Pea Turgh Posted September 28, 2018 Share Posted September 28, 2018 Just bought one of these... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F332666821217 Lovely bit of wood from the piccies, I hope it looks like this when it turns up! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 2, 2018 Author Share Posted October 2, 2018 (edited) Result (well, partial): the neck seller has agreed to a 50% refund and I get to keep the neck. I’m still disappointed it’s not the “right” one but it does look like a nice bit of wood, and the fingerboard in particular has some nice grain. May as well suck it up and crack on. The refin’d body has spent the last few weeks at our practice room whilst the paint cured and has finally made it home with me tonight. I’m a little short of time this week but may grab a few hours at the weekend to get the build into some sort of shape. As I think I mentioned in the OP, my long term aim with this build is a fretless. I’m not entirely sold on defretting the neck myself, however. I’d be more than happy if I could pick up a fretless neck for decent money, but they don’t seem to come up often (annoyingly I missed Beedster’s fretless neck cull in June) so I rather suspect my hand will be forced in that regard. It just seems that with defretting there are too many things I could make a right balls of, and I’d rather save myself the hassle. One could argue, though, that making a balls of a neck that has now cost me £16 isn’t exactly the end of the world. Onwards! Edited October 2, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 9 hours ago, Johnny Wishbone said: One could argue, though, that making a balls of a neck that has now cost me £16 isn’t exactly the end of the world. Why argue? I don't think there is any dispute. You have an affordable test bed right there. I'm happy that you got some sort of resolution over the neck. One day a neck with the headstock you want will present itself and by then you will have had a bit of practice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 (edited) The saga continues. The pickguard isn’t a great fit - if I align the neck pocket cutout correctly the back edge of the control cavity rout is exposed. If I cover that then the bottom edge doesn’t line up with the bottom edge of the body properly. To make matters (slightly) worse, the pickguard that’s actually the best fit (given the above issues) is the one I didn’t want to use due to the red blotch about halfway along the bottom edge (It was only about a fiver, to be fair). I have a much nicer looking one, which I paid a bit more for (pictured earlier in the thread) but it doesn’t cover the body cavity as well as the cheaper one. This is particularly annoying because when you lay them over each other they appear to be almost completely identical! Major wiggling required, and some filing/shaving of the guard around the neck pocket, plus some light chisel work to shift the back edge of the pickup rout a couple of mm further back. Still got a couple of screw holes to sort out - one is perilously close to the edge of the rout underneath, and one is actually over the rout. I’ll probably just glue that one into the hole in the pickguard to make it look like it’s actually screwed into something. The fit around the lower cutaway is still pretty crap, but I’ll probably live with it as reshaping and trying to get the bevelled edge back doesn’t sound an attractive endeavour. The problem I now have is that the hole for the jack socket is pretty much flush with the edge of the rout (2nd picture). I can’t actually get the socket in there unless I remove some more wood, and I’m not sure how I’m going to do so. I can’t drill it as there’s nothing to drill into. Filing/sanding will be a pain in the ar$e as there’s a fair bit of material to remove, and I don’t have access to a router. I suspect some work with the Dremel might be the best solution. Edited October 3, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 (edited) The neck was a super tight fit in the pocket - it wouldn’t quite go at first, so I gave the pocket rout a light scrape with a sharp chisel to clean what was left of the original red paint out and, with a little persuasion, in it went. Still plenty to do, but this ‘dry run’ gives an impression of how the finished build should look. Edited October 3, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Looks great Johnny you can file the pick guard quite easily with a fine file just support the guard well underneath I’ve had to ease a few before now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Well, between a bit of chiselling and Dremel work, that seems to have sorted it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Shielding done, electrics fitted, bridge mounted. Annoyingly, I’ve now discovered that the pickup mounting screws I have are (a ) too big to fit through the holes in the pickup covers, and (b ) not long enough. I suspect the routing in the body is slightly deeper than normal as the pups themselves do seem to sit further into the cavity than I would normally expect. New screws needed *sigh* 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTool Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Looking good 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimothey Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 I love that colour!! Shame about the pickguard tho!! 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 (edited) Well, this kind of got put to one side following a very long bout of 'can't be ar$ed' disease, alongside some other very dull domestic priorities. Managed to pull my finger out a little this weekend and, to be honest, I'm kind of regretting it. First job was getting the machine heads on. I can only assume that the screws supplied were made of advent calendar chocolate as no few than SIX of them snapped whilst being inserted, whilst another's head stripped almosy immediately. I'm now 7 screws down so have ordered some more which I hope are better quality. I managed to get most of the snapped shafts out with mole grips but have had to drill the others out (which also resulted in a snapped drill bit!) Edited December 16, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 (edited) I did manage to get the neck on, which was also a struggle as the neck pocket isn't very straight. Applying some counteracting force on the neck whilst I drilled the screwholes has made the best of a bad job, but it's still not 100%. There's clearly a bigger gap between the E string and the edge of the fretboard than at the other side, but I can live with it. Also strung it with some cheap flats and added a thumb rest (I won't actually use it, I just like the look on a P). Edited December 16, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 And now we get to the worst of it. With the strings on and tuned up, I thought I'd rough out the string height, neck relief etc before leaving it to settle overnight. It's at this point I noticed the biggest problem of all. I originally assumed that I had a high fret somewhere as it was choking out, but closer inspection reveals that the 12 fret is actually significantly lower than all the others! A high fret can be sorted reasonably easily, but 21 of them will be something of a struggle. Looks like the planned fretless conversion is now a necessity, rather than something to be tackled further down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 A bit of candle wax on the screw threads will help them go in without shearing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 1 minute ago, Norris said: A bit of candle wax on the screw threads will help them go in without shearing They weren't even stiff! I do use the wax trick for stubborn screws but these sheared with almost no effort! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimothey Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 I had that problem with my pickup screws on my last build I piloted the hole first then waxed the screw and they still sheared!! I think it's just the quality of screws now a days isn't the same as it was (I must be getting old I never thought I'd hear myself say that) 😳 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Frets pulled, slots filled with super glue. Was going to use veneers but given the the neck cost me £16 I figured there wasn't much point spending another tenner. I read about the super glue method somewhere and, as we usually have a few tubes lying around, thought I'd give it a go. Did the first fill last night and then a refill this morning. Pretty pleased with the result. I've given it a light sanding by hand just to get the excess glue off, but have ordered a proper radius block to make sure I get the proper surface. Once that arrives it'll be a few rounds of sanding, a good oiling and we're ready to re-install and string it back up! Edited December 22, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky 4000 Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 I was thinking of buying one of those eBay necks myself (a maple fret-boarded J neck, to go on my cheapo P copy), but it's no good to me if the frets are as bad as yours were... Nice headstock transfer by the way. 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 7 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said: I was thinking of buying one of those eBay necks myself (a maple fret-boarded J neck, to go on my cheapo P copy), but it's no good to me if the frets are as bad as yours were... Nice headstock transfer by the way. 😁 This was the only one that wasn't 'right'. I've had three maple Jazz necks from eBay and they're all spot on. Two of them were used here: I guess for less than £30 a chuck you are taking a punt, but that's half the fun 😉 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Looking good johnny, for that money it’s worth a go 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky 4000 Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 19 minutes ago, Johnny Wishbone said: This was the only one that wasn't 'right'. I've had three maple Jazz necks from eBay and they're all spot on. Two of them were used here: I guess for less than £30 a chuck you are taking a punt, but that's half the fun 😉 Good points, received with thanks. 👍 Looking at your Jazz build thread now... I like your style, Sir! 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimothey Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 1 hour ago, Johnny Wishbone said: This was the only one that wasn't 'right'. I've had three maple Jazz necks from eBay and they're all spot on. Two of them were used here: I guess for less than £30 a chuck you are taking a punt, but that's half the fun 😉 I took a punt on a block and binded, maple board for just over £30 to use on my unbranded P bass refinish, the neck and fretwork feels lovely but it said it was 'vintage amber' but it's more like orange its not the colour I wanted but I think it looks OK? For the money you can't really go wrong!! 😀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 Yeah mine were definitely orange! The good news is that the tint mellows pretty quickly (at least mine did). Either that or I just learned to live with it pretty quickly and my eyes are now playing tricks on me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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