blazer3

I was well into level 42 many years ago "80S. At the time i was a singer in a punk/metal band, we were the worst band ever. The band finished years ago and i"ve no intention of starting again but ironically it seems funny that our drummer is interested in getting back together after 25 years. I"m tempted but our drummer lives in canada. what do you think guys and gals

Brilliant. But i cant do doing with the all black precision, it does nothing for me.

THE ADMIRAL. My girlfriend thinks anything other than facebook is a waste of space, whereas i think anything except facebook is fine. She"s not got the brains to look at Bass chat ,and if she does look at my favourites she wont know one Bass website from another.

I"ve only been playing a few months but practice quite a lot and the girlfriends quite happy with that because i dont leave the house, HOWEVER, If i said i had joined a band and needed to practice twice a week then i know she would kick off ( shes that sort of woman ). Personally i would go with the bass because my relationship is a joke anyway, ( seriously ) and its only a matter of time before it burns out anyway. On a good note, at least i have 3 bass guitars to keep me company

I cover mine in self ahesive vinyl, you can get it in any colour and its dirt cheap, i"ve just bought some black and it cost me a quid and was big enough to cover 2 jazz sized scratchplates, you can get it from any signmakers, i"m sure there will be one near you somewhere. Its pretty sticky stuff as well and you can peel it off and replace with a different colour when your fed up with the same colour plus its a damn site cheaper than buying a new scratchplate plus it will keep your original plate in tip top condition if you ever decide to sell the bass on.

This may seem a little extreme but you could try wood filler (or something similar) along the join lines then sand it flat, it may cover it over once you have done your colour coat. I dont know if this would work or not but theres no harm in trying. Interesting question though as i have a bbn4 yamaha that i"m considering finishing as its in natural and you can clearly see the joins on the 3 piece body

cheers for the replies guys, much appreciated

Anyone who"s read my "Disaster" thread will know i"ve been having problems with a precision copy neck i have and i was resigned to binning it but after a few days thinking about it i thought what the hell, i"m gonna have a crack at sorting it out myself and turn it fretless into the bargain, it was free so if i messed up no big deal plus its only a cheap neck, call it a learning curve if you will. I Removed the frets as carefully as i could then set to work stripping off all the old finish, took me hours to do then it was time to try and sort out that warp at the heel, plenty careful sanding later and i was amazed that i got the warp out and the fingerboard now looks nice and straight, filled in the fretslots with wood filler and set to sanding the entire neck working up through various grades of paper, it still needs a bit of sanding but so far so good, The only problem is that with all the sanding its left the fretboard looking anemic, is there anything i can put on to darken it a tad, i have some oil that i"ve used on rosewood boards but never maple plus i"Ve decided to spray the headstock to match the body. Worst case scenario is that i"ve completely wrecked the neck and i wont know for sure till its back on the bass but so far so good

Bad news im afraid. I"ve just sussed out the neck is warped and twisted so i"ve a spare fretless neck i"m gonna put on it, gutted to say the least, as it is it plays and sounds great up to the 16th fret then after that its unplayable . I"ve never played fretless before but i suppose this is a good chance as any. gutted really as i really loved the maple look against the blue body

Its all down to one thing MONEY. I Wont spend a penny in my local shop as their arrogant egotistical b*****ds who are only interested if your willing to spend a shedload of money on gear thats 100 quid cheaper 10 miles away. Reidys in blackburn are a top shop, they couldn"t do enough for me. Small shops need to do a hell of a lot more to bring the punters in, i hate my local shop that much i"m not even gonna mention the name

I"ve just been online looking at basses and found a shedload of different colours. What is everyones idea of a nice colour for a bass and is there any colours you would stay away from. Personally i hate the colour black, its boring and looks awful, i also cant stand black or white(brilliant white that is ). My ideal colour would be "wine red" with an antique white pickguard and all maple neck. Be interesting to know what other people think

Seeing as my necks none to clever ( see "Disaster" thread ) i was thinking of keeping the old tuners as they dont look in bad nick,just a little grubby and stiff, there the open geared types and they can be packed up awaiting the next project ( yes the bug has bitten ).

I"ve had a dabble with the WD40 and have loosened the trussrod quite a bit, i"ve managed to straighten out the majority of the neck but its still kicking up at the heel end, my action is now a tad lower and it plays a fraction better but i think this is the best its gonna be as i darent lower it any more and its still rattling on the heel end frets so i"ll just have to play away from these area"s. Looks like i"ll have to get saving the pennys and do without beer for a bit

I"ll just throw the fretless neck on for the time being until i can raise the cash for an all maple one. Thanks for the offer of the rosewood one but as you said its not really what im looking for as i wanna stick with the maple. I had an idea that the neck was knackered but i didn"t wanna admit it to myself, its less painless because the bass was free, i would have gone berserk if i had paid good money for it. Live and learn i guess, at least i"ve learned how to wire and refinish a bass.

I"ve just had another look at it and it appears to be twisted as well . Seems to be going from bad to worse, oh well, looks like its the bin for the poor blighter.

I"ve just refinished a cheap 80s precision copy and it came out better than i expected (it was my first refin) and i really love the look of the maple fretboard against the blue of the body,HOWEVER while ive been setting it up i"ve been struggling to get the action low enough for my liking without getting rattling on the lower frets (16 onwards approx) and when i"ve looked down the neck it seems to be bowing outwards from 16th fret onwards which makes the bass unplayable after the 16th fret ( sounds great up to that point ) and now the trussrod seems to be stuck solid and i cant move it anyway. The bass was given to me and i only spent money on the spray and new pickups and electrics so the body is good to go but im pretty certain the neck as had it ( shame really as its a lovely looking neck ) the bass has spent approx 15 years in the guys shed untouched so weather conditions over that amount of time cant have been good for it. I cant afford to take it to a luthier as moneys very tight plus is it really worth spending quite a few quid trying to get it fixed when a new neck would be cheaper ( i have a fretless neck spare so i might put that on ) Is it time to send it to the bass graveyard in the sky

I didn"t think to put a before pic on so here it is This pic was taken the day i brought it home.

cheers guys. Its certainly not flawless and there will be things i would do different on my next one but all in all im chuffed with it.

This is my first refin project and im quite chuffed with it. This was given to me a few weeks ago in a terrible state, it was black ( brushed on i think ) and was full of scratches, the action was so high you could have drove a bus under it, the electrics and pickups were shot to hell and the all maple neck was pretty grubby to say the least. Off came the black and on went the blue ( rustic blue ), in went some new budget pickups and new cts pots etc, maple neck cleaned up just fine, sorted out the action, i"m not to bothered about a really low action as long as the bass was playable, still needs a tweak here and there but all in all a nice little bass that cost a grand total of £36.77p. Last but not least, a HUGE thanks to DAVE_BASS5 for supplying the strings and to the other guys who helped me sort out that hideous action. Hope you like it.

Getting some veneer is no problem as my uncles a joiner with his own business plus he"s already sorting me some veneer strips out for a neck i"ve just defretted, i just have to take the neck up to him so the strips are spot on and fit perfect so i"ll have a word with him about the neck pocket while im there just in case the shim doesn"t sort it out. cheers for the replys guys, much appreciated. all the best Mick

A few weeks ago i was given an 80s precision copy, the action on it was frighteningly high ( about 1cm,possibly higher ), theres still a bit of adjustment in the bridge saddles so it can be lowered some more and i was gonna put a shim in it anyway just to get the action down that bit further. I"ve since refinished it and cleaned up the maple fretboard and everythings looking ready to go back together in a couple of weeks when the clearcoat has cured but im getting a bit worried just in case the action cant be sorted with a shim. Could i build the neck up up a fraction just so the neck sits slightly proud of the pickguard ( its flush at the moment ) which in turn would lower the action even more, is it possible to do a full pocket shim and what are the pro"s and con"s of this and what materials can be used for such a job. maybe i"m worrying over nothing and everthing will be fine with just a shim and a tweak here and there but some help would be greatly appreciated if i had to go down that road. Below is a pic of the bass the day i got it and you can clearly see the high action all the best Mick