Dom in Dorset

"There will be full backline and drum kit, just bring guitars and breakables"

They had to fire him for drinking Dale's breakfast beers. Rober E Dook plays guitar. Sorry "geetaw".

Dale Dook, front man and bass player with The Dooks (Buzzard County's 3rd best country music act) who happens to bear a striking resemblance to myself. That's his brother Curly on Drums.

I have rehearsed and gigged with the bass now, in fact I'm using it for a lunchtime gig tomorrow. So far I've replaced the pickup, it was originally an Entwistle but I tried a generic one that I got from AxesRus a few years ago that I liked due to it's big dynamic range. It's a bit clearer than the Entwistle too. It cut's through nicely without being too loud, great in the folk rock band I'm with tomorrow but not big enough for the country rock trio that I also play in. I've replaced the strap buttons with piano frame bolts (they hold the frame to the case) , this extends the position of the strap and improves balance. I can't stand those piddly little screws! There is no way these bad boys are working loose.

Fender on my fretless every time. I like the feel , tension, tone and price. They have a slight texture rather than being perfectly smooth. The gauge is not too fat (58-110) compared to Rotosound (65-115) so setting the bass up for them isn't too much of a faff. Under £30 a set and they last for ages ,I don't use my fretless much these days but the same strings have been on it for at least five years. Weirdly enough I've hated all other Fender strings that I've tried.

Last year my girlfriend gave me a rather fetching pair of tiger skin pants as a joke present. I play guitar in a glam punk band and wear a tiger skin suit. She dared me to wear them for a gig, not being able to resist a challenge I went for it. I'd also taken to running to keep fit and the thought of my impending exposure made me keep to my exercise regime in order to look my best. At the gig I played most of the set fully clothed and when the singer and I left the stage to change for the encore I stripped to my underpants and walked back on stage to shocked gasps (and some laughter) from the audience. The encore was only two songs but when almost naked it did seem to last an eternity and once I'd smashed my guitar (it's a special one that I can smash and rebuild) I felt very exposed. I can't say I would do it again but it's certainly something I can tell the grandchildren.

Ready for sea trials! I still need a jack plate and strap buttons but I couldn't resist posting some pictures, I'm really pleased with the look and feel of it. I'm going to play it for a while and see what refinements are required.

If you photoshopped a bass into the picture I would have believed you. 😁

My oiled body.

NMN5UKP4U

Er?

Clamp , clamping, clamped. The face is now trimmed to fit and the neck pocket routed. Next comes sanding and finishing the sides and neck before final assembly. The F holes look a bit out of line (further from the bottom edge than the top) it looked worse in the picture than it real life but I have since trimmed the body a bit more to rectify it.

I built something similar a few years ago and would also advise you to put the bridge as far back as you can. The body I used was a cheap p bass modified by removing the upper horn and reducing the thickness to make it more slab like. The wood is quite light and due to the loss of the upper horn the neck dive was serious. I eventually solved it by adding a strap button extension and fixing the other button further along the body. As for pickup regimes , I tried just about everything , including a three pickup monstrosity before going back to a plain old P (Entwistle neodymium) . The hole left by the bridge pickup is now filled by a bit of wood held in place by two gert big wood screws. That old door was made of some nice wood , looking forward to the finished product.

Can't remember the last time I saw this, here or in a pub.

F holes.

Joanna is complete apart from a new nut and a bit of fret levelling, it's been a useful test bed and is shaping up to be a good bass. I had a spare neck and pretty much all the hardware sitting around so it's used up a few spare parts.

More progress (and another side project) The original T800 body was largely made by routing out a solid body, a face will be added later to close the chamber. This is the next generation where the central layer of the body is made up of edge pieces that form the hollow chamber. Glueing/clamping: The next generation body above will probably end up as one of those things with six skinny strings. Meanwhile the T800 marches on.... Back of the now profiled neck showing original veneer on the back of the headstock and heel: Trial assembly. I've put it together so I can try out different pickup regimes before making the front.

There are a lot of beautiful native timbers out there but they just aren't available commercially. Apple, pear, plum, damson , also quite a few garden trees such as laburnum. I used to make blowy instruments out of some of them in a former life.

Yes it's oak. Most pianos are poplar with various veneers, I had a panel from one that was oak with veneer , it will make about 8 fretboards. Bryan May used oak so I'm in good company.

I did some fretting in the garden today... Fretting in progress Frets in but untrimmed. (and for some reason this is underlined) All trimmed and cleaned up.

The P bass will be called Joanna (I want to keep the tele and that name has certain associations for me!)

PM me.

More pics... trial fitting of the machine heads, I've also oiled the poplar wood on the face of the headstock with linseed and it's given it pleasing colour. Headstock from the back, I'll keep the veneer on this bit . In order to test out a few tools , techniques, ideas, etc and use up a few spare parts and end up with an interesting bitsa I'm also working on this: Bitsa body with contours and staining on the carved areas to blend withe the veneer. T800 neck with dots made from ebony from the black keys.

Most people think that's a French horn on "Overture" but we know otherwise...

I like the song even more now I know that the first line of the second verse is "I didn't believe she was devil's sperm "