mefgames Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 I ordered a fakenbacker 4005 bass back on 11 June. Item arrived today and is broken at the neck joint. the overall quality for what I paid, is not bad, but the neck joint construction is a joke. Maybe 1 and 1 1/4 inches of the neck is glued into the pocket. Ridiculous !!! I knew when I ordered it I was taking a risk, but I was hoping for the best. I am trying to open a dispute, but I cannot get confirmation that it is opened. I cannot seem to get past EVA, that infernal BOT. I have contacted the seller, but because of the time difference , I probably won't hear til tomorrow. Any ideas on how to get a live person on Ali Express. 1 Quote
kodiakblair Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 Time difference here too. Currently 2am in the UK. Have you clicked "order received" ? Seller doesn't get paid until you do. Open a dispute and follow procedure. Hopefully you paid by credit card or through paypal,both give you better protection for refunds. 1 Quote
lurksalot Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 Looking at that it seems like the actual neck has split at the joint . almost like the grain is running across the neck rather than along it. Good luck I hope you get your money back Quote
NikNik Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 What a shame. I always thought those Ali jobs were neck-through. Quote
Geek99 Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 Just open a dispute. I’ve never had a problem with those Chinese folks on Ali 2 Quote
mefgames Posted July 18, 2019 Author Posted July 18, 2019 Update, full refund in progress, Yay !!! 2 Quote
Christine Posted July 18, 2019 Posted July 18, 2019 Do you get to keep what's left or is it going back. Quote
mefgames Posted July 19, 2019 Author Posted July 19, 2019 No return necessary. I am going to try to repair it with a deeper pocket into the body to act as a mortise, then removing about 1/2" to 5/8" of the lower part of the heel and gluing a piece of maple to it to act as a tenon into the deeper pocket. Not sure if it will work, but that's the track I'm on right now. Quote
miles'tone Posted July 19, 2019 Posted July 19, 2019 Glad you got the refund! I would try the same thing regarding repairs although I'd go for super strong wood epoxy resin to bond it all together (and a couple of screws if there's room!) Good luck! Quote
Christine Posted July 19, 2019 Posted July 19, 2019 6 hours ago, mefgames said: No return necessary. I am going to try to repair it with a deeper pocket into the body to act as a mortise, then removing about 1/2" to 5/8" of the lower part of the heel and gluing a piece of maple to it to act as a tenon into the deeper pocket. Not sure if it will work, but that's the track I'm on right now. If the worst came to the worst you could get one of those Allparts uncut headstock necks and have it cut to the right shape and re rout the body to suit or even have the neck modified at the heel to make it a set neck Quote
mefgames Posted July 22, 2019 Author Posted July 22, 2019 Glued the tenon to the neck and roughed out the mortise in the body, 4 Quote
mefgames Posted July 27, 2019 Author Posted July 27, 2019 Update !!! Spent the last few days since receiving the bass working out a viable solution to fix the neck/body joint break. Pretty much had to remake the neck heel by cutting the broken part and adding a tenon, then mortising the body to mate the two. Glued and clamped it up and let cure for 2 days. This is the result. Still need to finish the repaired area and tweak the action and intonation. Electronics work fine. Tuned it to pitch and all seems well. And that "R" has got to go. possible harp tailpiece replacement and a correct bass bridge from Winfield. 6 Quote
mefgames Posted July 31, 2019 Author Posted July 31, 2019 Hardware update, Installed new tailpiece and bridge assembly from Winfield. Looks 1000% better, corrected the string spacing as well. 11 Quote
SICbass Posted August 1, 2019 Posted August 1, 2019 35 minutes ago, NikNik said: Suck on that, John Hall. Nicely put. Quote
Chris2112 Posted August 1, 2019 Posted August 1, 2019 Arriving in that busted up state does rather reinforce the old adage 'buy tat, get tat'. Quote
markoire Posted August 1, 2019 Posted August 1, 2019 You made a great job repairing it - how does it play/sound? Quote
mefgames Posted August 1, 2019 Author Posted August 1, 2019 (edited) Still in the process of tweaking string height, but for now it plays well. One of the pickups has noticeably lower output than the other, but I will be changing those and the electronics soon. I'm thinking about putting a set of D'addario Chromes on it as well. Edited August 1, 2019 by mefgames 1 Quote
mefgames Posted August 30, 2019 Author Posted August 30, 2019 Impossible to find a hardshell case for this one, so I built this. Just need to finish the 2 compartments. 5 Quote
ambient Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 8 minutes ago, mefgames said: Impossible to find a hardshell case for this one, so I built this. Just need to finish the 2 compartments. I’m always impressed when people build things like that. God knows what it would have looked like if I’d done it 😁. Quote
mcnach Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 That looks amazing... I admire people who can build things like these. Quote
BassTractor Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 50 minutes ago, mcnach said: That looks amazing... I admire people who can build things like these. Me too, but you all forget to ask the important question: whatever is the white vehicle in the upper left corner of the first pic, @mefgames? Quote
Geek99 Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 22 hours ago, mefgames said: Impossible to find a hardshell case for this one, so I built this. Just need to finish the 2 compartments. So ... here’s one I knocked up in ten minutes using Lego painted black and a few cotton wall balls. Sarcasm aside ... fabulous Quote
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