Pretty hefty knot on the back too. Put the battery up there? 
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I actually kind of like the knot (yes, I know, it’c perverse). I was thinking of epoxying the living f… fibberdigibets out of it, and to rout the battery box near the lower horn.
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A pickguard could cover the extra width as well.
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Yes, I thought of this also. It’s a good idea, and I may have to go with it, depending, but I wanted to try and do this one without a pickguard. We’ll see.
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The Squire Blackout/Upgrade is complete!
I have replaced every component on her except the neck and body (and pickguard/knobs, that was simply sharpied black on the edges.
All black components…
- Hipshot tuners with drop-D (finally arrived)
- Fender Custom Shop '60s jazz pickups
- Hipshot Badass bridge
- Emerson pots
- Control plate
- Neck plate
- String retainter
- Strap locks
- Neck/pickguard/pickup screws
- (EDIT) Tusq Black XL Nut (after thought and a miss on something white)
Same Labella flats though.
I gotta say I love it.
A ‘high end’ passive J bass.
Feels good to do the work myself.
And I like that I did this to my first ‘let’s see if I like this’ bass.
A lot of fun doing this and I like the looks of how it came out.
Of course, the second to last screw hole on the last tuner…slip, small hole, ugh.
Minor project to learn finish repair I guess.
She now even has her own strap to match.
Last thing I plan on doing is taking the gloss off the neck this weekend.
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Great result.
That strap compliments it perfectly!
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Nice job!
Love the natural wood and the big block inlays in the neck.
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Wow love it
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wood glue would be enough, and it’s made for this purpose. why epoxy everywhere and everytime ? sometimes it’s just useless 
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That came out really nice, @John_E . . . 
Very unique, and you did a great job . . . I like the before & after pics, too!
Cheers
Joe
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Sweet!
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That’s what happens when you used to build wooden canoes, everything has to be waterproof. Call it a predilection. Some people tend towards leather and little rubber jiggly things, I have epoxy.
When a hammer is the only tool you know, everything begins to look like a nail 
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The test bed project Bass has arrived.
For $201, not a bad deal at all (Musician’s Friend blemished plus some credit I had in reward points).
Agree with everything @T_dub has said. The pickups / preamp that come with could surely use swapping, but since that’s the point of this guy we are all good.
I’ve got a clever woodworking friend who this bass will meet soon to rout out enough room for dual whatever pickups and preamps.
First step, disassembly, masking and tracing of rout patterns and setting of Sims pickups /wire paths.
Then Preamp fitting / control plate mods (the Glockenklang preamp needs 5).
This is going to be fun.
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Did you plan to use this bass for the Sims pups, or did you plan to put those in something else some other time.
Just asking, cuz once you rout all that out, if you gut it, it will be hard to put other pickups back in it.
I suppose you can plug everything back up, and hide it all with a pick guard.
Not saying the Sims and that Glok preamp wouldn’t be awesome, I was just thinking they probably cost 3 times as much as the bass (at least what you paid for it). I think it will be super cool. Probably won’t sound anything lilke a Stingray, but thats OK too. I want to mod a Stingray with DG ToneCapsule and Herrick pups so that it doesn’t sound like a Ray, but I also have 2 other Rays that I can go to for that.
Again, nothing wrong with doing that, I am only wondering if you plan to put those in a different bass at some time.
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Yes the Sims will ultimately go in a fully custom bass Im working on but that’s going to take a lot of time to plan/execute. Probably 1-2 years.
So in the meantime I’m using this as a “test bed” for the sims. Then, later, once the sins are out I can use it for virtually any pickup/preamp combo.
With a couple of modded pickguards depending on pickups, should look fine no matter what goes in.
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Grrr. Not what I meant by BEST BASS TO UPGRADE IN THE PRICE RANGE!!!
Fortunately the Sims are ULTRA COOL, and it will be awesome to see a Ray with them, its just gonna make my eyes bleed once you remove them.
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I was thinking of trying out some of your premium MM pickup suggestions post the SIMs
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Since you are gonna have it all modded for extra switches, you should get some of the Herrick MM pickups that have 8 coils in them, each string gets a humbucker. Lots of options with the right preamp and all the switching options. Maybe DarkGlass tone capasule, but not sure if there are better for all the options those pick ups give
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I want to make sure you understand that this was sarcasm and a joke, nothing else, what you are doing is great, and you are following all the good advice and doing the due diligence required, I too am an engineer,
and
my mom had a Saab 9000 Turbo, was a very cool car, some things can be over engineered and still work and be awesome, until you need to fix them, then you wish the engineer that designed it was standing in front you, so you can slap him.
I am an engineer too, I have been slapped before.