Ross

Made a little progress today, finished drilling the holes. 4mm > 3mm for the neck pocket/ neck. 1.5mm for pickguard (though I fear these will be a tad small) 2mm for the tuners 3mm for the strap buttons. Just waiting for screws but thats largely irrelevant as I should be on to starting the finish tomorrow. 5 coats of sanding sealer then a much clear gloss lacquer as is needed I think. Debating about the neck because it's gloriously smooth without a finish on it at all but I know it won't last with regular playing. A few pictures:

Some crappy stagg thing, p and j pickups, 24 frets. It played ok after I'd had it set up, really thin neck. Sounded like total sh*t though.

It's definitely true, some of the best music in the rock genre is created on drugs, and I have my theories why. LSD has been theorised to be a conciousness expander by so many people, and it is one hell of an experience. Salvia and mushrooms fall under this. Cocaine and speed can make you think really quite fast. MDMA, always a good to write a song about ups and downs. Ketamine is kind of wierd but I could happily write a song on it. Painkillers in general, relaxation, time to process. Weed is the only one I don't get though, whenever I get stoned all I wanna do is lay about eating crisps and listening to the beatles. I don't want to talk to anyone just chill out. If i had to sit up and write a song I'd be most annoyed.

Wheras I'm really into my volkswagens and if I had £20k it'd be on a car. If a 1948 split rear screen beetle came along, I'd have to drop it all and change my trousers shortly after. I already have a bass and an amp, if I had like 1 or 2 grand then yeah I'd be after a new bass or rig, but £20k is mental.

Look for second hand bargains man, thats where I picked up my jazz for just a few hundred. Haters gonna hate, personally I can't stand all these botique basses, they sound ok but they look daft to me, all jagged and dark. Fenders, rics, musicmans. Pretty much my bass repitoire if I'm the one buying.

The who, or James brown. Way back when they were mainstream. If it had to be someone today I'm pretty easy, most of the crap on radio 1 today would just be another session gig for me.

I'd go to that bass shop that sells cars... Or get a tubax (cause thats kind of a bass anyway). One with a decent selection of second hand/ interesting basses, I don't like buying new, such a waste of money paying all that extra for a bass thats got maybe a few less scratches but isn't even set up. I could probably spend it just browsing the BC classifieds and ebay.

Honestly? I quite like the way my fender sounds and plays. Each to their own. I also hate the way a lot of other basses look.

To be honest mate a stool is gonna be your best bet. I've seen one of two straps which go around the waist but not in years, they're pretty rare from the looks of things. Saw ZZ top use them in one of their videos I think.

Personally? Marshall amps, the ones I've tried have been dreadful Also, warwicks, don't like the way they play.

You sure do make it sound like an advertisement though

Found some in a kitchenware/ tool merchant (lawsons) just yesterday, amazing how a small shop like that has a better range than the giants, good to see one still going, I should be drilling the holes monday and I can then start to make some real progress.

Bit of an update, not much to tell really. Still waiting on my buddy to take me to his dads workshop so I can do the hard part, drilling the holes. Got most of the hardware now, the control plate arrived today. Got the tuners courtesy of lemmywinks for a bargain £10. Nitrocellulose lacquer also came yesterday but I've not been able to track down sanding sealer in wickes, wilkinsons, homebase. No one seems to sell it, may have to order it online unless anyone knows a place? Anyway, a few more pics. Ignore the poorly aligned control plate, it does actually fit but I basically just threw it on there to see what it'd look like and didn't notice til after the pictures were taken.

I'd probably do something similar, highly doubt that foam will do much for sound reduction, acoustics on the other hand.

I just kind of move on stage, came naturally to me. Moving about, climbing, jumping off things. If I'm playing a particular difficult bit I will stop in my tracks though. I keep telling myself, amps aren't built to take 21 stone blokes on top. It's a matter of time before one collapses I reckon.

I embrace it and use it as a tonal device in my playing.

Gives you the basic idea though, order the same parts but with splined shafts, simple as man.

Marking out done roughly for now, used a bit of trellis wire and got creative to get string alignment perfect. 34" scale at the g saddle, just back from the end of the screw. And while I think the pickups look rather nice I think they might sound a bit thin and lifeless

Only trouble with that is I have the lacquer and sanding sealer now but not all of the hardware, I see your point though, no point in rushing these things. Cheers for the tip. Guess i'll have to wait then get to work with the old centrepunch and do as much as I can while I still have access to a drill press (going home on the 23rd where I don't know anyone with one).

I've always had basses that stay relatively well in tune in the bag, I always tune before going on stage and keep an ear out for being slightly out of tune as the gig goes on. Doesn't matter if it slips out of tune in the bag, you were gonna tune it anyway.

The ability to have a laugh and not take things too seriously. Can't stand it when people get deadly serious, we're making music here, it's meant to be fun! Especially when someone claims ownership and trys to dictate the music direction, nothing quite like telling your bandmate he's pretty when he's damn near screaming in your face about some trivial musical device.

Bit of an update guys. Decided to take a break from the mounds of revision today and use some 400 grit and sanding block to widen the neck pocket. The neck is very very slightly off from my measurements but completely negligable, it's less than a degree off and a really snug fit. Waiting for lacquer now, I'm gonna finish the body and neck before I drill the holes.