6feet7

All primed up and first coat of paint. All the imperfections have now shown up (thought I’d got them all sanded away Got to resand the front of the body and start again (bugger)

Photos of what I said I’d done (above). Don’t look too closely at my routing. It’s the first time I’ve ever done it and I’m sure some veneer can fill any gaps that might show when I’ve fitted the neck.

As I only tend to play short scale 5 stringers nowadays I’m limited in choice unless I want to pay far more than my bank balance and my ability allows. I’ve also got an extremely soft spot for Rickenbacker and Thunderbird shaped basses, so when I saw LouieM had an Epiphone bolt on neck Thunderbird for sale I hatched a plan. Firstly I had to get it without my better half commenting on me getting yet another bass, so Louie and I met up at Reading services on my family’s return from holiday in Cornwall (having an all female family means that pee stops have to be built into every trip). Whilst they all went in, LouieM and I did the dirty deed outside Greggs (he’d very kindly removed the neck and stuck everything in a bin bag so I could shove it in the boot without it being noticed). Today everything got removed and my first task was to sand a forearm chamfer whilst I wait for a ‘63 Thunderbucker pickup to arrive from the USA and a Squier bass V1 neck also to be delivered (which has pretty much the same dimensions as my Ibanez AGB205 short scale). Once these have arrived I can start measuring and can then sort out making it headless. Here’s the very first photos. I hope my woodworking skills are up to the job

Thinking of doing a short scale 5 string headless rickenthingy, so watching with interest.

I should be seeing Queen with Adam Lambert at the O2 this evening (postponed from 2 years ago, bought for my wife's birthday), but I'm still showing Covid positive (been off work for the last week with it), so thats put an end to that. Hoping I'm clear by Wednesday as I've got free tickets to see Roger Daltrey in Brighton and then I'm up to Coventry to see Rammstein next Sunday (once again, postponed from 2 years ago). I will be bloody p*ssed off if I miss two concerts that were postponed due to Covid 2 years ago just because I decided to be late to the party catching it

Nick bought a Ricky truss rod wrench from me. Such an easy transaction,. Great bloke.

I was completely Phil Jones (Suitcase and C8 cab). Part-exed it for Markbass Little Mark 3 and Ninja 122 cab. Much lighter and louder. I wouldn't go back.

I've got an Ibanez EHB1005SMS and I find it so easy to play. When I go back to 'standard' frets it just seems so 'last century'. I'm a massive fan (see what I did there

This is the second time I’ve met up Ben. This time he was buying a Bass V1 from me. Great chat and lovely guy.