Count Bassy

Greetings all. I have recently aquired a Mexican Fender Urge (mk 1) (it was on E-bay from Johnny Roadhouse Music - you might have seen it). To be honest I probably paid over the odds for it, but then its a 32" scale, which is hard to find these days, so I'm not too worried about that. Generally I am very pleased with it, and will probably be on the look out for a USA one (with the P pickup as well as the two J ones) - any one got one for sale? (there was one on Ebay a few weeks earlier, but it was a long way away and the bloke wouldn't ship it, and it would have been a days round trip, etc etc). But, getting to the point at last, it does suffer from neck dive, especially with a webbing type (i.e. slippery) strap; largely due to the relatively small body on it. A leather strap does help, but it still tends to dive if I've got both hands off and jigging around a bit. I've seen postings here where someone put a bit of an extension on the top horn, but I was wondering about adding some weight to the back end. There's some space in control cavity, and I was thinking of forming a chunk of lead to put in there to adjust the balance. I even thought of hollowing out a bit of the body from inside the control cavity and filling it with something heavy. I'm a big bloke so an extra pound or so on the weight won't bother me. Has anyone tried anything like this? If so with what results. I suppose an alternative would be to replace the the machines with light weights, but how much difference would this make? I even thought about (but not for long) converting it to a 2 + 2, and lopping 3 inches off the head. Anyone got any ideas/thoughts? As a totally separate issue, how do the Mexican pickups compare with the USA ones? Would any improvement be worth the expense? opinions please! Clive.

Thanks for all your thoughts folks! I was enquiring in a music shop and the bloke said that for schallers you pulled teh release knob, but for Dunlops you pushed them. His point was that you'd be more likely to push a Dunlop by accident and release it, rather than pull a Schaller. His argument may have been swayed by the fact that he had Schallers, but not Dunlop, in his shop. Any thoughts on that point? Clive

I have a 4" wide, 1/8 " thick, length of pig skin (I believe), bought off Loughborough market circa 1975 (cut off the skin in front of me). Doubled the end up for extra strength round the holes. Suits me, and matches the "Earthy" look of the bass. Clive

No takers for Dunlop then? Clive

26 years old strings? Is that all? I built my bass in 1975, and it had Selmer flat wounds on for about 18 months, when one broke. I then went out and bought a set of rotosound medium scale round wound 'Swing bass', (mid/late 1977 I guess) and they are still on there today, so I reckon they're 30 years old. Mind, you I've got to be honest, it spent most of those thirty years in the attic, and they've only been played in anger for the first two years and the last two years. Also I bought another set of the same about 3 months ago, but haven't got round to fitting them yet. (Why would I want to do that, the current strings are just nicely run in!!) Any advance on 30? Clive

Wow, I'd only heard of Schaller and Dunlop. I'm glad I asked the question! Clive

The title and description says it all really: I'm looking to fit straplocks to my plank, which system do people recommend? Clive

Warickhunt, I just got the joke in your name and am rolling on the floor laughing my ass off (well actually I'm typing this, but you know what I mean) I hope there is an intentional joke there, else I'll look a right pratt. Clive

Ped, I'll try and get some pics, as long as you all understand that I was only 17 when I built it! I had never held a real bass at that time, so the design was was based mainly on pictures in magazines! However I'm quite proud to say that, despite some unique design features, the intonation is spot on! Clive.

Hello there. I used to be a lurker in bass world, but I don't think I even got as far as introducing myself or contributing anything, then moved to Basstalk and declared myself, now moved here due to .... Well most of us know why! I thougt I'd repost my original Basstalk introduction here: I play a medium scale bass that I built myself when I was about 17 (I'm now almost 50). That sounds like I've been playing bass for a long time, but actually the bass has spent most of the last 30 years up the attic, at least up until about 2 years ago when a band came together in the village. The band, 'Get One In", did our first pubic gig just before Christmas, which was the first time I'd actually played bass in public! Anyway it all went well, so I have re-found my enthusiam for the bass, which is why I'm here in [s]Basstalk[/s] Basschat. Actually I've always been enthusiastic about bass, but never did anything about it before now. The band is doing old rock and blues stuff, Eg: Dancing in the Moonlight, Purple Haze, Born to be wild, Wishing Well (the free one, not the other one), Superstition, and so on. I've got lots of questions to ask, but I'll put those in the appropriate forums as they arise. Gear: The above mentioned bass + a Marshall B65 combo. I see that Marshall bass amps aren't too highly rated here, but ,believe me, its a lot better than playing through my Hi-Fi, which I used to do! Regards to all Clive. -------------------- Clive Thorne