Obrienp

@Gasman No words are going to be adequate but my deepest sympathies for your loss.

Thank you @PaulThePlug. That’s pretty well what I have ended up doing.

This is how far I have got. Bridge now attached, so I hope I haven’t cocked up. It look alright to me but I will find out when the strings go on.

4 hours ago, naxos10 said:

Looks like a goid job well done. I hope it helps with the pain you were originally getting.

Thanks. Very pleased with it.

The G4M body arrived this morning, so this is the initial mock up. I am going to have to ease the sides of the pocket a millimetre or two to get the neck into it. I now see what you mean about the gap between neck and body only being about 3 mm. Somehow I had it in mind that it would be more significant.
 

There is no drilling at all for the bridge in this body, so i have freedom to place it exactly where I want. That also introduces the dilemma of where the 17” inches from the 12th fret should fall on the bridge: half way along it, or more like a quarter along? By this I mean, should I allow an equal amount of fore and aft travel for the saddles, or more travel  backwards? Also getting the bridge position centred looks a bit of a challenge. I have always had bodies that had mounting holes pre-drilled, or in the case of the 51 P body, it had been drilled for the through stringing. This enabled me to line up the bridge.

Just as a general aside; I weighed the G4M body: 2.9Kg! I think this bass is going to be a bit of a boat anchor! Neck and machine heads weigh about 1.1Kg, then I would estimate around 0.5Kg for the rest of the gubbins. That’s about 4.5Kg, or 9lbs, 14oz! A real big boy bass and about 1Kg more than my ‘51 with the same neck.

2 hours ago, rmorris said:

Sounds good. But I don't see how changing the fret dimensions facilitates a lower action. Strings nearer the fretboard yes but not closer to the apex of the fret ?

Good point but he does seem to have achieved it. Might be coincidental I guess. Lower frets, less chance of rattle, so lower clearance possible? Maybe not. Strings are the same, so can’t be that.

NBD yesterday. Sire U5 fretless from Thomann. Quite a lot vested in this for me, as I sold two basses to raise the cash for this. Suffice it to say, it was worth it. So far I am very pleased with the little Sire.
 

Others have reviewed the fretted U5 and as far as I can tell, this is identical save the black plastic inserts where the frets would normally go. It seems to be really well made for this price point. Fit and finish is spot on right down to the set up. It perhaps needs a bit more relief on the neck but that is easily fixed with a tweak of the truss rod. The neck has a lovely feel with beautifully rolled edges and an extremely thin matte coating on the back (gloss on the board). At the moment I can’t think of anything I would want to change on it. Even the OEM flat wound strings are good. They have a nice feel and suit the instrument well. I’m not sure what brand they are: not the usual D’Addarios, as they have blues silks at both ends and plain ball ends.

Time will tell how the hardware lasts but it seems perfectly acceptable. The machine heads are identical to Northwest Guitars own brand vintage style, which are sold as an upgrade for Squiers, etc, so I am hoping they will last a bit. The bridge is chunkier than your average Squier ash tray and the ridged saddles are a nice touch. It can also be strung through. Unfortunately, it has an unusual screw at each corner mounting system, which makes upgrading a little less straight forward. 
 

As can be seen in the picks, it has a flamed maple top with edge binding and a plain painted brown back. It’s a carved top, which stops it from being a completely slab body. It gives it an arm contour of sorts but no belly cut. Viewed from the side the profile seems to do the reverse and actually bulge at the belly but it is comfortable on a strap nevertheless.  Despite the maple top and binding it seems very light because the body is quite thin front to back. I haven’t had a chance to weigh it but I would guess around 7.5 lbs.

I would certainly put this on your list, if you are looking for a short scale fretless. It is reasonably priced and nicely made. Bizarrely, it cost £40 more than the fretted version at Thomann.

Folks. I thought I would tie up the loose ends on this. I got my bass back today with the reprofiled neck. I had a couple of fitting sessions with Tony on the way, to make sure he got it right. I find this much more comfortable to play even though the nut width is now around 39mm, not quite as narrow as I had originally expected but it works. The rear profile is much more Jazz like up to about the ninth fret and then starts to flatten a bit. It has also been refretted with narrower and lower vintage style frets allowing the action be lowered a bit more. As per my request, the back of the neck is finished in 2 light coats of clear matte varnish. This doesn’t seem to react with the original nitrocellulose 🤞. All that work came in at around 2/3rds of the original quote for a new bespoke neck!

On the subject of nut widths, it prompted me to measure the nut on my other basses. I was surprised how much it can differ from the published specs. My Nordstrand Acinonyx is 38.15mm against the spec of 36mm. My Maruszczyk Elwood (32”) is 37mm against the spec of 38mm (close). All Parts ‘51 precision neck on a bitsa 43mm (just about correct). The prize for manufacturing accuracy goes to my (new yesterday) Sire U5 fretless, which is spot on 38mm.

@dmccombe7 Lugging the PA doesn’t help! Fortunately we have gone down to using 2 column PAs, one of which belongs to me and the other to the drummer. I have also reduced the size of my rig: now down to either a BF Two10, or LFSys Monza and class D head, depending on the size of the gig. I do lug the monitors as well though.

Congratulations on how well your glam band is doing. I would be overjoyed if we had that many gigs but I’m sure it has its drawbacks as well. I agree with you: if it becomes a chore then it’s time to walk away. At the moment I am the one who wants to go on playing when the others are looking at the clock and mumbling about having done our contracted time.

11 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Ah well there we differ. I'll take any work I can get as I approach my 70s. I feel the clock ticking...

I feel like that. Less than 2 years to go and arthritis in my left hand is not getting any better. I will do any depping on offer and get very frustrated when the bands I am in don’t have gigs (like now). However, I did 5 gigs in 4 days in July last year and ended up in hospital. I was ill anyway but doing too much pushed me over the top, so I am trying to moderate commitments now.

14 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Happy Easter Everyone 

 

I haven't had a gig since 3/8. And no gigs acoustic or full band in April.  No communication either. However, the summer schedule looks busy.

 

This is the thing. I'm 30 years older then my band members.  I look at being in a band differently than they do. I'm a

" 1960s guy". Secondly the other members all have careers outside of the band.

 

Regardless I'm still in the best band I can be in. Jumping ship at this point would get me nowhere. 

 

Comments?

 

Daryl

 

Looks like you have done pretty well so far this year, judging on your posts! I haven’t had a gig this year in either of the bands I play in but that has more to do with various of us having medical issues and people taking trips abroad.
 

Lack of communication on the other hand isn’t great. I wouldn’t jump ship though. If you really need cash, there must be plenty of other bands who would welcome an experienced bass player with existing commitments. Depping is also a good way to go IMO. You will probably have to learn new material and you get to play with other musicians, which is very rewarding (again IMO).

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Scratchplate.

 

The G4M body has the typical P-bass router cavities for pickup/controls which will need covering up 🙂

 

Quick mock up with a G4M P-bass body/neck and Telecaster bass scratchplate. 

 

 

The scratchplate comes from  eBay seller 'earlpillanz', Brian cuts these custom (£40) so you can have the WRHB pickup area omitted. Squared pocket area on the place means you can leave the body as is, it'll be under plastic 👍 

Ooh! Thanks for the suggestion. That way I could put my DP145 (mudbucker) in the neck position. To get completely carried away, I could also put my Glockenlang 2 band  preamp with blender control in. Just a little route in the back for a battery box and perhaps a tele style jack socket in the side bout. As you can probably tell, I’m easily distracted!

3 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

I am a long time admirer of @kodiakblair builds his attention to detail and craftsmanship is second to none.

Being a lazy sod I tend to seek the simplest solutions which are in the range of my more limited capabilities. 

As @kodiakblair has shown, we talking about 3mm, so if you have limited access to tools and routers it maybe worth considering gently sanding the heel of the neck to fit the body!

Clearly you end up with a slightly nonstandard neck but if you don't plan to swop the neck then gently sanding the heel of the neck maybe a way forward. I agree with @kodiakblair that the Fender Hi-mass bridge should have enough travel to get the correct intonation. 

Best of luck with your build. 

Thanks for the reassurance and encouragement. WRT sanding the neck, I would do that if it was a cheaper Far Eastern job and I have done that before but this one cost about 5 times as much as the new body. I want to retain its resale value, so I think any surgery will be done to the neck pocket.
 

I am with you on simple solutions. I don’t have a router. I have considered getting one but I can’t see it getting enough use to justify the expense. I would want to get a soft start unit and they tend to be much more expensive. I have found a combination of Forstner bits, sharp chisels and sand paper good enough to do control cavity and pickup routes (not to a level a professional would be happy with). For this job I guess it would be files and sandpaper but I will see how the parts fit together first. If the gap is not too bad and the intonation isn’t a problem I will leave the body alone. I might use a bit of wood filler to fill in any unsightly gaps but I also need to leave space to get a screwdriver in to adjust the truss rod, as it is heel mounted. I put a little groove in the ‘51 body at the end of the neck pocket to facilitate adjustment. I might do that here too: cheaper than buying the Stew Mac Telecaster truss rod tool.

@kodiakblair Many thanks for the advice. I’ll see how far out it looks when I pair up the neck and body. Many thanks for the advice on how to do the surgery. I will use that method if it comes to it.

17 minutes ago, Simon C said:

My 2022 Walnut 4003 weighs 3.8kg. I’d have thought that’s on the lightish side for an (almost) long scale bass.

Interesting. Not bad for fixed neck as well. I wonder if they vary but a friend said his was over 4.5kg and he had heard of heavier.

Reviving this thread because I am about to try fitting my ‘51 p bass neck (All Parts licensed) with the square heel to a pattern split P pickup ash body (Gear4Music), which has the rounded pocket end. The body is in the post, so I haven’t had a chance to match them up yet but the general dimensions sound alright.

My question is, how much reshaping of the pocket do you have to do? Does it have to completely match the neck heel, or is it OK to do enough to get it to seat, leaving a semi-circular gap between neck and body? Is there any reason why the gap shouldn’t be filled with regular wood filler, or should I just leave it? 
 

I am guessing that I might have to mount the bridge a bit forward of the pre-drilled mounting holes, if I leave a gap between neck heel and back of the pocket. I will measure carefully to see where 17” from the 12th fret lands. I am going to use a Fender high-mass bridge, so it might have enough travel to not need this adjustment.

Anyway, any advice and benefit of experience gratefully received.

BTW, the reason I am doing this is that the ‘51 p bass bitsa I had the neck on has an Obeche body. This is very light and easy to work but not dense. The consequence seems to have been that it sounds unacceptably bright. I have tried both a Jess Loreiro (not sure I spelt that right) and Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder ‘51 P pickups in it. Both sound really clanky and brittle, with very little bottom end to speak of. I also have a DiMarzio DP145 Will Power pickup in the neck position and that sounds bright for a mudbucker style unit. Consensus of opinion over on Talk Bass was that the Obeche body was the culprit. I didn’t want to spend the amount of cash required for a ‘51/‘54 body in ash, so I went for one of the cheaper split pickup options. I have a Tone Rider TP1 from a previous project, so this is quite a low cost experiment for me.

Another aside: I almost exclusively play medium and short scale basses with Jazz style necks these days, because of arthritis in my left thumb and short fingers. Bizarrely I find the massive ‘51 neck (43mm nut and deep profile) quite comfortable, whereas I struggle with more modern P-bass necks. I’m not sure what the logic is in that!

The picture is the donor bitsa ‘51.

Some might call Rickies medium scale at 33”. Personally I think that is a push. Aren’t they incredibly heavy? 
 

I don’t think I am ever going to find out now, as they are just too expensive for me to take a punt on. However, over on Talk Bass quite a few people have said the Nordstrand Acinonyx channels the Rickenbacker vibe. I wouldn’t know, not ever having had a Rickenbacker but I do enjoy the Acinonyx. 

Not to diminish your experience in any way and I hope your situation improves very soon but to balance out, I just had a good experience selling a bass on Facebook Marketplace. I had the add on several groups, so I am not sure which one it was that hooked the buyer. Anyway there were some possible red flags: he lives in Spain and had me courier to a UK address (his outlaws) but he paid directly into my bank account, so I have the money and he just contacted me to say it had arrived safely and on time (unusual for Parcel Force) and to thank me. 
 

I was, however, contacted by another buyer who offered me more than the advertised price without any prompting from me. Said he was a collector of this particular bass variant (find that doubtful). Fortunately, I had already accepted the offer from my buyer (asking price), so I was able to turn him down. Maybe he was genuine but fortunately i don’t need to find out. I understand that this approach is a common start for one of the scams. Apparently it can involve PayPal and someone (not the buyer) turning up to collect it. They then raise a dispute through PayPal that they never got the item. PayPal refunds the money and you are left with a 100% loss because you can’t prove it was collected by the buyer. There is a way to get a receipt on handover through PayPal but “not a lot of people know that” and I think it requires cooperation from the collector.

38 minutes ago, Salt on your Bass? said:

Played the cart and horses, Stratford, again last night. Really like the venue and sound.

 

Bits that kept the night 'interesting' was 2 out of 3 bass cabs died during checks/ first band...really odd...and we didn't get to the bottom of it. We also had a ground loop problem during line check that was fixed through more luck than judgement I think.

 

Anyway, performed reasonably, played pretty well, everyone seemed to have fun ✌️

 

I always live in fear of cabs dying. I take a spare head but usually it’s just the one twin, or single cab depending on the venue. If the cab goes, I’m left with just a DI to front of house. Having two cabs go is really bad luck!

Good to hear the gig went well despite the technical issues!

1 hour ago, tubbybloke68 said:

Played at the cavern, new Malden, Surrey with our AC/DC tribute’BAD BOY BOOGIE’ , great laugh as usual and my ole mate Mark ( rhythm guitar) very kindly drove some of us up so it was really nice to get beered up for a change too! Worthing tonight so my turn on the wagon 😊

Two LFSys cabs! No trouble hearing yourself then I suspect. I’ve yet to gig mine. What’s your verdict on them in action?

45 minutes ago, tom1946 said:

Was mine, it's a cracking bass even as standard, if you like 32" scale, just buy it it's a great bass.

GLWTS.

Thank you. It is a nice bass and I am reluctant to part with it, so if it hangs around too long, I might just withdraw it and pull the frets to make the fretless I am after. I’ve not summoned the courage yet though, so it’s still available folks!

10 minutes ago, ped said:

This is a new one (to me at least)

 

Duesenberg Kavalier, 30.5" scale

 

About £2k though but the Triton bass they make is pretty cool sounding. Not 100% sold on the Art Deco style but I like the body shape.

 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/80823023-duesenberg-kavalier-bass-narvik-blue

 

 

What’s a 4D bridge when it’s at home? Four dimensional? Sounds a bit sci-fi but I’m struggling to think what the fourth dimension could be.

Just looking at the body shape, I get the feeling neck dive could be a problem.
 

Really not sold on the looks TBH but great to have more choice in shorties though, even if it comes at a price!

These posts are triggering me back to the Network Administration courses I did many years ago, back when Sun were a big name and Unix ruled 😱. I am so glad I moved into application development, then project management and finally technical sales for application services! 
 

Haven’t we got a little off the original topic here?

1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Paypal has a qr code that you scan if you pick up in person, proving your received it. And for a bank transfer, then it doesn't matter what they say, you have the money and they can't do anything about it (or paypal friends and family - same thing)

Interesting; so just refuse to handover until they scan the QR.

2 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

What's to stop someone meeting you in person, paying via PayPal (or Bank transfer) then still doing steps 3-5?

It seems like nothing. I guess you could get them to sign a receipt or get the handover witnessed but whether PayPal would accept that as proof…….?

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Talking of Stu Hamm you can see how he stacks up against some other bass players in this ultimate widdle-fest! For me he's nowhere near the best in this group - top 3 for me (apart from Stan) are Bunny Brunel, Billy Sheehan and Jimmy Johnson - none of whom do slappyclappy stuff...

 

Sorry, I couldn't stick it out to the end (I haven't got that much of my life left to waste) but based on the first half, they also seemed to have essentially the same idea. Now that might have been caused by the underlying theme they were jamming to but I was hoping one of them would come up with something different melodically, rather than just different versions of the same parlour tricks (harmonics, rapid percussive slapping and bending the neck mostly). BTW I'm not against this kind of music per se but it only took the keyboard player's intervention to show how little the bassist were actually developing the theme. At least with one of Eric Clapton's Crossroads line-ups the guitarists do display genuinely different approaches to soloing (well mostly, some fall flat on their faces). However, to be fair to these guys, in a genuine band performance, they would probably do one of these solos once in a whole tune and in that scenario it might sound genuinely fresh. A string of bass solos is bound to make the audience lose the will...