I started with this Chinese bass that I’ve been calling a Glarry for simplicity, but it’s not even branded actually. It sounds bad, but it’s comfortable and stays in tune. I’m too cheap to buy a Fender Goil Foil Jazz bass that’s been tempting me locally, so I guess I’ll see what I can make out of this thing.
It will end up with a single small humbucker pickup and two knobs, so I’ve got a lot of holes to cover. After some fiddling I like this pick guard shape to hide everything. But I’m thinking it could be cool to route this entire area out and inlay a piece of wood stained black rather than using a black plastic pick guard. Don’t know if I should let the inlay sit proud a bit the really emulate a pick guard, or lay it flush. Whatever clear was on this thing was impressive. It took quite a bit to get it stripped off.
Would like a nicer looking bridge and black hardware. Not crazy about chrome, but don’t want to get too carried away. We’ll see how things go. The bass cost me $76, the pickups were $45 each.
You should buy the Fender Jazz and build the Glarry. The Jazz will be the “Goal” tone for the glarry and you would have the jazz in hand to compare it to. Yeah that sounds good to me.
I wouldn’t be mad about owning that Fender, it’s just not worth the asking price for me. A new one is a around $1300 and this $800 used one has a ton of chips and bumps all over it. It does sound good, though!
Be careful with the Fender Gold Foil Jazz. For the first run, every single one had a misaligned bridge that made the E string unplayable. It was a dumpster fire of bad quality control.
I am a Fender guy and I was embarrassed for them. I went to a GC to see how bad it could really be. When I tried to play it, the only thing I could think was, these things should have never made it into the supply chain.
The gold foil pickup is cool looking. I look forward to seeing how your build goes. You already did a nice job of stripping it.
I know what you mean about the pickup alignment issues. I’m sure that’s why the one I was looking at has an aftermarket bridge installed.
Well, that turned out pretty ok. Wasn’t sure about leaving it proud or sitting flush, but I quite like it sitting proud. See about fitting the pickup when it arrives.
Decided to go ahead and splurge on the bridge. It’s a lump of cast aluminum with some screws. How bad could it be? Still considering black tuners, but maybe the existing chrome tuners will look nice with the gold foil pickup. We’ll see about that later.
Had to re-carve the recess for the door to get it sitting flush after stripping. Surprising how thick the factory coating was. I have no idea what wood this is, but it’s extremely soft and chippy. No wonder it’s so light.
I like my Chinese-made basses. They stay in tune and my only complaint is that the strings are garbage. I swap out the factory ones for a set of Rotosound Swing Bass 66s and the difference is amazing. Seriously, it is a cheap fix and it works for me.
Something weird is up with the electrics on this one. One day it’s very muddy and muffled, the next it’s extremely bright and quacky. The neck does have a small twist to it, but nothing that bothers me. Most importantly, the neck and body are comfortable to play.
Picked up new pots and knobs at the local shop. Always end up chatting with the guys and I learned a lot. Coming from HVAC and restoring autos/bikes electrical work is common to me, but guitar wiring always seemed backwards and I couldn’t get a grasp on it. Thinking of how electrons flow, the circuits I’ve seen on diagrams always looked wrong/impossible to me. I was talking to them about that and one of the guys realized where I was hung up. “The power doesn’t come from the amp. The guitar produces the electricity”. Doh! Of course! The pickup with it’s magnets is the stator/field magnet and the strings are the flywheel/rotor! Anyway, they helped me pick out appropriate pots for what I’m doing and sketched me out a simple diagram we discussed.
Focusing on getting the body finished so I can assemble the electrics. The lacquer is building up slowly, there’s still some grain texture popping through, but sanding flat and recoats is getting there. I think I’m about 8-10 coats deep now.
Decided to reshape the headstock and haven’t gotten around to refinishing that next. The neck is a different species of wood vs the body so it’s not accepting stain on the way. It’s producing a much lighter shade of red/purple and the mismatch is driving me bananas. So it’s on the back burner for now. Worst case scenario, I’m happy to just stain it solid black.
eBay bridge arrived and I understand now how it’s so affordably priced. It’s two pieces bolted together rather than a bullet. I’m fine with that. These pictures are trash, but the look/finish in person is very nice looking and fortunately the mounting holes match my previous bridge
Really, it’s so random how it acts up and I mess with it so little that I’m not really sure about pot position. I’ve never really loved how it sounded from day one, so I wasn’t too worried about just replacing the pickup and everything.
I am trying to find a Youtube vid of a guy who put a distortion (I think)pedal into his bass under the pickguard, there was nothing delicate about the way he did it but it was a good idea.
It’s a lump of cast aluminum with some screws. How bad could it be? Still considering black tuners, but maybe the existing chrome tuners will look nice with the gold foil pickup. We’ll see about that later.
