Encore LTD-83 P-Bass Refurbishment/Upgrade

[silentbob]

After finally managing to win one these on Ebay, i was a little disappointed when it arrived, to find it was in pretty poor condition. The body and neck were filthy, the pickguard was warped, the hardware was tarnished (which was expected), espeacially the bridge which was pitted and flaking. pots were crackly as hell, and the grime around the the pick-ups was horrible. Worst of all was the nut which had been properly butchered, along with the top of the fingerboard on the headstock side (which must have happened during the professional set-up it had). Under normal circumstances i would have just returned the bass, but this would have not been economically viable, plus, i REALLY wanted one of these basses, so i decided to keep it and cut my losses. The big question is, what will i do with it?
I started stripping all the bits off it at the beginning of the week, and on Tuesday started to give it a good clean. After searching the net i found a recipe for a wood cleaning solution made up of washing-up liquid, vinegar, bicarbonite of soda and warm water. One hour later i had myself one veryclean bass guitar and a headfull of ideas. I figure that as i'm going to be keeping this bass, i may as well spend a few quid getting it right, so here is the plan.

1) Fully shield all cavity's with conductive paint.
2) Repair the fingerboard with woodfiller.
3) Fit a brass nut.
4) Get fret edges filed back.
5) Replace all hardware with new items in gold (Gotoh tuners and bridge, straplocks, knobs and string tree).
6) Replace all electrics (Seymour pick-ups, cts pots, new jacksocket).
7) Either re-furbish, or replace the pickguard in red tortoiseshell.

Hopefully this should all start taking shape over the next couple of weeks. I've included a couple of pics of the bass in its current state if anybody fancies a look, and i'll post updates/new pics as and when.

[7string]

The resurrection of Encore's is catching on.

Keep the thread updated.

[Wil]

I still have my first bass, an Encore P from the mid 90s. Decent shielding, pickups, status neck and a preamp made it more than giggable for a while, it was my main bass after I sold my Jazz. Good modding basses, basically

[silentbob]

Quick update, couple of changes to the build spec due to some bargain Ebay purchases. Tuners will now be Wilkinson, which although not as big a "name" as Gotoh, do a great job of keeping my Vintage bass in tune so that's good enough for me.
The pickups are now going to be WD Kent Armstrong PBV's, these seem to get a good review so i thought i give them a go as they were so cheap (£16 for an unused set off Ebay). Figure if i don't like them i can always fit Seymour's at a later date.
I'm now also in possesion of a Gotoh 201 bridge and a swithcraft jack socket, both in gold, and my original scratchplate has been sent off to The Bass Doc to be matched and replaced.
Finally i decided to shield the cavity with tape and not paint as, after doing a little research it seems like the paint doesn't work as well as the tape. This is now done and a pic is below.

[silentbob]

This has been sat for a while, but i'm going to pull my finger out and get this sorted. Here's a couple of pics of the new Gotoh tuners (Wilkinson ones didn't fit in the end).

[silentbob]

Got a load more of this done today. First up was soldering all of the electrical components into place, somthing i don't really like doing, and don't have much confidence in doing, but i figured the worst that could happen if i screw it up is that i admit defeat, spend a few more quid on some more pots, ect, and ask somebody else to do it for me. I t did seem to go ok, so i hope all is well.
With all the electrics in place, i could then re-fit the pickguard and fit the Gotoh bridge and knobs. Unfortunatly the screws that came with the pick-ups are too short, so i couldn't get them in today, but that shouldn't be too much of a drama. All that's left to do then is fit a new nut, a rosewood tug bar and string her up with some flats, although i am toying with the idea of adding a pick-up cover. I will also want to get the fret edges filled back when funds allow.
Anyway, here's a few more pics of how she's looking. I reckon she's pretty cool for an Encore and can't wait to see what she sounds like.
Rob

[silentbob]

And it's finished, well, bar adding the thumbrest when i get some gold screws.
I had to admit defeat and take her to somebody else to get the nut replaced as it needed a custom made one. My local music shop recommend a chap close to me, and what a great guy he was. Crafted and fitted a custom bone nut, carried out a fret dress and gave her a set up, all for the sum of £25 all in, and the work was first class.
I'm really pleased with the the way this has turned out. I started out with a bass that i couldn't stand looking at due to it's abused condition, and ended up with a great looking instrument that i like the sound of and enjoy playing. Not sure how close to a "P" it actually sounds, as my untrained ear isn't as receptive to tones as some, but i like it, so i guess that's all that matters (though it would be interesting to hear from somebody more experienced than me on how it sounds and plays compared to a Fender or Squier, any takers?)
Here are the last few photo's, they don't really do it justice, but you'll get the idea.

Edited October 12, 2010 by silentbob

[MoonBassAlpha]

That looks a decent bit of wood for a budget instrument.
No reason that shouldn't sound fine. Nice job!

[silentbob]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='989548' date='Oct 15 2010, 06:52 PM']That looks a decent bit of wood for a budget instrument.
No reason that shouldn't sound fine. Nice job![/quote]

Just re-read a review of the bass from the nineties, and it seems that the body is medium/heavyweight Indian ash.
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=54743&hl=ENCORE+NATURAL"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...=ENCORE+NATURAL[/url]
Just as a footnote, i took delivery of my Squier VM Jaguar this week, a bass that i've been really eager to get my hands on, but after a quick play, it's been put back in it's bag for another day, as the Encore just seems to be so much better in terms of both sound, and build quality. I am so glad that i decided to keep this bass and do something with it.

[stu_g]

this is my souped up encore,its been a long time in the building and the only original encore parts left are the neck and tuners which have been grafted onto a usa p bass body
with a wizard thumper pickup cts pots and a us vintage bridge, the jazz pickup is a us jazz pickup but remains unwired
i now have loads of parts as i bought a sunn mustang p bass i was gonna use at first but the truss rod doesnt work
i think the sunn mustangs and the early encores where all made in india in the same factory as both the encore and sunn are pretty much identical bar the bridges and machineheads
[attachment=61544:Picture_036.jpg]

[silentbob]

That looks nice mate, glad to see you've kept the Encore logo on the headstock too.
How well did the Encore neck fit into the Fender body?

[stu_g]

it was a perfect fit no new holes required ,i had a neck i bought from america which on arrival was warped and i cant beleive after all the grief i had with necks this thing slotted straight in and i love the feel of it quite chunky but i like that

[silentbob]

[quote name='stu_g' post='990486' date='Oct 16 2010, 06:51 PM']it was a perfect fit no new holes required ,i had a neck i bought from america which on arrival was warped and i cant beleive after all the grief i had with necks this thing slotted straight in and i love the feel of it quite chunky but i like that [/quote]

I suspected that may have been the case with the neck fitment, i 'm sure i read somewhere that the earlier Encores were made to the exact specifacations of the Fenders that they were copies of.