NancyJohnson

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!

One bit of sage advice if anyone is considering a reverse-P pickup configuration, these Tonerider pickups have raised poles for the A & D strings, so they need to be aligned accordingly. This causes a bit of an issue with the length of the wires connecting the individual pickups.

Come on, Johnny. You said you wanted a little bass!

A less than usual glamour shot. Been a bit busy ripping out a downstairs loo and workshop full of said rooms new fittings, so I'm limited to doing small stuff on the ironing board at the moment. Pickguard should be here tomorrow. Machines are installed. Neck is (like the other), great quality. Profile is chunky. It will need oiling and ill probably sand off the finish on the back of the neck. Once the plate is here, I'll do final measurements afore routing out the pickup cavity. The guard isn't white.

Pretty much all the damage on the bass has been done on purpose every time it leaves the house; there's little effort involved in wrecking the visual aesthetic of the body.

Have you been on the sauce?

Umm, no.