P Bass copy project.

[Jobiebass]

EDITED: 1/5/08


Hey,
Ive got a Ferdinand P Bass bass, didnt know what to do with it, so I decided to throw lots of time and money at it.


that what it looks like at the moment.

gonna have
Chrome Badass ii Bridge
its now black/purple marble.
got some MIM pups which I may change again later.
going for a black scratchplate I think after all the messing around.. anyone have one??

Im not sure what tone I really want from it, My Jazz and 'Ray will be my main bass's this will just be for messing about with, might under wind the pups to get a retro tone. really not sure yet.
ANY SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!!!!!

Edited May 13, 2009 by Jobiebass

[Jobiebass]

I was playing with the idea of making it fretless by filling in the holes from the removed frets, but after a long hard thing about it, I realised by the time I sand down the neck and try and make that more playable, then mess about making it fretless its still going to look bodged, Plus I love the fretless guitars with no lines on it, so I just ordered the Mighty Mite Fender P neck from the US as shown below.


ill try and take some decent pics this weekend, before its sanded, after and hopefully should get undercoat done, possibly sprayed depending on how long my wrist holds out (sprained it pretty bad skateboarding a few weeks ago, which sucks cause I cant play bass without being in lots of pain)

[steve]

you could try a piezo bridge, especially if you're going fretless. I've just put one of [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300210035096"]these from ebay[/url] on mine, and it sounds ace with a buffer.

You'd need to go active to buffer it though otherwise it would sound very tinny.

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='steve' post='165111' date='Mar 28 2008, 10:55 AM']you could try a piezo bridge, especially if you're going fretless. I've just put one of [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300210035096"]these from ebay[/url] on mine, and it sounds ace with a buffer.

You'd need to go active to buffer it though otherwise it would sound very tinny.[/quote]


I dont plan on making it active. The routing out the battery box ect is a bit over my head. Trying to keep the wood work down to a min. I do like the look of that bridge though.

[Jobiebass]

well, got the body prepped, had a few little tiny chips in the paint so ive sandd it down with (well whatever that buffer thing is called my dad uses on cars) then gone over it with 1500 wet and dry paper to make it as smooth as, after I dried it off ive noticed a few patches ive missed and is still shiny, so I need to go over it again, im trying not to get it back to the wood because I dont want to have to treat it. planning on undercoat when my neck turns up (doing the head at the same time) and then sprayed the next day.

Im off to look at some colours tomorrow but I recon its gonna be the purple/brown unless I find something new in the paint shop . definatly like the purple though but wouldnt mind if it flipped into some random other colour like green or orange.

Just waiting on the neck now really, should be 10 working days delivery. so max 3 weeks as I work away. hopefully the weather picks up cause its not great spraying when its cold. takes a lot more care and attention.

Took some better pics of it today and ill try and get them uploaded asap.

[Jobiebass]

been to the paint shop, turns out flip paint is £100 a ltr so that idea got scrapped, but the paint shop guy sold me on another idea.

Ended up with black basecoat and a deep purple marble paint, so the end result should look something like this...



if anyones used this paint before, let me know how you applyed it, ive been told to put a light coat then have 60secs to dab it with a plastic bag or anything not cilicone based to create the effect. gonna try out a few things to see what I can make of it. could lay down card cut out of somthing and lay it ontop before spraying to leave a black void saying something or a pattern.
please throw ideas at me as im quite limited at the moment.
cheers

[Jobiebass]

well, had a play with the paint, quite impressed with the results, not sure how to make it better though im sure there is a way, maybe not using a plastic bag? who knows. this is my results though on 2 test cards.






this is a better pic of the body

[Jobiebass]

morning, I need a little help.

Once the neck comes and its gets fitted, its time for the spray job. im painting the head the same colour as the body. Is there anything special I have to do to the head before I spray it? it currently has a gloss finnish, but if I rub it down back to the wood then ill need to treat the wood yes?? if so any ideas with what????

[steve-soar]

Leave it Ricky! That's a nice colour anyway.

[neepheid]

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='167471' date='Apr 1 2008, 10:21 AM']morning, I need a little help.

Once the neck comes and its gets fitted, its time for the spray job. im painting the head the same colour as the body. Is there anything special I have to do to the head before I spray it? it currently has a gloss finnish, but if I rub it down back to the wood then ill need to treat the wood yes?? if so any ideas with what????[/quote]

I wouldn't spray the body with the neck fitted. Sure, do a test fit by all means, but when spraying the body, screw on a random length of wood through the neck holes to hold the body while spraying - otherwise you'll have a lot of masking to do!

As for the head, I presume you're just doing the face of it. If you've ordered the Mighty Mite neck I think you've ordered then I don't think it'll have a gloss finish - it'll be sealed and ready to go. You might want to gently sand the face of the headstock with something fine first before commencing. Mask off the edges of the headstock and the end of the fingerboard/nut area including the truss rod adjusting hole - you don't want to be spraying in there too much.

[Jobiebass]

well im putting it together first so if I need to route out the neck pocket or whatever then it wont mess up the paint job. Takeing the neck off to spray it though. good idea about the wood, I was just gonna use some wire hanging off the celing that my dad uses for car pannels but after some thought, ill need to apply preasure to it when dabbing the ruffled pastic bags to it to give it the effect, which wont really work on a wire. Ill try out the wood idea. thanks!!

Glad you like the colour too, I was pretty unhappy I couldnt get flip paint but this marble will make it stand out, I think ill be happy with it.

Oh and thanks for the tip about the head stock, its set my mind at ease.

Thanks guys.

[Tait]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='167689' date='Apr 1 2008, 03:05 PM']Leave it Ricky! That's a nice colour anyway.[/quote]

+1

and is that a matching headstock on the first post?

every time i see a blue precision it gets my GAS going again.

I'd put in some seymour duncan quarter pounders and a pearl scratchplate, a BADASS II bridge if it was me.

but that paint job you're going for is going to look really cool, too!

Edited April 6, 2008 by lwtait

[steve-soar]

Gotoh bridge, Wizard pup, tort plate, big fat set of strings, put it all together and play for 2-3 years on a high heat.
Tastey. Don't spray it, it's gorgeous.

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='170887' date='Apr 6 2008, 07:36 PM']Gotoh bridge, Wizard pup, tort plate, big fat set of strings, put it all together and play for 2-3 years on a high heat.
Tastey. Don't spray it, it's gorgeous.[/quote]

+1

[Jobiebass]

It was pretty faded, you cant really see from the pics (gonna take better ones with a cam when I start spraying etc)
The colour it started as is lovely, under the scratch plate its a really nice metalic green/blue, and when I started rubbing it down the colour shone through, but its gone too far now to keep it that colour, plus I fancied a change.

My music shop called me back saying they got some badass ii bridges in, £65!!! I think ill be getting them imported instead

Neck should arrive this week I hope, if its here on friday then I know what im doing this weekend!!
might have to wait for the pots/pups/bridge though. I found out on friday my car MOT ran out that day.. and well.. I ended up buying a new car cause I pretty much ran the last one into the ground. so im a little broke at the mo.

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='lwtait' post='170719' date='Apr 6 2008, 02:34 PM']+1

and is that a matching headstock on the first post?[/quote]

Yeah it is, im going for a matching headstock on the new neck too.

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='171141' date='Apr 7 2008, 08:26 AM']It was pretty faded, you cant really see from the pics (gonna take better ones with a cam when I start spraying etc)
The colour it started as is lovely, under the scratch plate its a really nice metalic green/blue, and when I started rubbing it down the colour shone through, but its gone too far now to keep it that colour, plus I fancied a change.

My music shop called me back saying they got some badass ii bridges in, £65!!! I think ill be getting them imported instead

Neck should arrive this week I hope, if its here on friday then I know what im doing this weekend!!
might have to wait for the pots/pups/bridge though. I found out on friday my car MOT ran out that day.. and well.. I ended up buying a new car cause I pretty much ran the last one into the ground. so im a little broke at the mo.[/quote]

Shameless plug for my BA II, in the Other Musical Equipment section of the Marketplace. Looking for £30-35, PM me for more details.

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='jono b' post='171587' date='Apr 7 2008, 04:51 PM']Shameless plug for my BA II, in the Other Musical Equipment section of the Marketplace. Looking for £30-35, PM me for more details.[/quote]

PM sent


man I hope my neck turns up this weekend, I really want to get this project moving. the paint is screaming at me to use it. was gonna spray my old car with it for a laugh lol.

[Jobiebass]

anyone else got a BAii bridge for sale?

[johnnylager]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='167689' date='Apr 1 2008, 03:05 PM']Leave it Ricky![/quote]
Bloody 'ell, I thought I'd stumbled across the Eastenders forum!

[Jobiebass]

aughhh.
my neck still aint turned up, ive had it sent to my parents house because I work away and they have gone off on holiday for 2 weeks now.

Boooooo.
wheres my neck!

[Jobiebass]

2nd message in a week to musicalboys123 which hasnt been replyed to, where the hell is my neck?

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='179591' date='Apr 18 2008, 10:55 AM']2nd message in a week to musicalboys123 which hasnt been replyed to, where the hell is my neck?[/quote]

Atop your shoulders? Did you buy it via eBay? You can claim your money back through Paypal if they're not responding to your emails.

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='jono b' post='180033' date='Apr 18 2008, 06:15 PM']Atop your shoulders? Did you buy it via eBay? You can claim your money back through Paypal if they're not responding to your emails.[/quote]


yeah got it on ebay, its cool though, although they didnt reply to any of my mails it turned up friday, althou I have to go down the depo to pick it up.
awesome, ill pick it up on the way to Simonxxx's to have a look at his ashdown cab.

[Jobiebass]

bahh, I got the cab and its awesome, but I was too late to pickup the neck. AUGHH