Rexel Matador

And there you have it - just a quick project really, to get this bass up and running again. The body was a bit thicker than the old one and I realised the screws wouldn't actually be going very far into the neck - so rather than getting longer screws or reshaping the body, I decided to use ferrules instead because I happened to have four spare ones. I sometimes find impatience to be the mother of invention (not that I invented ferrules, of course). Anyway, I love it - it looks so 70s to me. If I was Matt Freeman I would have had it sold like this from the start!

I have to say, it's an absolute game changer. I've been very fortunate. I built my first six or so instruments in the spare room in a little flat - my very patient wife accepting me indulging my passion and at least trying to clear up all the dust! Finally having a garage to fill with machines is a whole new world.

Getting oiled up - the light in the garage wasn't great but it's looking pretty nice I made a couple of knobs from the offcuts too - I think they'll look pretty nice on the black scratchplate

Not bad for a day's work. I messed up the pickup cavity a little - thank god for scratchplates. The wood doesn't look so great in its rough sanded form - before I sliced into it it was a beautiful red colour. I'm hoping with more sanding and an oil finish it'll look pretty sweet. Whether it looks good with that shiny yellow neck remains to be seen. It'll be nice to have this bass (or a version of it) back on the squad

2 years later... I've finally moved house and am no longer attempting to make basses in the tiny spare room of tiny flat. Got my workshop set up in the garage and thought this relatively simple project would be a good way to ease myself back into it. I had a chunk of mahogany that I bought for another project but it wasn't right. Planed down it's pretty gorgeous. More pics of that soon. So far I've just cut it roughly on a bandsaw and am now routing the shape using a template The new Bosch vacuum is no match for the router, it would seem 🤣

Looks good - what kind of finish is it?

Hi everyone, sorry this isn't a build diary, but this is where people who know about this kind of thing hang out, so I figured it was the best place for it. Please feel free to have it removed if it's not appropriate... This is my headstock logo: I usually use a custom branding iron, which is fine on lighter finishes. On one occasion for a darker wood, I used the iron to force an impression into the wood, to which I then added metal leaf - not the most hard-wearing solution, it seems: But I want to find a more efficient way of adding headstock logos. Decals are out as I usually finish with oil, so won’t be building up lacquer to hide the edges. And I’m not very experienced at inlaying, so doing that to a high enough standard would probably take longer than making the instrument itself! Does anybody know of anywhere where I could perhaps get the three letters cut from thin aluminium or similar, which could then just be glued on? Or are there any other options I haven’t thought of? Feel free to add links to other threads if this has already been covered. Thanks everyone!!

Thanks again everyone - I've been away from the computer for a few days so have only just read the last few posts. Some really useful information here. Seems like second hand might be the way to go - I'll see what's out there!

Sad news indeed. This has long been one of my favourite things on YouTube - the sheer joyful chaos of it!

Thanks everyone for the responses, it's really appreciated. I thought about posting in the Build Diaries section but decided not to as it's not a build diary 🤣 - looks like I've got plenty of good info to go on in any case 👍

Hi FinnDave, I could well be willing to take you up on this. I am away from home until mid-August though, so can't do anything about it until then. I'll message you when I get back to see if it's still available, but there's no need to wait for me if you find a good home for it in the meantime 🙂

Hi everyone, I've just moved to a house with a garage so can finally set up a proper workshop for building basses. Does anyone have any recommendations for which bandsaw, drill press and planer/thicknesser I should buy? All suggestions much appreciated! Thanks 🙂

Thought I'd share my current project in case anyone is interested. Melodic-ish death metal in the vein of At The Gates, Carcass, Arch Enemy, The Black Dahlia Murder. https://handaxemetal.bandcamp.com/ It's a one-man project (the drums are programmed). All the bass was recorded using the various creations my over on my build diary threads, so it comes to you partly thanks to the sage advice and encouragement of many members of this forum. 🤘🤘🤘

There's always the through neck option too - just a matter of gluing the wings on - no neck pocket required!

I can't see what it is you're quoting here...

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Beards are everywhere these days.

I thought the same thing - had no idea they were now a four piece and was wondering whether they'd added a bassist or a singer. Turns out Fernanda and the drummer both left and were replaced with three entirely new members!

A band-member, as opposed to a band, but I feel like Frank Beard deserves an honourable mention.

It's very unlikely to be a solid colour - I much prefer stains, oils, etc to using any kind of paint

It's only a rough sketch at this stage - I'll play around with it when I draw it out full scale - I could move the neck in a bit.

Well in an odd twist, having let this project gather dust for way too long, I ended up getting kicked out of the band (unrelated to the slow progress on the build), so the guitarist won't be getting his 10 string V after all. But I still have a 27" scale neck that I've started work on, so I'm going to make an altogether more civilised tele-ish baritone instead. I did consider making a very short scale bass, but I already have... well, I won't say "too many basses" for fear of getting banned, but I have a few, and only one (barely) functioning guitar. And a baritone is at least leaning in the right direction, right?

+1 for the EMG Geezer butler - a great option. Does the bass have the kind of knobs with grub screws or the ones that just push on? If I recall, the EMG comes with solid shaft pots, so you might need to get screw-on knobs if you don't have them already.

The EMG website has all the PDF manuals with diagrams showing how long everything is

Nice to see Gibson paying attention to the little details and positioning the strap buttons for maximum neck-dive 🤣