Happy Jack's Mike Lull Necks

[Silvia Bluejay]

Wonderful. The fretless version looks so gorgeous that even the tort pickguard is all right on it... 😉 💗

[Andyjr1515]

10 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Wonderful. The fretless version looks so gorgeous that even the tort pickguard is all right on it... 😉 💗

 

Praise indeed!  

 

Thanks, Silvia

[Hellzero]

Now, I want a fretless vintage white fiver P-Bass ... with a tortoise pickguard, of course. 🤦‍♂️ 

 

Excellent job @Andyjr1515 ... as usual.

[ezbass]

3 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Wonderful. The fretless version looks so gorgeous that even the tort pickguard is all right on it... 😉 💗

See, there you go, everyone see the light eventually* .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*You’ll be heartened to hear, however, that I’m currently changing my 2 tort p/gs over to black, just to be contrary.

Edited January 14, 2022 by ezbass

[Silvia Bluejay]

@Happy Jack and I collected the Lull from Andy this afternoon! It will be in action at our next gig, this Saturday in Chiswick. More to come after that, of course. 

 

 

[Happy Jack]

That new neck is an absolute delight. Fantastically easy to play, far more comfortable than the original Mike Lull profile (I've been playing this bass very happily for 10 years), and looks as cool as {expletive deleted}.

 

Craftsmanship of the highest order. 🧐

[ped]

Lovely stuff, and a nice pint of nutty brown ale. Back of the net. Cheers 🍻 

[Andyjr1515]

One happy customer = one very happy modder   

 

[Happy Jack]

We can't have closure without some footage of the new neck's debut (and also its first appearance).

 

If you're expecting a Pino Palladino-fest then best look away now - that ain't what I do. 🧐

 

But if you like this sort of thing, this video is worth staying to the end for ...

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Brilliant!  Love it.

 

The Lull looks and sounds good

 

[Noisyjon]

C'mon @Happy Jack - ONE MORE SONG!!!
Looking and sounding good there sir.

[ezbass]

15 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

We can't have closure without some footage of the new neck's debut (and also its first appearance).

 

If you're expecting a Pino Palladino-fest then best look away now - that ain't what I do. 🧐

 

But if you like this sort of thing, this video is worth staying to the end for ...

 

 

Just what you want in a pandemic, some random, drunken person screaming into your microphone. In normal times I find this unacceptable, now… the mind boggles .

[Happy Jack]

3 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Just what you want in a pandemic, some random, drunken person screaming into your microphone. In normal times I find this unacceptable, now… the mind boggles .

 

Why should I worry what she might catch? 😉

 

I was a bit taken aback myself (as you can probably see in the video), but show a drunken woman a microphone and sure as night follows day ...

 

In fairness to those of the female persuasion, what the video doesn't show is the completely blotto guy to my left who started the gig by insisting on getting a selfie with me using the banner as backdrop ("for my blog, yeh?"), then spent set #1 asking if he could play my bass and set #2 asking if he could "have a go on the drums".

 

[Silvia Bluejay]

That's still nowhere as bad as the drunken woman repeatedly invading the stage area and yelling into Damo's microphone at that Dynamites gig in Ware a few months ago. (That particular woman had to be escorted away by a male punter who looked like he's done that before...)

[SICbass]

On 05/01/2022 at 11:51, LukeFRC said:

won't tape fade/yellow over time? I've used waterslide paper in the past, just print directly on... https://www.musikding.de/Decal-for-laser-printers-108x139cm 

 

Hi Luke,

I hope it's alright me exhuming an old thread. I would like to try my hand using the sheet in your link. I see that it's 10,8x13,9cm - what's the method for positioning the sheet on the printer to ensure you print on the right spot, please?

Is the whole sheet A4 and the transfer bit only 10,8x13,9cm?

[LukeFRC]

1 hour ago, SICbass said:

 

Hi Luke,

I hope it's alright me exhuming an old thread. I would like to try my hand using the sheet in your link. I see that it's 10,8x13,9cm - what's the method for positioning the sheet on the printer to ensure you print on the right spot, please?

Is the whole sheet A4 and the transfer bit only 10,8x13,9cm?

Hello! Well I think I used this paper way before then... I think I set up a custom paper size in my printer (and design software) 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 31/10/2021 at 14:47, Andyjr1515 said:

So with the neck off, I could have a look at what might be going on.

 

This is always a bit of a bad sign - if the neck is pretty straight when the string tension is on it... tension that is trying to turn it into an archer's bow...then once the strings are off, then normally the neck would spring into a back-bow, with the truss rod still pulling in one direction but the strings no longer pulling in the other.  If, on the other hand, you still have a forward bow:

 

, then the truss rod is not doing at all what it is designed to do.

 

There are usually a number of possibilities.  This is a single action truss rod (there are other possibilities with 2-way rods).  Some of the more common possibilities are:

1 - it hasn't been tightened enough/at all

2 - the rod is broken or thread stripped

3 - the rod anchor point or nut collar are crushed or cracked

4 -  the rod has reached the limit of its adjustment...usually that the nut is bottomed on the truss rod thread

5 - the rod IS operating, but the inherent bow in the neck is huge and the fully adjusted rod still isn't enough to create a back-bow or even straighten it before it reaches the limit of its adjustment (in this case, the nut bottoming on the thread)

 

And, to an extent, you can confirm or eliminate some of these without having to do anything drastic like taking the fretboard off.  First is to try to loosen the truss rod nut...

 

With a single-action rod of this design (please note - do NOT try this with a two-way or a modern double-bar one-way rod where the nut is welded to the rod), the nut should unscrew and be removeable.  So that's what I did and it told me a number of things.

 

Nut off - note the relief gap:

 

So this has eliminated possibility 5.  If that had been the case, the relief gap would have increased markedly as the truss rod was loosened.

 

But I noted other things:

 

- The nut was fully bottomed on the rod.  It took considerable effort to 'crack the joint'.  But it did then unscrew.  The thread, though, was tight - and I could feel the torsion on the rod as I unscrewed it.  This eliminates possibility 2 and confirms possibility 4

 

- But even when fully tight, the rod isn't applying any back bend to the neck.  This starts pointing to possibility 3.

 

But there is an easy way of checking before any drastic action is involved.  Fender do some thick small OD washers to give a bit more movement to rods that have 'bottomed out'.  It's worth trying that before taking the more drastic action of trying take the fretboard off.  The washers are completely non-standard size - it will be as quick for me to get some posted rather than trying to file some larger ones down.

 

But it might...just might...remove the need to attempt to get the fretboard off.  So that's the next step 

   

 

 

 

 

 

I came across a variant of number 3 on a Squire Standard Jazz. Over time the truss rod appeared to loosen slightly.

 

I realised the anchor point was shifting. Kill or cure I thought get the neck off, drill to the anchor point and see if I could secure it.

 

But when I took the neck off yhere was a 3mm gap at the end of the skunk stripe and I could see the anchor!

 

With the truss rod loosened right off, I  flooded the anchor point with thin cyano hoping it would soak into the grain as much as set around the anchor.

 

I left it 24 hours just in case.

 

The neck has been stable for at least six years now!

 

 

[SICbass]

7 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Hello! Well I think I used this paper way before then... I think I set up a custom paper size in my printer (and design software) 

Thanks for your reply. I think that might be above my pay grade. I‘ll just order the finished transfer from Etsy.

Cheers,

P.