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Pimp Yo' Bass


Stub Mandrel

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A string retainer which brings some level of consistency to the break angle of all strings over the nut. Why Fender etc. persist with the A string having a substantially lesser angle over the nut than the other strings, for whatever reason, is one of the minor mysteries of life.

 

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15 minutes ago, Owen said:

I am DIGGING that. Tell me more. How did you do it?

I brought it from GAK I think when they were discontinued & going cheap & I wasn't sure I'd keep it but it played so good it became my main squeeze.

I fancied doing something different so I had the body hydro-dipped, the neck lacquered with a satin vintage tint, I dyed the fretboard do give it a bit of an ebony look then added the Hipshot bridge & string retainer.

Oh I took the pickup selector out & wired it VVT.DSC_0724.thumb.jpg.938571d3b7152147a5a9ecba4434b353.jpg

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I'm also not a huge fan of unfinished necks, I like how they feel but when they start to look like a weathered fence it's time for lacquer.

My 55-02 below looked pale & anaemic (& a bit cheap) but felt great, probably the nicest neck I've played. I'd already worn through the thin lacquer on my 55-01 & decided getting the 55-02 done to prevent wear through & make it look a bit better.

I went for satin to retain the soft feel.

I also had my Stingray neck lacquered by Shuker in high gloss vintage with stainless frets.20190228_131916.thumb.jpg.1720bb4502a03a47057678c4aeea7e72.jpgIMG_20220412_202505.thumb.jpg.2c8dec329871b93b9fde012ce87ee775.jpg

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53 minutes ago, Horizontalste said:

I brought it from GAK I think when they were discontinued & going cheap & I wasn't sure I'd keep it but it played so good it became my main squeeze.

I fancied doing something different so I had the body hydro-dipped, the neck lacquered with a satin vintage tint, I dyed the fretboard do give it a bit of an ebony look then added the Hipshot bridge & string retainer.

Oh I took the pickup selector out & wired it VVT.DSC_0724.thumb.jpg.938571d3b7152147a5a9ecba4434b353.jpg

Who did the hydrodipping?

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8 hours ago, Maude said:

A visually subtle but sonically strong change to my BB424X. 

 

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if I had (a) that bass and (b) the wherewithal to do things like this I would hide two more volume pots inside the bass and rewire the toggle switch to make the options neck / full neck plus some bridge / full bridge plus some neck.

 

Go on, you know you want to :D

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On 14/01/2023 at 16:30, Maude said:

Reverse P pickup. 😉

 

Ah, of course!  :facepalm:

 

Thank you! :i-m_so_happy:

 

Yeah, I never understood why anyone would have their high D and G string sound even thinner, and the low E and D string to sound even more boomy in comparison.

 

But then again it is a known fact that Leo Fender liked to be contrary and do stuff the complete opposite way of everyone else, P pickup orientation defying logic and common sense, insisting on calling vibrato tremolo and tremolo vibrato e.t.c.

 

And having huge success doing so I guess no one dared to question it and just mindlessly proceeded copying what he did.

 

Edited by Baloney Balderdash
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My very first Bass Guitar (I owned a ukulele bass at the time) was a Greg Bennett Corsair MCR-1 mini bass (24.6 inch scale length).

Over the course of a few weeks, I made the following mods:

  • Changed to a 3D printed black pickguard.
  • Changed to a black high mass bridge.
  • Upgraded to an EMZ Geezer Butler pickup, I shielded the electrics cavity with copper tape at the same time.
  • Swapped in better quality (and black) tuning machines.
  • Added in a diy passive diode based fuzz and a diy rotary multi-position tone control (Similar to the Tonestyler Bass 6 but much less expensive), this required enlargement of the electronics cavity (and reshielding!).

I later changed to an EMG active MMCS pup (no photo) with active EQ, which required further enlarging of the pickup cavity and a reprinted pickguard.

Being small and all black (nearly) I named it 'Ponty'.  I loved the sound and playability of Ponty.

 

It was the success with these mods (which just a few months before would have seemed impossible for me) that got me into building my first bass, Twiggy.

(Sadly both Ponty and Twiggy were destroyed in my flat fire)

 

S'manth x

 

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Edited by Smanth
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1 minute ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Unbelievably tragic that after all that they were burnt, such a waste.. :(

Yep.  The BC community came to my rescue and I was soon grooving again ... and, undaunted, I have the materials to build another better version of Twiggy (To be called Phoenix).

S'manth x

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