GarethFlatlands Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 After much complaining of having nothing to do at the weekend, I dug out my old Vintage 5 string bass which I haven't touched in many a year. I bought it in about '99 and used it for a year or so while I played bass with 65daysofstatic before it got upgraded to a Warwick Rockbass. It was a pretty good bass apart from the dire active circuit and pickups so I ripped them out and put in some Kent Armstrongs but left it very much unfinished and it's been sat behind my bed for a long, long time. I thought I'd finally try and address the little problems I've had with it and see if I couldn't make it workable again as it seemed like a waste of a usable bass. I also figured I'd do a photo journal type thing to see if it helped anyone or if I was doing anything massively wrong. Depending on whether or not it inspired me, I thought I'd ask for suggestions on what to do next with it, eg do I stick a nice 2 band EQ in there or leave it passive? Does anyone fancy cutting me a nice bone nut to replace the crappy plastic one? That kind of thing. First things first, there was a lot of built up dirt on both the frets and the fretboard. The strings also hadn't been changed in probably 7 years or so. So, old strings off and masking tape next to each side of each fret to protect the board. Then, using fine grade wire wool, I cleaned the frets with some vigorous rubbing. Spot the difference between old, dirty fret and nice shiny clean fret. Once done, the fretboard was treated to a rub down with lemon oil. A fair amount of dirt was being picked up by the cloth (as you can see) so I re-oiled it every 5 frets or so and moved to a clean bit of cloth. Again, I used a fair amount of elbow grease to lift as much of the muck as I could. Board oiled, I left it for 20 minutes or so to dry and grabbed a coffee..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 [quote name='GarethFlatlands' timestamp='1353774747' post='1878377'] Board oiled, I left it for 20 minutes or so to dry and grabbed a coffee..... [/quote] what brand coffee do you use for your rebuilds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 (edited) The next thing was the pickup height. The Kent Armstrongs sat a lot lower, (and I mean a hell of a lot lower) than the stock pickups for some reason. I've posted a pic in the past but lord knows where it's got to so here's another. Crumbs that's low. There are no strings on this one but you can just about see the bridge saddle and edge of the board to see the problem. Weedy quiet, tone central. I needed something to raise the pickup height, and this was something I wasn't prepared to skimp on. It was vintage, Fender only brand foam, woven from the belly button fluff of Leo himself. If you're going to use anything else, you may as well quit playing bass. With that in mind just skip over this picture.... 2 layers looked like it was going to do the job for each pickup. ('scuse the blurriness). A handy clothes label provided some string (with pre-tied end knot) to test the height when strung. Much better! Edited November 24, 2012 by GarethFlatlands Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1353774845' post='1878381'] what brand coffee do you use for your rebuilds? [/quote] Cafedirect medium roast, made in a Sadovsky cafetiere. Bass re-strung, I had a bit of a noodle and it sounded a lot fuller already. I'm going to leave it overnight to adjust and then have a look at a setup tomorrow, maybe with some sound clips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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