Messing with a Precision

[Protium]

I acquired this a while ago and it has been a work in progress. Japanese origin - Antoria neck and what I think is a Kay "sandwich" body.
Installed MM pickup at the bridge, gives a nice tight mid sound - very diverse mix of tones available between that and the traditional precision sound.
Upgraded tuners to Gotohs, replaced broken bridge, new scratchplate, complete rewire, hipshot string tree, the works

Original clean up:


Route template:


Routed:


Shielded:


MM installed:


The finished article:

[Gust0o]

Very nice! What's the shielding?

[Protium]

[quote name='Gust0o' post='873888' date='Jun 21 2010, 09:06 PM']Very nice! What's the shielding?[/quote]

Chrome tape with conductive adhesive.

[Stylon Pilson]

What's going on with the E string at the bridge? I haven't seen that before.

S.P.

[henry norton]

Your MM pickup cut out looks allot neater than the original factory routing! Nice job - I've considered swapping out the J pickup in my Precision for a MM, d'you reckon it's given you more diversity than a PJ setup would give you?

[Protium]

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='874569' date='Jun 22 2010, 04:41 PM']What's going on with the E string at the bridge? I haven't seen that before.

S.P.[/quote]

Nothing special The string was still full thickness where it reached the tuning peg so I put an inch of spacers before the bridge so I was only bending the tapered bit.

[Protium]

[quote name='henry norton' post='874590' date='Jun 22 2010, 05:06 PM']Your MM pickup cut out looks allot neater than the original factory routing! Nice job - I've considered swapping out the J pickup in my Precision for a MM, d'you reckon it's given you more diversity than a PJ setup would give you?[/quote]

Because of how close it is to the bridge you don't get a huge amount of bass from the MM, but instead a really tight mid sound which mixes well with the bassier sound of the P pickup.

I'm comparing here to a Jazz bass bridge pickup - Not as much bass, but a much tighter and "middier" (is that even a word??) sound. Again I have to say though, this is mainly due to the pickup position. I expect if it was further up the body it would get closer and closer to the traditional MM tone.

[Kongo]

[quote name='Protium' post='874635' date='Jun 22 2010, 05:48 PM']Because of how close it is to the bridge you don't get a huge amount of bass from the MM, but instead a really tight mid sound which mixes well with the bassier sound of the P pickup.

I'm comparing here to a Jazz bass bridge pickup - Not as much bass, but a much tighter and "middier" (is that even a word??) sound. Again I have to say though, this is mainly due to the pickup position. I expect if it was further up the body it would get closer and closer to the traditional MM tone.[/quote]

Wow that's such an inspiration!
I wanted to fit an MM pup to mine and dual output it (instead of the P-bass / EB-0 combo), that looks awesome and so neat it's unreal...

Edited June 27, 2010 by Kongo

[janmaat]

How did you drill the cave for the MM? special tool, or just with a hand drill?

[Protium]

[quote name='janmaat' post='878691' date='Jun 27 2010, 10:39 AM']How did you drill the cave for the MM? special tool, or just with a hand drill?[/quote]

Started with a drill bit in the middle to get a lot of the wood out then used a standard router with depth stop and a 1/4" straight bit. Set the shank a little lower to act as a guide around the edge of the template. It was a simple method, just took my time with it and was very pleased with the end result.

That router still scares the hell out of me when using it though - even on the slowest speed: 24000RPM

[Mikey R]

With a smaller bit, it might actually be safer to use a fast speed - when the bit is spinning faster its actually removing less material per revolution, you get more control and a clean finish.

Nice work!