NBD - £60 charity shop Hondo II Professional

[PaulThePlug]

2 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

..realised I was being an idiot so went back and bought it.

 I'd ov haggled to £50!

Similar 3 point bridges on AliExp cheap...

[lemmywinks]

7 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

 I'd ov haggled to £50!

Similar 3 point bridges on AliExp cheap...

 

Aye I've found one for around £11, looks exactly like the Epi one right down to the circular points where it was cut from the mould but with a blank rectangle instead of the Epiphone logo.

 

Weirdly that same charity shop often gets music gear in, been Trace Boxer and Commando combos there last year. I always have a look in the window when I'm going past and got lucky!

[Bassassin]

The bendy bridge is another thing that points to Matsumoku - loads of Mats basses from that late 70s/early 80s era had these & they all seem to be made of cheese. This is the one that was on my Westy Track 2 when I got it:

 

 

 

[lemmywinks]

39 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

The bendy bridge is another thing that points to Matsumoku - loads of Mats basses from that late 70s/early 80s era had these & they all seem to be made of cheese. This is the one that was on my Westy Track 2 when I got it:

 

 

 

 

 

The one on mine is nowhere near that bad, just a gentle curve that could be mistaken for the bridge following the fingerboard radius. It still looks like it's affecting how low the action can go though as like that photo the hooks around the posts are warped a little bit and won't sit flush with the body.

 

Went to move the truss rod before and it seems like that's fully working which is a relief (pun intended)

 

 

[Paul S]

7 hours ago, Bassassin said:

The bendy bridge is another thing that points to Matsumoku - loads of Mats basses from that late 70s/early 80s era had these & they all seem to be made of cheese. This is the one that was on my Westy Track 2 when I got it:

 

 

 

 

Looks like that bridge had a troll living under it!

[lemmywinks]

Eeuurrgh, this bass is pretty minging!

 

Everything came out easily enough aside from the pickup screws which I had to Dremel a slot in as they were rounded and well past saving. Everything is having a soak tbh, years of bassist cheese and corrosion on this thing.

 

 

 

Can see how bad the wear is on the neck and board here.

Edited March 17, 2024 by lemmywinks

[lemmywinks]

All clean and shiny now, might not look much different but I can promise my bin is half full of absolutely disgusting paper towels. Still need to sort a shim for the neck as the reason the pickup casing cracked was because the previous owner screwed them down as far as they'd go so they weren't too close to the strings, bridge is bottomed out so it needs the neck angle sorting. Touched up some of the headstock chips and found some screws for the truss rod cover which had been glued on.

 

Think I'll get away with the stock bridge unless it gets any worse in which case I'll get the AliExpress one

.

Edited March 17, 2024 by lemmywinks

[Jackroadkill]

Yeah, man - what a great way to spend sixty nicker!  I'll bet you're well chuffed!

[lemmywinks]

4 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Yeah, man - what a great way to spend sixty nicker!  I'll bet you're well chuffed!

 

Yeah really happy with it, technically £64 as I ordered some new knobs and bought some white vinegar!

[PaulWarning]

I've got a black one, paid a mate £40 for it, a bit battered and heavy because it's ply, lovely bass though, I sound more like J J Burnel than with my precision, converted it to a lefty and got a new bridge from China for about 15 quid, the picture had Seymour Duncan quarter pounders pick ups on it but they made no difference so I put the stock De Marzi's back on 

[lemmywinks]

What strings are people using on 32" scale basses btw? Have a lightly used set of long scale Elite steels on there at the moment but I don't like how the thick the windings are around the E string post, also not keen on how Elites sound these days. Unfortunately I binned all my used strings last year so have nothing to experiment with.

 

[lemmywinks]

Was getting a bit paranoid about the pickup in this as apparently it was also available with an in house Dimarzio clone which has cream coloured covers, the pole pieces take a 0.9" (translates to 3/32") or 2.3mm hex key, I take it these are legit pickups?

 

@Bassassin prob best just tagging you to save time really!

[Bassassin]

On 22/03/2024 at 09:32, lemmywinks said:

Was getting a bit paranoid about the pickup in this as apparently it was also available with an in house Dimarzio clone which has cream coloured covers, the pole pieces take a 0.9" (translates to 3/32") or 2.3mm hex key, I take it these are legit pickups?

 

@Bassassin prob best just tagging you to save time really!

 

Sounds right - DiMarzios are imperial, anything MIJ/MIK & hex-poled will be metric, them's the rules! If you pop it out the wiring should be black/white/red/green - I don't think any Japanese units used that.

 

If you're lucky it might even have PAF stickers...

[lemmywinks]

2 hours ago, Bassassin said:

 

Sounds right - DiMarzios are imperial, anything MIJ/MIK & hex-poled will be metric, them's the rules! If you pop it out the wiring should be black/white/red/green - I don't think any Japanese units used that.

 

If you're lucky it might even have PAF stickers...

 

From memory it doesn't have the PAF stickers but there was definitely a green wire in there, thanks! I'd always assumed MIJ + cream pickup covers + hex key pole pieces would be Dimarzio but only realised there were in house lookalikes the other day when reading the Samick Wikia, bit of a relief although regardless it's a great sounding pickup. Just shows a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous!