neepheid

HA, Bax came through!

Well, this is a NBD thread I honestly didn't expect to make. Some of you might know that back in September 2024, I set myself a challenge - to achieve a "giggable" bass in a £150 budget - new parts only, ignoring postage costs. The core component of this challenge was a bass I spied and really liked the look of - the Fazley Hot Rod - a no-nonsense, pickguardless FSO, reverse P, volume only. Bax are the only vendors of these as far as I could see so even though they were out of stock and on back order, I laid down £84 for the bass. Yes. £84. Unfortunately, most people know the story now - Bax went bankrupt in early 2025. Womp womp. And you know how it is with companies going bust - the customers are at the back of the queue when it comes to making things right, so honestly I had written it off. But, Bax coughed back into life after being bought over. Then I started getting emails suggesting that they would be honouring past orders. I was sceptical, but I played along, answered any questions I was asked (confirming the order details, and a bit later on asking if I still wanted to wait, or take store credit). I opted to wait and have the order fulfilled as originally intended. Well, would you believe it? Look what arrived this morning... I tell you something for nothing - there's a lot of bass here for £84 (well back in September last year they were, they're £94 now - oh no!). It's the neck which surprised me the most - absolutely no raggedy fret ends, and even a very slight attempt to roll the edges of the fretboard. No swarf in the nut. Tuners are serviceable - not the smoothest turning but no play in the gears. Bridge is a BBOT - it works, nothng more. The only places I could see where money had been saved are in the finish - it's a bit uneven in places (but you have to look closely in the light to see the unevenness) and then the pickup. The stock pickup is comically low in output - I was giving it a test in my Tascam Bass Trainer and with the input level set to 10 (the maximum) the Fazley was barely getting to half way on the input monitor! Of course, the stock strings are hot garbage, thin, rougher than Rotos and went straight in the bin. In probably the quickest time from receiving a bass to replacing the pickup (about an hour and a half) I had the stock strings in the bin, the fretboard oiled (because it looked as dry as a camel's hoof) and the stock pickup out and a Tonerider Duke in there. What a difference! Much better output. The stock strings weren't giving the truss rod much to do - after I put my beloved D'addario XL nickel rounds on it, the neck was a banana and I had to tighten the truss rod three quarter turns! Further tweaking may be required, but I gave it a quick and dirty setup and now it's playing great. So that means so far I've spent £119 (£84 bass and £35 pickup), leaving £31 in the budget. I was expecting to have to change the bridge and/or the tuners, but in all honesty they have been unobtrusive and perfectly serviceable. Which leaves more room in the budget for some silliness/extra credit. I think I will fit one of my preferred Sire/Reverend style 3 string retainers, and I will fit a silly knob - which was the plan originally, but I stole the one I ordered and put it on the Epiphone Em-bassy (which I got when I was sure that this one would never materialise). EDIT - because people like to know - this particular bass weighs 3.6kg - or a smidge under 8lbs.

Oh forgot to mention yesterday, I also fitted the string retainer/tree. I really like this Sire/Reverend style 3 string retainer - super compact, at the cost of the D string being captive through the middle and not quick release. I'll take that for the compact, minimalist look though.

Brain stuck in importing mode, had the "25%" rule of thumb in my head, whoops!

Well, today was a landmark in the project - the neck's on! Thanks again to the Mechanical Engineering Workshop at my work, as a drill press is not one of the things I own. Of course, it's never easy and there was a small miscalculation regarding screw length... Thankfully an easy fix, the chip wasn't lost and it was a simple fix - push some glue in the void, then clamp it down with a caul covered in tape to prevent the glue adhering it to the fingerboard. A bit of sanding afterwards and it was like it never happened. So I put some old strings on it, just to see how things were. On the plus side, the strings align with the neck nicely. I have some work to do though. Even with that 2mm plate I glued into the bottom of the neck pocket and a 0.6mm shim, the action can't quite get low enough with all the saddles on the deck. Have ordered those "whole neck pocket" shims off Amazon (the ones which actually get good reviews) which will hopefully arrive on Friday. Also I have a bit of work to with regard to pole piece alignment. I enlarged the two cutouts for the mounting lugs on the left of the hole and managed to eke out a mm or so. There is still some finessing to do and then I might be able to eke out another mm and I think that'll be as good as it'll get. Anyway, a big step forward. Oh, and the bridge pickup is ordered. To get the one I want - https://roswellpickups.com/product/jm4-bridge/ - I had to order it from a dealer in South Korea of all places. So I don't expect to see that particularly soon. I have a spare pickup I could pop in there in the meantime, so it won't slow me up.

Sales tax varies by state, some states have none. None of them are anywhere near our 20% VAT. There is no US-wide sales tax. "The five states with the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates are Louisiana (9.56 percent), Tennessee (9.55 percent), Arkansas (9.45 percent), Washington (9.38 percent), and Alabama (9.29 percent)." - from https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/2024-sales-taxes/

The point is (been made by a couple of people now) that the L-2000/ASAT should already have one, if it's wired properly. Don't need to fit anything, just fix what's already there.

That is at odds with my experience - admittedly with a Tribute L-2000 - it would play fine in passive mode even with the battery removed, never mind dead. In that case, the active or active with treble boost settings on the switch became an effective kill switch.

Negative, captain...

Oh don't worry, there'll be a skill swap soon - guy who helped me with the long drill and the cleaning out of the neck pocket on my other bass project is needing a laptop for his daughter, so I'm gonna sort him out with something.

Funny you should mention that... Straight DI - tone 100%.mp3 In order: T-40 pickup (series), T-40 pickup (single coil), both pickups (T-40 series), both pickups (T-40 single), original bridge pickup. All 100% tone control open. TC Electronic BH250, pre EQ DI, straight to interface.

Eh, maybe one day, but only if one of the tuners currently on it die - they are a bit cheap and a bit wobbly when the string tension is taken off. They're also tiny - so if I do come to replace them, I'll need to ream out the holes anyway...

It's done! I went to the Mech Engineering Workshop at work today, because I needed some help to get a hole through from the new pickup route to the cavity. Yes, they had a sufficiently long drill bit to be able to enter from the neck pocket and drill through, into the new route then onwards and into the bridge pickup route... Bridge pickup is foam suspended, so the foam will simply deform around the chunky multicore wire. After that, it was pretty much just a case of wiring it all up. Except it wasn't - because there were a few wrinkles in the plan (isn't there always?). First thing I learned is that the T-40 pickup, while splittable, doesn't give you access to all four ends of the coils - it only has three wires plus a shield coming out of it, so all you can do is series/single by shunting one coil to ground. So I had to change from a three way mini toggle to a two way. Then gotcha 2 happened - the new switch had less of a threaded section on it than the previous switch, so out comes the drill again with the forstner bit to remove a little more control cavity to make the new switch poke through the top of the guitar enough. With those little issues out of the way it was just a case of wiring it up... Quick tap test on the pickups made me suspect that the pickups were out of phase when both engaged, so I swapped the wires of easiest one (the bridge pickup). Then I tested it for real. IT WORKED! I am delighted with this mod - I've had to learn a lot of new things, and I hope to never have to route an already finished bass ever again

Thanks for the detailed explanations. Looking forward to seeing progress. Following.

What price are you seeing? According to Andertons, they'll be £999 here in the UK. Honestly, SBMM can just eff off with their UK/EU price hikes.

I'm willing to bet that the ratio of headed/headless basses in the world makes it a reasonable assumption to make. Anyone who ventures into headless land really ought to be able to solve for X. Also, I've seen a few headless basses have a little sticky out vestigial "head" which might get caught by the mechanism of these stands? I say "might" - I've never tried.

Today I tackled the sloppy, oversized problem that is the neck pocket. In a super janky, homespun way, of course! A few days ago, I said that the neck angle (for string alignment was just right with a small piece of veneer at the open end of the neck pocket, so I made that official and glued a small piece of veneer up there: Super janky! To add to the jank factor, I used one of those furniture repair/touch up pens to try to disguise the top of the veneer... Then I got to the yawning chasm which is the right hand (treble) side of the neck pocket. Aye, that's the edge of the neck. Ouch. So I spent quite a lot of time cutting, shaping and gluing veneers to the offending area (a 2mm thick then a 0.6mm thick) And did the same cover up job with the touch up pen. And now the neck pocket looks like this... Real luthiers - look away now - heh, too late! So, a final check of everything with the fake strings... It's far from perfect, but it's a damn sight closer to what it needs to be. From a distance, no-one will know. I think I'm ready to fit the neck now. Still have to decide what to do about all that spare material - but I know I'm putting off the inevitable which is that it'll probably have to be routed off and the offending area refinished. Yay!

Tiny inch forward today (well, I was gigging last night) - but I did a wee bit of pickup route finessing with the Dremel, then screwed down the pickup ring.

You are the maker of your own problems

Aberdeen bass players, you are cordially invited to my TED Talk gig on Friday 5th September at Krakatoa on Trinity Quay. I will be playing with my originals band "The Inevitable Teaspoons", alongside some other fine local acts. Heckling encouraged. Afterwards, I will be available for your best "I wouldn't have played it like that" or "did someone pay you to wear that hat?" which I will accept in good humour. Hope to see some of you there.

Last night, played at Wilsons in Aberdeen with Nine Lives. Gig went well, pretty busy, decent crowd interaction. Nice to see a few of my mates came down to support - much appreciated, lads! Including two guys I met for the first time at a mate's house the night before. For once, the casual dropping into conversation about me playing a gig the following night paid off! Playingwise, I played pretty well, no major oopsies, and new song in the set went without a hitch (apart from me forgetting to engage my OD like I said I would, oops). Really emptied out about five songs before the end though - I guess people had other places to go! Ahh well, from the start until then it was decently busy. Good night, really enjoyed it. Gear was the Greco LGB-700 followed by the Epiphone Em-bassy into the ISO standard modular bass rig.

I know (now) that Hipshot do conversion rings to take them up to 18mm, but I thought I'd save myself twenty quid with my homespun solution.

Small step forward today - tuners arrived. Because nothing ever goes smooth, the (pre drilled) holes in the headstock of my neck were way too big - and in my opinion having way too much slop to fix by wrapping tape around the tuner bushing. So, in steps some 0.6mm basswood veneer I have. Did a quick and dirty test fit and it worked pretty damn well. That one was a bit short though, so I cut some new strips of a more correct length: You've got to steam them first - they snap if you try to bend them that much when dry: After steaming, they're pliable enough to curl into shape and drop in the hole. Nice and tight, tuners fitted. Small job done.

If you do go for the K&M - I recommend buying it from London Guitar Studio - https://www.londonguitarstudio.com/p/k-m-memphis-pro-deluxe-guitar-stand - £40 and I think delivery is only £2.50. You can get it from Thomann/Bax for £35, but unless you're buying other stuff to trigger their free postage, their postage will make it same/more expensive. Buying in the UK you'll get it quicker too. The reason I want to shout out London Guitar Studio is that they were super helpful when I broke one of my K&M stands (mostly through my own bravado/stupidity), turned around the return/replacement with no fuss or hassle.

That reminds me, I did have one break on me - one of the telescopic sections blew past its stop (because I was being a twit and I helped gravity plus the heaviest part with the legs to extend it at great speed) and bits of it came flying out and disappeared on a dark stage - oops! I reported this to them via the shop I bought it from (possibly glossing over how it came to break, lol) and it was a no quibble straight replacement - send the broken one back and they sent me a new one right away. Seems like they stand by their products, and idiots like me! Yeah, so don't do that then