Chopthebass

1 hour ago, owen said:

Nononono.

Message me! And once I have sold this one message him

Sorry about that. I got a notification and responded without realizing it was a market place thread.

1 hour ago, owen said:

Nononono.

Message me! And once I have sold this one message him

Oh yes, goes without saying!!

9 hours ago, Angel said:

That is fascinating ...... and tempting!

I'll have to give this some serious thought if someone doesn't snap it up. 

Message me if you want one of my headphone amps

I have one and it is amazing for the money. Two pups and piezo. Doesn't get much better. Super low action.

13 hours ago, HazBeen said:

Question @Jabba_the_gut, @Chopthebass, @Andyjr1515 and anyone else who might know. My original plan was to do a CA glue coated fretboard (fretless). But since I use flats (Cobalt Flats or Infelds) on my fretless basses anyway could I choose to keep uncoated do you reckon? Or just a single coat of CA to fill the grain and then sanded. As far as I am aware Wenge is a little softer than Rosewood so am wondering if you would consider it or not if you were doing a wenge fretboard fretless.

I’ve only ever done ebony and rosewood fretless, but wenge is still pretty hard so should work well. I agree it is grainier so I would probably use grain filler and tru oil. That oil is polymerized so is pretty hard. 

1 hour ago, GarethFlatlands said:

Post #1 and you're at the same point I'm at, having been at my build since February 😄

Looks fantastic!

It’s quick once you have templates! What are you building?

I found a nice 2 piece body blank in my workshop that I totally forgot about! 
so decided to make myself a 24 fret five string. I’m kinda modelling the look after an Ibanez Adam Nitti 5 string, red with maple neck and black blocks. 
I cut the body and made all routs. Applied sealer and grain filler. Red pigment was added to the clear coat and I finally got the red I wanted. Now shooting clear coats. 
 

It’s looking really good

No truss rod! Looks great

31 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

 

You have a very preceptive eye, sir...Based on the Jaydee GA24.

I bet it balances well. 

3 hours ago, Baxlin said:

Thanks CtB, as you see from my avatar pic, I’m into kit cars, but at the other end of the scale to the Cobra, mine’s a 3 wheeler tribute to the sporting 3 wheeler of the 1930s, powered by a Honda CX500 V-twin bike engine, and designed by John Ziemba at JZR in Lancs, UK.

(sorry for the mini hijack of thread)

No worries about hijacking! Your car looks like a lot of fun. It probably weighs nothing, so a 500cc engine I imaging pulls fine. Just worked out my engine is 14 times the size of yours! Jeez. Good job gas prices are cheaper here!

3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Has similarities to my own headless custom

 

Nice! Reminds me of Jaydee.

4 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

Love the workmanship, but is that a flame coming out of the neck in the 5th picture?

Also, did you build what I assume is a fake snake? (Apologies if it’s the real thing!!)

Ha ha! I threw on a mix of strings and the D is a rotosound. And your right, the red wrap and reflection looks like a flame. 
this was a good exercise because the rotosound is the only string that sounds good. Much higher output and more tone than the other 4. 
 

yup it’s a Cobra replica from Factory Five in the states. They make the best most authentic replica. I did one in the UK using the Dax kit from Harlow. This one however is less of a kit! Body chassis windshield and a few other parts. Transport Canada have restrictions about what can be imported. Got there in the end!

I haven’t got to putting strap buttons on it yet! It weight 8.4 pounds. It should balance perfectly. I’ll find out shortly! 
I haven’t recorded how much I spent but I can tell you the big ticket items are ETS and East. Pickups were reasonable. 

As requested by Spondonbassed here are some pics of the bass that appeared in the background of the ‘83 Élite I’m building. 
 

specs are

body-ash, zebrano, black walnut. black sycamore. And maple top.

neck- flame maple, black walnut , plain maple

birdseye bound fingerboard, 35”, abalone dots

Bass Culture DC5 pickups

East Uni Pre with mini toggle for each pickup (series, split, parallel)

ETS headless hardware. 

13 hours ago, 4000 said:

I’m not sure about later Warwicks, but I know Martin Petersen has said a problem with the earlier basses is the truss rod is too near to the back of the neck. If that’s the case I’d be wary about slimming it down, 

Agreed. I only assumed it is flush with the underside of the board. If they buried it deeper, then its a bit risky.

A lot of 2-way truss rods are about 10-11mm tall and 6mm wide. Assuming your neck is on the chunkier side at 23mm @ first fret, I would assume fingerboard is 6mm at center, plus truss rod = 17mm. Leaves about 6mm of meat. I wouldn't take more than 2mm.

19 hours ago, funkle said:

I’ve done a lot of measuring. And checking of a lot of different photos of dual P basses. Pickup placement varies hugely between different makers, models, etc. 

I’m keeping the standard P placement and orientation in mine. The EA coil in standard placement is very close to the front Jazz bass pickup placement. I just don’t feel a reversed P at the standard location sounds quite the same as a the standard layout.

The Precision Elite has the DG coil right next to the bridge, just about. Many people sticking in a second pickup get the pickup closer to the neck than that - EA coil lined up just about where the 60s Jazz Bass rear coil sits - almost. So the line between the split coils ends up sitting on the centerline of the 70s Jazz Bass coils.

Probably easier to draw than explain in words. But the original Elites suffered another drawback - or benefit, depending on your point of view - the preamp was very trebly. So the rear pickup could really get a lot of ‘plink’ on the DG strings with the coil so bear the bridge.

 

Yup I know exactly what you mean. Maybe reversing the bridge pickup would have less plink. I think I’ve seen BC Rich do that. But this is what my buddy wants. Maybe he likes plink! Is that even a word 😆

7 minutes ago, funkle said:

This is a real beauty. Your work is a real pleasure to see. Can’t wait to see more pics! And sound clips....

I’m planning to make a dual pickup P, but modify an old MIM to do it. Get the bridge pickup centred around a 70’s Jazz pickup line, so it will end up just a little closer overall to the neck than this recreation, I think? Same pickup orientation as here though.......But a hotter wound pickup at the bridge with less highs, to get less ‘plink’, hopefully. Can’t quite face reversing the bridge P pickup...I want to leave the neck P as non-reversed....

If this re-creation was my bass I would reverse the pickup orientation at both locations. I'm not totally sure if the 70's jazz location will put your pickup any closer to the neck. There are probably jazz bass experts here who know more than me! You'll need to make a custom pickguard if the neck pickup is different location to stock. All good fun though!

40 minutes ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

That really is lovely. The quality of the routing that really shows the quality of the build. I like to see things being done well even though they will be hidden in the final assembly. The neck pickup route on this is just such an example - many builders will just route a big hole for the pickup to go in, not a nice tidy job like this. Proper craftmanship. 

Thanks JTG. I do get a lot of satisfaction making sure hidden stuff is neat.

Body lacquer finished. I did a couple of tinted coats to get to a suitable amber colour. 
Same for neck. My buddy didn’t want the flames super accentuated, else I would have stained dark and sanded back. 

I just put Bartolini B-Axis pickups and an East Uni Pre in my Mayones bass. What an improvement over the Delano's!

I have EMG JAX in another bass and thought these were nice until I heard the Barts! Recommended.

I started making a 19.75” scale mini bass. It has built in headphone amp similar to Mayones. Biggest difference mine is 5 string

29 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Have you posted a topic for the headless bass in the background?  That looks interesting too.

Not yet. Wasn’t planning too as it is a prototype idea.

Neck lacquered ready for fretting. Body sealed and grain filled. I’ll start spraying that tomorrow.