Ibanez Jet Star

[Rayman]

I’ve had this a while, and have already put some Gotoh GB707s on it….. but I decided to pull it apart and improve the frankly nasty Chinese electronics…… 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely appalling crap comes out….

 

and in goes, basically a Jazz loom, 500K volume pots, 250K tone pot and a paper and oil cap…..

 

 

Don’t look too closely at the soldering, I’m still learning, and I’m impatient, which isn’t ideal when you’re working on electronics. 

[Rayman]

Neck/frets is next…..

 

 

 

 

Check out the neck pocket 😆, Chinese craftsmanship at its finest.

 

This thing is not a high quality instrument, but, it looks cool and it sounds really nice albeit via the low output pickups (which are truly low budget). 
 

It was a birthday present from Mrs Rayman a couple of years ago, so I’m happy to spend the time making it nice.

 

Actually the neck is very comfortable, but the fret ends are sharp, so they’ll get filed and polished.

 

A fun thing….. keep you posted 

 

[AndyTravis]

Really liked these - wouldn’t mind one.

 

im sure it’ll happen at some point

[Rayman]

I really like this one, although I hope the upgrades will help it along a bit more. 

[Rayman]

Dressed and polished frets….

 

 

 

Lovely and smooth to the touch now, and a very attractive bit of rosewood actually…

 

 

 

and we’re done……

 

 

 

 

An old set of Rotosound Monels fitted, very happy with the end result. Pickups?…. Mehh I’ll leave them in. Pretty low output but I do like the tone, kind of old school. So there it is.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13 by Rayman

[SpondonBassed]

Job's a good 'un.  Very nice.

[Rayman]

Anyone going down a similar road…. I’d highly recommend 500K pots, they’ve definitely brightened up an otherwise quite dull sounding set of pups. 
 

I actually went 500K for the two volume pots and 250K for the tone.

 

Having spent a couple of hours on the bass this afternoon, I’m super happy with it, and the tone is really excellent. A greatly improved instrument indeed.