An end to procrastination

[tauzero]

A long, long time ago, I bought several Antoniotsai basses. The first was my first really playable 5-string, and that was my main bass for quite a few years (and still gets outings). The second 5-string had through-body stringing and a not terribly good bridge, and a rubbish preamp, so I decided to replace that. I took the bridge off, unscrewed the pickups, took the rear cover off, made a terrible job of filling the through-body holes, and then put it on one side for rather a long time (since 2012, to be exact).

 

A few weeks ago, I finally decided to do something about it. I'd bought a Schaller bridge a while ago in anticipation of overcoming my executive dysfunction, and back in the mists of time I'd picked up a Warwick Just-A-Nut I off Ebay which I'd put on. However, mislaid at some point were the assorted screws and the back cover. The original preamp was a five-pot job with a front jack socket and a further hole that I can't remember the purpose of.

 

I decided that I'd replace the electronics with an Artec SE3 (which has the requisite number of pots) pending any decision about the future, and I would keep the original pickups.
 

From 2012 - first, foiling the control cavity (at this point I left the preamp in situ). The atrocious filling of the through-body holes can be seen.

 

 

This got the cat seal of approval

 

 

Sadly, the cat didn't last to see the bass finished.

 

So, fast forward twelve years, and I finally lined the Schaller bridge up and screwed it into place:

 

 

The rear cover is somewhere in the house - I have no idea where, so I bought some 2mm ABS sheet and cut the cover roughly to shape, then sanded to a pretty good fit. Holes drilled in almost the right places, then I managed to drill straight through with a countersink. Sod it, it's on the back and ICBA to do it all over again. Note careful placement of cover to conceal the atrocious filling in of the through-body holes.

 

 

The front of the body is spalted, and a chunk had fallen out right by one of the control holes (the one closest to the top in the below photo). I used some hard wax filler to fill the divot.

 

 

Next step - use some heatshrink to tidy the battery wires, and put the preamp in place.

 

 

Next - the gut shot prior to the pickups being wired in (the unconnected plug is the one from the blend pot).

 

 

Finally, everything in place and the bass strung up. I'd bought a string winder bit for the electric drill and put it somewhere safe, so of course I couldn't find it, so it was strung up with my own fair hands.

 

 

I put a DFA switch in because there was a hole - I would have put an active/passive switch in but doing this is rather complicated with the SE3. If I upgrade the electronics, it will become an active/passive switch.

 

Still to do - tidying up the filled holes, fret levelling.