Dom in Dorset

I hope to get her wired up tonight, I don't have my amp at home so I won't be able to do any testing until Wednesday morning.... when I will meet up with two of my doubters! I'll either be vindicated or humiliated! If all goes well I'll take it to rehearsal on Wednesday night, it's a pitty it won't fit in my Fender case, I can't wait to see their faces when i produce this masterpiece.

Going to see Ian Anderson do thw whole thing in Bristol, can't wait.

Ok, here's the reasons why: I'm looking for the perfect fretless (for me) I suspect that it's going to be a Jazz. I'd like to spend a bit of time with one , rehearse with it etc to be certain. I don't have much cash , so, if I borrow the fretless neck of my twin, put on a pair of pickups that I found for £10 on ebay , make my own bridge and... use a grotty old bit of plywood for the body I can make a test bed bass for (so far) £25 (including a wiring loom , also from ebay) The idea of reversing the body came from playing in a pit band sitting down, I didn't find the Jazz that comfortable , but if I flipped the bass over it sat in just the right place for my hand to fall into my preferred playing position. Also when standing I can flop may fore arm over the back end Entwistle style , I used to have and Epi Tbird and found that very comfortable. The idea is to refine the design and up-grade parts as required. I may make some radical changes and end up with something completely different, but this is where I'm starting. Everyone I've told about this has said , for one reason or another "It'll never work"- well lets see. I hope to get her going in time for a rehearsal on Wednesday. I've been harboring romantic notions of finding a piece of driftwood on a Cornish beach at dawn to make the body. I did find a picture of Dusty Hill with a "Reverse Jazz", so nothing new really. Fretted Jazz .....Fretless Zzaj Exotic tonewood... Built for posing.

[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1330867000' post='1563956'] The one in the shine. By any chance is the barrel touching any of the pots in the cavity?? I think as well if the two earth wires are around the wrong was it will cause battery drain if the body of the socket touches any shielding. [/quote] I'll open her up later and look, I don't think there's any contact with the pots but I didn't know that shielding could be an issue. I'll check it later, thanks.

BTW do you like it up the front or round the side? I'm a side man by nature but I go front for my Jazz.

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1330866547' post='1563948'] Well they are very fine Eggshell Blue Farrow & Ball paint by any chance? A [/quote] Could well be, we got the table from a harp maker who was very particular about that sort of thing. On topic- I've checked the socket that I bought to replace the one on the juice draining Shine and it's like the barrel jack in your original post.

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1330866190' post='1563938'] OIC. You mean if you leave the socket* in question in the bass. In which case I concur A Since sockets are female Im not suprised [/quote] It's never a good idea to leave your thing in overnight, or leave your active bass plugged in.

I hosted that image on facebook and oddly enough a guitar maker has posted a comment... on the dovetail joints in the draw in the background!

It should switch off when you pull your thing out. My other actives do so.

Shine active 5 string. Ironically, the battery drains if left in and I may try replacing the socket (with a conventional nut one) PS it's not got a fretless ebony board and I might be selling it soon.

I can do it but it only really works once I've learned the bass line and the lyric of by heart. The slightest moment of doubt and the whole thing falls apart. It also comes down to practice, the more you do it the easier it gets. There is something so satisfying about singing while playing bass, it's well worth pursuing. In my band three of us share out the vocals, I pity those that stand and strum.

In my line of work I mainly use tight grained , dense timber (boxwood, African Blackwood, ebony and several indigenous fruit woods) you can work that stuff like metal or plastic. You luthier might be able to achieve what you are after in elm (I'm a metal worker that's learned wood turning) but my experience of courser timbers would suggest otherwise. It's still worth running the idea by him, it might be possible to rout out the internal cavity, glue the pickups in before reducing the thickness from the outside.

Welcome from the land of The Wurzels ( I'm from Brum originally so I'll clain Black Sabbath as my ancestral bass influence)

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1330211291' post='1554273'] OK. I seem to have sourced some wood, but just trying to get some measurements together. What I fancy doing it cutting the pickup cover from the wood of the body so that the grain will be kind of unbroken. I would route the inside of the extracted block to make a housing. Obviously I use the words "I" here in a non-literal sense. I am thinking of having a mahoosive 2 x J + 1 x P pick up set in one housing so that it is all a kind of pretty large ramp set up. How difficult would it be to cut the wood out to do this? I am thinking of going neck through which will mean that I can dig out bits of the back without worrying about getting it super tidy on the back of the instrument. I cannot see how I could lift wood out of the front, but I see basses with pick-up covers which are obviously continuations of the body wood. Is this just exotic top stuff that is easier to do or could I do it with a solid piece of wood. It might be possible but, as I have already mentioned, I am a woodworking numpty and cannot see how it would work. [/quote] Your idea for the pick up cover (if I understand you correctly) quadruples the difficulties and skill level required. I can't think how you'd extract a block of wood in a condition that it could still be presentable/usable . Elm is also a very grainy , I wouldn't fancy working down to less than 7-8mm in thickness and there is a serious risk of it distorting after it's been shaped. It might be possible to get some elm veneer?

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1330195805' post='1554094'] Well.... those that own them rate them... [/quote] And many people own them. (but not me!)

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1330189740' post='1553957'] I've got a lefty 2008 Indonesian made Squier PJ.In terms of build quality,finish and playability I can't fault it,and I have used it in preference to my 78 Fender P,as it's a lot lighter.And black.The pickups are the weak spot,slot in some aftermarket pickups and in my opinion you'll have a very good bass. [/quote] I think that's the Affinity Series, I tried one and yes, fit and finish great but the tone was best described as muddy. I've got budget (£15) P bass pickups in my twin neck and the tone is infinitely better. (I tried the Squire next to a Westfiled P and that also had a better sound. I don't think you need to spend big bucks to improve an Affinity.

The result of an unholy union between a Bongo and a Warwick, so malformed they keep it locked in the attic.

I don't buy into most the "wood effects tone" stuff but I do think maple necks give a bass some zing. It's more likely(IMO) that the effects are quite subtle but that mahagany and maple are at oposite ends of a fairly narrow spectrum.

I think mine was all mahogany and the sound (acoustically) was a bit dull, the new ones have a maple neck.

Unless it's a tbird pro the epi is a bolt on.

I had to drive back from Bedford (?) a few years back late at night in thick fog. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face. At one point I stopped to take a leak and as I stood at the side of the road in what I thought was the middle of nowhere my eyes started to adjust... I was peeing on the base of Silbury Hill.

I had always assumed that it was only available as salvaged floor boards since Dutch Elm Disease. I did a google search for "elm timber" and found a few results, mainly in Scottland. It seams that there are a few places that still have mature elms, as soon as the disease is spotted they are felled. Our old house had elm floors in some rooms (oak was reserved for ship building at several times in the past) it is realy beautiful.

These: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJYxxs37_PA&feature=related

Fretless jazz. I'm thinking of spending more time on fretless (I already have three!) but a jazz might be "the one" I have a few things to sort out then a GAS fund sale is on the cards.

A thunderbird with angled jazz pickups is almost too cool.