So, on occasion I like to faff about on just 4 strings and then only the root note on the the first beat of each bar, there that got the bassist bashing out of the way!........
Anyroadup, I really like the Dusty Hill (Root notist on the first count of each bar in ZZ Top) signature bass, its a Fender Custom Shoppe and the RRP is agout £3.5k, to be fair as much as I like it and guitar boutiques sell em for about £2.5k, I wouldn't part with that many Red Wine/pie/cake tokens, I have a figure to maintain, in fact I think £350 would do, but I digress...
I could build one, not a slavish replica, but something INSPIRED by the bearded one......so I started searching for parts, a reverse head bass neck is a rare beast indeed, in fact Unicorn horn, secured with unobtainium would be easier......especially as I have a penchant for the narrower Jazz neck.......
OK so I put out feelers for a Left hand Jass Bass neck and eventually am offered a Southpaw neck from a Harley Benton Jazzer on Basschat......woohoo! I'm in business!
A 51 P Bass body from an ebay manufacturer in Italy is puchased...
A bridge and chrome control plate from across the pond......
Tuners are in the parts box, along with a Jack plate
A hand wound vintage stylee pickup from Spain.....
Some parts arrived today and tonight the pink one is on night shifts.... cue Hammer House of Horror sound effects, the kitchen will be a bomb site!
Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll
Comments
This is as far as I got tonight, a dry run fit of parts after modding the headstock to Tele shape, sealing the sanded area with satin water based varnish (!) and applying a moody "F" decal.......the Body is outstandigly good quality, the Harley Benton neck really isnt bad at all but although the tuners fit, they were crooked and needed all the screw holes filling and redrilling, however the neck to body holes lined up perfectly.......I did have to square off the heel of the neck though to match the pocket.....heres close of play......
(formerly miserneil)
I am planning a "peeler" build modelled on the one above - I have a Fender bridge on the way (decided against the Squier version) and and order for body and neck going in tomorrow.
I suspect mine will take a little longer though!