ashgeezer

Interesting thread as i'm thinking of upgrading my mex precisions pickup soon so quite a few ideas to go on, i'll probably put the mex pickups in my cheap precision bass even though the ones that are in sound fine ( fine enough for pissing around on) and annoying the wife.

I had a similar problem with a cheap body i bought off fleabay, i stripped it right back to bare wood (ply) and it was nightmare to sort out, the sanding itself was bad news, in hindsight i really should have just wire wooled the laquer then primed over the top of that. On a good note i eventually sorted the body out and its just been primed and rubbed down and dsoesnt look to bad so far. but i'll know in future, live and learn, its great leveller.

Dont know if this is in the right section or not but here goes. Im thinking of respraying my scratchplate purely because im really strapped for cash at the present and im not a fan of most of the scratchplate colours i've seen. What would be the best way to go about it. would i prime it first then rub down with fine paper, add the colour then laquer with a few coats then buff up the laquer with succesive grades of wet and dry, i've done it with a body and it came out fine but i've never done it with plastic before. Any help would be greatly appreciated, i just fancy something different for a change.

I find i can think better when i've had a few beers, i just strap on my bass and start playing anything at all, i usually get the ball and chains keyboard out and mess out with that then put some riffs to that, some of em are garbage but some turn out ok.

I have a cable i've had for about 8 years and its still going strong, the brands called "STRAIGHT A" and it been spot on,no crackles or anything, i think i paid about 7 quid for it, probably be a bit more now but im a tightwad and would rather spend my money on strings than cables.

My missus doesn't pay me any compliments at all but i couldn't care less to be honest, i just love playing my bass, simple as that. You have a decent woman there, keep hold of her.

I love it, it looks brilliant, certainly different

What sort of bass tutor doesn't own his own bass. The word "cowboy" springs to mind and its blatantly obvious he's taking the piss because your female, drop him like a stone and tell him in no uncertain terms that hes a cowboy. My best mate took up guitar a few years ago and decided to have lessons but the bloke just showed off with screaming solo's and my mate learned nothing, needless to say he's never had a lessson since and cant get his head around teaching himself which is a shame really as he has some great gear. Look into some self teaching dvds, i was given one to me and its brilliant, i cant afford lessons so i have no option but to teach myself, as for you being to old, utter bollocks, i'm 39 and theres people on here thats a lot older than that so stick with it and most of all enjoy it. mick.

costs nowt to be polite. When im jamming i always let the other guitarists have a crack on my bass as its the only bass there and there always saying cheers or thanks. common courtesy to be polite, but im afraid theres plenty arsewipes out there who expect something for nothing.

Thats rock n roll my friend.

This man has to be on my list as well, very underated

cheers for the input guys, it looks like the project is the way to go. The neck i have is knackered really, bent to hell, truss rod at its tightest but still bent, it might be ok just to test the bass when its finished but then i really need to buy a new neck. The project is in the very early stages ( just primed the body )

BUZZ. Interesting you should mention you had a guitarist who couldnt play, as i recall we had one as well, we already had the line up but he wanted to join and he was a mate so we told him to go and buy a guitar (it helps) he turned up at rehersals with an Ibanez flying v, a really nice guitar if i remember rightly but it just didn"t fit in with the style we were playing and after an hour he got bored and decided to leave the band(no patience, thought he could sound like schenker in an hour) yeah right.

As the title says. I"m seriously thinking of getting a fretless but dont want to spend a shedload of money in case i dont like it. Any recomendations for a cheap and cheerful fretless, i "ve just defretted an old bass neck i had and i might try it on the project im doing but god knows when its gonna be finished.

yeah i agree, i"m a big fan of lemmys as well, i think i"ve got space ritual on my player somewhere.

It most certainly does, everytime i pick the damn thing up. I went jamming this morning and being a beginner sometimes get frustrated,missed notes etc etc but the better i get the better it sounds and this morning it sounded awesome.

Im sat here listening to Sabbath on my mp4 player (better than watching britains got talent) and wondering who everyone thinks is the best rock/metal bassist. I"m expecting a lot of diversity and probably names i"ve never even heard off but it should be interesting (no arguments guys this is a bit of fun). My personal fave has to be "Geezer Butler"

I think the rest of the guys have covered all the basses but not many have mentioned an amp. I started learning myself about a year ago (im 39 so an oldie to learning really) and i bought a carlsbro kickstart 30w, you can pick em up brand new off ebay for around 60 quid and their decent little amps, they have the 10 in speaker as appossed to 8 in (sometimes smaller) that usually come with practice amps, audio in socket so you can jam along to your fave tracks and a host of other features. At the end of the day its up to you but the amp is worth looking into, im upgrading my amp soon but im keeping the 30w because its such a great little amp.

Everyone must remember the first band they joined. Mine was with 3 guys at school, we were a 4 piece that played punk/rock, i ended up as the singer as i coudn"t afford an instrument at the time, we practiced solidly for about 8 months, 3 nights a week and became quite good, then our teacher got us a gig at the local youth club, our set list was "sex pistols" "deep purple and black sabbath, thats all we ever learned which is why the guitarist and me left coz we were sick off sex pistols, we did 3 gigs and on the last gig i fell into the drumkit after drinking way to much old english cider Thats rock n roll i guess. HAPPY DAYS. The band was called GODS TEETH. and it was way back in 84/85

My very first bass which was a peavey milestone 1, it certainly wouldn"t have had fender shaking in their boots but it was my first and i regetted selling it an hour after i let it go (bills needed to be paid) you all know the score. I also had a laney session reverb 60 w guitar amp which was ok but it packed up on me so off it went to the tip, in a strange way i miss that amp.

I say go for it, like you said its an adventure and its all free plus rallys are usually a laugh and you never know where it will lead from there. Throw caution to the wind and have a laugh, your obviously good enough to do it so why not.

cheers for the info guys. much appreciated. I know the anniversary models are more expensive than the standard ones .

cheers for the info karl, if i remember rightly i read somewhere on here that the jap pickguards are slightly different to the mex and usa ones, dont know if its true or not. I will email them and find out cheers mick

I bought a standard mex precision a few weeks ago and it has the 60th anniversary meddalion on the back of the headstock, did fender put these on all their models for that year or just the anniversary editions, my serial number dates it to an 05/06 model (MZ5). It also has a stamp on the underside of the pickguard which reads feb 06. cheers mick

As anyone bought a precision pickguard from the ebay seller"Drumdiscounter" as im after one for my mex precision but just wondered if they fitted without having to drill more holes in the body to accomadate it. cheers. mick.