...another Jazz Project

[NancyJohnson]

I'd just thought I'd share the following. I've been sourcing gear from all over the place for the last few weeks to create a Frankenstein Jazz. I just wanted a Jazz type thing that was dirty and a mess, something I could bastardise when the mood took me and doesn't need to go in a case every time I leave the house. I also wanted to get an end result that had a bit of a Van Halenesque/80s metal vibe.

Costwise, the body owes me £4.00. Yup, £4.00. That said there was a massive rout under the old scratchplate, which probably helped me decide what to do with it from a pickup perspective. All the hardware came in at about £60, pickups (a pair of passive Wilkinson MM clones) £25.00. Neck came from the US (Mighty Mite b-stock) was £40.00 including shipping. Paint and everything else I had already.

I've just first fixed it and everything seems OK, except I need to chop out about 3mm on the neck joint as the neck sits way to high.

Visually, I think I've got what I set out to achieve; I've got to put some clear coat/lacquer on it and install the electrics. It's also a nice alternative to having a load of black/rosewood basses.

Best
P

[Sibob]

Very cool!

That is a biiiiig rout isn't it........get a Darkstar in there!

Si

[Buzz]

You could fix that route you know, considering it's painted you could stick any bit of wood in there really.

And I did think this was a guitar at first glance, the EVH paint job style is rather iconic.

[Jobiebass]

wow, just wow. I love the paintwork and it goes really well with the maple neck. ooo, white blocks in the neck would look sick. altho im 80% sure MM dont do blocks, I may have to confirm that cause im thinking blocks for my franken J I wanna make soon.

Good job!

[EdwardHimself]

wow that has more humbuckers than the guitar!!! Love that paintjob, did you do it yourself?

[steve-soar]

It will be a hell of a lot easier, to put a hardwood shim under the bridge. Start with 5mm, then reduce to taste.

Schaller use to do this with their bridges.

[NancyJohnson]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Paint job all mine. I have some nice enough gear, but I'm no purist when it comes to DIY. The body was a transparent blue colour, I rubbed it down a bit, sprayed it white - a couple of coats - rubbing down with 240 grit paper between coats. Taped up the body with 3mm and 18mm Scotch/3M tape and sprayed it dark blue. I was quite happy with the results to be honest. Rubbed down again and applied two coats of clear coat.

Deepened the neck pocket and attached the neck and it all just kind of worked. I shimmed the neck with a small bit of card and the action is great. The rout for the neck pickup [i]is[/i] enormous, plus there are screw holes in all the wrong places, so I've angled the pickup a little and it looks fine.

With all this in mind, I need to locate a wiring schematic...the two Wilkinson pickups aren't wired right. I've e-mailed Trevor W. and hopefully he'll come back to me.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so no updates for ten days.
P

PS/edit...With my graphic designer head on, I've done a headstock logo - I've christened it the Frank Einstein - Modern Prometheus Bass. Heh. Go look it up. Can I copyright that?

Edited July 5, 2009 by NancyJohnson