Not really a project or a bass, but I thought I would share.
A cosmetic change on a guitar.
I am pretty happy with this one and don’t want to do any major changes, I would like a Tele with Broadcaster wiring at some point tho, just to try.
before:
After:
So this week I am playing this bass while I do my bass lessons. This one started out as an Ibanez Mezzo bass. The original body is shown. This bass was only about $220 new when I bought it, so can’t expect real high quality at that price. I decided to put good pickups on it so I bought the Dave Ellefson set from EMG. You can see the cavities routed out. All the messiness was covered by a pick guard. I also had an active tone circuit from my old Spector bass, and I put it in this bass. That made it sound fabulous. After a while I decided to build a new body for it. I liked the Ibanez body shape so I just made a template out of the original body, and made a new body from mahogany. The neck on the bass was really nice, so no need to replace it. I reused the tuners and bridge. That color is a Ferrari Red. It turned out nice and sounds great.
Well this project is done.
Body of a Fender Vintera 2 Mustang
Neck off a Fender Player Mustang
Pickguard off an old Pawn Shop Mustang
Old Nordstrand pickup from the parts draw
Knobs off a Telecaster (didn’t want the black plastic ones)
Only “new” items were the strings, the electronics, and the control plate. I went for a pearloid plate as I really don’t like the look of a metal control plate.
Only 2 issues. First is Fender is not consistent in drilling holes between models. I’ve had a fender P bass and Squier and you can swap the pickguards. Same with Jazz. Not so with mustangs. I troed guards from 3 different models and none of the holes lined up. So I went with this one and made it work. Someday I will replace it from WD Customs. Fully functional now though.
The other issue is is a slightly high fret on the D and G string around fret 3. It’s quite minor, but to lower the action any further it needs to be fixed. I have never done fret levelling
Needs a name, because it’s not a specific model and I need some way to refer to it.
I usually use feminine forms but maybe Tobias. If you get it you get it. Suggestions are welcome.
For a single high fret this is an easy fix and you neither need nor want to do a full leveling.
You need a fret rocker, fretting hammer and a fret crowning file. Repair will take 10 minutes tops.
I have done this a few times. Often the hammer alone will fix the problem. Much like frets can sprout from humidity changes, they can also move up in their slots.
First thing that came to mind was “Mustang Sally”
It’s tangerine like the Lil Cuties. You could go with Lil or Lilly.
Tangerine Dream
Mikan-chan
Thanks! That’s exactly the video I need!
Work has been all-consuming lately so progress on the P-bass has been slow. I finally managed to get the neck pocket routed out. I had been hesitant to do it because the way the template I have is set up, I couldn’t align to the centerline while in the correct fore/aft position. I wound up having to slide the template back to align to the centerline, then double-side tape to hold some wooden guardrails in place to either side of it, then slide forward to the correct position. It worked out great, super tight fit with my neck template I made out of MDF.
Now I can move on to getting serious about sanding.
Ok, new brings out a different bass to play. I just finished module 8, and ready to move on to 9. This bass is made of all Warmoth parts (neck and body). I wanted to se how good the necks were from Warmoth and it did not disappoint. I had them send me this body with no routing done to it, other that the body shape routed. I did all the neck pocket and electronic compartment routing and the edge contouring. Scale on this is 32”. Neck wood in wenge with rosewood fretboard. Body wood is mahogany. Pickups are both Bartolini, P-bass in neck and classic bass in bridge. This one has an EMG 3 band active tone circuit. Graph Tech ratio tuners, and a Hipshot bridge. Paint is bright yellow. This one feels good and plays good.
What a cool and unique bass! Nice work.
I’m thinking of replacing the pickups on a Squier P bass. How hard is it really and should I be thinking of dropping some Seymour Duncan’s in or am I deranged?
Asking for a friend
Can you solder?
Overall, dead easy.
In practice, practice. Get some scrap parts and practice soldering so as to not toast your real pots when soldering in the pickup leads.
I can, but the result is rarely pretty
Good advice. Thanks
It is not hard at all to replace them. But like the one comment said, you will probably have to solder the new wires and desolated, or cut off the old wires. I bet there are plenty of videos on YouTube that show how to do this. Look at a few and see if you are up to it.
Desolated…where did that word come from…I wrote de-solder.
Stuart I will say this for another option. EMG sells a solder less wiring kit, to replace all the soldered pots etc. it comes with new pots connectors and everything. You would have to splice a connector end onto the pickup wires so they could be plugged into the appropriate pot. If your bass has passive pickups you would use the passive wiring kit. That gets you the correct pot values for a passive setup.
