good basses can be made anywhere, as can bad basses.

Well, I'm not out of the woods yet, there was some spring back from the first steaming/clamping session and the G string began to buzz on the second fret when playing the first. Have since steamed the bend for about 10 mins then clamped it in a slightly forward position again, it's still ok, but in the mean time I have secured an identical neck in case this one doesn't work out. Will have to wait for a few weeks to know if the straightening is more permanent this time.

[quote name='dc2009' post='1350638' date='Aug 24 2011, 07:40 PM']Awesome sir! This is fantastic. I'd love to see a shot of it next to a standard thunderbird, just to see the difference in upper fret access. I'm aware it's early days yet, but do you think this would be possible to do, to a 5 string thunderbird, ideally with a 24-fret, graphite neck? And at EH, no I won't be doing it to that and I just sold it anyway o.O[/quote] Anything's possible. It just might not look much like a Thunderbird afterwards - you'd need some serious cutaway modification to make 24 frets useful. It's bad enough contemplating making this one look like a JAEbird

This really is the end of the story now - I managed to snag a genuine truss rod cover to replace the bodge job I did. Final headstock pic coming tonight

I haven't sold anything on eBay for over 3 years. Greedy fees, their inability (or willingness) to act on reported auctions and the unfair feedback system are my main bugbears.

Good news: the clamps are off and it is now possible to play the first and second frets. Whether or not it will stay remains to be seen. I think I'll leave it under string tension for a while.

Starting again, with beginner's "not sure if I want to make a go of this or not" funds - probably a Yamaha BB of some sort - 414 or 614. Or anything with a chunky neck that I liked the look of.

I'm not sure it matters much beyond practicality - having anacondas of cables in there will be difficult to work with, difficult to bend into position, difficult to fit into holes drilled for earth wires etc. The E/L/N wires out of household power cables is probably a bit too thick. Best get yourself to Maplin and get stuff that's a bit smaller than that. Gibson have been known to use stuff as thin as telephone wire (like in my G-3), but I'd say that seems a bit flimsy to me. So (and I'm sure someone will come in with actual dimensions) somewhere between household power wire and telephone wire will suffice.

I have a fretless P in bits waiting to be finished and put together, so the answer to the fretless question is - kinda. I've had three acoustic bass guitars. One was a horrible £50 eBay cheapy which was horrible to play, horribly finished and didn't even work properly (A piezo element was quiet). I gave it away on Freecycle - I couldn't in any good faith ask for money for it. The next one was a Takamine G series which was big and beautiful. I must confess that I bought it because it looked gorgeous above any other reason (quilted maple front, back and sides) and I never really used it much (I wasn't playing much at the time). I moved it on to make some cash. The last one was an Ibanez AEB-10 - I bought it because I had a covers gig coming up and I wanted something I could practice on in my lunch hour with minimal fuss. This did that very well (loud enough for solo playing, built in tuner etc.) but ultimately it wasn't any use to me once the cramming was done. Took it to a practice with a singer and a single acoustic guitar and I had to plug it in. What's the point? Sold it. The only thing I miss is the looks of the Takamine. Nostalgia: Sigh. OK, I think I'm done with them now. From my own experience I can say that (in my opinion) their only advantage over a solid electric bass is aesthetics if you MUST blend into an acoustic type ensemble. But even then I reckon you could get away with using a suitably trad looking semi acoustic bass like a Rivoli/EB-2/Starfire/Jack Casady/etc.

Well, there's good news and bad news. Good news 1 - got the thing assembled: Good news 2 - project objective achieved - no neck dive: Bad news - neck has a back bow, frets out below the third fret. Oh dear. Wish I had spotted that. Truss rod loosened off and still no chance of a straight neck, never mind relief. I have tried to fix this by loosening off the truss rod completely, clamping it to a flat surface, used a small shim in the middle of the neck to induce a very small amount of forward bow, tightened it so the back bow is dialled out and then applied some steam to it. I'm going to leave it clamped for a week or so and see how I get on. I really hope that this works. The way things are though, I couldn't really make it any worse

[quote name='Wayne Firefly' post='1340816' date='Aug 15 2011, 04:09 PM']Its not an Epi, it would be for my Gibson...[/quote] I believe that question was aimed at Delberthot

As long as you're not expecting a Precision neck on this Precision (it's Jazz width on these Squier Precision Standards) then you'll be happy. I know a guy who plays a red one of these in a soul covers band and he's more than happy with his.

I thought that string spacing was what annoyed me about Jazz necks, but it turned out to be a combination of neck profile and width that did it. I can do Jazz width if the neck is suitably chunky front to back - the Warwick Rockbass Corvette taught me that - but I still prefer a chunky P sized neck any day.

I presume you've tried adjusting the height of the bridge pickup closer to the strings and all that nonsense? Also check the state of the wiring/soldering?

[url="http://cgi.ebay.com/140591040751"]http://cgi.ebay.com/140591040751[/url] Ouch. Anyone need some spare Grabber parts?

You're right, I'm tying myself up in knots about something which doesn't need to be worried about yet - get the neck screwed in, bridges down, electronics wired up again and see. 3 relatively simple steps and 2 weeks hols coming up - I should have a working bass soon.

If truth be told, I was having another look at it last night and because I removed the sticky out bit of the neck heel and can get my thumb up to behind the 16th fret (will have to reshape the neck a little), I can reach the 21st fret quite easily with my index and middle fingers. Now I'm really confused. Do I need to do anything?

[quote name='JPJ' post='1334794' date='Aug 10 2011, 11:59 AM']Just a thought, but how much time do you spend playing up at the dusty end? Is it really necessary to contour the body? And If so, is it not better to contour the back of the body, where your palm goes, rather than the front?[/quote] Admittedly I do not play up there very often, my main reasons for having 21 frets are grounded in OCD desires to have a bass start on an E and end on an E, not a D#. However it is silly to add another almost unplayable fret onto a Thunderbird without doing something about it. I have been looking at the bass in my hands and I am confident that front bevelling is the way to go at the minimum, and probably some work done on the back too. Bevelling at the front allows you to angle your hand towards the high frets, thus making playing these frets a better proposition. I really can't see how changing the back only will help - having picked up a bass right now with a more aggressive cutaway at the bottom (curves between frets 19 and 20) it only works with the palm down because of that cutaway, there's no way you'd be able to do this on an unmodified T-bird cutaway - it sits between frets 16 and 17 and doesn't even have an appreciable edge roll-off, never mind bevelling). I appreciate that bevelling is not as effective as a full on cutaway, but if it helps without impacting on the overall shape of the body then I'm counting it as a victory, and if it doesn't help then I guess I'll have to look at a deeper cutaway anyway.

[quote name='tommorichards' post='1334658' date='Aug 10 2011, 10:39 AM']do a barrel roll? What about doing more of a cutaway?[/quote] I've been mocking up different cutaway ideas and they all look wrong and spoil the Thunderbird shape too much - the point of this is to make a headless Thunderbird, not a headless "thing that looks a bit like a Thunderbird". Bevelling is a subtle way of improving access which doesn't alter the overall shape (perimeter) of the body. A couple of people mentioned bevelling/contouring in this very thread, but I couldn't get my head around how it helped with high fret access until I had the neck in place and held the bass in a playing position. It does mean altering the angle at which you address the fingerboard, but the bevel makes that angle more possible than the vertical cliff face which normally greets you on a Thunderbird.