Any suggestions for "reconstructing" a Fender P-bass 74 bass from the body?

[Dogame]

Hi everyone, I've recently won a 74 P-bass body on Ebay and I was wondering what kind of materials I could use to "reconstruct" the bass, not with vintage parts but modern ones, through two points of view:

1.Good materials, less than $700 for everything (not counting the body)
or...
2. Average materials, but much cheaper, perhaps $300-400 (not counting the body)





At the moment I've got a Guitarfetish vintage-type bridge and my guess is that could work okay, but I was wondering especially about the neck, tuners and pickup (for that one I've thought of SD Basslines SPB-1 vintage voiced model). Anyone for tennis? Could you give me suggestions from any (or both) ways of "reconstructing" the bass and play it for real? Thank you :hyper:

[yorick]

Have a look at Warmoth necks, Schaller or Gotoh tuners, and Seymour Duncan pickups.

[Al Heeley]

Warmoth are really good quality but a lot of money and a long wait. £150 upwards. Mighty Mite make good fender replacement necks - £75 - £100, also see if Axes'r'us have any replacement p-bass necks in. Allparts UK also do replacement necks, around £110.
Axes'r'us will do all the other hardware needed for the bass, and it will be pretty cheap.
Guitarfetish do some cheap but reasonable pickup copies for guitar and bass, worth a look.
If I were you I'd be tempted to rout out another slot for a J-bass pickup midway between the current pickups and the bridge, and turn it into a hybrid.

[Beedster]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='746826' date='Feb 16 2010, 07:54 AM']If I were you I'd be tempted to rout out another slot for a J-bass pickup midway between the current pickups and the bridge, and turn it into a hybrid.[/quote]

That's if you're sure you want to knock 50% of the body's resale value. If you bought it from where I think you bought it (and at the price I think you paid), that should be a serious concern.

C

[Jerry_B]

If you want Fender parts then this site might have what you're looking for: [url="http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/middle_bass.htm"]http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/middle_bass.htm[/url]

[henry norton]

[quote name='Beedster' post='746875' date='Feb 16 2010, 10:17 AM']That's if you're sure you want to knock 50% of the body's resale value. If you bought it from where I think you bought it (and at the price I think you paid), that should be a serious concern.

C[/quote]
+1

Most decent quality repro parts will fit just fine but if you want to start routing for pickups or drilling holes for new bridges & scratchplates you'd be better off finding a less valuable body. It looks really nice - I'd stick with chrome hardware & passive pickups.

[Dogame]

Hey thanks for the advice. I didn't have any intention of doing new holes or something, but it's good to know these things about resale value in case I got tired of it. Anyway, my plan is the possibility of doing some kind of P-bass resembling the ones used by Glenn Hughes or John Wetton, natural 70s P-bass with classic pickup.
BTW I've bought time ago some stuff (pickguard and bridge) from Guitar Fetish for a Jazz Bass and they seem to offer quite a good quality for the price, but for the pickup I'm probably digging a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 or SPB-2, perhaps it's better the first one for vintage "reconstructing".
Probably the most difficult thing to find is the neck, and the most expensive apart from the body.
I'll tell you how things could go

Edited February 17, 2010 by Dogame

[Dogame]

Thank you all for the answers, I've received this one today and looks impressive.

[url="http://img259.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14557_fendercuerpo_122_342lo.JPG"][/url]

Probably I'll get parts from that guitarpartsresource website... looks like they have a lot of things, including allparts necks... nice!