bassman

I beleive what GMaistro said earlierr has been the best advice so far, how you play is more important than what song yo choose to play. Having said that, that holds true if your are talking about cover songs, so play one of your own songs, really well, and you may take the title and be all the more proud of accomplishing a victory with your own music. BTW- One of my many high school bands won one of these shindigs by playing our original "grind core" (whatever that really meant I dont know) music. PEace, Ryan

Thank you all for bringing forth your experiences with him. Peace, Ryan

Do you mean to say that AlexVDL actually put the item up for sale? PEace, Ryan

ebay sale for www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com I am a bit skeptical, even though his ebay ratings appear to be flawless. Allparts sells the same 4 string abm headless unit for bout $250, he will sell it for $175 (new). His price price jsut seems to good to be true. If anyone knows anything about this guy or can vouch for or against him I would be very appreciative. Peace, Ryan

matt, your first idea has already been done. There are some basses (and proabably guitars too) t touhere that have a single pickup that can slide between the neck and bridge, they are mounted to two parallel rods, which are also the majority of the body. carbon fibre? no help there-but of course you know to keep that stuff out of your lungs and off of your skin when tampering with it. Peace. Ryaan

Thank you for the answer, that is exactly as I suspected... I just needed to hear it from someone else to make sure. Peace, Ryan

If I wanted to attach a tone control (a simple passive hi cut) to a fishman under saddle tranducer, which requires the use of a 9 volt battery to boost the signal, would I wire it in the exact same manner as one would hook up a tone control to a passive pickup system? Thanks in advance for the helpful replies. peace, Ryan

definitely 3 band eq on board, allthough for next build I am considering making my own pickup, in which case I would go with simple volume/tone configuration on board. This next one be fretless, thus (at least in my mind) it should not need much tweaking to sound really badass. PEace, Ryan

I guess what I am really looking for info is info on how to make a stacked jazz pickup that is not way too tall for a thin (~1.5") bass body. Peace, Ryan

While I have read and researched quite a bit about pickup building I am not sure what tricks there are (besides proper sheilding) to building a passive jazz pickup that does not create hum. From what I gather if I wind two single coils, one bridge and one neck pickup- jazz style- and wire them to act as a humbucker that most interference will be avoided. However I would like to be able to pan between the two pickups without inviting unwanted hum into my signal chain. For my first pickup building project i would definitelt like to stay passive. Any suggstions or input on the subject would be much appreciated. pEace, Ryan

Sure go for it, that is the course I took for my first, neckthrough from scratch. If you have any specific concerns in mind what might they be? Peace, Ryan

Dowels will work, just make sure that the dowels your are using are not too soft, as many craft dowels tend to be. If it it to soft yor pilot holes while wander when being drilled, unless you missplaced them real bad in the first place and your new hole will not overlap them at all. Peace, Ryan

I ust bought the dewalt dw616pk router combo kit- it does not have a variable speed motor like the 618 model (whcih also has more power). Evidently I did not know that there were two very similar models with a $70 price difference for the mentioned differences. My thoughts are that I should return the router I bought and upgrade to the model with variable speeds...WHat are your thoughts on this? HOw important is speed selection. Yes, I managed to build my first bass without using a router and it came out nice, and on the following twenty basses I was using someone elses tools, the speeds were already set correctly for what I was doing. Peace, Ryan

why do you want it to be so "hard on the shoulder"? PLaying long shows with an uncomfortable bass is not so fun... You can get a pucnhy soundy without having it weigh a ton. peace, Ryan

I believe that aero received very very high remarks from Bass PLayer mag a ways back, passsive versions at least (I htink it got editors top choice tone award). Check their online archived reviews they may be very helpful. On a similar note I am going to make my own pickups for my next fretless bass scratch build, perhaps even a wooden adjustable bridge, we shall see. Peace, Ryan

I have never soldered a ground wire to a bridge.... that being said, I have laid the ground wire underneath the bridge and soldered it to a peice of conductive foil. The bridge sits on top of the foil ensuring proper grounding. This technique is helpful for rear routed instruments, or instrument in which minimal routing is done. The bridge can simply be taken off without any concern for desoldering it or pushing slakc wire back inside the body after soldering it in the first place. Peace, Ryan

Richmond, Virginia USA.

First of all... any time that you run a peice of cupped wood through a planer or joiner always place the concave face down, and convex upwards. Once you have a wide enough flat area on the convex side you can flip it over and do it the other way. The idea behind this is that the peice will not rock if two edges separated a distance. You could put the peice through your planer on a sled like you already tried, yet put it in convex side up, also shim underneath the cup in the middle so that it cannot be pressed flat by the rollers... this should take care of the problem. Peace and good luck, Ryan

from scratch- both body and neck are built from lumber. Pickups, electronics, tuners, bridges are either bought and installed or made by luthier as well. As for preslotted fretboards, that is sort of a borderline case only mentioned by a few. It may need a separate vote after "scratch" is a bit more defined. For those that do not slot their own boards, you can get very accurate results with minimal tools and quite a bit of patience. anything else... well anything else includes either a premade body with handmade neck, or vice versa. Peace, Ryan

warwick thumb basses are damn sweet, Guiatr Center carries them. The bolt on version is affordable, yet they seem to be neck heavy. The neck thru does not have such an apparent problem. Go play one... Peace, Ryan

"For the record" Everyone who mentioned anything about the Baphomet "neck" also gave a compliment. I do not think that anyone meant to lessen the credibility of such a unique and well executed design. I think it (Baphomet) is a damn sweet instrument, and the simplistic nature of Mushy's is something that I love as well, I have been toying with the more simplistic side of design myself. As far my opinion about the neck being the most difficult part, at least the most tedious (yet enjoyable) I meant the whole neck, including the fretboard and fretjob. If you look again you will see I followed this with a disclaimer that I have very little experience with inlay work- thus admitting that it may very well be more diificult to do than neck building. The point of this being brought up was only to clarify that the neck was premade- something which may have been "clear", but which I personally did not realize the first time i checked Baphomet. Finally, every instrument posted this month is worthy of praise in one way or another- they were all crafted and thought out very well. Westheman, I know I can only speak for myself but I think absolutely no harm was meant by any of us. Build ON... Ryan

Southpa. For me its only about the fun... I just like it when things are clearly stated. ie I have always wanted to "physically" build and design my own house, many folks out there like to say "Yeah, were are building a custom house." What they mean is that they are paying someone else to build the house for them, no biggie but for some odd reason it kind of annoys me a bit. Perhaps it is only because I like to actually do nearly everything on my own even when I have no previous experience- fix my truck, demo rooms in my 1910 house and rebuild them, refinish my floors, build instruments, fix instruments, do my own plumbing and electric, build my own hardwood furniture, hot rod my Vino scooter...etc. I get the feeling that a lot of people in this forum are of a similar type. Peace, Ryan

LGM, I am glad someone mentioned what most of us where thinking about the- "from scratch exept for the neck" clause. Hmmm... what is the hardest part of an instrument to construct and plan, or at least the most important part of it? However, this is not say that I have much experience with inlay work- good job on that Anastasia. PS> the pics on my page (besides my bass) are of my lovely wife and I, as well as our newborn baby boy! Peace, Ryan

that thread is beating a dead horse... the issue has been stated pretty clearly by some of those guys. The vibrations of the string are affected by the acoustical properties of the wood, and electric solid body instruments really do have acoustic properties. A comparison might help- the material that a speaker cabinet is made of can greatly affect the tone of the setup- the same goes for the electric instruments strings. Different species of wood, and even identical species of wood from the same tree can have different effects on the vibrations of the strings. The difference is surely not as noticeable in electric instruments as it is in acoustics- at least in most cases. However, it is still there. Mikelp, seems to just keep on saying, why,why,why,why,why,prove it, prove it,prove it, prove it, prove it. He is jjust not listening to the answers that have been given to him. Perhaps he wants someone to break it down to him in the most simple form, quantum mechanics... Peace, Ryan

you could add an active eq to your pickup on board the instrument, this would not be the same as active pickups, however a similar effect would be acheived. Peace, Ryan