WezV

dont knock it, a champs about as real as it gets!!

Just natural i think, any dye may loose us some of the 3d effect and it looks great as it is. It will be clear coated with rustins plastic coating The wood is a very nice peice of maple burl from gallery hardwoods

Nevermind, although i am hoping it wont be on the stall for long anyway!!

I am liking souped up jazz basses at the moment, this ones going to be pretty special

i have done it a few times now. like setch says, try and get it so you only have to add wood to the sides

Thats buffed out. we only went with plastic coatinf because it was quick and i am on a time limit, but it sure does give a nice finish Ben and travis moore - the bass is for sale at music live in birmingham novemeber 3-5. Come along and give it a play (and spot the mistakes). Sometimes i amaze myself, i am very happy with this bass. I spent a lont time worrying about it but now its coming together i am very excited. Glad you like it, i think this is my cousins favorite pic:

I did a template for a control plate in about 5 minutes earlier. electric fretsaws are your friend and can be quite cheap i have one of these: http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_...le=1&jump=4 It does all my templates, scratchplates and stuff like that Do it with 3/4" mdf or ply and the router thing is no longer an issue

Dunno, but i like the hipshot stuff. It always feels really solid

Looks like its going to be really nice!!

Lots of progress today. I just has my cousin who does the spraying round for the day, he brought my bass back for me to put togetherand he also brought his digital camera with him so we actually have some good pics I am very happy with the spray job he has done on the bass, we used rustins plastic costing this time because of time limitations. SHINY!! http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0023.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0022-1.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0017.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0014.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0052.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0050.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0047.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0046.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0045.jpg http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/IMG_0044.jpg We also managed to get some more work done on the one he is making, some string thru holes and the body is done

I made a small valve amp kit last year and it came with new, branded tubes. Eh's and Sovteks if i remeber correctly. Anyway, i decided to swap some of the valves for some old Mullard and Brimar's i happened to have lying around...... ..... The change in tone was amazing. Once you have tried tube swapping you will realise the difference it can make. Then you will spend all your money on as many different sets as possible to find the ebst for you

Nice to see one of Drak's that didnt meet the WOD, i like all tele's old and new. I had to vote for the baritone acoustic in the end, its a beaut!

Thats a huge improvement over the first tries, it looks very authentic now. Like one of the less shoddy bursts gibson must have got right at some point

Its a good idea to reove a little bit of the plating on the back of the pot, use a file or scraper. The solder sticks easier to the bare metal. I can understand you wanting to change the pickups but do you actually have a problem with the pots, i quite like the 300k ones and the job is easier if you dont have to do that, if they are noisy or scratchy try some pot cleaner first. If you are just changing the pickups it is simply a case of unsoldering the old pickup wires and attaching the new ones, just be aware that there is no standard colour code for pickups wires so follow the instructions that come with them. Once you have the pickups you can always ask again here for what wire goes where. If you really do need to do a full rewire i would consider getting a pro to do it because, even though its not that difficult when you know how, it can be very frustrating when you are just starting. Really it depends how much you value /need the guitar. Can you afford for it to be out of action for a while if your wiring attempts go wrong. Its always worth practicing on cheaper guitars

I had an overly bright guitar that we tried loads of different pickups in to get a usable sound. In the end it was a seymour duncan that did it for us, i think it was a 59.

Quite right, i forgot to mention that!! Burton is in the midlands, a lot closer to birmingham than it is to london.

If we are going to be really serious I would avoid any body woods that could sound a bit muddy with the short scale, woods like mahogany or swamp ash. So yeah, alder aint a bad choice. Really you can use any hardwood you can get your hands on and it will probably sound fine.

I hope you mean a theramin built in under the neck pickup that responds to your strumming

I dont know if i would say its 'hogwash', but i would definatly say that the improved tone some people hear in that position has more to do with the distance between the pickups (or from the bridge - how ever you want to see it) than anything to do with supposed 'sweet spots' or harmonic nodes. and i should have clarified a bit more, with humbuckers i aim to get the polepeices at least 3/4" away from the bridge, not the edge of the pickup. Humbuckers are wide enough that it wont matter if they catch the bit of the string that isnt moving as much. To be honest, i mostly just eyeball the distance now.

If its too close to the bridge it sounds bad, i find about 3/4 - 1" away perfect. You can easily see why if you take a guitar and start plucking right next to the bridge and slowly move the plec away from the bridge as you pluck. You will notice a distinct change in the sound around the 3/4" mark, the string isnt moving enough right next to the bridge to get a good signal and i would rather all of the pickup was under string that is moving properly. It is believed by some that the 24th fret location is the ideal spot for a neck pickup because it is a harmonic node (like the neck pickup on a strat). This is rubbish as the string is actually moving very little at a harmonic node and if you could make a pickup that just sensed the node point it would be very quiet, lucky for us that pickups are relatively wide and pickup either side of the node as well. on 24 fret guitars you cannot have the pickup in this position and they do have less tonal variety (in general) than guitars that can. This is nothing to do with the node though, just the fact that having the pickup further away from the bridge one gives more tonal variety between the two pickups and obviously 24 fret guitars have less room for pickups so less tonal variety between them So a bridge pickup should be close, but not too close, to the bridge. And a neck pickup should be as far away from the bridge one as possible for the greatest tonal difference between the two. Middle pickups can just be placed an equal distance between the other two.

After seeing Matt Bellamy play this summer i can tell you that he obviously finds it very usefull, i was in complete awe. Hooglebug, you have a lot of practicing to do. I like the V and the placement of the FF is very logical for the guitar shape

I like everything about it except for the 5 controls so close to the edge. I would aim for no more than 3-4 controls spaced more traditionally around the f-hole

Absolutly stunning!!!! I am truly amazed at how you have managed to save this guitar and end up with something that is probably nicer than you intended at the start. I just hope those sand thru patches dont become visable again in the future Love the burst, the guiatr looks very classy

Yes some people would, personally i am not that fussed either way weight wise. I dont use swamp ash often because i dont like working with it, it dents easily and is a pain to grainfill, but i still use it when people want it and it does make a very nice tonewood compared to heavy ash. Obviously, not all swamp ash is always going to sound great. I have ordered body blanks from stew-mac and gallery hardwoods to the UK, i had to pay all the usual taxes.