Wishbass refin/rebuild

[Grangur]

Hey there. I've listened to the Youtube vids and like the tone and the rustic, drift-wood looks of the Wishbass.

OK, so these aren't to everyone's taste. I know that, but I like the rustic appeal. I do think the overall shape of it's curves are spoilt by the packing-crate look of the headstock, but at least it's not yet another Fender rip off. I love the grain and character of real wood and they've got good tone. IMHO I've seen few ugly ones.

So when I saw one going on ebay I went for it, dropping in a bid at the last minute and she was mine.

And now I've become the new owner of this ugly bass. It's otherwise known as Wishbass serial number 1314 and it's a "Lobe shaped" instrument. This is the worst looking Wishbass I've ever seen and I'm wanting to find the diamond in the rough, if there's one hidden in this beast. Actually it's possibly the ugliest bass I've ever seen.

Edit - More pics: [url="http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/Grangur/library/BC-pics/Wishbass?sort=3&page=1"]click here[/url]



I don't know much about the woods except it's mainly light coloured, with Purple heart wood in the neck. And it's hand painted, mostly in black. With a fingerboard that looks like it's been painted in Ronsons red fence paint.

The fingerboard is not only a revolting red/orange, but it's not flat and saw marks can be seen.

Wishbass don't finish their basses, they make great basses, at a great price, but expect their loving owners to finish them and this one's been "done" badly. As you can see in the pics, even the curves of the body are lumpy.

The pick up is a Kent Armstrong, and I LOVE the tone.

First job - strip this babe back to the wood and see what I've got. I'm also looking out for a luthier who can make me a nice purple-heart fingerboard.

Oh, and btw. This is my first real build. The one other before it was simply a Squier strip, re-spray and pimped with all the trimmings... here goes!

Edited January 2, 2014 by Grangur

[gary mac]

I've seen uglier mate can't recall where though.

Just joking, I think it has a certain appeal, is different and interesting.

Can't wait to see the results of your work.

[BassBus]

You went ahead and bought one, Rich. Best of luck with it. I'll look forward to updates.

[Wooks79]

I'm not a fan of wishbass, but this is far from the ugliest about.

[tommorichards]

they dont have trussrods, do they? Thats the only real thing putting me off getting one as id want it fretted.

Otherwise, i reckon thats a beautiful bass!

[Grangur]

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1387735082' post='2315036']
they dont have trussrods, do they? Thats the only real thing putting me off getting one as id want it fretted.

Otherwise, i reckon thats a beautiful bass!
[/quote]
You're right, they don't have a truss rod. They/he used to make a fretted version. As I see it the only disadvantage is that you can't change the amount of relief on the neck.

But isn't this the same for fretted or fretless? In both cases you want just the right degree of relief. As I understand it, its this lack of adjustment that makes him use Purple heart wood in the neck because it holds the neck solid. Older Wishbasses also had thicker necks for this same reason.

[Billy Apple]

Subscribed. I've got a couple of Lobes waiting to be finished. Interesting to see what is under the black crap

[discreet]

So you're expected to finish the bass yourself..? If you took that idea to it's logical conclusion, you could just sell the customer a log for the price of a bass, get them to make it themselves and supply their own hardware...

I don't think it looks too bad. I like the mininal approach, one pickup, one volume control, no frets. Depends how much more finishing you're going to do I suppose...

Edited December 22, 2013 by discreet

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1387737145' post='2315085']
you could just sell the customer a log for the price of a bass,
[/quote]

How much for your log?

[Grangur]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1387737145' post='2315085']
So you're expected to finish the bass yourself..? If you took that idea to it's logical conclusion, you could just sell the customer a log for the price of a bass, get them to make it themselves and supply their own hardware...

I don't think it looks too bad. I like the mininal approach, one pickup, one volume control, no frets. Depends how much more finishing you're going to do I suppose...
[/quote]
Having shelled out for this on Ebay and getting it and finding the fb is as uneven as it is I'm inclined to agree with you. If I sand it flat, or pay a luthier, the action will then be higher than it is now. So I'm thinking of getting someone to maxhine off the FB.

So I need to ask myself, how much an I open to spending on this? Family commitments have stopped me from working on this today, but I'm already wondering what I should do if after stripping the body I find it looks boring as hell like a pine board.

Wishbasses I've seen have been interesting. But there's always a first time.

[BigRedX]

IMO that's one of the more attractive looking Wishbasses I've seen for a while. I like the black and red look, although I'd have done the back of neck and headstock black too. A few of the "curves" look more lumpy than they should, which I'd want to address.

Looking forward to see what you do with this. Do you really need to replace the fingerboard? Or is this mainly so you can get a truss-rod fitted?

Edited December 22, 2013 by BigRedX

[Grangur]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1387736834' post='2315077']
Subscribed. I've got a couple of Lobes waiting to be finished. Interesting to see what is under the black crap
[/quote]
it'd be great to see what your Lobes look like.

Today I've opened the electrocs cover and seen the MM style pup has 2 coils connected in series. I'm probably going to fit a push pull switch to make series/parallel possible.

Tomorrow we get out the blow lamp. Even if I only strip some of the back to get a preview.

[discreet]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1387736834' post='2315077']
I've got a couple of Lobes waiting to be finished.
[size=4][/quote][/size][quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1387740803' post='2315137']
It'd be great to see what your Lobes look like.
[/quote]

Pics, or the Lobes didn't happen.

Edited December 22, 2013 by discreet

[Grangur]

Thanks all for your interest. BigRedX has me thinking.... It'd be good to not have to change the FB, of course. So just now I've been playing round the 9th - 12th frets and the mwaaa is seriously random. I like mwaa, but it needs to be consistent imho.

Also, I like the action on my LTD ESP 5 fretless. (Discreet, do you need pics of this too? )

The action on the 2 compares like this:

LTD:- Nut; 0.38mm, 12th fret: 1.78mm
WB:- Nut; 0.96mm, 12th fret: 2.3mm

The height at the bridge is about 15mm on both.

So looking at this I'd like to lower the nut on the Wishbass. If I lower the nut to 0.4mm then, in theory the height at the 12th will be about 1.78mm. Which is looking good so far, but I think I need to investigate:

1 - What does the FB natural wood look like?
2 - Can I lower the pup if needed?

More tomorrow.....

Edited December 22, 2013 by Grangur

[BassBus]

You could buy a radius sanding block and level the fingerboard to your required radius. Can't go wrong for £11.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0.Xradius+sanding+block&_nkw=radius+sanding+block&_sacat=0&_from=R40"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0.Xradius+sanding+block&_nkw=radius+sanding+block&_sacat=0&_from=R40[/url]

Edited December 22, 2013 by BassBus

[Grangur]

Thanks Graham, I've ordered the radius block. I was wondering on the radius to use. There's quite a range to chose from. I believe Fender use sizes from 7.5" - 17". Warwick use from 20" - 47". I've found I think I like a flatter radius fingerboard, so I've gone for 20". It will then also be the same as my SS1.

Today I'm aiming to strip some back. Went an bought a new gas canister for the blow-lamp. I may also use Nitromorse on some parts.

I've stripped the bass of all electrics and metal parts and we're down to the basic body/neck. With any luck, today I'll get some time to get stripping.

[gary mac]

Have fun Richard.

[bengreen49]

It's not too bad for a WB. Get a jigsaw and give it a top horn.

[wmsheep]

of course, if you REALLY wanted to lower the action, you could send it off to a certain "Improver" down south!!

[Billy Apple]

I've played ACG's with a zero radius (as in flat) fret-board. it's probably the way I'll go when I do mine, very nice feel to play

[Grangur]

The other day I stripped the back and today I stripped the front of the body and most of the neck.



In the past I've used a blowlamp, but this time I used paint stripper. As you can see it left the paint well soaked into the wood, but we're beginning to see the real bass under all the black brush-marked paint.

After a lot of more sanding and scraping we now have this:


I also worked on the neck. I have ordered a sanding block for the neck, but today I used a long, sharp blade and scraped the fingerboard. Doing this removed most of the saw-blade marks and some of the hump in the radius of the neck. I wanted to remove the hump as it's uneven.

The FB is quite smooth now and we can see it's mahogany. I can't say I've heard of too many necks being made of mahogany, but it is a hardwood. I don't know how it ranks against rosewood or purple-heart. My guess is it's softer. Well, it's softer in texture/touch anyway and that's what matters. After all balsa wood is technically speaking a hardwood, but I don't' recon anyone here's going to be using it for a fingerboard any time soon.

There still appears to be a lot of black in-grained in the wood. Does anyone here know of a good way to deal with that, other than the obvious:
1 - Live with it.
2 - Keep sanding.

I've just put a straight-edge on the neck and I can see it's bowing back slightly. Presumably this will change when the strings are back in place.
For those keen to see other images, there are more [url="http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/Grangur/library/BC-pics/Wishbass?sort=3&page=1"]here[/url]

[Sambrook]

My Wishbass sounds better each time I pick it up. It's ace.

[BassBus]

It's looking great so far Rich. [size=4] [/size]

[Gust0o]

It's looked good, Grangur

[Grangur]

Evening guys!
Today I've been sanding and filling, gaps, holes etc, more sanding, scraping and sanding. It's beginning to get there. I've also ordered a jack socket cover. I've read guys saying how after standing on a lead they've managed to rip the jack socket from the wooden front, so I'm going to move the socket to the edge. I'll then put a tone control on the front in the jack hole, with a push-pull for the series/parallel.



[size=4][quote name='Sambrook' timestamp='1388237048' post='2319768'][/size]
My Wishbass sounds better each time I pick it up. It's ace.
[/quote]
Sounds great. I can't wait to get at this one. I'm also beginning to think about strings. I've got a set of Elixir Nonoweb roundwounds sitting about. I might use these, or I might order in a set of XL Chromes. I've got a 5-string set here and I love the feel. I think I'll get a 4 set on order.

Today I've also reshaped the headstock a bit. Nothing drastic, but taken the sharp edges off.