Not so much a build "diary" as what you can do in an afternoon. P bass re-build

[Marc S]

As the title suggests, this isn't really a "build diary" as such
I had a few bits & pieces knocking around, as I'd thought about repairing / re-building an old bass
(or two!) Since getting my Roadworn Fender Jazz a while back,
I have discovered the merits of playing gigs with a bass that you aren't too precious about!

I've gigged mint, expensive basses in the past, and almost had a heart attack
everytime someone knocks a cymbal stand over, or snags their foot on a lead while setting up
- resulting in something almost getting knocked over
Or even those situations where, you're gigging in a rough & ready pub..... and you never know

Anyhow, I'd picked up an old Japan built P bass
I think it's a Matsumoko factory bass - it had the typical neck plate of such a bass,
The guy I bought it from also had had it for years
He's a guitarist, and bought it years back, as a bass for open mic nights he runs, and some recordings
He's a very trustworthy bloke, in general and his history of the bass suggested it was either from the late 70's or early 80's

It had taken a bad knock & fall, and a split opened up in the neck, along the junction between neck & fretboard
He continued to play it for a while, until it felt like someone might get a splinter from playing it!
Anyhow, I really liked the colour, grain & general look of the body - so I bought it - As I said it was cheap...

I later came across a neck, which was also going cheap
The local guy had bought it to do a build / repair job
but he couldn't get the bass set up right, and really struggled with it

He'd put a not very good Fender transfer logo on
and he'd also slightly split the varnish finish, and taken a small piece out near one of the tuners
I suspect he'd tried to rush the fitting of the tuning keys
He'd certainly rushed the varnish job, over the decals

Having removed the old neck, I discovered no useful date stamps or info in the neck pocket
and the new neck was very slightly too wide to fit the body
I thought a while about how I could neatly trim the pocket, to fit the neck

In a moment of inspiration (and this may horrify some people!)
I opted to try widening the pocket with my Dremmel drill - remember, it had all been acquired fairly cheaply so far
so no great loss, if I messed it up...
The dremmelling proved quite successful - but I would caution anyone doing this,
to protect the body of the bass with some gaffer tape, to protect paintwork...

Working gradually, I checked the neck until it fitted the pocket neatly.
Length of the pocket had to be altered too
and I'd spotted that the original neck hadn't quite fitted perfectly here
There was a small gap at the back of the neck, but the scratchplate had hidden this

Anyhow, after a little tweaking - I got the neck to fit pretty well
Although, it's not as "thick" or "deep" as the original - so it sits lower down in the body
and the bridge has had to be set very low, to get the action down

All in all though, with a bit of tweaking and fiddling, and just a few hours work
I have a bass that looks nice, sounds great and am fairly satisfied with
It needed a new jack socket (about 3 quid) and I was amazed at how good it sounds amplified
The pickup is really quite good, and it sounds a lot like a P bass should

Pics later

Edited October 6, 2015 by Marc S

[Stylon Pilson]

What in the blazes is going on with your line breaks.

S.P.

[Rumple]

I look forward to seeing the pics.

Could you shim the neck pocket so the bridge doesn't have to set really low?

[Marc S]

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' timestamp='1444058389' post='2879920']
What in the blazes is going on with your line breaks.

S.P.
[/quote]

I'm typing it so it's not just one massive block of text (which is often difficult to read, of course)
It's fairly standard practice

... unless of course, there's something awry with your computer, or your screen resolution set-up?

EDIT: I'm trying to upload pics, using Imgur
as I'd successfully done this previously
However, today it doesn't seem to be working atm

I played an open mic with the bass last night, and you know what
I quite liked it. I had thought I'd just move this bass on, after completion
But I'm now liking the bass quite a lot

I thought about a neck shim Rumple
But I don't really like seeing a shim, for some reason
It would be quite visible, methinks
Were it invisible, I'd have no problem

I'll try uploading those pics again tomorrow

Edited October 5, 2015 by Marc S

[Marc S]

Here's some pics of the bass, as I picked it up



And that split in the neck!

[Marc S]

The neck pocket. Which had no useful stamp or info in it...


Made in Japan neck plate


Imgur seems to be working faultlessly this morning

[Marc S]

The 2 necks I had a choice of fitting
One being the 2nd hand one I bought at a very reasonable cost (with dodgy decal)
The other being from a Squier VM P/J which I converted to fretless
<a href="http://imgur.com/8brT37p"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8brT37p.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

And the completed bass



The neck pocket took a bit of tweaking (widening) to allow the new neck to fit
And since these initial photos, I've also lowered the action
I didn't like the bridge saddle screws protruding so much - so out came the dremmel again
and now they sit nicely - although, as I mentioned, the bridge saddles are very low to the base of the BBOT bridge



I did a full band rehearsal with it, and played an open mic
and I was really pleased with it. It certainly sounded every inch a P bass
The rest of the band thought it looked & sounded great

One problem though - I never intended to keep this bass, and I got a bit attached to it
As I already have way too many basses, I decided to sell it. So advertised it on a local facebook group
and it sold in a few hours! Since then, I've had further enquiries about it too
Perhaps I underpriced it?

Cheers all

[Marc S]

Oops, that pic of the 2 necks didn't seem to upload at first attempt

EDIT: The one I used on this bass being the bottom neck
The ex Squier VM neck (top) I had removed the Squier logo myself
I wanted to have a go at replacing it, to see just how convincing I could get a F*nder logo to look...
and I would definitely have left the Squier logo on the back

I really dislike people trying to pass off copies as "the real thing" (you can easily see the logos on this one are fake)
So I might now consider another logo - which says "Faker" Precision,
or something similar for my next project
I also have a MIJ Jazz copy (which may have been a Columbus) that I also intend to rebuild

I had these bits lying around in my garage, unused for several months
and it's thanks to seeing excellent build projects by people on here, like Rumple
that has inspired me to put this together

Edited October 6, 2015 by Marc S

[Grangur]

Well at least the body has some good things going for it. It also looks like you did a surprisingly neat job of the neck widening too considering the tools available. I've tried it with a Dremel. I made a mess of mine.

[Rumple]

It's tough keeping control of a Dremel, I found one of these useful recently.

[b]http://tinyurl.com/DremHelp[/b]

[Grangur]

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1444155107' post='2880746']
It's tough keeping control of a Dremel, I found one of these useful recently.

[b][url="http://tinyurl.com/DremHelp"]http://tinyurl.com/DremHelp[/url][/b]
[/quote]

Oh I've got the 566 thingy, but I can still make a mess of it; of that you can still be sure.

[3below]

Quite an impressive neck split

[Rumple]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1444155305' post='2880748']
Oh I've got the 566 thingy, but I can still make a mess of it; of that you can still be sure.
[/quote]

Me too

[Marc S]

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1444155107' post='2880746']
It's tough keeping control of a Dremel, I found one of these useful recently.

[b][url="http://tinyurl.com/DremHelp"]http://tinyurl.com/DremHelp[/url][/b]
[/quote]

Yes, they can be quite cumbersome to use,
and the high ammount of torque can really catch you out, if you're not expecting it.

I very faintly scribed the mark I wanted to open the pocket up to,
and gradually ground the pocket open with one of the brownstone tools.
Then, offering the new neck up to the pocket, I gradually made the pocket wider, but kept checking I wasn't going too far

Eventually, I smoothed the edges with some fine emery paper
But the trick was definitely in the gradual approach, and keeping a steady hand to get a straight line....

EDIT: Also, I set the Dremmel at its' lowest speed

Edited October 7, 2015 by Marc S

[Marc S]

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1444155850' post='2880754']
Quite an impressive neck split
[/quote]

Actually, I must say, I probably made the split worse, cos I stored it out of Mrs S's view - in the garage
Where, although it's not damp, and not too cold, I think it still opened the split a bit more...

[Marc S]

Wish I hadn't sold this nice P bass as soon as I'd finished it now
It would have been ideal for certain gigs....
Got rather attached to it, because I think it looked and sounded nice
.... also maybe because I'd actually done something useful with unused bits & pieces

[dlloyd]

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1444060115' post='2879941']
I'm typing it so it's not just one massive block of text (which is often difficult to read, of course)
It's fairly standard practice

... unless of course, there's something awry with your computer, or your screen resolution set-up?
[/quote]

The only other place I've seen anyone do this was on a poetry forum.