Joe Nation

Wowsers. When the only neck-carving tool you have is a planer/thicknesser...

Agreed - when someone describes a bass as "thing", it could be a hideous beast, a creepy mongrel or an absolute beauty like this one.

The 9th and 12th markers look wonky to me, hopefully just stickers and not a permanent addition. My Fender knowledge doesn't extend as far as pickup placement or decal shapes. If they are stickers, then the seller should fess up if you ask about it.

Good luck finding a photograph showing a fret that is 0.005" too tall! My physics is not flawed, you're just not understanding the different ways that wood can move under constant tension. Also, I never said it was caused by a shim, or the truss rod, or poor construction - it is caused by force applied over time, simple as that. (It can be caused by those other things too) And to reduce further internet arguments, a solid body behaves very differently to a hollow body, and the necks belonging to each behave differently as well. That's how you can have opposite solutions to the same apparent problem (it's not the same problem, it just looks and behaves the same).

Ski-jumps are a much bigger problem on hollow-bodies, because the fingerboard extension has much less support under the upper frets (where the neck isn't). As string tension pulls on the headstock, the guitar wants to fold in half right around the neck-body joint, causing the upper end of the fingerboard to effectively bend upwards. On your 1950s Martin, you'll need to take significant steps to remedy this. On solid-bodies with bolt-on necks, the problem is either the neck has bent in the same way as above, or the frets/board were dressed with the truss rod incorrectly set (ie with the neck not straight). In the latter case, you can either dress some fallaway into the upper frets or do a full fret dress with the neck straight (make sure the FINGERBOARD is straight, not the fret tops, get that notched straightedge out). If you have to shim a neck, you need to understand how much ramp or fallaway your frets have, when the neck is set with the correct relief. Depending on the truss rod location and neck shaping/stiffness, sometimes the truss rod doesn't have any effect (or much less effect) across the upper frets, so you get a flat spot at the heel followed by a curve through the main portion of the neck (as opposed to a nice uniform curve from nut right down to the second octave). In the right circumstances, when you lower your relief and action down to where they should be, the strings can contact the upper frets as they vibrate - you'll need to shim the neck forwards to lift the strings above the upper frets and give them room to swing. On that 50s Martin above, you'll likely need to reset ("shim") the neck backwards to account for the folding, then add some fallaway to the upper frets to account for the fingerboard going out of shape - so the same effective presentation requires opposite solutions.

Is the current bolt the same thread as the original? If so, you might be able to get away with just chasing the threads with a tap. *imagines a random basschatter running down the street wielding some plumbing hardware* If not, then you should be able to fill the hole with brass solder (if it's steel; possibly a blob of weld if it's aluminium) and then drill/tap it for the original thread size. Any engineering/metalwork shop should be able to do it for a small fee; I'd suggest finding a bicycle framebuilder or a custom motorbike shop as they are usually full of decent folk who like an oddball challenge.

The plural of Status is Statuses. A group of Statuses is called a reputation.

Looks like the fingerboard was taken off at some point, but they've done a rather crappy job of putting it back on. Either that or it's had some major humidity issues and the neck and fingerboard have shrunk/expanded at very different rates. Either way, it's not a good sign. I you really want to keep it, talk to the seller and get them to agree to an independent check-up - then if there's a major issue you can either fix it and get them to pay, or send it back. If you're not 100% dead set on keeping this exact guitar, send it back and find another one.

When using a brad point bit (which you should for drilling out dot markers), run it backwards for a few turns to cut through the lacquer, this should minimise chipping.

To fit a 12mm peg in a 14mm hole, you only need something 1mm thick to fill the gap. Amazon sells lengths of plastic tubing that you can easily cut down to size, brass would probably work fine too.

Don't name and shame until you've put your points across to the builder and got a response - don't let the Basschat horde persuade you otherwise. At the very least they should be given a fair and unbiased chance to right their wrongs. I'd be pushing for full repair/refinish etc, FOC including shipping. Failing that, a hefty partial refund to cover the cost of someone else doing the work (maybe get some quotes if you can). Last resort for me would be a full refund (I assume you want to keep it and they certainly don't want it back).

Well that sucks. Now you know it's there, you can see it in the earlier pics - but you'd think it was just a grain line or a scratch in the lacquer at first glance. Should be repairable, use a syringe with a blunt needle and water down some Titebond so it flows in more easily. But it's a big PITA if were hoping for a quick'n'easy headless job.

I Feel So - Boxcar Racer

IMHO, the second-worst thing about headless basses are the tuners sticking out the bottom, so this bridge looks perfect to me. Don't ask what the worst thing about headless basses is - although to be fair this is about the neatest headless hardware I've ever seen, so you might have started to change my mind on headless...

Yes, I'd recommend it to anyone. I'll get my coat...

Some people use email purely because it is the best way for them to communicate. They might have a hearing problem, anxiety about using the phone, anxiety with holding an impromptu conversation with someone, they might have poor phone service, or they simply don't have time to stop and have a ten minute conversation. I for one much prefer email over phone and have done so for each of those reasons in the past. Although I would not expressly abandon a business because they don't reply to emails, it would certainly cause me to think twice about going somewhere else. YMMV.

Shiny Happy People - REM

Anything in London doesn't count because I'm a country bumpkin.

If you glue it yourself, get a little rubber suction cup (like those ones to stick a stuffed Garfield to your car window) and go "schluck schluck schluck" up and down the glue line - this helps to suck the glue deeper in. Get plenty of glue in there, wipe off any excess then wrap an old bike inner tube around the neck as tight as you can get it to act as a clamp (use a zip-tie or a big spring clamp to hold the loose end).

That's so odd, almost looks as if the router template got broken and they bodged it with some filler.

Yesterday I got the neck pocket cut and made a pickup router template. Started off hogging out with a 35mm forstner then attacked it with a chisel, because thanks to stupid Amazon my new router bits haven't arrived yet. But then I looked in the box for my new router and found a 6mm straight cut bit - perfect! Pics to follow when I can find an alternative to imgur, but there's nothing to really see yet. I also put the tuners on the headstock - well, four of them. One of them didn't have a retaining nut and washer, but Thomann were really quick to reply to my query and are sending out a new one FOC, and they're letting me keep the wrong'un just in case. Took me a few minutes of minor freaking-out to realise that the nut threads of the left- and right-sided tuners are different - is that normal or just Sadowsky? Or maybe they were just a different batch...?

Does anyone know why two of the biggest and best bass-only shops are both in Warwickshire, and one of the biggest and best bass-only brands around is called Warwick? Does Warwick Davis play bass too?

Oh I see, I thought it was a normal-ish bridge at the end of the fingerboard. Very cool.

How will he shorten the scale length? Move the bridge? Move the nut? Cut a chunk out of the neck and stick it back on? Create a small geodesic fold in the space-time continuum and remove 25.4mm of the universe?

Nice idea, not seen that one before. That pearl looks amazing too.