blablas

And it's finished.

Sorted out the wiring this evening, put on a set of new strings and did the first setup session.

While making the pickguard I also made a new one for the original P (I could get two from one rough pickguard plate), that one is also in place.
I probably still have to level and dress a few frets, but that's something that can be done at a later time.

I'll make more detailed pictures during daylight tomorrow.

Building something from scratch is not that much more difficult, It only takes more time.

And more shielding.


Mounted the neck pickup, made a shim (the saddles are a tad to low without to my liking), mounted the neck and put on some strings to check the alignment of everything.

Not bad.

A couple of week ago I bought a fun little (lefty) Harley Benton PB-Shorty.

I liked this little bass a lot (after having put in a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder), 30 inch scale while all other dimension are similar to a Precission Bass.
It got me thinking of wanting one with Jazz Bass pickups, given that this is not available I decided to convert one myself, this is my little rebuild diary.

Orderer another to do this conversion.
After it arrived I found out that this second one was nowhere near as well made as the first one.
Well whatever is wrong or I don't like will be fixed along the way.

(The second PB-Shorty is the one in the back)

For this conversion I'm going to use a set off Jazz Bass pickups I have laying around that came from one of my Squier VM's after I put Chi-Sonic's in that one.
For controls I prefer volume/balance/tone, these three controls will be on the top and I am going to ad a sidejack.

The conversion and fixing begins:
The tuners needed realigning, they were mounted rather sloppy, not at an straight angle and also misaligned from each other.

Before modifying.

Filling the holes with toothpicks and CA glue. After the glue hardened I just cut of the toothpicks and leveled them with a sharp chisel,
re-drilled the holes and mounted the tuners again.

And after modifying, mounted straight.

There were also a lot of sharp fret ends, well they are gone now.

On a more positive note, the neck is made out of a piece flatsawn maple.



First real sawdust.

Drilled the hole for the sidejack.

And jackplate in place.

Routing and new pickguard.

Routed the pickup cavities and made a new pickguard (mint green, the protective foil is still on, it doesn't look at its best right now).

Shielding.

Applied shielding and mounted the bridge pickup.

Beautiful twins, they look great next to each other.

A little bit of modding on the HB shorty P.

Replaced the stock pickup with a Seymour Duncan Quarter pounder, also replaced the chrome pickguard screws with black ones for a nice visual contrast.
Fixed the vague tuners with a little pencil lead in the nut grooves.

Even though the pickup cost me more than the complete bass itself, I think it was some well spent money.

That's a alluminium DIY drilling jig.
This is the most lazy, simple and reliable way to drill these side-dot holes at the exact position where I want them.

Sidedots:

Drilled....

Filled....

And leveled.

Replaced the three knob control plate on my Chi-Sonic Squier with a two knob stacked one today.
More tonal control and it just looks so nice.

This page needs more stacked knobs.

Replaced the three knob control plate on my Chi-Sonic Squier with a two knob stacked one today.
More tonal control and it just looks so nice.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1419104923' post='2636688']
think you'll have it ready early next year?
[/quote]
I'm aiming for the end of January to somewhere halfway of February.

Could be even sooner if I decide to go to my workshop at work to do some things that are easier done there than with the tools I've got at home, but I hope this is not going to be the case because right now I'm enjoying my hibernation (a five week vacation from that place).

That was one of my considerations to leave them out with this build.

I've done my stinking best to get the headstock looking as it is now, for the moment I'm not thinking of putting a cover on it.

That's a first, adding something plastic to give it class.

For the time being I'm staying with the "naked" grooves, the headstock will be busy enough anyway with all those strings and tuners.

Rough roundover from headstock to volute.

Leveled the sides of the neck (and removed that annoying paper ).


Done the rough shaping of the headstock.

My Precisions.

Squier Precision Bass.


BaCH BPB-60 butterscotch.


Harley Benton PB-Shorty, this one arrived a couple of days ago.

And the most recent new toy, hopefully I'm done buying for a longer period of time now!

Harley Benton PB-Shorty.

Fun little bass, unbelievably well built for its price (70 euro's at Thomann, this one was even cheaper, 60 euro's B-stock).
Mechanically everything is okay, reasonably well finished, no sharp fret ends, only the tuners sometimes feel a bit vague.
The thing that really needed to be done was a proper shielding job, this is absolutely necessary. Also sanded the back of the neck lightly with 1200 grain sandpaper, and of course put on a set new strings and done some fine tuning.

For its 30" scale it almost sounds as a full sized P-bass, at least to my ears.

Someone on the Dutch BasgitaarForum pointed out my simple fret sawing setup looked rather clumsy.
This is how it should look and feel if you are right handed.

Cut the fret slots. Went like a breeze after the previous snakewood one.


This is how I always do it, without any complicated jigs or machines, just a piece of wood with a straight edge, clamped a fraction next to the printed line, carefully press the saw with two fingers against this straight edge and start sawing.

prepared notches where the strings will come on the nut, such a no-brainer with the template this close by.
This will probably be the last part that will be finalized at the end of this build.

Done some more doodling around with the tuners, most of the time I prefer to position them at an angle, this is roughly how I'm going to mount them.

That was not the source for my inspiration , it's a variation on my own headstock design.

Q&D mounted all the tuners to get a feel of how the neck will balance... and just to see how it will look.

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1418228043' post='2628189']
Love the colour of that FB
[/quote]That's padauk, you don't see this wood being used for fingerboards very often.
I love this colour for a fingerboard as well.
It will turn darker over time, but when treated properly will always stay red.