AliExpress probably
2 Likes
that’s what I bought at the time : 0.46€ 90% de réduction|Cales de cou de guitare en laiton | Plaque de cale de cou de guitare | Luthier Tools Cou-8pcs manche de guitare-Aliexpress
Cool! I like the fact that they are brass, not wood.
I am worried that the “contact area” between neck and body might be too small, if you understand what I mean: I am looking for something that covers the gap entirely, so there is a 100% contact between body and neck…
1 Like
What’s the European equivalent of McMaster? You should be able to get brass shim stock sheets you could cut to fit with tin snips
1 Like
it exists but I’m not sure it’s better because it will raise the neck a little bit
2 Likes
That’s awesome @thommoss How do you like the OBP 3. It feels like an over kill for most basses. Vol, blend, Treble/bass and mid? Did you go with active/passive option?
2 Likes
I titled the neck of the Grabber today, with my little brass shim plates. I have some 1 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.2 milimeters plates. I tried 1 mm first, but it was way to radical. Then 0.5 mm : not enough. So I finished by stacking a 0.5 and a 0.2 mm plates to archieve a thickness of 0.7 mm , and then the neck tilt is perfect.
5 Likes
@Al1885 I went with this setup, push pull volume to select active/passive. Mid is also a push pull for mid freq (400 800). But only 9v for now. I don’t have a lot of experience but to me it sounds so much “crisper”. Hope to get more time playing with it tonight.
3 Likes
I just realized that I couldn’t see the side dots on this bass. They were the same color as the neck. So I mixed some fluorescent green with other acrylic paint to match the body of the bass. Drilled some shallow holes. Then filled the holes with the paint then sanded them smooth. Much more visible now and they glow under black lights.
I should have taken the neck off for this, but I didn’t. Still think it turned out pretty good.
10 Likes
I bought an inexpensive Ibanez Talman short scale bass to learn on 3 years ago. I subsequently bought a Fender P bass and that’s pretty much all I play. So the Talman became a project bass.
I did some modifications and refinished the body in nitrocellulose but the one niggling thing was the neck dive (I didn’t know how bad it was when I was learning as I had no frame of reference). The body was really light and not even lightweight tuners were going to save it.
I bought a scuba diving weight (500grams) and attached it to the bottom of the strap as a proof of concept. Yes it worked, no more neck dive.
11 Likes
I then found on Aliexpress a cheap stainless steel circular weight (500grams) from a medical supply company.
Drilled out a hole in the back of the bass using a forstner bit. Glue (PL Premium) plus small screw to keep it in place whilst the glue sets.
Is it attractive? No
Does it work? Absolutely
Should @booker_t do this to his Fodera? Depends
4 Likes
13 Likes
Nice work but why not simply keep the scuba diving weight on a dedicated strap ?
2 Likes
And if you have a cavity you can use non conductive wheel weights they use for balancing tires
1 Like
This does not compute, 
2 Likes
Having that kind of weight on the strap would make it annoying to put the bass on a floor stand and probably a handful of other mildly annoying things too.
1 Like
yeah, true (if you leave the strap on the bass)
1 Like
I made a thing today.
This is a bass I made from spare parts I got when I thought the Green bass would be hopeless.
I got a body off Ali which turned out to be super light and soft, I tried to return it and they just gave me a refund so I had to use it.
I got a neck (seconds from Ali, again) and it turned out the dodgy body had a 61mm neck pocket and the neck I got has 63mm neck, so I had to do some accurate chiselling and ended up with a nice tight fit.
I tried a few painting ideas on the body.
I tried a few leather dye burst tricks I have seen on Youtube but they didn’t work.
In addition to that the body is so soft it furred up at the slightest hint of water (lots of sanding needed) oh and it is super soft so dings easily but they also swell and expand so can be fixed.
Eventually I decided just to match the neck with bright red paint (Rustoleum from a rattle can in this case).
I tried an undercoat primer but the paints didn’t like each other so it was more sanding, with the aid of paint stripper because I was pretty fed up.
This time the red paint went on and two coats later with a few days each to dry I was happy.
I added a single coat of synthetic varnish and gave it 24 hours to dry then put it all together today.
Pickguard was a loaded one I bought, because I wanted to see if it was any good, because it was cheap and because I didn’t want to muck around with soldering and such.
Bridge is a heavy ebay job.
Nut is brass- I had to measure and file an inlet for it.
Strings are DR Neons, because, why not?
I have a red strap I will use on it also.
How does it sound?
Pretty good.
There is some hum when I use a cable but that disappears with the wireless unit.
Lows are nice and deep and there is a zingy high, presumably because of the rounds, which I am not used to.
I have played with the action height a bit and fiddle with the truss rod but not the intonation yet-that is another day job.
All in all I have a cool red bass which sounds good and is very light. It will come to the next jam night in a fortnight or so for a test run.
16 Likes