mickhardup

i use windowlene it does raise the grain on bare wood but it evaporates quick and removes greasy fingerprints and its cheap.   

2 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Don’t forget the dressing up in a French maid’s outfit with roller skates...

GEESUS the sight of me in a french maids outfit ,,,, i dont think so

22 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Great save!  Excellent job

 

your very kind thanks

6 minutes ago, cetera said:

It normally starts from around 10am, £10 payable on the door to cover venue hire/insurance etc and tea/coffee/cakes/pastries will be available.
Just bring your bass(es) & rig, set up and share in the day with other like minded bassists. A full programme for the day will be provided shortly

luvly thank you

Hi all have never been to a event like this before so a few questions, do i just turn up ? is there a start and a finish time ? is there anywhere to get refreshments etc? these maybe stupid questions but i don't want to turn up at 9am and doors don't open till 12

1 minute ago, Jimothey said:

You can’t go wrong with White!! It looks lovely did you just use rattle cans or did you use spray gun and great job with the repair!!

I'm going to spray my Jazz White and possibly my Fortress-ish copy aswell...........😀

Hi jimothey yes just halfords finest paint, you dont get much in a can nowday's 

Hi all i am in  havant nr portsmouth i am not an expert but happy to help repair guitars if needed. i have a big hammer that fixes most things...... 

Afternoon all done a bit more today, its taken so long to do any way got it painted last week and bugger me lost all the pics but got some today of the lacquer came out quite nice, colour is VW candy white, have been looking for a decal for the head but i cant find a sound gear one just an ibanez logo i think that will have to do, ah well see if i can get a bit more of my tele done while i am waiting for the lacquer to harden, thanks for all your helpful comments and suggestion's cheers.  

On 17/06/2019 at 14:07, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Make yourself a simple jig to test the pickup positions and combinations in the same way that Leo Fender did, and listen to the sound they make rather than other peoples opinions.

 

thanks for this i am going to make one when i get a chance it will save a lot of sleepless nights wondering if the guitar is going to sound good or not and if the pickups are any good, cheers 

On 01/09/2019 at 08:45, Dom in Somerset said:

I built something similar a few years ago and would also advise you to put the bridge as far back as you can. The body I used was a cheap p bass modified by removing the upper horn and reducing the thickness to make it more slab like.

The wood is quite light and due to the loss of the upper horn the neck dive was serious. I eventually solved it by adding a strap button extension and fixing the other button further along the body.

As for pickup regimes , I tried just about everything , including a three pickup monstrosity before going back to a plain old P (Entwistle neodymium) . The hole left by the bridge pickup is now filled by a bit of wood held in place by two gert big wood screws.
That old door was made of some nice wood , looking forward to the finished product.

 

 

i like the tele shape that's why i wanted to have a go at building one i didn't know about all the issue's that arise just because of the shape of the body but i am determined to finish it, i am not to worried about neck dive because it will spend most of the time on the wall with the rest, as long as it makes a reasonable sound i will happy.  

Hi all, took your advice and moved the bridge back and re routed the neck further into the body, apart from looking better i can reach the end of the neck, made a rough template for a pick guard will decide what colour later,have got to get some shorter neck screws all the one's i have are too long and too near the fret board for my liking have just used some old one's at the moment, i haven't shaped round the neck pocket yet as i haven't decided whether to contour the body or not i am a bit worried because it was an old door i am going to expose the old pegs that used to hold the door together i put them all on the inside joints. i have some feral's for string through body but i don't know weather it's worth the extra hassle of getting another bridge will have to see how much pension i have left.          

Hi all, managed to do a bit today between my other jobs, finished the shape of the body around the neck pocket and routed it out, have got to  tweek it a little to make it fit perfect, decided to go for a fender type bridge  and a p/j pickup config, don't know whether to bind the body or round of the edge's i am sure you will help me choose, also colour i thought a nice light shade off green or pale yellow,       

19 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

Great work. Nice splines.

Thanks, shame about the top veneer though its a shame to cover it up.

Hi all manged to do a bit today, rubbed the body down with 120 grit to find all the low spots and dings filled all the holes rubbed it down filled some more rubbed it down then rubbed it down some more and so on and on, ready for primer now, cant decide what colour to do it any suggestions ? cheers just gonna put some plasters on my fingers. 

spent a few hot hours in the shed today undid the clamps all looked not to bad, trimmed the inserts and gave it a quick rub over just to tidy it up, forgot about the screw holes in the side i drilled them out and glued in some dowels. Not looking to bad.  Sorry the pics are not in the right order.

Hi all sorry i haven't  done much lately but life has got in the way at the moment but things should be getting back to normal soon, i have an Ibanez bass on the bench for repair as soon as that is done i will get back too this one  

Hi all i acquired a beat up Ibanez 300 the other day that i was going to use parts for a project, but after stripping it down i decided to have a go at repairing it, on close inspection it was clear whoever owned it was a bit rough with it they must have smashed it or stood on it they had two 4 inch screw's holding it together and a rubberised sealer stuff filling the crack then it was covered in chequer plate and the edge of the body was painted with hamerite, i took the two pieces and cleaned them up as best i could without removing too much wood and glued them together then i routed the crack and glued a new piece of wood in to strengthen the break, i am going to do the same on the back, 

Hi all, cant believe 2 months has gone since i last had time to play with this, i had some spare time yesterday to get out in the shed and have a look at the project i cut the body out and tidied it up, today i done a bit of sanding and i thought about some of the previous comments about neck dive so on and pickup position  and fret access. I did a few measurements and came to the conclusion that it would probably be unplayable up the high end so i was going to scrap it, but then i thought f_ _ k it  i dont play in a band in fact i cant play at all but it might look alright so what pickup configuration shall i have any comments to help me make up my mind would be appreciated,           

Hello from Havant . theirs a jazz bass copy on facebook marketplace for 70 quid its on hayling island, i whant it but misses says NO.   

7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

The rule of thumb I use for balance on the strap is for the strap button to be in line with the 13th fret or lower.

This at the moment is sitting at around 16th?  

I think neck dive might be an issue however heavy the bridge is.

As such, I would also bring the bridge further back. You could always deepen the lower horn cutaway so you don't lose access to the upper frets?

thanks for advice and comments all are very appreciated, nothing is set out yet i haven't even taken any measurements neck and pups are just placed on there to see if i like what the bass will look like, have lots to think about like colour or stain or oil do i put binding on it, too much to think about. 

On 10/04/2019 at 09:35, itu said:

If you put the bridge as far back as possible, you may be able to play with the balance and reach (how to reach the half and first position) a little bit. The neck has to be "deeper" in the body. The instrument becomes slightly shorter, too.

I like the idea of having the hum at the neck position. Would have been my choice, too.

thanks for the advice itu its all a bit trial and error at this stage, i thought there may be a bit of neck dive so i have gone for a heavy ish  bridge, i am also going to round off the neck pocket to help reach the frets but like rikki sixx says i dont play that far up the neck

Hi all, out of hibernation and back in the shed, decided to have another go at building a bass, i have some wood from an old door and a Chinese neck and some old pickups, so here we go, i have decided to build a telecaster shaped body with a jazz neck, your comments and advice gratefully received.   

On ‎11‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 08:56, Christine said:

I find myself coming back to look at this quite often, it's a lovely looking build. But.... how does it sound?

it sounds luvly Christine even though it has no tone control, but my black output socket has arrived so I will fit that and check out the wiring and tone pot, I put a set of cheap flat wound strings on it too, I am digging a new pond in the garden and its taking a lot of my time but the next wet day we have ill be out doing it.

10 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

I see what you mean about the neck it looks really blurry 😋

that's the stupid phone the battery was flat so the flash and the focus didn't work, well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it lol. But the fingerboard has been painted over with a blackboard type paint, it sands down alright but its messy. 

Hi everyone, I bought a cheap bass Sunday for parts or maybe another build, its a spider bass ? never heard of them. Anyway it has pups and tuners a bridge the neck has been very poorly converted to fretless, the body is a plywood thing that has been butchered in the neck pocket, I thought about re fretting it but ive never done that before but it hasn't cost anything yet so nothing to lose, this is were you come in what fret wire do I buy ? this may not happen depending on the state of the neck, it has been filled in the slots with a softish filler so it might clean up without to much hassle because I haven't got a fret cutting saw. I have an old front door that I took apart to make a body but I wont start that until I sought the neck out, ideas and criticism gratefully received.