Shaggy Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Hardly a major project this, but quite a fun minor one. Last week acquired Rayman's '78 Guild B301-F fretless - or rather his mate's, ( [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=47830&hl=Guild"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=47830&hl=Guild[/url] ) for a song as it had an added DiMarzio model one p/u installed in the bridge position some time in the '80's - quite neatly as it turned out. To me the Model One looked wrong and sounded wrong (set flush with the body so way too low for one thing), so it had to go. Considered plugging the routed hole with a shaped mahogany block and making a new intact pickguard, but it would never look entirely unmolested and be a faff to do. So I reckoned a Darkstar was the way to go, hence my "wanted" ad. But last weekend it was persisting down with rain, got bored, and knew from experience that if I didn't do something with the bass now it would sit there untouched for the next 20 years. So as a no-cost temporary measure I fitted the only suitable p/u I had - a small chrome humbucker off a late '60's Kalamazoo KB1 (my very 1st bass, 32 years ago!) which I'd always assumed was Gibson - Kalamazoo being their budget brand at the time - but looks very like a Hofner unit of that era. Well made anyway, and I knew it would sound good. No p/u surround, so I made one out of mahogany to exactly cover the routed hole and cut-out in the pickguard made for the Model One. Probably rushed it a bit, and the eagle-eyed will spot a motley assortment of screws holding it on (all adds to the mojo), but an improvement I think, and the mahogany should darken with age to match the bass (as it will undoubtedly stay there forever). The pole spacing is too narrow, but the coils are full width and there seems to be no noticable drop-off on the E and G. A nice subtle "nasal" fretless tone that's quite different from the deep, woody tone on the original single-coil p/u. Main problem is the bridge p/u is much lower output than the neck one so is overpowered in the combined setting - usually my favoured one - so if it's staying I'll probably change the vol / tone control set up to vol / vol or vol / pan. Really pleased with her, and apart from the mod the bass is in amazing original condition, the poly finish almost immaculate - it's apparently been in a loft the last 20 yrs (back to Beedsters post!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7string Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Very cool! Bass looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 [quote name='Shaggy' post='494677' date='May 21 2009, 09:34 PM']Considered plugging the routed hole with a shaped mahogany block and making a new intact pickguard[/quote] That's what I would have done - the restored pickguard would have hidden most of the repair and if a good job was made of it then it wouldn't be terribly noticeable imho. However, it does look better than it did when you got it, so good job there - that Model One was so wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted May 22, 2009 Author Share Posted May 22, 2009 [quote name='neepheid' post='494901' date='May 22 2009, 09:31 AM']That's what I would have done - the restored pickguard would have hidden most of the repair and if a good job was made of it then it wouldn't be terribly noticeable imho.[/quote] I almost certainly will at some point - basically I had to do something quickly as I'd already sold the DiMarzio to Mr Foxen so there was a gaping hole there! I'd be using the original p/u (now the "neck" p/u) probably all the time anyway, it's in fact in the same location as the bridge p/u on a B302, with the neck p/u located very far towards the neck indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 nice one, some good bodging there! any pics of how it looked with the old pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted May 22, 2009 Author Share Posted May 22, 2009 [quote name='budget bassist' post='495581' date='May 22 2009, 09:32 PM']nice one, some good bodging there! any pics of how it looked with the old pickup?[/quote] If bodging were an Olympic event I'd be on the UK team! Click on the link in my first post - looking again it actually looks better than I remember! Hmmm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 Outstanding sir, very nice to see it brought back to life, good job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted May 25, 2009 Author Share Posted May 25, 2009 [quote name='Rayman' post='495959' date='May 23 2009, 12:06 PM']Outstanding sir, very nice to see it brought back to life, good job.[/quote] Thanks for the good words Rayman, and again for the smooth deal. Although an impulse buy, really pleased - quite a different character to my other 2 fretlesses, even found myself playing some (gulp[i])......Jazz[/i] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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