harleyheath

yh that i can imagine!!!

as soon as you can play the 'smoke on the water' riff, lol

some great ideas there, love the shoes for people with deformed feet, good to see new tecno ideas being used for people not just fashion, as for the guitars, lot of money for a plastic guitar with a warmoth neck, still im sure like everything it will have its market! do like the look though! very funky!

[quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1351069966' post='1846814'] The thought that always springs to mind with threads like this is how people looked after (or more to the point, [b]didn't[/b] look after) their fret boards in times gone by. To my knowledge, this idea of cleaning and oiling is comparatively recent. It has all the hall marks of being a marketing ploy. There are so many manufacturers out there saying that theirs is the best and only way to clean and oil your fretboard. Yet I regularly see basses from the 60's for sale which are in immaculate condition. I'm sure their original owners did not clean or oil the FB. Don't get me wrong, I like to look after my instrument as much as the next person. I just think we are inclined to go OTT with this. Also, it is often the case that the people who feel the need to oil and clean regularly, are the ones who don't have the presence of mind to wash their hands before picking up the bass. [/quote] amen to that!! It really dont do it no harm to oil it every now an then but I do believe you can get carried away with it all. of course putting on the wrong oil can be way worse than not oiling at all.

Whooooh, that is ugly!! That lion head bridge is awful!! I'm deffo not one to run down any one who makes hand made basses but that is very over the top ugly!! Nicely made thou, in a ugly kind if way! Still each to there own his selling them so some people disagree! Lol

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1351013477' post='1846247'] when you say laminate, i assume you are talking about 3/4/5/6 piece necks, and not encasing the necks in plastic? [/quote] Yep, thats the kiddie!

Lemon oil shouldn't be a scented mineral oil, if it is then its no good for a guitar! it should be oil taken from lemon rinds, cold pressed, naturally scented by the lemon, and used by luthiers for many many years!! it has cleaning properties due to the fact it has a acidic based solvent in it as well as penetrating nourishing oil ones. it work great, if its the real thing! In my view linseed oils are finishing oils, boiled is part of the family of drying oils, ok to use on fresh fretboards, but will seal the dirt in if you don't clean your board first with something like meths, or you can apply it with 0000 wire wool, thus cleaning as you go, and wipe off after a 5 mins or so, un-boiled isn't normally used as it takes too long to fully dry, it should be used sparingly, otherwise it will build up to a finish. either way, cleaning and oiling shouldn't really be done more than twice a year, depending how sweaty you are and how often you play, its really not going to do any harm that infrequent! Danish and other oils of the finishing kind are mainly tung oil with dryers such as terabine, wouldn't personally use them but again twice a year? who knows, can't see your fretboard falling off in a puff of cracked up splinters and dust, lol. Its defiantly a fair ole subject, even in the woodworking world.

I'll put my tupence in if nobody minds, Yh I totally agree, I feel a laminate neck is stronger than a single piece neck if constructed properly, I feel that unless a single piece neck if perfectly quarter sawn right though-out its entire length then it much more liable to move, even if it is its still not as good as a laminate, and if its not perfectly quartered then theres even more chance of movement, where as a laminate neck you can remove that chance by opposing any variation in the quarter and thus off setting movement against movement kind of thing, and the glue joint isn't a problem (not that it ever should be) because its not parallel to the neck tension. This isn't such a problem in good quality mahogany as the grain pattern isn't such a winter/summer growth pattern more of a continuous even grain with little winter hard grain, probably why it was used so much on single piece guitar necks? As for the scarf join, In my head I really can't make up my mind in honesty if it is stronger or not, I understand the reason and the fact that the grain orientation is better, but its only better below the bottom of the neck, more into the headstock where the grain orientation would normally be weaker, still you don't often get a break mid headstock even with all the holes drilled in it, I can't help feeling that the scarf joint is as much a money saving idea as it is for strength, It does mean you can use a 25-30mm piece of wood as opposed to a 50-60mm piece of wood, getting two for one cost wise? Still I have repaired quite a few broken headstocks and they do go just under the neck area a lot, so the scarf join would stop that, but I've also repaired a few scarf joins that have popped, for me i'll stick with laminated neck, no scarf an a good ole volute, which does help that problem area as well as look pretty, its a dilly of a pickle.

Ooooo, one piece V laminate necks an scarf joints, theres a can of worms! lol.

Well although its been said more than once on here i'm going to stick my neck on the line an say it again...and please if you own one, please don't be offended!!.....Fenders, I had a Fender deluxe 5, anniversary model, fully active and it sounded like mud, 5th string had no presence, at all, it sound ok for 60's & 70's soul and that was it, it was a one trick pony with a terrible, slow action, now i'm aware that there is some great sounding Fenders out there, and i'm aware that they pretty much invented the electric bass and for that we love Leo, i'll even say I don't mind how they look and that they haven't changed since forever, it works, I mean they have brought out other models but they never really sold, people want that classic Fender look, they are an icon, a rock and indie band stable and some of the old ones sound fantastic, so whats my beef...... simple.....price to build quality ratio, Leo wanted to find a way to get a bass out to the public, on mass, like his guitars, he kept things simple, very simple, which is great if the price reflected that! But it don't The basics of a Fender bass, a slab 2 but probably a 3 piece CNC body, a single piece bolt on CNC neck, made from 1inch thick non quarter sawn maple, non-lay back headstock with string tree so you can make the neck out of the thinest piece of wood, a bent piece of steel for a bridge base, with tapped rod for bridge saddles, plastic single coil pick-ups, open gear tuners with pressed steel parts, plastic scratch plate to hide the routing, passive electrics, plastic inlay, everything and I mean everything was done to make it easy to construct, cheap to buy and cheap to build, and if you go for a good one, with MOP inlay, a veneer top with a nice colour and whoooo a bound neck the price is up there with a handmade, active, expensive wood, bass with all the top parts available. I'm not opposed to Fenders, I still like them, love the old school sound, love the look, but your paying for the name and the name alone!! Its a great marketing idea and they must made a bloody fortune out of every bass, so sweet for the share holders but for the buyer.... a £600 tops bass for what can be 3 times that....no....thats wrong! To be fair they are not the only ones doing this, but man they excel at it! There are a few basses where the price tag has exceeded the bass buy far and a even a few custom makers that have done the same, which is a shame, but there you go! Saying that I do love the Fender look i'm designing a Fender look bass now with either a through or set neck with some proper parts for what will probably be the same price as a top end Fender or cheaper, hopefully it will look as good or better and sound better or i'll look like a proper mug! lol Rant over, thank you!

thats great, glad you got it sorted!

did you get it sorted?

Yep as Kendall says in this months bass mag theres a very rare interview with Mr Harris an he does indeed play with his finger nails, think its more of a end of finger first then the nail, makes it even more impossible to believe how fast and hard he plays on the fat ole flats, but yh the sound of any player comes more from his hand than his bass, but saying that if you have a bass thats the same it gives you a gd point to start! lol.

I'd go for wood, alder, basswood, ash or a decent mahogany should be cheap, easy to get an give a great sound, if you fancy a practice on something glue two offcuts of 18mm cabinet grade MDF together an cut and carve the crap out of that, good for seeing a body shape before you tear into your wood. hope it goes well well, enjoy!!

theres so much I wouldlike to say about that pic, but I think i'll leave it at wrong!! [quote name='LeftyJ' timestamp='1348555571' post='1815026'] I don't think any major manufacturer uses plywood these days. However, with cheaper guitars, it's common practice to build bodies from more narrow pieces of wood rather than just 2 or 3 like most guitars. Especially when they have an opaque finish you need to be weary of this. And if you decide to go with a sunburst instrument as your starting point, don't get one that looks like it's a 1-piece body because it will just be a veneer over (often poorly matching) multiple pieces of wood. And the bass doesn't even need to be that cheap for these practices. Even Fender Mexico does this, using up to 7 pieces! That's why the tummycut and the forearm carve are often black on sunburst bodies: to conceal they're veneered. For example, here's a Fender Mexico stock of raw blanks of alder with the veneer already in place: [/quote]

that second bass looks decidedly like a Carl Thompson dont think they'll be too much wrong with that action! [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1348482113' post='1814005'] What's wrong with ply? Good enough for Jens Ritter: and [url="http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl/?page=bassen&BassenID=25"]Bas Extravaganza[/url] [/quote]

Hay, if there not through the finish but just light marks then deffo the T-cut, if there deeper but still not though the finish and the finish looks to be of a good depth, the you can sand them out with 1500 wet and dry (with soap and water) and polish it after with G3 then G7 polishing compounds, total coast around £20-£30, a re-finish would depend on if its clear, metallic, solid colour, stained then clear coated, and if the old finish has to come off, a fair estimate would be from £250 but could go way higher.

yh as above really, theres no need to remove the old finish as you'll just have to re-build it back up again with the satin, just give it a light rub down with 1500 wet and dry and some household soap (this stops it getting paint clogs on the paper and scratching the finish) do this till the orange peal in the old finish is gone, otherwise you'll have dots of shine left, then give it a couple of coats of satin finish, or start with 2000 grade, then 2500 grade then a light wax an that'll give you a stain finish again. either way is fine, each one a slightly different look, but both will work. hope it goes well!

Ooo that is yummy!!

that does look real close, only one knob on the pic but cud be a different model? B-trude?

all basses are good! lol love the colour of the slant bass! just goes so well with thw whole look!!

Hay discreet, thanks!!

Oooooo gorgeous!! love it!!!

love the first, gorgeous! the second look funky!