KiOgon Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 (edited) My original idea was to put together a cheap fretless, just for fun, I started in about 1965 with a home made bass which at that time I couldn’t afford or get the fretwire for, so just played it without! 1 & 2, The body P style make unknown but seems a decent bit of wood. Stripped & cleaned, polished with Carnauba & copper screening added 3 & 4, Slightly unusual 6 bolt neck plate & screws came with. The hardware, all good enough, especially the bridge, cheap pups & electricals, pots cleaned with servisol + all wiring/soldering tidied up. 5, Earth wire under bridge. 6, Screening under pups + earth wire soldered to copper. 7, Copper under the pots & jack socket all linked with the brown wire. 8, All back together & electrics tested, waiting for a neck. Edit: Pictures 2,3&5 removed to make space for finished job. Edited April 29, 2010 by KiOgon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 Hey John! Fantastic, looking forward to seeing ths one take shape. If you had the choice, would you go for a Maple fretboard or Rosewood? - I've always liked that 'Hank Marvin' look. Candy Apple + Maple! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 17, 2010 Author Share Posted April 17, 2010 [quote name='dood' post='809237' date='Apr 17 2010, 10:47 AM']Hey John! Fantastic, looking forward to seeing ths one take shape. If you had the choice, would you go for a Maple fretboard or Rosewood? - I've always liked that 'Hank Marvin' look. Candy Apple + Maple![/quote] Sorry to disappoint mate - but I'm never going to be a skinny dark haired glasses wearing whammy w*nking lookalikey - - Oh! I see what you mean TBH I'm not fussy, I have a neck on it's way from another BC'r, which is fretted & rosewood but most important = it's cheap! I love the one piece maple of my '51P, I love the Bocote on my Skjold, Rosewood varies so much but the chances are on a cheap neck it ain't gonna be great. I shall do my usual toothbrush with Lemon oil & see how it comes up. Now where's that postman? More bits required! Cheers Dood, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 [quote name='KiOgon' post='809255' date='Apr 17 2010, 11:06 AM']Sorry to disappoint mate - but I'm never going to be a skinny dark haired glasses wearing whammy w*nking lookalikey - -[/quote] Tea>>Keyboard lol!!! Great to here parts are on the way! Indeed, I'm off to the post box in a sec myself! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentbob Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 Hi, doing a cheap(ish) p-bass rebuild myself and was interested to know weather the wiring was re-soldered as you found it, or did you reposition any of the wires/capacitor, as the wiring on my p-bass seems to be totally different. Thanks, Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 [quote name='silentbob' post='814323' date='Apr 21 2010, 09:31 PM']Hi, doing a cheap(ish) p-bass rebuild myself and was interested to know weather the wiring was re-soldered as you found it, or did you reposition any of the wires/capacitor, as the wiring on my p-bass seems to be totally different. Thanks, Rob.[/quote] Hi Rob, Re-soldered as was, nothing changed but the brown wire soldered to the copper foil is my addition. I haven't got a neck yet, so not able to try it with strings but seems to work OK. How different can your's be? If mine doesn't sound right I'll probably try this: [url="http://support.fender.com/diagrams/basses/0190115C/SD0190115CPg2.pdf"]Fender '57 P bass[/url] which I think the only difference is the way the cap is wired in. Good luck, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 (edited) The *Headline Act* I got the Vintage P bass neck from oldslapper (cheers mate) & weren't too sure about the head shape So after filling the old screw holes, spot the vertical one! A lot of deliberation, a bit of pencil work, a few minutes with my coping saw & a while with sandpaper - we have More to follow, Cheers, John Edit; Pictures 4 & 7 removed. Edited April 29, 2010 by KiOgon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 29, 2010 Author Share Posted April 29, 2010 (edited) Most of my time was spent on the neck; filling all the old holes, re-shaping the head, sanding, re drilling for new machine heads & 6 bolt fitting. Then re-varnishing, polishing, tidying the frets & cleaning the finger board with Lemon oil. The new machine heads were supplied with the neck, thanks John - oldslapper, but the screws that came with were rubbish so I used real Fender screws. The lovely P bass knobs were a freebie from Ou7shined thanks Rich & the thumbrest another gimme from Voxpop thanks Marc. I have a gold scratchplate (oldslapper) & gold screws courtesy of Dood - thanks Dan, not fitted yet, thought I'd try the original white for a start. I fitted a set of 'run in' flats of my '51P & set the bridge 'as low as it goes', when it's settled I may need to tweek the truss rod but at the moment it's fine with strings up 2.5mm @ 7th, 3 @ 12th & 3.5 @ 20th frets. I like it a tad lower but I'm happy with for now. The bridge would benefit from some shorter adjusting screws, I will investigate, does anyone know what bridge that is BTW? It's surprisingly good to play, plenty of output from the pup, no nasty noises & a good P tone. I set out to build a 'budget bass' & I reckon I've achieved that, total cost was £65 - thanks to a few freebies & bits I had - yes I could have got something for less off thebay, but where's the fun in that? At least I know this is put together & setup right I've enjoyed the build, ended up with another fretted bass which wasn't my plan but hey, when a fretless neck comes my way Comments welcome Edit: Picture limit exceeded - continued next post. Edited April 29, 2010 by KiOgon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 29, 2010 Author Share Posted April 29, 2010 (edited) Completed: Edited April 29, 2010 by KiOgon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Great job, especially with the head reshape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldslapper Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Lovely job John! Can you build me a bass for £65?? plz?? gwan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted April 29, 2010 Author Share Posted April 29, 2010 [quote name='oldslapper' post='823280' date='Apr 29 2010, 06:40 PM']Lovely job John! Can you build me a bass for £65?? plz?? gwan! [/quote] Cheers John - I'd be delighted to, do you know where there's some cheap bits going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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