NancyJohnson

Company I worked at for ten years ran a Paul Smith line. Wristwatches. Made in China, hideously overpriced, garishly designed, same innards/movements as the products we used to put into Argos for £20.00 a pop. People are stupid.

Many years ago I owned a Gibson Grabber G3, although you wouldn't really know I'd owned one, there's just one photo of me using it at a gig in Twickenham (incidentally just minutes before being approached by an A&R guy from Polydor). I would certainly say I had several almost-Fawlty moments with it. I'd settled on the G3 being my primary workhorse as my other bass at the time was a Travis Bean, which based on my general on-stage acrobatics was waaaay too heavy. Honestly no idea where the G3 came from, I bought it obviously, but beyond that, nada. When I was playing at home, it was fine. When we were rehearsing, fine. Soundcheck, fine. Come gig-time, it always seemed to be a crackly cutting out mess. We were recording in Surbiton - on Polydor's ££ - and when the tape was rolling it did the same. It just seemed to know when it was required to behave and just played up. In a studio in Fulham I actually lobbed it across the room, then used the owner's Jazz bass. Never did get to the bottom of the issue. I wonder where it is now?

I am curious here and I'm asking an open question. I currently own a Mike Lull NRT5 with an upscaled body size, photo below. To be honest, it rarely sees the light of day and I have considered moving it on, BUT, I've also been hankering for another 12-string. I've approached Spencer at Lull in an effort to (perhaps) commission a 12-string neck (understandably, he declined), so this begs the question about the feasibility of whether I could get a neck made for it - the guy at ETS seems to have a bit of a waiting list so far as the two part bridge goes, so @Basvarken is a bolt-on retrofitted neck something that is doable?

I'll admit I'm fascinated with the neck construction here.

I can't see Gibson getting their panties in a twist about JA playing the T4, I mean, realistically it's just a bass, they might as well come after me as well!

I did just pop Spencer a quick message about converting and he's come back saying Gibson took umbrage so the bridge manufacturer isn't working with them at the moment. Anyhow, I freaking love the Hamer!

I just did a little bit of jizz. I may have posted elsewhere, but there was one on the marketplace here a while back; I think it was advertised at £1,800. We were having some build work done and I simply couldn't pull the funds together at such short notice. I think about that bass every day. I've also recently been giving some consideration in getting a 12-string neck/bridge made for my Lull NRT5. That could be quite special.

Well, mine is beautiful. No gaps.

The D&G are a bit fuller tonally with the pickup orientation reversed. It's not tons, but it is better to my ears.

Seriously, just buy a neck from a Chinese seller on eBay. I've recently picked up Jazz/slim profile and Precision/chunky necks. Both around £80.00. Both great.

Having just put together a Hoppus Jazz/Precision thing, I'd have taken the opportunity to reverse the pickup. Nudging the D&G element towards the neck definitely helps things tonally.

I've got two - a JAXT4 - which I've seen similar on Reverb for £10K+ and an NRT5 (a Thunderbird NR) with an oversized body. God knows how much this would sell for. He only made two.

Reading all the comments here, I figure it's probably simpler to just do the odd build as and when I'm called upon. By and large anything that I'd have been doing would primarily be Fender-based, as the parts are fairly plentiful and I could easily buy in the stuff I'd need. I would have been able to offer custom routing/electronics along with a custom paint options, although these would have been solid/flake as opposed to sunbursts. A few years back I had a short conversation with a guy that was close to Mike Lull; he mentioned that a lot of the work behind creating their basses was outsourced to external businesses and the magic only happened when the parts went back to Lull for assembly/set up. I'll admit (despite owning a pair of Lull basses) this didn't sit so well with me, but hey-ho, they're great instruments and needs must, I suppose.

No money changed hands here! 😄

Perhaps business wasn't the right word, I guess! Umm, certainly hobby/pastime would have been a better term. I know that in the literal sense it's just screwing stuff together, but feedback from the work I have done (so far) has been positive. There's no way I could build stuff from scratch; I neither have the time, inclination, machinery or skillset for this. I certainly think it would be possible to turn round a couple a week to supplement my income.

Over the last year or so, I've built/customised a handful of parts basses for both myself and a couple of other people; as I've kind of fallen into an early retirement situation, I'm wondering whether it's feasible to actually set up/invest in a business of sorts creating basses. These would largely be Fender-esque, I can source parts easily enough; I have a local paint shop that have said they can pretty much do any type of finished paint job (clear/matte/gloss/metal fake etc.). I'd not be looking to make huge £££ - obviously there'd be a build/labour fee, but it's more just to keep my idle hands busy. I know I'm good at this and it's just a waste of my time doing nothing. Would anyone be interested?

Spent a bit of time fettling everything yesterday. I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I forgot to check the truss rod (the neck was straight when I got it, just assumed it was tensioned). Neck needed a tiny shim - literally a 1cm x 5cm sliver of sandpaper required at the back of the pocket was enough. Nut slots needed a bit of filing. Action at the octave is down to just under 2mm on the E and 1.5mm on the G, which is decent.

Ok...if it was me with your budget AND I was unable to find a Fender with the specifications you've set out, I'd find a US/MIJ P/J pickup'd Precision and source a Jazz bass neck. All the Fender stuff for 34" scale basses is pretty much interchangeable, even down to the screw-holes, so old neck off, new neck on. Find a local guy to do a decent fret level and set up and you're ready to go. In a blindfold test, I doubt many would be able to tell the difference between a Mexican, Japanese or US model, although this is speculative!

I find it amazing when people list a ton of stuff that shouts, 'I really want a Fender, but it's not got to be a Fender.' I have no real solution for you here but the open options a plentiful.

Gig ink. They did a Hamer guard fir me a few months back. Really high quality work.

Neck has been on and off a couple of times; it needed a piece of sandpaper to shim it. There was actually zero tension on the truss rod (sorted), so that was throwing things out.

Ta daa! Up with the lark etc. Everything works as it should, however the neck (like my other one) needs a little shim to angle the headstock away just a bit. Annoyingly, the pickup rout is a bit of a mess because my router conked out (it's been in a box for about 18 months), so I simply reverted to the drill/chisel method. The reverse P (and the pickup location), offers quite a bit more whump/thump than in a regular position.

Its a P1-4S. Very whumpy!