Ross

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.

How much perspex size wise, would you post if I paid the cost?
Also, any pictures of the body blank?

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.

[url="http://www.guitarpartsworldwide.com/Jazz+Bass+Electronic+Upgrade+Kit++PWd6TTBBRE14b0RkalZIWnZKSGM"]Something like this[/url] should do the job nicely.

I've got the same bass as you, my wiring is pretty awful (though i'm sure the previous owner rewired it) so I'm sticking one of them in, but ditching the orange drop in place of a paper in oil capacitor for a vintage vibe.

Something about a black jazz, white pickguard, maple fretboard.

Same club:
Part 1 - Just got a new bass, sounded great at practise through my gear, the organiser said we had to use their backline to save changing about and soundchecking between bands. Soon as I stepped on stage, all that could be heard was the E string, no other strings. And some of my parts are past the 12th fret. Managed to just about get through the gig with it and basically rewrote everything to be played on the E, took it to a luthier after, he said he fixed it.

Part 2 - Same club, same bass. Flat out didn't work this time, the other bands were mainly kids and weren't exactly forthcoming with lending me a bass.
Played 7 rocking originals, very bass driven, halfway through our 8th song the organiser had run to his shop and brought back a bass, just got back. Only thing that salvaged it is that half a last song and we had a huge spur of the moment jam for like 10 minutes at the end.

The second one was arguably worse, that night I'd gotten about 20 friends from school to come, mortifying playing a silent bassline

Might see how it looks after it's done. I can always put a pickguard on after.
Only thing I am worried about is the neck pickup pocket looks like it'd been routed a tad wide so I may end up having to use a pickguard to cover up the inaccuracies in the routing, I'll have to measure it when my hangover calms down.

It was an ebay jobby [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230611470620&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT[/url]

Just started to sand the body down (using 400 and 800 grit paper, becoming smooth as a babys ass)

Ok, so I've been hunting for parts and tools to borrow and gathering knowledge for a week.
So far what I have to do:
Sand and lacquer the body
Lacquer the neck
Make the neck fit the pocket and be straight (about half a mil out, it's too tight a squeeze)
Drill all the holes (neck, bridge, control plate, pickguard, strap pins, tuner screws, string retainer.
Buy pickups, tuners, electronics, strings and screws.
Assemble this beast!

Spend so far:
Body £60.50 posted (either ash or alder, unbranded)
Neck £42 posted (maple, rosewood. Also unbranded off the same guy on ebay)
Neckplate and screws £6
Pickguard £5
Wood control plate £6 (still in the post)
Sandpaper and clear nitrocellulose lacquer £22ish (hoping I can get away with 1 can)
Bridge and strap pins, free from other jazz.
Total £141.50

Planning on buying wizard 64's and using the pickups from my other jazz, might just drop them into this one though.
CTS pots, switchcraft jack, cloth covered cable, PIO cap. Pretty standard wiring.
La Bella deep talkin flatwounds (especially seeing as I want a flats bass in time for joining the university of Plymouth big band next year)

A few pictures (the bits you really want to see)














Updates soon!

If you want to play a festival you've got to play your own stuff man, I've never seen a covers band play a festival and I kind of hope I never do (no offense intended). Being good at playing other peoples songs isn't enough to sell you as much as a really good originals band I'm sad to say. Perhaps you could start throwing in some of your originals?

You've gotta get the word out there, lots of ways to do it. Merchandise (things like keyrings and cards you can hand to landlords, helps with word of mouth). Flyering - Hit your target audience, students, old folk, sad 40 year old fat blokes, stuck up desk jockeys don't just hand them a flyer or pin up 50 onto a wall push whatever drinks offers the place has why it's gonna be a good night, say what you can to get them to come. Get a website going and a facebook page, ask all of your friends.

I remember hearing not so long ago about a guy who set up his band on the back of a flatbed truck, went round town parked up and played gigs in places with high pedestrian footprint. Then found the addresses of many journalists and played outside their houses until they were told to go away by the police. Got them in the paper.

If your agent isn't getting you gigs or being any benefit to the band, sack him, keep searching for a good agent.

Cheers bud, keep me posted

I'd be tempted to have his arm off if work had paid me on time, way overspent on my project and had extra rent to pay this month so my overdraft and student loan are running at the -£950 odd levels
Waiting for the grand or so I earned over easter to hop in and fund my GAS, cheers for the info though guys