Oscar South Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 (edited) I came to aquire this bass today (ok, well part of a bass, but when the guy I bought it off finds the rest of the parts hes going to post it to me). Obviously its not in perfect condition but it looks nice, I've no idea of what brand it is but I assume its nothing special as any insignia has been covered (you can see 2 thin sheets of wood have been applied to the headstock). Its just a piece of wood at the moment either way though, I'm going to make a project of it. I plan to sand off the finish and reapply it then put some new components in and try and make it into something really nice looking/sounding. I've not decided if I'm going to make it fretless or not, I might well defret it though (depends on the condition of the fretboard and the quality of the fretwork really, I'll see when I take that tape off). To get things rolling I'm trying to put together a list of all the components I need and where I can get hold of them, can anyone help me out with this? Here it is so far: Bridge (its a string-through-body bass, will just any bridge work with this or do I need something specific?) Nut Those little metal hoops on the back that you thread the strings through (what are these called? Where can I get them?) Machine Heads Electronics/pots/knobs As for pickups/electronics I want to get a somewhat Fendery sound out of it, obviously I'm not really going to get a Fender sound out of it but thats the direction that I'm aiming for, can anyone recommend what kind of pickups/electronics I should get for this? I don't really want to spend ages picking out parts so help here is really appreciated, never done this kind of project before. Also, can anyone recommend any good sites to order parts from in the UK? I had a look on google but couldn't really find anywhere decent. Cheers, Oscar. Edited December 23, 2008 by Oscar South Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 (edited) Haha, wow, that's not bad for £7.50! As for the little metal things, they're called ferrules, and you should be able to get them, and just about anything else from [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/"]www.allparts.uk.com[/url] As for a fendery sound, get some fender pickups, doesn't get much more fendery than that. I've also heard wizard pickups sound good. As for the bridge... looks like a strange screw arrangement, i'm not sure what you could get for that unless you were confident enough to drill your own holes. A badass II might fit it with another two screw holes needed. But it might not. You know... that would look really nice if you sanded it down, stained it red and clearcoated it again... Edited December 23, 2008 by budget bassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 body shape does look familiar, what is it anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar South Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 [quote name='budget bassist' post='361597' date='Dec 23 2008, 12:27 AM']Haha, wow, that's not bad for £7.50! As for the little metal things, they're called ferrules, and you should be able to get them, and just about anything else from [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/"]www.allparts.uk.com[/url] As for a fendery sound, get some fender pickups, doesn't get much more fendery than that. I've also heard wizard pickups sound good.[/quote] Ok cool, I had a look for generic 'Fender pickups' but couldn't find anything labeled specifically that, but will any 'replacement' type set of pickups have the same kind of sound? Also, P/J sets seem to be uncommon, can I just wire up a seperate P and J pickup if it comes down to that? Or do I need a specific set. [quote name='budget bassist' post='361597' date='Dec 23 2008, 12:27 AM']As for the bridge... looks like a strange screw arrangement, i'm not sure what you could get for that unless you were confident enough to drill your own holes. A badass II might fit it with another two screw holes needed. But it might not.[/quote] I'm ok putting some new holes in, I'm just concerned about buying a bridge that has holes in the bottom for the strings to feed into string-though holes in the body. [quote name='budget bassist' post='361597' date='Dec 23 2008, 12:27 AM']You know... that would look really nice if you sanded it down, stained it red and clearcoated it again...[/quote] Interresting.. I'll ask someone to have a mess around in photoshop and see what it looks like. Thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gafbass02 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 looks a bit gordon smith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 [quote name='Oscar South' post='361611' date='Dec 23 2008, 12:52 AM']Ok cool, I had a look for generic 'Fender pickups' but couldn't find anything labeled specifically that, but will any 'replacement' type set of pickups have the same kind of sound? Also, P/J sets seem to be uncommon, can I just wire up a seperate P and J pickup if it comes down to that? Or do I need a specific set. [b][color="#FF0000"]Good point, i didn't take into consideration the P/J config. You can wire up any passive pickups with any other passive pickups, and like i say, according to some people on here, wizard pickups have a very vintage sound[/color] [/b] I'm ok putting some new holes in, I'm just concerned about buying a bridge that has holes in the bottom for the strings to feed into string-though holes in the body. [b][color="#FF0000"]That's fine, you can buy bridges specifically for that, [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/bass-bridge-strings-through-body-only-p-1664.html?p=product"]this[/url] cheapish one and [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/hipshot-load-through-body-bass-bridge-p-1688.html?p=product"]this[/url] hipshot one both cater for that, though if you want something else, you don't necessarily have to use the string through body option, a lot of people don't think it makes much, if any difference.[/color][/b] Thanks for the help. [b][color="#FF0000"]No worries [/color][/b][/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJA Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 looks like a 70's/early 80's Kay- as seen aplenty in the Japcrap thread. sessioner James Eller uses one as his main bass- (it's on Julian Cope's "world shut your mouth") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 That's a Cort, probably sold branded as Kay in the UK, made in Korea in about 1980. [url="http://www.axesrus.com"]http://www.axesrus.com[/url] will probably do you pretty much everything it needs - which would originally have been generic P/J pups, 2xV, 2xT, 3-way selector, sealed Schaller M4 - type tuners, Fender-type bridge, plus output jack, strap buttons, scratchplate plastic for the control cover & brass nut. And when it's finished it'll probably look quite a bit like this: [attachment=17685:front.jpg] Yes - I did have one. Cost me a little bit more than £7.50 - and cost the person I sold it to a [b]lot[/b] more than £7.50... The one issue it did have was a very shallow fingerboard height above the body - this meant that it wasn't possible to achieve a particularly low action - the original bridge was fairly chunky with fat barrel saddles, so that didn't help - I'd recommend going for something low-profile for this, ie - [b]not[/b] a Badass. Unfortunately de-fretting will only make this worse, don't do this before you find out how playable it is with frets. Jon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 The alternative would be to decide on your bridge, position it accurately and then get a friendly chippie/luthier to rout out a rebate for it to sit in, thus lowering the saddle height by 3mm or so (or however thick the bridge baseplate is). Obviously this is more work, but worth it I reckon. Seven-fifty! Ye gods, what an utter bargain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 [quote name='Rich' post='361672' date='Dec 23 2008, 08:06 AM']The alternative would be to decide on your bridge, position it accurately and then get a friendly chippie/luthier to rout out a rebate for it to sit in, thus lowering the saddle height by 3mm or so (or however thick the bridge baseplate is). Obviously this is more work, but worth it I reckon. Seven-fifty! Ye gods, what an utter bargain![/quote] That's a good plan considering it's string-through, which mine wasn't. Oscar, have you had all that masking tape off the neck yet? You'll find rather sexy triple-dot brass inlays underneath it... :brow: J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I had one. I put a DiMarzio P/J set in it, and they sounded great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-77 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I one as my first Bass in about 81, it was branded as K, if i recall the logo was on the truss rod cover. When i got my 2nd bass, i de-fretted it, painted florescent orange and yellow and generally messed about with it. What i find interesting is the shape is not to far off the kingbass that i use as my main bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJA Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 see the bass on the left here- [url="http://www.jameseller.com/jamesellerrecord.html"]http://www.jameseller.com/jamesellerrecord.html[/url] he calls it a "Lorimer Geilgud", but it's a Kay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noirpunk Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Have a look at Wilkinson hardware. Great value for money and it holds up really well (I give my bass a battering) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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