Dom in Dorset

Even if you could get classical guitar strings long enough they won't work on an electric bass, the black nylon bass strings (picato etc) are steel strings with a black nylon coating.

My next home build project is a twin neck fretless/fretted and I'm going for wizard pick ups. I've heard great things about them, the prices look good and they are British (Welsh) made - you can't say that about many things these days! I'm leaning towards their P bass pick ups, it'll work out slightly cheaper for my project and I'm after big fat tones. The last time I checkked them out they were doing about three types of Jazz pick ups.

What bass do you think just looks good? You don't have to own one, or have even tried one. You don't have to like the way it plays or sounds. I'm a T bird fan so you'd expect me to go for something a bit weird but here's my choice: And the end view: I just love the simplicity of the design, the jazz bass has a beautiful body but coupled with the black headstock.... It may not have the contoured body of the usual Jazz but there is something about that shape.

I think my biggest concern re: MIM is quality control. While I'm sure there are some great MIM basses, I've seen and heard of some that weren't (mostly neck issues). Ibanez on the other hand seem to have a better record for consistency IMO. If you get to try the bass in person and you like the MIM then all's well, if you are buying "blind" by mail order then I think Ibanez are a better bet.

I like a drink, but if I'm being payed to play music I'm not being payed to get wasted (if such a job is ever advertised I will be applying) I don't make a big deal of it with other band members , it's up to them. My brain needs all the help it can get. Having said that the last gig a played was walking distance from my house and the only drink on sale was mulled apple juice.!

I'm going to edit the title!

"Musicians who don't seem to be alcoholics"- that's a good sign, I got so sick of being in bads that were tight in rehursal and sh1t live due to the presence of a bar. Personally I adopted a "don't go over the drink drive limit before or during a gig" rule and 9/10 don't drink at all until the gig is over these days.

In theory the P/J pick up combo sounds like a great idea. I've tried two, a pretty limited sample and I'm interested to hear other peoples opinions. Dean active - the weadiest output , I had to double check that it was active, checked the battery (new). Stagg fusion bass- not great either, but then it's a £150 bass. Niether seemed to have much oomph or useable range of tones. Both were blown away by a second hand Encore P bass My impression is that (to sort of quote the Mighty Boosh) "elements of the P bass coming together with elements of the Jazz to create something not quite as good as either" Or were they just bad examples?

I've not tried either but I've been impressed with all things Ibanez and not impressed with all things Mexican. I'm not sure if the Ibanez is going to be the sort of tone you are describing. I'd go for a quality (IMO passive) Jazz style bass (or anything with jazz pick ups) or I know it's cheaper than you were planning but Squire Jazz basses seem to be well respected.

It looks like the G string is falling off the side of the neck! I'd have said that the pick ups aren't original but the neck one does look like it's always been there. One of the best basses I ever had was a tatty no-name jazz.

[quote name='crez5150' post='689654' date='Dec 20 2009, 12:14 PM']Or just don't look at your hands ;0)[/quote] I had tried not to but I think that it's hard to avoid it until you are forced to.

I made myself an acoustic fretless about three months ago and I've been taking it along with my fretted to rehursals since then. I've been using it on about 50% of the songs, either due to confidence , required sound or I prefer fretted if I'm singing. A few weeks back I was asked to join a second band replacing an upright player. I jumped at the chance to get some extra time on the fretless only taking that one to rehursals. We did our first gig last night and to my horror I noticed that under dim stage lighting the black lines where the frets used to be on the dark brown board become invisible! I had good on stage sound and I'd learned the set inside out so It didn't turn out to be a problem, but it was unsettling for a moment. A word of advice: if you are about to play your first gig on fretless make sure that you run through the set in a dark room!

The only problem that I can think of is that you may find that you are little too quiet and mellow when played unplugged. If you're using the bass plugged in then it's probably fine , I've got black nylon flats on my acoustic fretless, unplugged- dull and quiet, plugged -cavernous.

[quote name='TRadford' post='687654' date='Dec 17 2009, 07:32 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=70931"]£30 collected, not far from you.[/url][/quote] "Not bad at all & AMAZING value for money." -popped up in the next post. Only idle curiosity on my part, i'll not be snapping it up.

I'd love to know what these are like: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOHNNY-BROOK-JAZZ-BASS-GUITAR-BLACK_W0QQitemZ320419273106QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4a9a7a1992"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOHNNY-BROOK-JAZZ-BA...=item4a9a7a1992[/url] if I £70 to spare i'd get one just to see.

I've not seen The Return of (unforgavable for a Tap Head) in the original film I believe it's a BC Rich, he's now on Laklands

i see what you mean about the tangs. Looks like it's rosewood then, de-fretted and filled.

That's the one: looks like rosewood.

I'm happy to de-fret anf finish the board myself. I've done this before. I was thinking this time that I'd like to file the frets back leaving the tangs as markers, i've seen this done and it looked nice. The nickel dust would get ingrained in the maple and look nasty, so it may well be rosewood. I wish I could remember whos bass it was with the "stoned to the tangs fets", it was posted here a couple of months back, I can't remember waht the board was.

Both necks will be fretted, one will be de-fretted. I can't find fretless necks off the peg without spending hundreds.

The reason why I'm limited to maple or rosewood is because i'm buying two off the peg necks and that's what's available in my price range! The price is even more of an issue as i have to buy two of every thing. Pictures will be posted as soon as there is anything to see.

i'm not too concerned about ware to the board, I'l almost certainly be using black nylon flats, I'd have thought that the nylon would ware out before any damage was done to the board itself. My main concern is the effect on tone and response.

what pick up regime does your Overwater have?

I'm tempted to go with maple + nylons for the bright tone, I can always take the trebble of if it's too much? I'm going for P bass type pick ups, I think if I was using Jazz pick ups then rosewood might be the better choice. Maple is also slightly cheaper!

I am limited to maple or rosewood, as for strings , I'm using Picato Black Nylons on my acoustic and I'll probably use them on the fretless neck.