henry norton

I think Yuri's right. My bass is set up about the same as yours @ricobasso with around 2mm relief under the E and 1 under the G. I use it mainly for pizz but with a bit of arco - it's strung with Spirocores at the moment and it works fine for both. The rule of thumb used to be about the thickness of the string in relief but that always seemed excessive to me. Talking about your EUB Gollihur (as mentioned by @Silvia Bluejay) has an interesting article on making NS uprights sound more like a 'proper' double bass. He doesn't mention carving relief into the fingerboard.

You'd be surprised at how many people would want to have a project like this. Gear 4 Music often sell off their broken returns on everybody's favorite auction site and they always seem to ask fairly decent money for them. It looks like a ply bass so most luthiers wouldn't be that interested but the upside is it can be repaired with normal white wood glue and some G clamps. Better than giving it away, or burning it...

[quote name='James Nada' timestamp='1499362662' post='3331060'] Apologies for the hijack. I've though of doing this myself but couldn't quite figure out the best way to do it. Do you have any pics or a link of a modified one? Cheers [/quote]I'll work something out......

[quote name='Chopthebass' timestamp='1499366044' post='3331108'] Nice job! [/quote] Thanks

All done other than some intonation and truss rod adjustment (and in keeping with the slightly neglected finish I may well neglect the set up aspect too). It plays nicely - definitely feels 'bigger' than a 34" scale 5, but not uncomfortably. The B has a very nice tension to it too courtesy of the extra inch. Pleased with the sound too. I won't bore anyone with set up pictures but here's a photo of the finished article. Onto the next job now....

Thanks for the knob related feedback (cue joke...). It's finished now and I am going to keep it hanging on the wall in my bedroom for a while so I can ponder over any changes I might want to make. I damaged the neck pickup during some over zealous 'relicing' so it's only working on the bridge til I can get my soldering iron warmed up. Otherwise it's done so I'll post some finished pics when I've got some spare daylight time, along with some gloating comments about how little it cost me

The Warwick bridge seemed quite cheap in comparison to some of the others on their website - the Hipshot stuff was proper pricey!!! Bear in mind quite a few 8 and 12 string basses just used standard or slightly modded 4 string bridges. The Schaller bridge is probably the best though. [quote name='MemphisStone' timestamp='1498508742' post='3325160'] ... do I need special pickups or can I just use standard 4-string versions? [/quote] NO - just use normal 4 string pickups.

Sounds excellent Pete. The Schaller bridge is good because you can adjust the intonation of each string - useful if you play past the 8th fret. If not you could modify a bog standard BBOT (Bent Bit Of Tin Fender bridge) to accommodate 8 strings. All you need is a drill and a file

Following on from BassAgent's question about the chrome knobs I've done a quick comparison using the 2 black plastic knobs from my Bass VI. Not sure if I like the 'authentic' knobs enough to shell out some more cash for them or whether the chrome knobs fit better with the hot-rodded look. Opinions welcome... Either way it's nearly done now. I've cut the nut and put it all together, just needing string trees now. I'll post some pics when they're in place.

Thanks for the comments. [quote name='BassAgent' timestamp='1498213929' post='3323149'] ...Why the chrome knobs? [/quote] I'm glad you asked that, I've been looking at it and wondering about the control plate. The chrome knobs came on the cheapo plate I bought for it when I first started the build. The original idea was to make as much as I could from materials and hardware I already had lying around - the control plate and the bridge were the only significant parts I had to buy and for some reason I ended up with chrome knobs (I don't know why). The main point of this build was to do it for little or no extra outlay but I'm thinking it may be worth shelling out a bit of cash for some black plastic ones. I'm getting there now and have spent my largest individual outlay on it - £21 on a set of strings !!! I'll post some pictures up soon.

Started on the flatting and polishing so things are really starting to take shape. Just loosely put together for now so I can see some progress. Being a lazy git I decided on a mildly worn look, obtained by flatting back with 2000 grit paper followed by semi-buffing using watered down ultra cut rubbing compound. Quite pleased with it so far.

I'd just go for putting the screws back in (or shorter versions). Anything else would look obvious and possibly a bit weird. Considering it's only 10 - 15 quid for a new pick guard you don't want to spend much on an alternative solution.

That looks pretty good - how are you polishing it???

Thanks Andy, looking forward to getting it all together now. Really excited about having a Fiesta Red Jazz

Three and a half years - almost a record???? Anyway, after some rather worrying health issues with my kids and job changes I'm now finishing off my Jazz build. Fiesta Red with a clear coat over the top - still not sure whether It'll be reliced or super-shiny. I expect it'll depend on how lazy I'm feeling on the day but a very mild relic is what's on my mind right now

You all know that the balalaika is Russian don't you?????

He certainly made a difference to my musical life

By the looks of the white edging it's probably a laminate, in which case steam will probably do more harm than good. A ding like that can be filled with a shellac stick or wax filler as used by furniture restorers, but in all honesty, it doesn't look so bad to me - better a honest scratch than an obvious repair...

[quote name='JimmySims' timestamp='1405282255' post='2500470'] Can anyone help me, I've got a set of strings that came off an old bass I recently bought. The ball end has red silk then black silk. at the head end, the E has red, the A has blue, the D has black and the G has gold/yellow. Any clues? Jimmy Sims [/quote] Corelli Tungstens

Yeah nice. It always astonishes me how now nice sounding, valuable uprights were once thought of as old clunkers ripe for abuse. Hammerite of all things!!!!

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1391949806' post='2362862'] This morning I've been playing around with different headstock shapes on paper. I'm constrained by having large Schaller BM tuners which I want to keep, so they can't be too close together. After a couple of abandoned efforts, I realised that the lines of the Stingray 5 headstock are more elegant than anything else I could come up with to fit these tuners. So I've ended up with more or less a straight rip-off of the MM headstock, but with the little point at the tip rounded off, as I don't feel it compliments this body. I also realised that I can't draw a smooth curve to save myself, and I should have paid more attention to technical drawing in school! [/quote] It's different enough - you're fairly limited when it comes to 4+1 headstocks anyway. If I can offer some unsolicited advice it would be to draw out your headstock sketches with the tuners drawn on too (not just the string posts) - it'll give you a much clearer picture of what it'll be like when it's all together. Looking forward to some more instalments

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1389789797' post='2337874'] I've always been a fan of the large semi-hollow basses and guitars, such as the Gibson E335 shape/etc, and I've recently been craving a very thuddy 'upright-meets-bass-guitar' type tone from a bass with a fat neck pickup strung with flats. I've been looking at new Gibson basses [/quote] Just be aware a big factor in the original Gibson EB-2's thuddy tone was the short scale. The mudbucker at the neck will give you a bassy, wooly sound but the thud is very much a product of the scale length. The new EB-2 / 335 Gibson bass is a long (34") scale so won't sound quite the same as the originals do. The Starbass is also long scale and it's pickups are too bright and too far forward for that EB thump. So far as cellulose finishes go, Gibson have been doing it for more than half a century so they're pretty good at it Cellulose is a harder finish than most water based finishes you see on cars and it looks nicer when it eventually does start to wear out. Don't worry about it.

I would suggest having some adjusters fitted. You sound like you're not too sure about the action - a new bridge plus fitting will cost allot more than having a pair of aluminium adjusters fitted so it'll be a big old waste of money if you have a higher bridge fitted and decide it's too high. Your action's not ridiculously low but it does depend on the type of strings you're using and how hard you play. Regarding hearts, it depends on the profile of the top of the bridge - if the heart ends up too close to the top it can weaken the bridge, but it has to be pretty close. The grain and figure in the bridge won't necessarily have a positive effect on the sound and your db will benefit more from a better luthier than a 'better' bridge.