davidlovellbass

My main bass is made from Warmoth parts. I bought the parts over about 4 years and ended up with parts for several other basses, like the Jazz 5 body that fits a Fender 5 neck from before they changed the heel size after retooling in the mid 90's and the fretless P bass 5 that had Hipshot hardware and EMG's but was really a modded 4 string body attached to a neck with a cut down heel both thanks to ebay and me not asking enough questions. All turned out well tho. The cost isn't something i think to think about as customs got me for £170ish on the body, neck and tuners. The pickups are Lindy Fralin with a series/parallel push pull and tone styler. P and J in one bass! (almost)

Just had a look at the Lull t bird, looks like Lollar pickups or Thunderbucker ranch, Warmoth body and neck. A 13 degree paddle neck, with a choice of jazz or P profiles. Hipshot do a very good 2 peice bridge, or the Gibson replacement for more sustain. A Badbird bridge is a direct replacement for the original Thunderbird bridge but don't advertise a price. The last time i checked the Lull bird was £2500+ but to get all the parts would be $295 for the body then $170+ for the finish, $205 for the neck and $65 for the finish, $400 for 2 Lollar pickups or $360 for the Thunderranch which includes the pickup rings that the Lollar dosen't, $180 for the 2 peice hipshot bridge and $120 for the ultralite machines. Customs would probably charge on everything and you have to find someone to shape the headstock, templates are available and quite cheap and put the whole thing together. Not the cheap option but would produce the same product for about half the price. Never quite understood why anyone would spend out of a Fender based design from Sadowsky, Lull ect when buying direct from Warmoth and getting a luthier over here to assemble it gives the same product but for far less money.

I bought a Fender Studio bass from ebay for £320, it then needed to get recapped and valved which was £250. At the moment the transformer is getting rewound after having some odd wiring problems, which should cost £150, then i'll need a case to put the amp in as 170 watt full valve combo isn't easy to move which will be £150. I had to get a good quality cabinet for the JBL housed in the combo, which was £120. When i get this amp back it'll have all the pros of the new Fender valve amps for about the price of the 100T but with more headroom. CBS used the same design for several different amps including the super twin which an be found for under £500

Bought a Trace TAB100, thought it'd be like a GK MB150 but with two channels and wider frequency responce as it's ported not sealed. When i plug in my DB, with D-Tar pickup and have the volume past 50% the speaker starts to buzz, like it can't handle 40 hz well and as the graphic starts at 100 it's hard to eq out the speaker buzz without sounding middy. I was going to swap it out but didn't know of a hifi speaker, as this combo is without a tweater, that has a good frequency responce down to 40hz, good sensitivity and is under 200 watts as the enclosure isn't very big. Putting an over powered driver in seems pointless as the enclosure is designed for a 150watt driver at most. Any ideas?

I've wanted to do this for a long time but finding a good donor body isn't easy on anything but unlimited funds. Warmoth do a great version with lots of options but getting a bass body or neck in the country not via customs hasn't happened to me yet and i'm on my third build. BaCH do a good looking non reverse bird, with EMG humbucker size routs. Lollar sell crome covered epi thunderbird pickup replacements, good video on youtube about it too but at $200 each....

Most weekends i'm out with my double bass in a gear4music hard(ish) case, the ones that are about £150 and are more bulk than protection, 2 bass bins, bass head, 1x15 combo, electric bass, camera case and 4u pa amp, 1x15 cab and it all fits with room for a passenger. It's all about gear tetris in a Vauxhall Astra