Stub Mandrel

That wouild make a fun thread.

How would you fit one? No More Nails? Ah. thinks about it - Spirits have through necks too. My comment was based on the other one using neck screw holes.

I know it's a mock-up, but before it's too late, you do know the pickup covers are the wrong way round to how they were cut out. I wouldn't say, except you said you are keen for everything to match! It's beautiful timber and great woodworking as well by the way! (I've run out of reactions...)

No, but we have vast quantities of sycamore growing here (native to southern Europe). The Americans just count it as a type of maple, sometimes 'sycamore maple' but usually just maple. The timber is functionally and visually the same, at least to the likes of us. It's likely that many 'maple' basses are in fact sycamore. https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/sycamore-guitar-neck-blank-type-a.html

HM2 🙂

Presumably not for THunderbirds 🙂

A Basschat member sent me a Squier neck in this absolutely brilliant packaging. I'm really unlikely to use it again, and they don't need it either, so rather than put it all in the recycling I'm happy to pass it on to a basschat member. Collect or drop off in the Vale/Newport areas or I can post at cost. No photo but it's two very robust boxes as used by Fender for international shipping. Neil

Jeepers those look worth a punt even at full price.

I want to finish a spalted burl maple body, with a Uruguayan mahogany back. Yes it's one of those, but there seem to be more luthiers here than on GC. I have looked at lots of online stuff and asked in a specialist store, but all I got was partial or contradictory. Having done a couple of nitro-finished bodies I want to try a satin oiled finish. I bought some lovely red spirit stain, but the salesperson seemed to think I shouldn't use it with oil? This doesn't seem right but advice sought. I want to use an airbrush to spray the red stain around the outside, sunburst style where the wood is less figured, and leave the centre plain. Then finish with an oil that will enhance the figure and give an amber colour. Sort of like this: Would Tung Oil be a good choice on its own, or should I use a yellow/amber stain first? The burl has only very small holes, I was thinking of using either a water-based neutral filler or a gold-glitter loaded glue... years ago my daughter managed to get some on one of those oil-finished coffee tables and it seemed quite durable... will this work or will it stop the oil from taking? As for the back, it's typical mahogany with fairly modest grain that seems bit open. What sort of prep should I give before using the stain/oil on it. Sanding sealer? Filler? Finally, how do I apply the TUng oil. Does it just soak in, or does it build up like Danish oil? How do I get a satin finish rather than a glossy one?

Must admit I was impressed by that effect, but aghast at the price. This beasty is a fifth of the cost:

Surprisingly easy to do...

If that guitar doesn't play true-tempered harmonics I'd want my money back.

Actually yet ANOTHER gig slips in before the PC&TBS one. My brother is taking me to see Marillion for my birthday 🙂 Last time I saw them was Reading 1983, and before that the Script for a Jester's Tear tour: I still have both programmes!

Where..?

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons at the Patti Pavilion. Last gig of the tour and on home turf so hopefully something special.

*may not apply in the case of certain modern jazz fusion 'funk' bands...

In case it's not obvious, a Jazz or other bass with a pickup near the bridge will deliver more harmonics than a P-bass.

Gary Clark Jr Live.

I could post a video of the guitarist I've started playing with recently, made when he was 14 he's ripping through a live version of Parisian Walkways. He's in his early twenties now. There's definitely no shortage of feel or ability to play well with others, and great knowledge of the blues. Jimmy Page was on BBC1 at 13 and went pro at 15.

The first audition I went to, I learned (approximations of, no easy to get tab around 1986/7) seeral songs with help from my brother, a guitarist with a better ear than me, especially back then. Met up with guitarist and drummer. It seems that the sings were 'just an indication of the sort of thing'. They bumbled around various things that may have been nascent songs or just jams At the tiem I felt out of my depth and almost relieved not to be asked back. Looking back now, I suspect they actually didn't know how to play those songs themselves... but at teh time it was a blow to my confidence. Remarkably, I fell in with another bunch without muso pretensions, and we just clicked and had a great couple of years improving our skills and having fun, although we didn't set the world alight. When I moved away I was in a position to do much better at auditions and ended up in an originals band. I did get thrown out for 'being too widdly' - perhaps more that I wanted to play space rock, while the others wanted a sort of garage/goth fusion. By the next band, the audition was basically a pub interview followed by a session with the band leader who taught me a lot of their (Jam-like) bass lines, and passing the audition was basically just being able to play them properly! Left them when I change jobs/married in 96. This time around it's been much easier as when getting into things I developed a voracious appetite for learning songs, without being precious about genre or style. Over time, you develop a whole swathe of skills that help in getting into bands, that aren't simply being able to play difficult passages. Some of these are: A better ear, so you can rapidly work out the key without watching the guitarist and pick up the basic riffs (play along to random songs on the radio). This means you can jam with anyone, even if you just pump out root notes. The ability to identify the core parts of a song you need to do as original, where you can simplify and where you can improvise. A subconscious 'library' of riffs and runs that make improvisation easier. An intuition for anticipating chord changes, including hearing when the melody (often voice or guitar) is leading into a change. Fitting your rhythm to the drummer. Dynamics - when to ease back and when to dig in. I'm sure others will suggest other things, but what they all have in common is that they come with practice, and the best way is learning lots of songs all the way through. I suppose this is really a very long way to say learning those ten songs was not wasted effort!

A good starting point would be in guitarists knew what a 'key' is - and that (a) it's more likely to be the last note of the song than the first (b) it might not be either and (c) it might change as the song goes along.

Yeah, but think how much time they spend practising their bass faces instead of being delinquent.

Can we post this every time someone says "I need a short scale bass because I have little fingers/small hands/short arms"?

If you have 'fret position dots' set the intonation so your 'natural' finger position is in tune at the octave 9I can't say "12th fret") and magically that finger position will work along the whole length of the neck. As you move up a position mean you have to adapt constantly so there isn't one simple 'muscle memory' to build. I found that my fingers naturally come closer together as I move up a result of playing fretted bass anyway. What is trickiest is keeping positions consistent across the strings. The ultimate arbiter is sound, the dots guide to then changing position, then you will eventually start to subconsciously adjust if out of tune, in the same way you probably bend a string slightly if it sounds flat when playing a fretted bass. You don't learn this, you just discover you are doing it one day, and feel smug 🙂

I bought some no-name ones from Amazon or eBay... they seem to be really good. But I only use them on basses whose original buttons are too small. I have a strap for each bass/guitar.