NBD: Ibanez Roadster RS-924

[LukeFRC]

48 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Yeah, definitely the same pre. Mine has the holes on the pcb that have been used to mount yours, & I think the plastic on the pots is probably additional insulation that's been added by whoever did the work, although I'm not really sure what for. I'm assuming what looks like extra taped-together wires are additional/unused wiring from the EMGs - but I'm right out of my expertise/comfort zone with this sort of thing!

 

Really interesting that it turned out to be a re-fretted RS940 - I should probably have twigged that from the single dot at the 24th fret. Is it a pro/decent fret job?

Googled ibanez musician control cavity and they had the same plastic around the pots so I think original.

 

edit: here https://www.talkbass.com/threads/any-ibanez-musician-bass-users-out-there.688124/page-6#post-17175947

 

 

not recent fret job and more recently levelled and not crowned… but pro enough it was only spotting the filled extra dots on the side that got me asking questions to realise it was originally fretless

Edited December 18, 2021 by LukeFRC

[Bassassin]

Looks like you're right, pcb screwed on like yours too. Wonder how come mine's different? It's tidy & untouched-looking enough to assume it's original. My bass is Feb '82 so just a few months later than yours. You'd think they'd be the same.

[LukeFRC]

9 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Looks like you're right, pcb screwed on like yours too. Wonder how come mine's different? It's tidy & untouched-looking enough to assume it's original. My bass is Feb '82 so just a few months later than yours. You'd think they'd be the same.

The rout is a different shape to mine and @NancyJohnsons too

[NancyJohnson]

I'm thinking about going with an East Uni-Pre 5 in this.  This will give me a pair of stacked tone controls (active bass/treble and mid/sweep), plus separate volume/blend knobs and a passive tone control knob (which will be redundant tbh but will fill one of the holes).

 

I've ordered some Crimson guitar polish, which should shine things up a bit, then I'm done with the finish.

 

I'm wondering how best to clean up the machine head leafs.  Regular polish not shining them up.

 

[LukeFRC]

6 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

I'm thinking about going with an East Uni-Pre 5 in this.  This will give me a pair of stacked tone controls (active bass/treble and mid/sweep), plus separate volume/blend knobs and a passive tone control knob (which will be redundant tbh but will fill one of the holes).

 

I've ordered some Crimson guitar polish, which should shine things up a bit, then I'm done with the finish.

 

I'm wondering how best to clean up the machine head leafs.  Regular polish not shining them up.

 

GREAT preamp …. But…

 

I’ve got a Uni pre in a Lakland … it’s pretty tight fit- want me to eyeball if I think it would fit in the roadster? Using existing holes?

Edited December 19, 2021 by LukeFRC

[NancyJohnson]

5 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

GREAT preamp …. But…

 

I’ve got a Uni pre in a Lakland … it’s pretty tight fit- want me to eyeball if I think it would fit in the roadster? Using existing holes?

 

I have East units in my Lulls and the Hamer Cruisebass and they always seem to be tight!  I'm sure it'll be ok.  😃 

 

Unlikely to be until next year.

 

[jezzaboy]

18 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

I'm thinking about going with an East Uni-Pre 5 in this.  This will give me a pair of stacked tone controls (active bass/treble and mid/sweep), plus separate volume/blend knobs and a passive tone control knob (which will be redundant tbh but will fill one of the holes).

 

I've ordered some Crimson guitar polish, which should shine things up a bit, then I'm done with the finish.

 

I'm wondering how best to clean up the machine head leafs.  Regular polish not shining them up.

 

Re the polish. I used this a few years back to clean up something on my motorbike and it worked a treat.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autosol-Metal-Polish-75-ml/dp/B003XJ1ODM/ref=asc_df_B003XJ1ODM/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309775958298&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6236451573950596072&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046955&hvtargid=pla-563996090104&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

[Bassassin]

9 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

The rout is a different shape to mine and @NancyJohnsons too

 

Curiouser & curiouser. I'd be inclined to think it points to a different factory (using different router templates) manufacturing mine - or the body, at least. It tends to be assumed that all MIJ Ibanez came from Fujigen but guitar manufacture in Japan isn full of examples of outsourcing & collaborative building, no reason to think Ibanez was any different, really.

[LukeFRC]

Unless… there’s been a redesign in that the pots seem to be different/not have the additional shielding on the outside and the preamp isn’t mounted … if you are redesigning those bits maximising the cavity helps keep the weight down and a simpler install? 
I was reading something about musician series pretty much having minor changes for each year. 
 

I spent two hours cleaning someone else’s well ingrained crud off the fretboard today and then doing the cocktail sticks and woodglue trick on the holes that seemed a bit loose… neck, pickups and oddly - bridge - how you remove a bridge enough times to have loose screws I don’t know!! Be interesting to find out how it sounds when it all comes together. EMGs… I’m normally a bit ambivalent about active pickups so we will see how it goes!! 

[Bassassin]

5 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Unless… there’s been a redesign in that the pots seem to be different/not have the additional shielding on the outside and the preamp isn’t mounted … if you are redesigning those bits maximising the cavity helps keep the weight down and a simpler install? 
I was reading something about musician series pretty much having minor changes for each year.

That's plausible, apart from the fact that yours & mine were made only a few months apart, & the Roadsters appear to have been discontinued in 1982. You'd expect the Roadstar II range would've been in development well before the predecessors were phased out, so you'd wonder if they'd bother with very minor changes on a near-obsolete bass!

 

It occurs to me the 24-fret basses - Roadster, Studio & Musician, all have pretty much identical body shapes - maybe the control route templates were interchangeable between some or all of them. I suspect we'll never know!

[LukeFRC]

Well my one is back together, a lot cleaner and works.

turns out I am not used to 24 fret necks and also the massive height distance between the neck and body compared to a fender type. it’s a bit like wearing someone else’s shoes at the moment
 

[NancyJohnson]

On 19/12/2021 at 11:08, jezzaboy said:

Re the polish. I used this a few years back to clean up something on my motorbike and it worked a treat.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autosol-Metal-Polish-75-ml/dp/B003XJ1ODM/ref=asc_df_B003XJ1ODM/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309775958298&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6236451573950596072&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046955&hvtargid=pla-563996090104&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

 

Bejeebus.  I just used it on the machines.  I'm assuming there's a chemical reaction going on (because the paper towel was black), but they came up super shiny.

 

Kudos to you!

[NancyJohnson]

Shiny machines aside, I'm just waiting on some Crimson guitar finishing polish and I'll bolt it back together.

 

I'm 100% on the John East unit, so will order this (chrome knobbage) after Christmas.  Will need to wait for a replacement J-pickup.

 

All good.

[NancyJohnson]

Final pre-Chrimbo update.

 

I'm not going to do more on the paint... it's not a museum piece and I'm okay with it. Started assembly.  I'm waiting on a replacement J-pick, but this is where we're at.  Neck isn't bolted on yet.

 

More soon.  Happy Christmas.

 

[Grahambythesea]

That’s looking good. Will it get used in earnest?

[NancyJohnson]

On 24/12/2021 at 19:53, Grahambythesea said:

That’s looking good. Will it get used in earnest?

 

I will use it, yep.  Don't know what on, mind.  All my kit gets used in some capacity/rotation.

[NancyJohnson]

New Year's Eve update.

 

Got a note back from Josi (Warman) saying he's off until next week, so decided to just bolt everything together and see how it plays/intonates.  Obviously there's no guts in it yet.

 

Neck on and off a couple of times.  No issues with straightness, it's fine, however I did put a shim the neck in the front of the neck pocket as the neck was angling too far back; it's got two thin slithers of card from a hot cross bun packet in there.  I suspect this is going to be too much, but as strings and neck will come off again next week, I can remove one of them then.

 

It stays in tune and intonated without adjustment.  I'm going to let the neck settle at tension for a day or two.  

 

*Edit.  Took out one of the pieces of card out.  Bolted her back together and gave her another quick set up.  Lovely.

 

Here she is:

Edited December 31, 2021 by NancyJohnson

[LukeFRC]

On 31/12/2021 at 16:14, NancyJohnson said:

Neck on and off a couple of times.  No issues with straightness, it's fine, however I did put a shim the neck in the front of the neck pocket as the neck was angling too far back; it's got two thin slithers of card from a hot cross bun packet in there.  I suspect this is going to be too much, but as strings and neck will come off again next week, I can remove one of them then.

Here’s the neck angle my one took without shims or anything, I would say something is wrong but it sets up perfectly so…

[NancyJohnson]

7 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Here’s the neck angle my one took without shims or anything, I would say something is wrong but it sets up perfectly so…

 

Initially (before I attached the neck), I ran a wide chisel round the neck pocket to ensure it was clean(ish) and there wasn't any big lumps of lacquer loitering in there, so before attachment #1 it was definitely a case that the angle of the pocket was slightly off - I can only assume that it's been like this its entire life.  It's a tiny amount - I doubt the bit of card that I used was even as thick as a Christmas card, but it did the trick.

 

 

[LukeFRC]

So mine works - but there’s a gremlin where if you bypass the  preamp the active pickups seem to pick up noise from the preamp still - so really it needs passive pickups…

 

but I can’t decide if I’m going to keep the bass, would I be better to sell it on now, or find a cheap set of passive PJ pickups  and then maybe sell it on… or get some decent pickups for more money and then maybe sell it on (or keep) 

[Pea Turgh]

Tonerider do a PJ set, don’t they?  Decent and cheap.

[LukeFRC]

11 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Tonerider do a PJ set, don’t they?  Decent and cheap.

£80ish I think , sound about right? 

[NancyJohnson]

56 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

So mine works - but there’s a gremlin where if you bypass the  preamp the active pickups seem to pick up noise from the preamp still - so really it needs passive pickups…

 

but I can’t decide if I’m going to keep the bass, would I be better to sell it on now, or find a cheap set of passive PJ pickups  and then maybe sell it on… or get some decent pickups for more money and then maybe sell it on (or keep) 

 

Warmans. 

[Bassassin]

On 08/01/2022 at 15:26, LukeFRC said:

So mine works - but there’s a gremlin where if you bypass the  preamp the active pickups seem to pick up noise from the preamp still - so really it needs passive pickups…

 

but I can’t decide if I’m going to keep the bass, would I be better to sell it on now, or find a cheap set of passive PJ pickups  and then maybe sell it on… or get some decent pickups for more money and then maybe sell it on (or keep) 

 

DiMarzio DP126 P/J set, with cream covers, obvs. It's what the originals were a shameless knock off of - sorry, inspired by.

[NancyJohnson]

So, this'll be the last picture for a bit.

 

Got the bridge pickup back from Josi a couple of days ago.  Concerning the wiring, at present* it's just wired it through a three-way switch into the output jack; no volume control (yet).  There's no grounding issues, it's silent.

 

For the record, the knobs are just dummies on old pots; I have some of the same knobs on order, but in chrome which will set things off nicely.  I need a truss rod cover.  Dunlop Straploks fitted.

 

To be honest, it sounds quite lovely as it is; I'd argue I always play with everything open, so the wiring apes this.  I needed to do a bit of up and down adjustment to balance the pickups, action is borderline rattly.  I suspect that if I left the holes open in the body, I'd be aching to put an East in, but right now as it's all closed up I'm happy with it visually, I'm okay with it.  Of the Warman pickups, honestly if you need a decent affordable P/J set, check him out.

 

[Edit v. 2.0]  I woke up quite early and figured that as the pots I used for the dummy knobs were EMG push/fit connector types, it should be easy to put a volume control into the circuit at least.  Took about ten minutes at lunchtime.  

 

So this is parked for now...

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by NancyJohnson
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