Bought or Bitsa?

[miles'tone]

17 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

I've made a few bitsas down the years... every so many years I get the urge. Last time making the body myself. 
The place I always get to is good, but not great, when I compare them to my other bases. 
If you've got two amazing basses and a pile of parts, why not flog one bass and the pile of parts. You can garuntee you will have an amazing bass at the end that way.

This is what I'm going to do now thanks.

I'm going to sell the Jazz Bass Special PJ-555 and keep the '62 P. It really is a tough call though. I'll stick it up on here next weekend when I'm back from camping.

Meanwhile I'll potter with the Bitsa and see how that turns out and decide which P to keep then.

Sounds like good fun. Good, heartbreaking fun. 🤪

Thanks for the advice mate, I was really stumped last night to be fair. 👍

[LukeFRC]

2 minutes ago, miles'tone said:

This is what I'm going to do now thanks.

I'm going to sell the Jazz Bass Special PJ-555 and keep the '62 P. It really is a tough call though. I'll stick it up on here next weekend when I'm back from camping.

Meanwhile I'll potter with the Bitsa and see how that turns out and decide which P to keep then.

Sounds like good fun. Good, heartbreaking fun. 🤪

Thanks for the advice mate, I was really stumped last night to be fair. 👍

Sounds good. You might find your bitsa blows everything else out the water and you end up selling the '62p but wait to see!

I made the comment earlier about loosing money and lots of people chime in to say "not necessarily" - which is a fair point.

[christhammer666]

bitsa is a great way to go if you do it yourself and many savings are to be had.

I have trouble when I buy a bitsa I feel like its going to fall apart,silly really because I bet more care went into then some factories

[Bassfinger]

4 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

That's not what I meant, by being imperfect I was meaning me, not the parts. My tool box isn't extensive, and most hobbyists will be in the same boat, so often not using the right tools for the job, which invariably leads to things not fitting perfectly.

My toolbox is moderate and while I'm no craftsman I have some hands-on experience with tools from work.  Consider me average in ability, perhaps a notch higher, but most definitely no craftsman.

My skills lay with basic assembly of parts, and minor reworking to make them fit fully.  I don't think I do anything that the average hobbyist couldn't,  provided they take their time and use a modicum of care.

The next step of shaping bodies from a block of wood, or creating necks from scratch, is well beyond me and I have massive admiration for the amateur luthiers  on the forum. However, the careful sourcing of parts and their assembly to an equally careful standard is, I feel, something than the average Joe on here could equally manage with a mediocre array of tools. 

I have zero training, but I do have eyes to use when sourcing parts and opposable thumbs with which to wield tools - with luck you have all that too.

[Cuzzie]

The thing is you can easily pop the electronics and hardware you won’t from the get go - makes it very pleasurable 

[Cuzzie]

7 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

My toolbox is moderate and while I'm no craftsman I have some hands-on experience with tools from work.  Consider me average in ability, perhaps a notch higher, but most definitely no craftsman.

My skills lay with basic assembly of parts, and minor reworking to make them fit fully.  I don't think I do anything that the average hobbyist couldn't,  provided they take their time and use a modicum of care.

The next step of shaping bodies from a block of wood, or creating necks from scratch, is well beyond me and I have massive admiration for the amateur luthiers  on the forum. However, the careful sourcing of parts and their assembly to an equally careful standard is, I feel, something than the average Joe on here could equally manage with a mediocre array of tools. 

I have zero training, but I do have eyes to use when sourcing parts and opposable thumbs with which to wield tools - with luck you have all that too.

Shaping bodies is just patience as well and templates!

[alyctes]

I put together a fretless from a Hohner neck I got here and an anonymous P-type body from eBay (possibly a Kay, as it has a six-bolt neck fixture). 

Because of the six neck screws, I had to plug and redrill the neck.

When I put it together, I was able to pick it up by the headstock, with the bass hanging vertically, before I put the screws in.

I'll never sell it.  Great bass?  No (but perfectly adequate given what I paid for the parts).  Mine?  Damn right.

[bloke_zero]

I put togerther a bitsa - easily my favorite bass - it came out really well.  I think that it depends on your approach - I was trying to make a better than factory build, so the quality of the parts was important to me - a great neck and pickup ended up being expensive but made the bass a true pleasure to play.  I also got the final bits done by a luthier - cutting the nut and drilling the tuner screw holes and final set up - cheating?  Maybe but it made me happy.

 

[Cuzzie]

Not cheating - I have always used the pre cut TUSQ XL nuts - just make sure you get the correct one for neck width