wesfinn

I must admit it is a bit odd hearing the bass coming from the speakers on stands at first in a rehearsal but once i got used to it I love it! I have a tone hammer tht i take around too but don;t seem to need it.

Recently (due to lazyness mainly) I have been plugging my P bass straight into the Desk and running out of the PA. The sound is incredible, no messing about just a flat signal. It sits so well in the mix in the country rock band I'm playing with. I might just retire my amp set up which I have spent years trying to put the right combination together! It sure is a lot easier to just carry bass around. anyone else a fan of this?

Nice one man! keep it up!

This is going to have custom wound bareknuckles in this. I would eventually like to make my own pickups, but I need to source the vintage correct alnico magnets and bobbin materials. I need to get a pickup winder too with a counter on it. The bareknuckles will sound great though so I am happy to use them to start with.

all in good time Duncan! I've got a few things need finishing so I'll do them in one hit!

After last weeks discovery that the neck had moved a bit too much for my liking I started a fresh neck today and have it to the same stage as the last one. I need to let it rest for 48 hours now to let it settle, then I will rout for the truss rod and do the nut hole and connecting hole. This neck is twice as nice as the last one too, really lovely old growth flame maple! Perfect tight fit, no screws required cheers for looking! Wes

Pickups routed perfect tight fit with the covers, here tested with control plate and a pickguard Pin router holes plugged with maple dowells. (I make the dowells myself too haha) body fine sanded ready for the 50:50 sealer coat, followed by more sanding and then grain filler! cavities initialled and dated I'll put the body away in a plastic bag till I do the spraying.

looks great Kevin!

Looks cool man!

Friday is nearly over so here is another update on the J.. Bit of bad news about the build, the neck has moved a bit too much since cutting the shape so I'm going to scrap it and start again. I would try and work around it but there not enough meat left to get it back to being flat and true. This is why I leave the timber to settle after cutting. Most of the time they don't move much at all, but this was one of the blanks that did! OH well, thats the nature of wood! So heres a little interesting thing for you, after realising the neck was going to the land of the scrap I decided to make the truss rod routing jig. and after the first pass (note the scrap neck being my test subject!) Works perfectly! Bang in the center and perfect depths etc! not as exciting as the usual posts I know...I have been doing a bit of restoration work this week though which has seen most of my time! Right I gotta make me another neck

not quite as good as the fodera but I got a fretless MIM jazz bass in sunburst about 5 years ago from cash converters. It was as new and had labella flats on it. i paid £85, had to go and extend my overdraft to get it as I was skint at the time!

Great minds indeed Andy! I just love the colour!

Thanks guys! I am becoming very tempted to finish this in burgundy mist now.....hmmmm......not vintage correct for the ash body but as this bass is for me..we shall see!

Thanks Clarky! Means a lot that people are enjoying seeing my work!

couple of things done today. I'm still waiting for my templates for neck pocket, pickups and control cavity which is kind of holding me up....so I decided to do it the hard way and Pencil them out and rout them completely free hand...I don't usually do this as it takes much longer and a lot more concentration. (sorry the pics arent as good quality as usual, I forgot the camera again and took them on my mac photo booth thing) heres the control cavity after routing and heres the neck pocket all aligning perfectley along the center line next up I pencil out the best section of the Brazilian Rosewood board and cut out on the bandsaw to just out side the line. and heres a how it looks with the bridge and control plate, neck and finger board all place together.... can ya guess what it is yet?? thats all for today folks, will do the Pickup routs when the templates arrive as I;d rather not do them freehand! thanks Wes

Tomorrow i'll be doing some more on the J. Have ordered the 5/32" hardened steel silver rods to make the truss rods, these will be had made and have the correct vintage threads and square block anchor (these truss rods are not available off the shelf in the correct size) I need to make some new curved Jigs for the truss rod routing, I'll make a few one for slab boards, a reverse for Maple boards and one for guitars. These need to have the correct curvature for the years and the angle for the adjustment nut drill needs to be 2 degrees to minimise the risk of the fingerboard developing a hump around the 15th fret. untill the next lot of progress heres some pictures of the Tele I'm making. This is going to be a 62 Black with mint guard and slab brazilian rosewood board, it's also the first guitar I have ever made so it's all pretty fun and a learning curve for me! It's made from a one piece lightweight alder. Heres some of the swamp ash and alder I picked up last week and also a lovely figured spalted maple top which is going to go on one of my custom builds, maybe a singlecut!

Nice review Andy! The ones we had in at GAK have all been pretty heavy (10 - 10 1/2lbs) which is dissapointing...other than that they are very good! nice feel and sound great with the new N3 pups! We will be selecting the lighter ones for the shop in future!

Hi there, Wes here at GAK bass dept. Sibob is correct in saying that you should bring the bass back to us if theres any issues such as bad pickup grounding. This will be covered under your 2 year warrenty. These basses fantastic instruments for the money. Although there is a large rout for the neck pickup, this is done to cut factory build time as it takes much longer to manually drill the cable runs from the pickup to the control cavity. cheers Wes

you have got some awesome gear there guys/girls! Wish i had that kinda gear when I was a teen! I couldnt afford a bass when I started many years ago...I could afford a tanglewood rebel neck though and a block of basswood which I crudely fashioned into a bass in my dads shed! It actually sound pretty damn good even though the pickups are nameless and I got given a very simple active circuit for it. Its still hanging on my wall though to remind me of how not to make a bass!

Annoyingly I forgot to take my camera today, got a fair bit done, although I've been commisioned to make a black 62 t style g****r so was getting stuck into that more than the J today. The J neck has been robo-sanded and is looking lovvverly! Ill take some pictures next time I'm at the workshop. cheers Wes