kodiakblair

Well I said it sounds like a P-bass but some boy on TalkBS tells me that's impossible and would I kindly re-string the bass with zingy roundwounds, somehow it'll better reflect the pink and blue lines he's drawn on graph paper. Boy is a genius, doesn't need to play your bass or know what pickups you used. Nope, one look at a picture tells him "there's a 20dB drop off in the higher Mids" 😳 He could be right or maybe my penchant for single coil P-bass gives me a different view on "sounds like a P-bass" 😁 Anyway, I'm sticking with like a P-bass and have vowed to never read another TalkBS post by someone on my "ignore member" list, they're on the list for a reason 😁 Should say it's not the loudest P-bass so I'll likely try the coils in pairs.

Sharpie if it doesn't 👍

That is going to look fantastic with black hardware. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

I won't keep you in suspense Richard 🙂 Scratch plate got pickups marked on then cut out yesterday afternoon. Did a wee bit tweaking this afternoon then when I was happy everything sat nice I switched on the soldering iron. 4 lipsticks in parallel, 250k pots and a 104 cap. Just the pickup heights to balance and the cling film to remove; might swap stings for something looser than Fender flats 👍

Pearloid material arrived and I got the jitters 😀 Get one chance cutting plastic, likelihood of failure was high 🙁 Thought about ordering up a blank scratchplate, having a custom one cut, getting a pickup template made; anything to avoid cutting plastic 😁 Stern talking to and I came to my senses. Scratch plate cut 😀

Main purchase was lipstick pickups. I had 3 in the drawer for an un-yet started Dano build. Buying a 4th was complicated, the 3 Dano lipsticks came from Ali-Ex several years back so the chances of finding a matching 4th were slim. I also had a slight concern regards polarity. Artec came to the rescue by selling Strat lipstick pickups where the middle pickup was RWRP. 2 Bridge and 2 Middle were ordered. A wee play-about in Photoshop showed me just placing them next to each other wasn't going to work. What I really needed was 52mm between the top adjusting screws and 54mm between the bottom screws. Drawing on paper followed while I waited on the pearloid scratch plate material arriving.

Had the main elements for the bass at hand. A Paulownia P-bass body and maple neck purchased from @tom1946 a year maybe 2 years back. The body is nice and light plus Paulownia is dead easy to work with 👍 All I had to to was copy the scratch plate, cut out the pickups and a wee bit router work to the body.

Given my taste in P-basses runs counter to the norm it's no surprise those Italia basses from a few years back caught my eye. Pity I never got my hands on one and the ones I've saw recently have daft prices😕 When faced with daft prices I went with my default setting of "I can do that" 😀

Green with Tort looks brilliant 🙂

Going by memory but I'm pretty sure these had a 62mm heel. That is what the attached image has been resized to. Print settings must be 100% actual size at 72PPI.

Not really. You could buy a yard stick, or even a 2 ft rule and measure from 12th fret. Neither will be particularly accurate. 30"/ 32"/ 34" or 35", these are just rough numbers; all they mean is the speaking length of a string will not be shorter that the given number. Actual speaking length varies on the string; gauge and construction. Intonation is set by ear or tuner not measurements 👍

Made a trip to the hut, have a B/W/B pickguard so give me a shout if you want it.

Wish I could help but I sold on my T-20 several years back. There is a nifty piece of guitar CAD software would solve this, damned if I can find the link. Basically you stick a guitar photo in then enter known measurements, in most cases nut to 12th fret. Software works everything from that and gives you a PDF 🙂 Will see if I can come up with something 👍

Aye, should have one out in the shed 🙂 The 'Brian Pillans' @neepheid mentioned used the PG from my T-40 to make his master template so if I'm talking mince about the shed he's your man 👍

A lot gets said on TalkBS, folk wearing Crocs cause laces are too taxing yet convinced they can handle a tape 😁 Anyway. This my original NTB Grind out of the Inyen Vina factory in Vietnam. First model to have the scoop. Close up of 12th. As you can see it's technically 34" 10/16ths not the full fat 35". Has me wondering now if my US Cirrus is semi-skimmed too 😳

The bolt on Grinds were 34" for the 4 strings, 35" scale for 5 strings. 18 months later when the Grind was revamped as a neck-through bass, the 4, 5 & 6 string models all were 35" scale length. Peavey being Peavey both versions of the TL-5, another neck through model, basses were 34" scale length. Of the US production Cirrus, they again were all 35" scale except for, Peavey being Peavey, The 2007 bolt-on Cirrus went 34" for 4 string/35" for 5 string 😆 You're right about Zepher/C-5 being 34" scale length but dead wrong regarding it's timing. Cirrus sales went live Q1 of 1997, Zephyr/C-series didn't arrive until 1999.

I still have an Indo 4 string Cirrus. Strung it with tapes to have a slightly different sound from my US Cirrus. Odd wee beastie. Takes a silly low action, 1.5 on G - 1.75 on E; never quite reached that on any other. Could be the ABM bridge used on the US models wasn't designed for stupid low 😀 It's also a 34" scale length not a 35". There's a distinct Anti-BXP mindset with the TalkBass Peavey owners. Having owned many BXP/US I see that mindset as TalkBS at it's finest 🤣

Aye that was me 🙂 As for the Peavey BXP models from Samick Indonesia, cracking basses. I still have fond memories of an Indo Darkwood 5'er 👍

Magnetic strips are good. Think I was £18 for 4 interlocking lengths of 600mm. That would be far more than you'd need. Only reason I bought so much is my 45 years working as a carpenter has saw my collection of chisels, drivers, punches etc grow 4-fold 😆 Workshop is jam packed with back-ups, older replaced, partial sets and tools used once. Barely put a dent in the tool pile, my jobbing kit fills 4 tool bags in the back of the car 😆

@LeftyJ Thanks. I took the tent idea a bit far with MK 2 🤣 I was in rented digs, thinking was to contain any dust within the spare room.

@RonC How involved do you intend to go? Will you be buying logs from sawmills or work with planed and squared boards ? Are you buying pre-cut bodies/necks or shaping your own ? Do you have production plans or one-of designs ? Will you mostly be concentrating on restoration work ? Each brings their own tool needs and many are just time/labour saving devices. I'd advise against YT videos, most of what we see there is just window dressing or stuff bought at markets to give out a "look at all my wood planes, see how serious I am" vibe. Good friend of mine does the whole package. This how Mark has his workplace set out. Notice how little space is taken by his hand tools at the workbench area.

Same search for Falkirk returns about 40 odd basses. Mostly off-brands with a smattering on Dingwall, Fender, Ric and Sandberg; none I'd consider buying.

For years I just had a board on a hop-up and tools in a stacking crate. I'd set them up in the kitchen then pack away at the side of the fridge when done 🙂 For spraying some tomato plant grow tent was used.

Suppose it depends on what you're used to. The BZ-4000 was about the same as their JB-75, over 12lbs. I've nearly 45 years as a joiner under my belt. One length of 4 x 2 weighs 27lbs, two length on the left shoulder is common site practise. All comes down to balance, get that right and you don't notice 🙂

Not the 6 string. Bought the 4 string version back in 2014. It was a sturdy bit of kit, ebonol fretboard will likely out live 5 generations. Pretty sure a couple of BC'ers bought the 6 string, @Owen ?, a lad from New Zealand started a thread when landing the 7 string. Went by the name "Annoying Twit", should be easy enough to find that thread. Oh, don't know if it applies to later versions but "weighty" was often used to describe the early ones 👍