Jazz Bass Special copy build

[lel]

I've always had a hankering for one of these old Japanese jazz bass specials being a big Duff fan. The Fender one is a ludicrous price for a MIM bass and every time an original one has popped up I've been skint, so I've decided to make my own I'm doing this on a budget for now, I'll probably upgrade parts in the near future but for now I just want it playable.

I had this Squier PJ that I'm using as a neck and electronic donor, someone has slotted a set of Tonerider pups in so it sounds kinda nice.
[url="https://flic.kr/p/Xmu7bT"][/url][url="https://flic.kr/p/Xmu7bT"]DSC_0082 (2)[/url] by [url="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146318847@N03/"]Lel Atkinson[/url], on Flickr

First job was to refinish the neck while I was waiting for a suitable body to pop up for sale. The JBS has a gloss black neck and headstock along with all black hardware so a trip to the shops for some paint was in order.

excuse the mega messy garage!



The neck with a few coats of paint before wet sanding and lacquer.

I stripped the tuners down, gave them a good roughen up and a couple of coats of primer and black too


I'll probably replace these at a later date with some proper black anodised ones, I'm sure the Wilkinson ones are a reasonable £30 or so.

The neck paint was cured today so I've gave that a final careful wet sand and polish and it's came up a treat


Also got myself a decal made and fitted today, I didn't want to label it as a Fender as its not and it never will be, so now it's the Fecker Lelbass Special


I have a rear routed PJ body en route that I picked up off ebay for a hair under £50, I'm still undecided what colour its going to go. Pearl white is the obvious choice but I'm also swaying towards an aged olympic white, we shall see.

I'd like to add the TBX control and pickup selector like the original eventually too, I can't find much information about wiring the TBX control so I'm going on the hunt for some wiring diagrams. Pickup wise I will be sticking with the Toneriders for now but I do want to experiment in the future, a set of quarter pounders will probably fin themselves in at some point.

I shall update as it goes along

[Andyjr1515]

Looking good, lel

Andy

[alittlebitrobot]

Nice one. I laughed out loud at that decal. Nice touch

Edited August 10, 2017 by alittlebitrobot

[SpondonBassed]

I love that you've got "Fecker" in an appropriate font for the sentiment. Heeheehee. You bad boy you.

[lel]

Second part of the puzzle arrived today, its pink!

[lel]

Well I've had a busy day! Body arrived this morning and its exactly what I needed.


I test fit a few parts to make sure everything was alright, the P pickup holes needed widening slightly and the pickguard holes had to be filled so out came the router and the toothpicks. I've got a bit of filling to do on the body before the finish goes on but thats nothing major, I would like to lose a bit more wood from the forearm contour but again thats nothing major.


I also tried the neck on which is a very nice snug fit and even the screw holes line up


Then I may have got a bit carried away...


It plays and sounds wonderful! It has to come apart again for the refin and the change of electrics but I couldn't resist Next week I'll be ordering Olympic white paint, some bits of black hardware, a TBX pot and pickup selector

Edited August 12, 2017 by lel

[LukeFRC]

Looks great! Not tempted by a pearl pink?!

[lel]

Cheers chaps!

I've debated a few colours especially the lovely sea foam/teal blue they did but I'd probably regret it if I didn't go white. The pink would probably stay if it wasn't for the sanding and routing I had to do!

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='lel' timestamp='1502653426' post='3352738']
Cheers chaps!

I've debated a few colours especially the lovely sea foam/teal blue they did but I'd probably regret it if I didn't go white. The pink would probably stay if it wasn't for the sanding and routing I had to do!


[/quote]

Is that a photoshop image or are you finished already? Either way it looks the business.

[lel]

I've been super busy and haven't had the chance to update this step by step, I'm now very very close to completion and I'm very happy with how its turned out!

I stripped the body back to bare bones, I'm not sure what the finish was but it came off very easy which was a delight. The few tiny dings it had were filled and the pickguard holes were given a final once over with a touch of filler just to make sure they wont show through. The hole for the toggle switch was also drilled at this stage.





Followed by a quick shoot of primer..



Which was then followed by Olympic white Nitro and clear, one tin of each seems to be just enough to get nice coverage on a P sized body.





I ordered a black high mass bridge, just a cheapy but they do the job, used them a few times now and I've been more than happy! Along with that was the TBX pot, black strap buttons, black knobs (I accidentally only ordered 2, 3rd one is stolen off another bass for now ) and a black jack plate.

Obligatory bed shot



And in one piece I still have a few jobs left to do, I want a proper set of black tuners and I need to wire the volumes independently so I can blend them when both pickups are selected, at the moment turning the P pup down also takes the jazz one with it and vice versa. I'm very happy overall, I love the nitro finish especially

[DarkHeart]

Looks canny that lel, by the way, its me that bought your original white body that ive built using the zebrano neck, I also lurk around here as well as the NE bass bin

[Damonjames]

Now that looks the part my friend!!!

If you were on stage playing I doubt anyone would notice it's not the real thing.

Nice work!