Dom in Dorset

gorgeous! How is it for neck five? (sorry to drop a potential negative in here)

I'm glueing bits of the upper horn into the control cavity, I'm going to re-rout it to take a tele style metal plate. I'm also trying a cut down precision scratchplate.

The neck is pretty shoddy! It looked cheap and nasty.The fretboard was coming away and it had a nasty kink towards the nut. I've glued it together and managed to adjust the truss by putting a nail through the holes and turning it with mole grips! It was massively bent and stiff (ooh er!) but I think it will survive. I buffed the headstock today, it's looking like a seriously worn relic.

Ok, it's moved on a bit, I still need to re-rout the neck pocket and get sanding before I get the spray paint out: Incidentally, this is the junk bass I bought as a donor for neck: after removing the neck it became obvious that the body was in fact made from wood and not ply as I had assumed. A bit of stripping revealed this: So I may have two bases to make.

It will have a regular modern P pickup, the one that came in the junk bass seems to be really good, nice powerful output and a surprisingly wide range of tones. I have no idea what it is but it has white casing. Talking of the junk bass, more on that soon, I bought it for the neck and hardware but the body turned out to be better than I thought...

A previous owner of the body added a control cover to the back, I presume so that they didn't need to remove the scratch plate to access the electronics. I have the plate , I may keep it or cover the hole permanently.

I bought a junk bass on ebay as a donor , the neck needs some attention , someone really didn't want me to know who made it because they chiseled of the trade mark! As it's going to be a bit of a relic I can live with it. Tomorrow I'll take it to work and give the lower horn and headstock a trim.

Looks like sapele to me (I think it's a relative of mahogany)

For a thousand mothers -from the Stand Up album.

Probably my favorite player, sad news indeed.

So extreme heat treatment of a wooden neck doesn't turn it into graphite?

Isn't graphite just a form of carbon?

It probably was a bit thin , it's no longer possible to say exactly how thin ....

I seem to spend a lot of time depping for a country band and fancy some sort of (at least cosmetically) telecaster bass. As usual I'm on a tight budget and so I'm using uo a few bit's I already had: A Precision body I bought on Ebay while drunk a few months ago, I used my Squier tele as a template and I'm reducing the thickness a bit to take out some of the contouring and make it more slab like. It will eventually be given a distressed blue finish.

Thanks, I'll get some regular maple soon. Anything to look out for in a truss rod?

I'm starting a new project soon and may attempt to make the neck myself. I did this once before and found the result hopelessly unstable. The possible reasons : I used a cheap truss rod. - any recommendations? I used birdseye maple - is that ok for necks? I still have some but should I get some good straight grained stuff instead? I thinned it too much - I'll be paying much closer attention to my fender neck this time.

maybe...

A definite possible maybe, it bit out of my way but I may come if I'm at a loose end.

Thank you, I'll start a diary as soon as I have enough materials and parts.

How thick is the body? At the center and the wings, Epi or Gibson. I had an Epi a few years ago but sold it to fund my Jazz bass, I'm thinking of building my own tribute.

My background is heavy rock/ folk rock/psychedelia/prog.... I've ended up depping fairly regularly for a country band....I found country fairly easy to grasp, generally there are no hidden depths melodically, everything is bang on the beat , the main thing I get out of it is working closely and tightly with drummer and rhythm guitarist - a joy when it really clicks and starts to chug along by it'self. After a gig last week I was asked if I'd play bass in a reggae band for a one of charity gig next month, I just can't say no!!! I'm loving it, complete opposite to country , everything off or on or around the beat, more hidden depths than er a secret coal mine (I'll work on that simile) I'm learning a few Jimmy Cliff songs a few old ska numbers and of course some Bob Marley. The bass in the Marley songs is interesting, rhythmically and melodically it sneaks past me at every turn. I don't think I've managed to anticipate anything he does so far. Oh well , three weeks to go... Aston "Family Man Barrett" I salute you.

A lot of locals make a lot of money (camping/glamping/hotels/selling cider/ a friend of mine rented her house out for the weekend for a four figure sum) Most of Pilton is off limits to festival goers, every house along the road through it has 24 hour security outside. If I remember rightly most of the objections came from one person who has long since gone.

The Festival is (mostly) popular with the locals, it skips a year every 4-5 years.

Got back late last night, I had a gig that clashed with Blondie . Saw Metallica , I've never considered myself a fan but was blown away by them, they are pretty damn intense! (and loud) I didn't have any reason to suspect that Dolly's singing was mimed, the sax that she was holding looked like a soprano but the sound you heard was an alto! Stuff that may not have been on TV that impressed me Rev Payton's Big Damn Band - Slide guitar , drums and washboard! It shouldn't work but really does. The Dodge Brothers -Film critic Mark Kermode on double bass (great player) rockabilly band , I saw them with one of his old school friends , introduced after the show. Brushy One String - one string guitarist, I wanted to see him but his gig was cancelled , not sure why.

After a while you'll find yourself doing more complex bass lines or or playing with the timing of the lyrics without thinking about it. It just becomes routine.