kodiakblair

53 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

"Authenticity"

I thought all things 'Authentic' were Gibson trade marked.

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

Is it worth a £150 punt?

Mine definitely was 🙂

Think it cost me £189 either last year or the one before that so if they're no £150 it's a serious bargain.

Saw no reason to "upgrade" anything. Neck is a dream to play, not too chunky but thankfully not too thin. Had two issues. 

1. Slight string hum, that's down to grounding;  either poor contact at the mono saddles (no bare metal) or a saddle has been skipped.

2. Tone knob needed raised 1mm so it could clear the finish.

@biro and @Rodders

That one I've had in the spares for ages, think it came from somebody on here.

Have an Artec piezo element and a couple of rosewood bridge bases if anyone fancies the 'acoustic' look. 

Thanks @snorkie635

The other two should be a breeze, the veneer for those is over 400 wide so no joints to contend with 🙂

Wax finish will liven it up somewhat but it needs a bit more.

Not too struck on the Cabronita look.

Hand cut this pearloid scratchplate a few years back. Did a quick trim to suit the rounded heel, I think it holds promise 🙂

Who are 'They' ? 

Can they be trusted and what the hang was I doing listening to them ?

I've had these 3 roughed out for a while.

Plan was left would get 2 51 single coils at 60's spacing. Centre would be an Italia copy, 4 lipsticks running parallel to the strings. Right, possibly a 51 'Ray' slab 🙂

Turned out the Italia idea involved a fair bit of work. No problem converting 2 lipsticks to RWRP, it was the accordian/leatherette wrap scared the pants off me 😆 

Far easier to scrap that one for something simple, piezo bridge/wax finish 👍

I had hoped to be on the ball regards progress photos but things ain't too great health-wise so when energy levels allowed I was more focused on the task at hand. The body had a couple of serious knots, spraying finish isn't an option; Wood Veneer Hub came to the rescue. Not my best veneer job, after 3 attempts at a perfect join the towel was chucked in the ring 🤬 Photo is before the overhang was trimmed away, 0.6mm veneer; roll of 180 grit seen below the neck took care of it.

Neck and bridge were positioned and fitted this afternoon.

Hellish piece of news.

Absolute gem of a man, always willing to help out folk.

RIP Nick.

@police squad

I fitted dowels to the Mk1 templates sent out to BC members, stopped after discovering nobody was using routers 😅

Dead easy to make, shape your template and position it on the rear of the peghead. Then it's just a dot of glue end of the dowel before dropping through the tuning peg hole.

1 hour ago, WishIcouldplay said:

.any idea on suppliers and the product codes?

Alpha RV16AF are mini pots, 16mm diameter. Normally around the £3 mark. Available for solid or spline knobs, with solder lugs, pins or PCB mount.

Alpha RV24AF are the full size version.  Around £3.

NW Guitars sell them, along with plenty others. Products all have the tech drawing so you can pick the correct size.

https://northwestguitars.co.uk/collections/potentiometers?sort_by=best-selling

Bourns PDB241-GTR

https://www.bourns.com/docs/product-datasheets/PDB241-GTR.pdf

£4 from Farnell or RS Components but £4 delivery.

Banzai Music in Germany carry all the MEC potentiometers; not cheap.

https://www.banzaimusic.com/MEC-c-176/

Musikding, also in Germany sell Alpha, Bourns and CTS. Great company, no VAT worries, fast shipping, fantastic prices.

https://www.musikding.de/Potentiometer_1

Bought a 51 P-bass neck to check the quality. At £50 delivered it came in £20 more than I'd be for the parts/materials. 

Neck passed muster with flying colours so ordered up another 4 🙂

Way I normally buy from Ali-Ex is by prices, if the product is say £200 from Europe and there's an Ali-Ex seller asking £70 and another wants £35; buy the one at £70 👍

Me, Finnish rockers 69 Eyes and a squad of lassies all got turfed out of a party in the Cathouse.

Felt sorry for the lads, it was their party 😆 

2 hours ago, Machines said:

 

My experience of Dingwalls is that the neck is the key part of the instrument. I've had a few budget/midrange multiscales (Gear4Music, Ibanez) and they try, but really can't quite get it right.

There's no law set in stone for fanned frets.

Dingwall use the 7th fret as the neutral one, with Ibanez it's 10th; G4M opt for the 8th and on the OP's bass it's the 5th. 

Right or wrong doesn't come into it, there's only personal preference. Same holds true for the span of the scale length, the radius or how the back of the neck is shaped.

1 hour ago, Machines said:

 

Here, check out my Ferrari, I saved £100k !

 

Does it have the Ferrari engine? 

My suggestion used all of the same parts found on the Dingwall. If going for a custom build you could spec for same body materials and still save £700.

@NikNik

Buy the Firebird blueprint from Guitars & Wood, €13. Send it to the Ali-Ex merchant with instructions to follow it to the letter. 

https://guitarsandwoods.com/guitar-and-bass-plans-firebird-2048190856.html

CNC files might also be available. 

Get as many Firebird photos as you can of things like the transition of neck to body. The more info and details you provide the better chance of success. 

2 hours ago, Musicman20 said:

Well considering the hefty prices for an 'official' Made in China Dingwall, this seems a great option hahaha!

You bet it is 🙂

Cheapest Combustion 4 string at Bass Direct is £1850, OP's bass was £280.

You could go daft and fit 4 Hipshot tuners/Mono saddles for £200. 3 Dingwall FD3N pickups, another £240. The Dingwall selector switch is £50 and its £160 for an EMG 3 band EQ.

Even after a PLEK session you'd have £700 more in your pocket than buying Dingwall.

Might have to re-think the logo, £1100 is hardly "Tesco Value" 😁 

26 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Out of interest,  where did you find a 30" scale 24 fret neck?

Both basses used guitar bodies so I went with baritone paddle necks.

All maple one from Yinfente, rosewood board from Seimonic/Guitar-Shopping. Cost about £60 - £65.

1 hour ago, ped said:

if you’re looking for a miniature version of your own bass

My old Mam gave me this , bought from Guitar Miniatures' stall at Cleveleys' Market 🙂

OK the colour is wrong but she's 88 so gets 10 out 10 for not only remembering I play bass but that I own a Tele bass 👏

10 hours ago, Mariner72 said:

What would people recommend?

A decent set up + strings.

Get the nut slots checked then have the neck adjusted. Get the action and intonation bang on. Have the pickup heights set properly.

It's all well and good bolting bits on but unless the bass is set to it's best potential are the bolted on bits an upgrade ? Also helps if you know why you want certain bolt on bits, what they do and will there be an impact. Light weight tuning pegs are a favourite, folk routinely throw them on to counter 'neck dive'. Thing is 4 in line pegheads are prone to dead spots which are related to peghead mass; light weight tuners change the mass and you might find the dead spot has moved to someplace more noticeable. Trying another strap or adjusting the length can fixed 'neck dive', will be cheaper and have no effect on peghead mass.

Before looking at new pickups, borrow an EQ (graphic or para). Play with the frequencies, boost some/cut others; it'll make more of a difference than any pickup swap.

4 hours ago, Dread Bass said:

I also really like the idea of keeping something going at has already done it’s job for 50+ years. 

Having not played my old Wilson Saffire for years I now feel quite guilty 😄

2 minutes ago, tauzero said:

I tried them and the sound was very scratchy, for want of a better word - no bass and the tone was very gritty and low fi.

Do you remember what you were running them through ?

8 minutes ago, biro said:

Where do I even start?

Couple of weeks back I sacked my 4 lipstick P-bass idea for a 51 slab body piezo build.

Both had been kicking around my head for years so I'd been grabbing potential bits as/when I saw them 🙂 Those 4 & 5 string bridges you mentioned are still being made, WSC offshoot  'Partsland' distribute them. Trouble is they are bloody expensive now. B&Ch over in Czech Rep have then for €116 or €130 for 5 string 🙁 USA eBay seller "Guitar Madness" have 2 versions for a more sensible £68 and £78 but there's £17 delivery, search for "Chrome Bass Piezo Bridge Made in Korea".

I was lucky enough to buy the 4 string version from BassChat's ads section so it might be an idea to run a 'wanted' ad.

Will be keeping my fingers crossed you get sorted as it'll be nice having somebody to bounce experiences off.  I've the bridge hooked up to a Shadow preamp ATM but it's not working out too well, roll on Monday when the Artec MT-2 gets delivered.

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

I had (probably alnico) "Wide Range" humbuckers in a Fender Modern Player Starcaster bass and honestly, I thought they were utter gash.

No idea what is in my Modern Player but I'm well chuffed with them 🙂 

Might go as far as replace the Lakland Chi-Sonic in the TeleBass with the spare Wide Range in the pickup drawer, after all that was the reason for buying it 😄

33 minutes ago, bassmaster4000 said:

One final question regarding the correct names of the parts.

Doubt these are the correct terms.

I refer to the black block for string height as the 'saddle block', the housing it sits in as the 'slide' and the whole thing as a 'mono saddle' 👍

58 minutes ago, Dazed said:

So in a nutshell what we’re saying is sonically it doesn’t really matter what type of magnet is used, assuming they are similar strength?

We are 🙂

59 minutes ago, Dazed said:

you can’t beat science can you? Well until new science comes along anyway. 

New science still has to deal with all the myths, legends and old wives' tales folk cling to regards pickups; new/old Science has a hard task 😃

Bloody hell, where did the photos spring from ;was just text when I replied Monday night 😁