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Shoving some bits together P bass


Waddo Soqable
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Not hugely interesting, and really just bolting stuff together rather than a proper "build" , tho may include a bit of violence..

A jolly 'Fester Red' P bass body from the finest plywood our far eastern brothers could manage back in the 80s/90s ( by the looks) and a bunch of random stuff from the spares boxes, topped off by an extravagantly purchased NW gtrs Jazz maple neck ( I figured I can re-use the neck for something else if it turns out to be shite )  I had a P bass with a Jazz neck before and I liked it, plus NW didn't have any P necks left so applied the random factor and got a J.

the pocket in the body was a bit small so out with the emery cloth on a wood block to ease the 'walls' a bit, it was really just the thickness of a coat of laquer that needed coming off, got a nice snug fit, tho the butt end of the neck has a bit more of a curve than the body, but wasn't too fussed as a scratchplate would cover it anyway.... All good thinks I, but just thought i'd show it the tape measure, the 12th fret to bridge saddles ( middle average position)  is about 10mm further than nut to 12th fret !  That'd be a bit flat up the dusty end so good job I looked. if I desperately needed the thing for a gig tonight I'd just bolt it up and shunt the bridge forward a bit, but I suppose to make a half way decent job of it I'll have to get the dremel out and carve a chunk of body away to get the neck further back (FFS)..  one of the scratchplates I have,  a nice mint green job which may be a pukka Fender one, seems to want to sit further back too, so looks like I've a bit of butchery to do... any suggestions or comments are most welcome btw ( even "burn the b'astard" )  I'll add more as I "progress"  ;)

 

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Edited by Waddo Soqable
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Having had another trial fit and a re measure, this time with a nice posh 2ft steel rule, I reckon if it trim the ar$e end of the body pocket to the line of the mint grn scratchplate where it naturally wants to sit, it'll be ok....I wasn't bearing in mind the fact that the saddles are unlikely to want much forward adjustment, generally they go sharp as you play up the neck so the whole shebang won't need to go back as far as I first thought. Apologies for a doubtless dull as fk 'build' it's probably just handy therapy for me 'thinking aloud' . 

.. this project, thus far, is fuelled by innumerable mugs of v. strong black coffee and (so far) 2 bars of Cabury's Old Jamaica chocolate... Remember those from the 70s ?  I'm delighted to say they've brought them back again, and being a greedy bastard I've got a catering size box of 18 bars. ;)

Edited by Waddo Soqable
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9 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I've got a few random cheapo unknowns in the junk box, but I've got the Maia Vale set coming courtesy of Waveydavey, it'd be rude not to bung them in !

Cool, I only asked because I fitted tonerider in one of my precision’s, they were cheap as chips and sound great 

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1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Cool, I only asked because I fitted tonerider in one of my precision’s, they were cheap as chips and sound great 

Certainly worth bearing in mind as I've got enough bits and bobs to bludgeon another one together too.. 👍

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51 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

That looks very much like one I did.  I had similar issues with the neck pocket.

Yamacore

Just read thru your thread, v. interesting, liked the extra 45° screws idea too....pity the sound bite vid was so short, would have been good to hear some more of it being demo'ed...  Great job sir !

Edited by Waddo Soqable
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1 hour ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I've got a few random cheapo unknowns in the junk box, but I've got the Maia Vale set coming courtesy of Waveydavey, it'd be rude not to bung them in !

I`ve got a `Lockdown` set from him on my Hardly Benton and it`s bloody fantastic!

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Yeah, well aware of it, was my Mum's fav back in the 70's... And one of the only chocolate that is safe in my house from the wife n kids... I'm glad its back. Home bargains did a copy... OK but not quite...

18 bars? some will power or "Mum... i feel sick!...."

While we are here... Bejam's Pink Elephants... Strawberry Ice Cream in Plain Chocolate Choc Ice, not some choc flavoured coating...

Edited by PaulThePlug
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1 minute ago, BassTool said:

What he said...Old Jamaicky as me Dad called it...mmmmmmm  🤣

I looked on you tube in vain for the Old Jamaicky advert with the pirate, "Ole Jamaicky from Cadburys, Arrrr.." but couldn't find it, most disappointed !  Still, brilliant that you can get bars of it again... 👍

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3 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Yeah, well aware of it, was my Mum's fav back in the 70's... And one of the only chocolate that is safe in my house from the wife n kids... I'm glad its back. Home bargains did a copy... OK but not quite...

18 bars? some will power or "Mum... i feel sick!...."

Aye Paul, that was my Mam and Dads way of not sharing it with us, it had rum in it 😆 

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46 minutes ago, BassTool said:

Aye Paul, that was my Mam and Dads way of not sharing it with us, it had rum in it 😆 

I bet there's not a lot of Actual rum in a bar of old Jamaicky though !... I used to like the old Xmas favourite liqueur chocs when I was a kid, the old folks weren't bothered if I scoffed a load of those, they did appear to be proper alcohol in them at the time.

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Well after another bar or two of OJ,  Iv'e done some more butchery with the Dremel, extending the neck pocket in the body to allow the neck back towards the bridge a bit further, it was difficult to get it right, impossible, I found, to get the back "wall" totally 90 degs to horizontal, but it'll do the job and doesn't look too bad I think... according to Rabone Chesterman's finest big steel rule I should just be ok for the 12th fret to nut measurement vis the 12th fret to bridge.

I started another thread asking opinions re making a six screw body to neck joint, like the Musicman, I felt with the extended pocket the normal screw positions were a bit far forward now and it might be cool to use six (with a home made 6 hole plate on the back of course) and may be a bit easier than Mr Spondon's  45 deg. 'Sheehan' version.  The jury's out on this so far and any opinions are most welcome !

 

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Edited by Waddo Soqable
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Further shoving and bodging continues.... I was going to use my home made six screw neck plate, ( subject of another small topic )but only could find 4 neck to body screws among my junk, I wanted to bolt the thing together asap so I used the conventional set up for now..I can always put the 6 hole one on later if I fancy it.

Drilling into the neck was a bit of a pain, I did the tape around a drill trick, to go thru the body holes, in theory nice and straight, and into the neck, it worked kind of but a couple of the holes went a bit skewy... I enlarged the body holes a tad to allow a bit of wiggle room, they're meant to be clearance holes anyway, and bullied the thing together, not perfect but it'll do ( I don't think the "lutherie" thing is my game really..I'm happier welding bits of metal tbh ! )

The machine heads were another faff...obviously you have to get them in line etc, I used a small engineers square along the top of the headstock and front edge of the MH back plates to get them symetrical, the first one needed a couple of the pilot holes plugging with cocktail sticks and glue, and do 'em again as they were well out !  The machine heads on I thought i'd bung an old set of strings on it to see how the basic thing stands... well I gradually brought the strings up to a tone under standard for now...hmmm we're going to need a good old fag packet in the pocket here I think !  the bridge saddles I dropped down to the metal...the bridge will need moving down a tad (towards the control knobs) having shown it the straight edge it is in fact not properly centered as it came out of the factory so I don't feel i'm cheating too much here. The saddles will need new slots filing for the strings too as the existing spacing is all wrong.

On the plus side I've been twanging it acoustically and it does seem to twang quite resonantly, (apart from the E string!)... bear in mind tho these are just random old strings I had knocking around so likely well past their best!  Also to my surprise, the intonation at fret 12 isn't too bad straight away as it stands, so my shifting of the neck back must've been about right !      next trick I guess.. shim neck, move bridge, get playable action..all good fun huh...

 

 

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On 08/05/2021 at 20:56, PaulThePlug said:

Yeah, well aware of it, was my Mum's fav back in the 70's... And one of the only chocolate that is safe in my house from the wife n kids... I'm glad its back. Home bargains did a copy... OK but not quite...

18 bars? some will power or "Mum... i feel sick!...."

While we are here... Bejam's Pink Elephants... Strawberry Ice Cream in Plain Chocolate Choc Ice, not some choc flavoured coating...

B and m sell it cheaply 

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10 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I don't think the "lutherie" thing is my game really..I'm happier welding bits of metal tbh ! 

Make one out of metal then...

 

 

 

It'll only be good for jazz mind, and you'll need a stand to play it on.

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9 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Make one out of metal then...

 

 

 

It'll only be good for jazz mind, and you'll need a stand to play it on.

Metal bass construction has been considered trust me !.... oddly enough I did once make a guitar stand ( yep,from rusty metal) the purpose of it being to have a battered old SG bolted to it, so I could wander over to it ( bass still round me neck) murder some nasty chords for a short time, then wander off again to continue hammering the bass.... Wasn't really Jazz tho

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