New Headless Bass-ket Case Day

[Bassassin]

So - following on from [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/292915-whats-this-bass/"]this thread[/url], after Anzoid decided he wasn't up for it, he sent me a link to the sale and I decided to take a punt of my own. It arrived this morning, and here it is, the Crack Converters Headless:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/ccheadlessfront_zpswlhqr1mi.jpg.html"][/url]

Nice, ain't it? Well, I thought so, I'm a sucker for an interesting & unusual looking bass, and being From The 80s, can't quite get over the headless thing. Oh, and it was cheap, practically a giveaway compared to the Lauruses & Marleauxes(?) it [s]robs[/s] borrows its styling from.

So it's just as well it has all that going for it, because what turned up this morning, lovingly wrapped in a bin bag, is an unplayable pile of scrap.

Oh, where to start? A picture's worth a thousand words, apparently:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/bridgegap_zpsmpjjmy8d.jpg.html"][/url]

You're looking at two problems here. First, the bridge/tailpiece should be attached with two rows of 3 screws, to anchor it securely to the body. Here it's just got 3 small screws in front of the saddles to hold it on, and string tension is actually pulling the tailpiece off the bass. Problem two is that the routing behind that big gap, in the back of the body, is about 1.5 mm too shallow for the bridge to sit flush anyway.

This angulation of the bridge pulls the whole assembly upwards, raising the string height. I assume the previous custodian of this instrument was unfamiliar with the finer details (or indeed the most basic) of bass guitar setup because they have chosen, as they so frequently do, to attempt to rectify this by cranking & cranking at the truss rod, until this happened:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/necksplit_zpsb6zw7fyt.jpg.html"][/url]

Oh dear. It's actually something of a relief that the design of the string retainer means that it's actually holding the end of the fretboard in place, or I think it would've been much, much worse.

So first things first, off with its neck and off with its string retainer. And look what I found:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/truss01_zpswaw4iplf.jpg.html"][/url]

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/truss02_zpsl1cjlnxe.jpg.html"][/url]

Oh dear, oh dear...

Anyway - I am now the proud owner of a bunch of parts and a [i]slight[/i] sensation of GAS remorse. Fortunately I have some skills at my disposal - basically I can bodge stuff pretty well - so I have every confidence that this will be a solid, playable bass in a few days.The neck's going to be spending the night like this:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/clamped_zpskk0gvbdj.jpg.html"][/url]

My main task will be hand-routing the rear of the body so the tailpiece sits square and replacing the frankly inadequate string retainer & tailpiece screws with the correct quanities & sizes to actually do the job.

It's been interesting getting this intimately acqualinted with a new bass quite so quickly. This thing is a mass of contradictions. Apart from the ludicrous truss channel routing, the actual timber parts are surprisingly good - frets are well-fitted & even, the truss rod is a 2-way unit which seems smooth & functional, the quality of materials is nice for what's very clearly a budget instrument, and the hardware's solid & functional - if incredibly & (imo) unnecessarily over-engineered.

It's surprisingly heavy but a lot of that weight's in the massive tailpiece, which is a curious concept in itself, using plain-ended strings anchored in winding cams inside its body. It's hard to describe so I'll take a few pics later.

Anyway, you lot can laugh at my impulsiveness & folly while I go & whittle out some crude routing in my lovely new bass...

Jon.

[lowhand_mike]

interesting looking bass, i'm assuming the truss rod should be centered
interested to see how this turns out

[Twincam]

I wonder how could they have got the truss rod cavity so wrong? Probably won't make too much difference anyhow.

Looks like it might be cool to mess around with, swap the electrics etc. Shame it isn't a neck through.

[TheGreek]

I have the same tail piece/tuners set up on one of my basses. The tuners actually pull out to make tuning easier which is quite a clever touch but as you say it is bulky and causes the opposite of neck dive...

JOOI how much did you pay?

[Bassassin]

£150. Which is £100 too much considering the issues.

I took the neck out of the clamp to give myself room to work on the body routing & was somewhat dismayed to find the neck also has a slight twist, which wasn't at all apparent before I glued it. I'm hoping this is a consequence of the off-centre routing & extreme tension it's been subjected to. Hopefully it will relax a bit now the rod's slack.

If I can make a player out of it I quite like the idea of throwing some decent pickups & electronics into it. If the neck turns out to be a bust I can probably pick up a cheap s/h 24 fret one on here or off Ebay, & lop the headstock off...

[Bassassin]

So - finally got around to nailing this thing back together, and to be honest it doesn't look a whole lot different:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal01_zpsge66owt5.jpg.html"][/url]

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal03_zpsplsv9cmt.jpg.html"][/url]

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal05_zpsq9rgrfge.jpg.html"][/url]

What [i]is[/i] different is that the tailpiece now fits & isn't falling off, the fretboard's no longer peeling away, the neck twist is largely gone, and the whole thing plays & sounds halfway decent.

I've replaced pretty much every screw apart from the neck screws, and after leaving the neck untensioned for a fortnight the initially alarming twist is now negligible, and I don't think affects its playability at all.

And it does play surprisingly well - I'd intended to level & dress the frets as a matter of course but after realising there might be irrepairable neck issues, decided to just sling it back together & see what the neck was like with string & truss tension on it. Turns out it's solid, neither the strings nor that alarmingly off-centre truss rod affect its stability and as a bonus, the fret job's halfway decent, meaning it's perfectly playable without any work. Definitely could be made better but playing-wise, I'd happily gig it as it is.

So after a bit of bodging the bass is certainly worth what I paid, and I still think it looks cool as feck. Of course, there's a "however"...

And that's the whole bridge/tuner assembly, which, in addition to being pointlessly complex & heavy and absurdly over-engineered, is moronically ill-thought through to the point of making it borderline useless unless you're prepared to mess around and struggle with the thing.

One of the advantages of a headless system is to make string-changing & tuning quick and accurate - but the design of this thing conspires to achieve the exact opposite.

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal08_zpsildqyn73.jpg.html"][/url]

The strings wrap around narrow brass winding cams, which are drilled through the centre in order to thread the string through - so broadly similar to conventional tuner posts. Now as any fule kno, you need to wind your string around a couple of times in order to make it secure so it doesn't slip or pop out under tension. Here the problem is, as soon as you do that, the string wraps over itself, effectively increasing the gearing of the tuner, both making it awkwardly inaccurate and increasingly stiff as the string becomes taut. To help compensate for this, the tuners are designed to pop out to make them more accessible - and presumably allow room for the mole-grips you'll need to turn them!

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal09_zpsws3nchua.jpg.html"][/url]

OK I may be exaggerating a bit for comic effect but it took me a lot of faffing & string-trimming to get these to work reasonably easily - and I wouldn't relish the idea of being onstage with this thing & trying to tune accurately & quickly between songs. As it is, the E & A have [i]really[/i] stiff spots, and the winding action is the opposite of more conventional headless systems, making the whole thing annoying, counter-intuitive and awkward.

And it doesn't end there. The sockets for the ball-ends on the headpiece are tiny:

[url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/CCHfinal06_zps8scqojwg.jpg.html"][/url]

If I opened the holes out enough to accommodate standard-size ball-ends, there wouldn't be enough metal left to hold them securely. The strings on this are the second set I tried, the first set had half-wound sections on the E & A which ran over the saddles - the ball-ends were exactly the same. Thinking about it, I'd expect strings wound with silk would be pretty useless on this.

Anyway, 'nuff moaning - aside from wondering if I could put a Hohner type bridge/tuner on this I'm now pretty happy with it. Dunno if it's a keeper - I have way too many basses & no gigging band, so have zero need for any more - but pretty glad I picked it up. One way or another I think I saved it from going in a skip!

[geoffbyrne]

Jon,

you could consider Bass VI srings which have a small nut at the end of the string. Ordering them individually from LaBella isn't too expensive and might be worth a go.

G.

[Bassassin]

Thanks Geoff. Would scale length be an issue?

[geoffbyrne]

Now that you mention it.......

Doh!!

Edited November 14, 2016 by geoffbyrne

[allighatt0r]

How did you manage to get the bass and yourself up into orbit to take those stunning photos of it in space?

Looks like a nice job, and a fun project, even if the end result isn't perfect. I think it is a nice feeling to know a bass so intimately.