Maude

I just set up an extra email address for all the places that insist on an email address. It's not linked to anything so I get no notifications on any devices. One address for the stuff I want, one for the ones I don't want to hear from. I did have a quick check of the spammers one as I was waiting for a delivery from someone on here, and ended up making use of PMT 10% off Black Friday deal so clearly I'm just a sucker that can't follow my own rules. 😁

From buying my Jack Casady earlier in the year I know that Gibson/Epiphone deliveries are few and far between and dates are very vague. PMT had the green in stock earlier at £314 using promo code 'BF10'. Free delivery on Tuesday, if that helps. Edit - Now showing as available to order ☹️

An Embassy has been causing some low level gas for a good few months now, and although I don't usually bother with 'Black Friday' nonsense an email from PMT arrived stating 10% off selected lines. I had a look and yes, the Embassy is included. So a lovely Almond one is on it's way. Well I say on it's way but I've kind of screwed myself. As it was an unplanned purchase I thought I'd do the nine months interest free, just to spread it out a bit. With PMT's checkout process you buy the bass and then apply for credit, but the only credit available on it was 'buy now pay later' at 19.9%, no thanks. This transaction is now 'pending' waiting for a finance agreement. It gets cancelled after two days of no payment. I had to buy another one but the pending one must've been the last one as that one says delivery on Tuesday, but the one I've actually paid for says 'delivery once back in stock'. I'll ring tomorrow and see if they can send the pending one, but I might have just scuppered myself.

I comin' ta getcha!

Liar - Sex Pistols

Not at all, it makes perfect sense. 🙂👍

This is the classic Ford colour 'Rosso Red'. "Ooh that sounds exotic." "What is it, Italian? Nice." "What's Rosso Italian for then, something sexy or sporty?" "Oh, um, well that's a bit er, unispired isn't it?" Walks away deflated.

The top looks great, some lovely quilting on that upper bout. Seems odd to put a lovely veneer on and then paint it. I've probably misunderstood but you are planning on taking all the sanding sealer off aren't you? You'll need to so the stain can soak into the wood. Also the four ferrules that the bridge and tailpiece screw into, if you find a longish bolt or screw with the correct thread you can screw it straight through the ferrule until it bottoms out on the wood inside the hole, then carefully keep tightening and the ferrule should lift itself out by winding up the thread of the bolt/screw. They shouldn't be excessively tight but be aware that some folks glue them in so just watch the wood doesn't start to lift around it.

I'm pretty sure all original Fender colours, and probably other manufacturers of the same era, were car colours. It was the easiest thing to do, just pop down the DuPont factory and grab some Burgandy Mist etc.

That seasoning time seems excessive, but as I said, I'm only going on what I've read. I was going to say that I'd imagine the wood would solidify in that amount of time by any resins crystallising, and is that for acoustic instruments, but @durhamboy has suggested the same. My workshop has a 4x5m covered outdoor workspace at the front. It's a metal roof which isn't insulated in the outdoor part. Lots of timber, pipes, all sorts gets strapped under the rafters for starage. After the winter I could strap the beech slab up there to speed up the seasoning. It gets toasty warm with any sun on the metal roof but still has good airflow. The wood has been stored in an open fronted barn for six months of summer already, a winter in my workshop, then a summer under the roof followed by another winter inside. Hopefully it might be usable after that two year period. For the final winter it could go in the spraybooth at work as it'll be far drier by then and less likely to split or warp. This is all great info, thanks everyone.

I'm certainly no expert and have only read a few articles but it seems the seasoning process kills the fungi naturally. Spalting only occurs under certain conditions. When occurring naturally, a wound in the tree lets the fungi invade. Spalting can be forced by human intervention but the correct moisture and temperatures need to be maintained to allow the fungi to thrive, they feed off the naturally occurring sugars in the sap. Unless the wood is kept damp the fungi will naturally die. Kiln drying kills it quicker but naturally seasoning will do the same.

I've not tried a Spector. I know it's shallow but I just don't like the look of them, they always look a bit Wonky. Although I'm sure there must be Spectors without the melted look. On the flip side however, I will know what a 1024 is like by the end of the week. 😁

The baulk of it will be used for my bathroom counter top (and possibly matching window sill) but there'll be at least enough left for one, maybe two, solid bass blanks. He only wanted £50 for this slab and I'm considering getting some more and cutting up and seasoning at the same time. It's cheap because it's just a tree that came down on his farm and he sliced it up and is selling it rather than burn it. He has around twenty or thirty slabs like this, some around 3.5 metres long, and lots of smaller pieces.

Just found this which is interesting... if you're a little sad like me 😁. What is Spalting? Many timbers can spalt but Beech is one of the most common. Spalting is a term used to describe the process by which certain fungi grow on dead or fallen trees and after colonizing the wood via travelling up the wood cells from the ends or from broken off branches, leave a most attractive pattern. The process takes 2 to 3 years to reach the ideal stage to cut & season the timber. The black lines are zone lines created by different species of fungi erecting barriers around their territory! There are primary colonizers who come first and establish territories and then have to defend them against secondary colonizers who are only able to colonize the wood because the primary colonizers have changed the ph of the wood & its structure. A microscopic army! If left unchecked eventually the whole tree is eaten & consumed, part of nature’s process of dealing with dead & fallen trees.

I'm looking to seeing what you find under the black.

Italian Leather Sofa - Cake

🙈

You're more likely to see a clown vomit sparkly green than see any sea foam that is a lovely mint green, rather than the sludgey pale brown it actually is.

I gave it a quick go over with a 40 grit belt sander and wiped a wet sponge over it, just to see what it looks like. It's quite a substantial slab, 225cm long, around 60cm wide and about 4-5cm thick. It's quite mad how different the wood is either side of the black spalting lines. To be honest I'm not sure why the wood changes in colour like this, the black spalting is essentially rot, but is the wood sectioned out like that in light and dark contrasting shades before the spalting, or is it a consequence of the spalting?

Thanks folks. I work in a bodyshop so could leave it in the bottom corner of the spray booth with a cotton sheet over it to keep overspray off but let it breath. Although the booth gets hot, it wouldn't get very hot in a lower corner due to the way the air flows, but I still think the constant hot, cold, hot, cold would do more damage than just putting it somewhere dry.

Blast Cult have long made very nice doublebasses. I love the look of that bass, and I'd be more than happy to declare it's 'Clown Vomit Green'.

Sees five string, left handed fretless... ... mind explodes. 😄

The last time I went to my local shop I said I wanted to try some flats on my Precision. The owner said, "Why, they'll sound like sh!t". That was years ago and I've not bothered going back. For shops like this, saying that the internet is killing them, is like saying the fly in your strychnine will make you ill.

Meant to edit but quoted myself. I keep doing this since the software update moved things around.

Wrong Side of the Tracks - Biohazard