Joe Nation

You made the right choice, although the gold looks pretty cool too.

See also champ, colcannon, bubble and squeak, and about a hundred other things probably - mostly from cold/wet/inhospitable places no doubt.

To be fair, you could put cooked spaghetti in there and it'll still be one of the nicest looking basses around (except it probably wouldn't play as nice).

It still amazes me that some people claim you don't even need a truss rod if the neck is stiff enough!

Actually I just really like the neck, can I buy just the neck?

That is cool, but the solid-body Sahara is even cooler: https://lindoguitars.com/product/lindo-sahara-electric-bass-guitar/

21 hours ago, Basvarken said:

Two carbon strips and just one truss rod would not be enough to withstand the string pull.
You really need two truss rods and one carbon strip to compensate the enormous pull of the 12 strings.

I would've thought carbon is stiffer/stronger than steel or ti (hence why we use carbon for F1 cars, space shuttles etc). But I will defer to your expertise.

Earth, Wind and Wire...

Just discovered this one, was following along with baited breath waiting for the finished article, but the photos stopped working on page 7! Argh!

Loving your work. Is there any specific benefit from having two truss rods, as opposed to one truss rod and two carbon strips? Do you need the ability to fine-tune relief on the bass and treble sides independently because of the string tension?

Depending on how thick the wrap is, I would expect it to show some surface imperfections underneath - probably not swirl marks or orange peel, but any scratch deep enough to feel with your fingers. Ideally you'll want the paint to be as close to perfect as you can get, as if it were the actual finish - but OTOH I've never done a wrap myself except really basic hobbycraft-type stuff, proper professional-grade materials might cover better.

The key to a good finish, as always, is good prep.

The hardest part of a concern like this is finding your USP (unique selling point). Why should anyone buy one of your things instead of someone else's thing? G4M or Harley Benson are cheaper and have plenty of good online reviews; Warmoth have loads of custom options and a good rep; Retrovibe makes short scales and Telebackers or whatever they're called, they're unusual and cool; Squiers are actually Fenders so they're the original; so-and-so has beautiful quilted tops and hand-polished cherry bursts, they're pricey but worth it; [insert brand here] has a bunch of endorsements from famous players. What's your thing to separate yourself from the crowd?

It might just be that you're small and have great quality, everything made to order and finished to the nth degree. It could be a cool gimmick or an actual useful feature. It could be not doing Jazzes and Ps at all but getting some custom body shapes made for you. Maybe you just have a really good instagram or youtube channel. But you gotta find something to stand out. Or you could just make a bass you like and sell it here or on ebay or wherever, then make another one.

I can't offer any gig-specific advice, but as a mediocre runner I have had to deal with pre-race nerves quite a bit.

Don't do anything special or new on the day. 

Drink plenty, but make sure you have a wee well in advance.

Triple check your shoelaces are double-knotted.

Don't rush at the start, save something for the finish.

And most importantly, you're still doing better than all the other people who didn't even turn up! (which in this case means all those people who, like myself, have spent years playing an instrument but have never actually played with other people or done a gig).

Also most importantly, most of the nerves and anxiety come from the unknown - what will it be like, where will I stand on the stage, how many people will be there, what if this or that happens? Focus on what you do know (ie the material), check out the venue in advance if you can, make sure you know how the gig will run (setting-up, song list, etc), do a dry run of the day, make a check list so you don't forget anything.

Break a leg, you'll be amazing.

I use that old Marie Kondo trope all the time - does it spark joy?

Being in a band should be an enjoyable experience, not a chore. Even if you like the people and the sounds you make, if the thought of doing any kind of work for the band (practice, gigs, social media, whatever) doesn't make you feel good, then it's time to go. And that should be a good enough explanation too - it doesn't spark joy.

Two pizzas?

Fenders generally have a curved slot, so need a curved nut; most other brands use a flat slot. Some Graph-techs (although no bass ones I could see) come with a curved base with a little nubbin in the middle so they fit flat slots too. They have loads of versions so make sure to get the right one.

Final shape looks really good, can't wait to see it come together.

4 minutes ago, Silky999 said:

chatoyance

New word of the day.

That's a beauty, if I needed a P I would be very interested in taking it off your hands.

I was never very musical as a kid - my sister played flute and violin to a moderately good standard, I had a couple of cousins who played cello, French horn and other things pretty well (one is now semi-pro in a folk trio). I dabbled with trombone in primary school and drums in high school but never did more than a couple of terms of lessons. Then when I started 6th form in the summer of '99, I went from a small rural school to a big-ish college in town and discovered other people. New friends, wider circles, socialising, pubs!

In our gang there was one guy who was a total metal head and wanna-be Steve Vai, another guitarist who was actually good (and very humble with it, he's now a pro tutor) and a drummer with Marfan's syndrome who we called Fingers. They needed a bassist and the only one we knew was into The Smiths and stuff like that, he wasn't interested but I asked him for some tips. First bass was a black Yamaha P-bass bought second hand with a massive combo (I think it was 100w and had a 20" cone, it was big enough to sit on without touching the floor, perfect for a beginner!). I was never really into metal and all I ever did was chug roots, but it was cool. We were called Chasin' The Dragon (I was too young and innocent to know what that meant at the time), I don't think we ever actually played a whole song all the way through! We spent a lot more time drinking than playing.

I drifted off into different circles after a few years but kept playing for my own amusement. I had a black and white Squier Jazz for a while, then a Jackson Kelly, gave fretless a go then gave it up, I had a Peavey thru-neck and possibly a couple of others, before gradually losing interest. Uni, jobs, wife, kids, mortgages came next and I finally picked up another bass (a Rockbass Fortress) again a couple of years ago. I dabbled here and there until the bug bit hard again a few months ago - I just traded up to a Squier CV60s Jazz and I realised why I never felt like I wanted to play the Fortress, it was so heavy and chunky, the Jazz feels so easy by comparison. I've even actually started to learn some music theory, instead of just learning songs by tab.

"Knowing" someone (online or in person) is not the same as really knowing them, nor is it the same as knowing about their personal life and relationships etc - mixing up two people with an uncommon name, both connected to the subject but without knowing the fine details, is not unreasonable (although quite unfortunate in this case). My 2 cents - anyone who dates someone with their own daughter's name is almost certainly a creep.

And FWIW, my dad was an alcoholic, sober for the last 17 years of his life - which he worked really hard on every single day, and I am incredibly proud and grateful to him for that. He was mostly really good to us, and his first two wives and 4 other kids (yeah alcoholics tend to do that). But even I didn't really know all of him - I found out last year that when he would bring my half-siblings home from school, he would stop at more than one pub on the way for a pint. They would sit in the car, he would get more and more drunk and keep driving. This was rural Ireland in the 70s, but still. There was a side of him I never saw, thankfully. Just sayin', you can never really know someone all the way to the core.

When you pay more for any old or cherished artifact (when compared to a similar but newer or more commonplace equivalent), what you're paying for is scarcity and/or originality. We aren't tripping over '62 P-basses in every nook and cranny (I wish), they certainly qualify as rare and therefore valuable. But to call that a '62 P-bass is like me putting some vintage wheels and whitewall tyres on my 2017 VW Golf and calling it a classic Beetle.

Never thought about playing it, but it sure is a great show and a great soundtrack. Saw it with the wife a couple of years ago, downloaded the soundtrack and then accidentally played the opening number in the car with the kids (9 and 5 at the time) - they loved it. We do have to bleep out the STFD bit every time though! And we had to be a bit careful explaining the story. Maybe I'll try and find some tab...

Gently lambasted someone on the "newbie fret buzz" thread about which way to turn the truss rod nut (left or clockwise), then promptly went and tightened my truss rod when it needed loosening. Muppet.

Possibly a really dumb question, but is there any way to plug headphones directly into the jack of a bass for amp-free practice? I have one of those MightyAmp plug-in thingies which works fine, but just wondered if there's a simpler (or massively more complicated?) solution.  I feel like I should already know the answer to this question but my electronics knowledge is fairly hopeless! I'm sure if it were something simple we'd all be doing it already.

Obviously you need something to power the headphones and boost the signal, so a plain passive bass is out. Would a normal active/pre-amp set-up work that way? Is there a readily-available electronics package that would work? Ideally something just using a normal 1/4" jack and 9v/18v batteries, no midi or weird cables and such. Purely hypothetical, money and luthiery skills notwithstanding.

Dignity is one of my all-time favourite songs, thanks for that fantastic rendition.

I really like how they pulled the carbon cloth around to match the contours of the headstock, makes it look so much more organic.