Maude

I reckon get an amp cranked up, foot on amp, pick in hand and treat them to five full minutes of 'Waterfront' whilst keeping a deadly serious bass face on the go. Then just quip, "Nah, it's not for me", and walk out.

I thought that when I saw it. A lot less fragile which is helpful but it all looks to be under control anyway.

Wow, look at that. It's come off really cleanly by the looks of it. As you say, the finish can be sorted later.

I offered some advice on a different thread before this one was started, I think that's where the confusion has arisen. I'm pretty sure the entire neck, fretboard and bindings are all lacquered over as one so suggested cutting through the lacquer with scalpel following a straight edge to try and minimise cracking and splintering of the lacquer. Hopefully after it's all back together the join line could have superglue wick'd in and polished up for an as near as possible invisible, and more importantly unfeelable join. As you've said previously, none of this is guaranteed to work, and probably wouldn't be advisable unless there's no other choice, which it seems there isn't.

And all is right with the world again. 😁

That's a four string! Can't trust anyone these days. 😉

That's a good point, and one I hadn't considered when I suggested all this madness to Stew 😆, he's got crushed pearl triangular inlays to worry about. I'm not sure what they are made of being a late seventies bass, but some kind of epoxy resin I'd guess.

I can only speak for the Variax as it's the only one of the four I own. It sounds like a completely normal bass on 90% of the models. The only ones that can get glitchy are the ones that use an octaver and the synths. But this can be the case with some similar pedals. The two that use an octaver are the 8 and 12 strings, the 12 is worse that the 8 and it's trying to add a third octave 2 above the normal bass. It's actually fine but if you play Jeremy by Pearl Jam (it's the law on a 12 string) then it gets glitchy when doing the intro harmonics. I can forgive it as it's trying to play 3 octaves of a harmonic simultaneously. The 8 string is fine. The synths have to be played really cleanly as they get confused by multiple notes, again a lot of pedals have this issue. All the other normal basses sound like normal basses as it's really just very clever eq'ing that's getting the tone. I run mine through an X3 Live and can change amp, cab, bass (including tone settings) and effects chain by stepping on one switch.

The answer clearly is a solid bodied doublebass 🤔 and a crane. 😆 I've always got my amp on a stand behind but to the right of me, I'll normally leave my bass on it's ribs with scroll just against my amp stand and the endpin against the back wall with the bridge facing inwards. It seems the safest I can normally get it but I still worry. Luckily my band mates are quite careful.

I could put black paint in the cracks and then flat it back to create an effect like Lichtenberg burning. 😁

Aaaand that's why I hate aerosols! When they go wrong, they have a tendandcy to go spectacularly wrong. Case in point, the headstock. It was primed, basecoated and lacquered ready for the decal and sixpence to be applied, then it would've been lacquered over again to seal it all in. I didn't put too much lacquer on as it only needed to be a surface to apply the decal to. When I was flatting it to get a nice smooth surface for the decal and subsequent lacquer, I rubbed though. Not to worry, I'll just dust a bit more lacquer on, then flat that and put another colour coat and relacquer it. You can't just dust a colour coat on as the waterbase basecoat is relatively soft and there would be an edge, resulting in a visible ring around where I'd rubbed through. I put some lacquer on to seal it in a couple of days ago and gave it a quick flat this morning ready for some colour and lacquer this afternoon. Colour coat on, lovely, let it dry and just a couple of coats of lacquer and we're back to where we were before I rubbed through. MASSIVE REACTION! The previous coat of lacquer must've still been curing, even though it was plenty hard enough to flat, and because aerosols contain so much solvent, the new lacquer, being the nasty aggressive stuff that it is, decided to have a pop at the older coat of lacquer, making it craze up really badly. Luckily it's just the headstock so not a big area to rectify. I'll just flat the whole face back to bare wood and start again. This is why I don't like aerosols.

The pallbearers carrying the coffin down the aisle to the sound of Dave Edmunds' 'I Hear You Knocking'.

Oh yes, how annoying would that be, to have one the wrong way around? It's all these little details, which until you do the job you don't think about, that I enjoy reading about in these threads.

Reveal time. The picture above, which incidentally is the corner of our patio, is the reflection off the back of the bass. I made it black 'n' white and cropped it as it was obvious what it was when red with the outline. I couldn't believe how clear the reflection was in the photo. I know, I'm a little sad. 😄 I just want to get it rebuilt now but waiting for parts.

Aria STB series have the trussrod adjustment at the nut end, so that rules that one out.

Go easy, the OP is thinking of buying it so presumably likes it. Do you have any more pictures of it, especially how the (extra?) knobs have been fitted and what price is he asking? As said above, it looks to be a generic P/J that someone's modified and dependant on price, you could possibly spend your money more wisely. But if it's cheap enough and you like it then go for it. 🙂

As I said on the other thread, I love my Variax, but I look at it as a bass with a huge array of tones available at the turn of a knob, whether they sound exactly like the modelled basses matters not to me. I also like how the note length changes with settings. One minute it's bright, clangy, aggressive with lots of sustain, then it's warm, thick and muted with no sustain without having to mess with pickup selector, tone, foam mutes, etc. In a varied cover band setting it's great.

When I first got into New Order in the eighties, the second album of theirs I bought was substance. I hadn't heard most of the songs and, being New Order, a lot of the titles had little to do with the lyrics. I had it on cassette and it confused the hell out of me trying to work out what track was what as the listing on the cover was all wrong. Not worth anything as they were all like it.

Nobody going for this then? 😁

As I've quite surprised myself with how this is turning out, you'll have to excuse me while I put this picture here and I'll explain tomorrow. #smugtwonk, as the kids say. 😁

That now passes the 'pickup ring on bottom edge of screen' test. 🙂 It's looking amazing, that wood is perfect for the guitar shape, or rather you've put everything in just the right place to make the most of the woods grain. 👍

The neck's looking lovely. I've just re read a few bits and realised when I said about using a Stanley blade to bevel the scratchplate I meant use it at ninety degrees to the surface as a scraper. Just keep scraping in fairly long, smooth, fluid motion until you get your 45 degree bevel. The different plies actually act as a guide rather than making it difficult, when the plies look right, it is right. The first one I did I thought, I'll never get this looking even, but it's actually rather quick and easy.

I want the full 17 minute version of New Orders 'Elegia' played before the service starts, and everyone has to sit in silence until it's finished. Then Joy Divisions 'Atmosphere' as people leave. That'll teach you for coming to make sure I'm dead!

Well it's polished up nicely for aerosol, but I'm waiting for a new scratchplate and my magpie decal to arrive so it's really frustrating because I can't do anything. Can't fit the bridge without the control plate in because of the earth wire, can't fit the control plate without the pickup in and can't fit the pickup in case the new scratchplate has the cutout in a different place, it shouldn't but do I really want to risk it. Can't rebuild the headstock and fit the neck without the decal. Grrrrr!! 😄