Rexel Matador

The bass looks awesome, so classy! I buy mail order from Reid Timber all the time. The prices and quality are amazing. Regarding ordering without seeing the stuff, of course it's not ideal, but I once asked him if he had something that wasn't showing as in stock on the site, and he took pictures of specific pieces and emailed them to me, so it's worth asking if you're looking for something in particular and want a close-up - I get the impression he's happy to help.

320 grit will get you a nice smooth look and feel, in my experience. Maybe 400 if you're feeling fancy. Other people might have different opinions. Oil finishes are very nice and rely safe/easy to do. Boiled Linseed Oil, Tung Oil, Danish Oil, etc. Not as durable as lacquer because they penetrate the wood rather than sitting on top of it - they certainly give a nice feel to a neck though. If you do a good job with the sanding they can look amazing.

It wouldn't hurt to leave a little room to go forwards, just in case. It seems to me that there are so many little factors affecting intonation that you can never predict where it'll end up. But as you say, it almost always requires you to move it backwards.

This is a largely forgotten gem - on side A he plays guitar and side B he plays piano: Also there's Leroy Carr... ...and Victoria Spivey That's just off the top of my head - I might think of more

Measuring another P that you're happy with would probably be a safe enough way to do it. Also the stewmac website says that the screw holes for a standard Fender style bridge should be one inch back from where the scale length ends. I find that for correct intonation, you almost always need to move the saddles back (away from the nut) to make the strings longer than the scale length, so when placing a bridge, I put it so that the saddles are in line with the actual end of the scale length when they're in (or very nearly in) their forewardmost position, so you have plenty of scope to move them back - does that make sense? But then you still have to get it centred. You can put a long ruler/straightedge against the side of the fretboard and mark a line that essentially extends the line of the neck all the way down the body. Do this for both sides of the fretboard - use masking tape if you don't want to mark the body - and then centre the bridge in between the two lines. then, instead of using actual strings, which you won't really be able to pull straight if the bridge isn't screwed down, use pieces of string in place of the outer strings to check that they run correctly along the fretboard. If you're using two pieces of string of the same thickness, remember that the one representing the low string should be a bit further from the edge of the board to account for the string being thicker.

This falls firmly into the category of "thoughts" as opposed to "experiences", as I've not owned either, but for what it's worth, I would go with Northwest. I've had good experiences buying parts from them and I really can't imagine the wood selection, quality control, etc are £100 worth of better on the Fender. Based solely on the pictures online, I do see a couple of differences. The fender bodies appear to have pre-drilled bridge screw holes, which would just be an inconvenience if you were using any kind of non-standard bridge. Also they have a big all-in-one pickup & control rout, while the Northwest body has two separate smaller cavities. It would all be hidden under a normal p-bass scratchplate anyway, but I thought it was worth noting. With the Northwest, you could even go scratchplate-free, although you would need some kind of control plate.

Indeed, even when they try to make them as bass-ish as possible:

Forgive my ignorance - what's a Super Jazz?

This, to the letter 👍 Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Something from the Ibanez SR range? They fit most of your requirements - HH, active electronics, 24 fret, 38mm nut, non traditional design - and they have models at a variety of price points. Not sure about the available finishes, but they might be worth a look. I had one of the lower end ones and it was great for the price. It had a super skinny neck though, which I know is not everyone's cup of tea. Edit: I see now that it's already on your list - I'm not quite sure how I missed that - I did read your post, I swear!

Mine is the the MOF001 which I believe is the slightly bigger version, but I could have that the wrong way round. I chose it mainly because it came with 6.35mm and 8mm collets, so I can get straight to work with all the bits I already have. I haven't actually used it yet, as those channels were done with my old router. I'm looking forward to putting it to work though - the precision depth adjustment wheel is a brilliant feature - my old one was more bare bones. It's nice to hear some positive comments on the design too - I should be more positive about it myself really as I'm the one making the thing. If I can pull this off, I think it'll look pretty cool in the flesh.

That's ****ing brilliant - I'll be getting straight on the case with this!

I was in two minds as to whether to post this as it's not a bass and I don't want Davie504 to call the FBI on me, but I mentioned it in my last bass build diary and a couple of you said you didn't mind, so here we go. It's technically a baritone, so I haven't gone all the way to the dark side. The guitarist/leader of my band asked me to build him a guitar. This is my first time building an instrument for someone else, and f*** me if it isn't the most hideous, literally the last thing I would ever conceive of building, instrument in the world. Still, beggars can't be choosers and/or the customer's always right. It's an opportunity to push myself with someone else paying for all the wood and that. So... have you ever seen those BC Rich 10 string guitars? The two bass strings are on their own, but the other four are doubled up like a 12 string? It's that but a V shape. Neck-through, maple neck, rosewood board, sapele body wings, 27" scale. Six tuners on the headstock, the other four at the other end. In all honesty this is a fascinating experience for me. There's no accounting for taste, but to my mind this thing is an abomination. Can I give it my all and make him happy? Let's find out. So far I've done a scarf joint and put in the truss rod and - something new for me - a couple of carbon fibre rods. I figure 10 strings is a lot of tension, so it might help. I don't have a bandsaw so will be adding more wood at the body end to make it thick enough, as I did with my last neck-through build. It's going to have a tune-o-matic bridge so the neck will need to be angled. No tail-piece - six strings will be anchored through the body and the other four will go to the bridge-end tuners. I have it all figured out in theory. In practice, I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope it all works out. This is the headstock shape - you'll see the markings for the tuners, plus four more where the ball ends of the extra strings will go through. This is my first sketch of the whole thing. It's an interesting challenge to come up with something that accommodates the unique set-up and looks... ok. Again, it's not my cup of tea, but he loves it and that's what matters. I'm still not sure where the jack and strap buttons are going to go. But most excitingly, it's NRD - New Router Day! The one I had been using was a falling to bits and if I'd persevered much longer, someone (me) would probably have got hurt.

I live in a small flat too. It's not ideal, by any means, but not impossible!

I like it - a real touch of character

Arguably it would make them more noticeable unless the drummers fail in unison

Fugazi played live with two drummers, at least they did when I saw them circa 2003. It was the best thing about their performance - this was close to the end and I think they were pretty much over it, for the most part. Slipknot have three 🤘

They did, it seems fine! Very comfortable too 🙂

Still missing a jack plate, but otherwise it's done. The neck seems fine - just a little truss rod tweak and all is well. The bridge placement worked a treat as well. I put the B string one a little bit further back than the measurements suggested and lined the others up accordingly, and all the strings intonate well inside the saddles' scope of travel. The flame on the side of the fretboard looks particularly nice. I'll get better pics when the jack is sorted. Maybe even a demo - build diaries never usually seem to cover what the thing actually sounds like!

I put a Wilkinson one in one of my builds and it sounds lovely.

Forgive the background. I'm pretty happy with the way this is turning out. There are a few things still to do. The stupid EMG jack didn't fit into the jack plate I planned on using (it's a threaded one, so it's not just a case of widening the hole, so I either need to get a different jack or a different plate. One possibility is to make one from the same material as the scratchplate and control plate, which could be a nice touch. I'm still waiting for the neck ferrules and screws to arrive because I somehow managed to forget about them when I was first sourcing the hardware for this, but as it has the extra screws under the scratchplate, I was at least able to attach the neck just for the sake of seeing how it looks... ...and also checking the balance, which is perfect 😀, due, I assume, to a combination of factors all absent on my last build: long upper horn, small headstock, body shape that allows the bridge end strap button to be positioned quite high. I managed to file the saddles to accommodate the heavy strings, which is good. I lost a bit of the black coating along the way, but that was to be expected. I could paint them but I'm not really bothered. This bass will be gigged (if that's still a thing in the future!) so I'm sure it'll be all kinds of relic'd before too long. I also have a much bigger volume knob on order, so I'm going to try them both and see which I prefer aesthetically. I've roughed out the nut but need to level the frets before finishing it. Then I'll add the string retainer and we're good to go.

Yes, perhaps a little bendier than others. I may well be wrong - I'm looking forward to getting it strung up anyway.

That's a great question, because I realise, now you've asked, that it's still more of a feeling than anything concrete. Seems ok today. I've left it quite chunky so it'll probably be fine.