I am planning out building a J bass copy right now. Going to start with a cheap body or even kit to experiment with finishes on, get a cheap neck to practice fret dressing on, and once I’m happy with the build itself (assuming I haven’t utterly ruined it lol), give it nice hardware and electronics.
I have many ideas. I just need to find the right pickguard or maybe even just a stencil; I have a handy friend with practically a shop in his garage…
My stream 204 looks good with the EMG humbuckers in red. Next will be the bridge, looking at a Hipshot bridge in black. Will the same style bridge that’s on higher end streams. Will also change tuners, though maybe not Hipshot.
Also looking at my B206. The bridge is the same model as a b204 and 205, and supports string through body, but it’s not drilled. Anyone see a downside to drilling and adding ferrules?
Probably limits your string selection
The bridge strings either way, top load or through body.
Well that’s true. You don’t necessarily have to use them
Holy beauty of a neck Batman!
Finding strings? Just brainstorming. Maybe not a thing?
Think about the measurements first and see if you can find sets that work just to be sure.
Also, be very very careful about saddle adjustment range to nut as it exists now and with any new bridge, esp on the E and B. I have had this issue before on the ESP Bello bass where Hipshot Kickass will not go back far enough to properly intonate the E (even with the shorter screws they give you). Measure twice, buy once.
Stringjoy recommends their “extra long scale” for even 34" basses with string thru body construction.
Shouldn’t be. Don’t most vendors offer extra long scale strings? I know D’Addario has them for all the XL’s, both EXL and NYXL at least.
The B206 will keep the same bridge position it has now. If you look at yours, the bridge has holes for string through. I was thinking of marking those holes and drilling right there. Why ESP didn’t drill the b206 like they did the B205 and B204, using the same bridge hardware for all three, number of strings being the difference, I don’t know.
I’m using Stringjoy strings right now, and I see why he uses strings from MJC Ironworks all the time. I love the feel and sound, and getting them long enough isn’t a worry. I could go back to LaBella’s or D’Addario NYXLs; but slinkys or EXLs, no more. But that’s another thread topic.
As far as the Stream 204, yeah, need to consider what changing the bridge will be like. I put a Kickass bridge on my Paranormal the other day, and the setup is all kerfuzzled now. Needs work. But, I want to change from silver to black.
I did this with my P Bass (Turquoise Waters, the first I built). The neck was a Squier, so the holes were smaller than a regular P Bass and I had to drill them out for the ferrules. It’s not tough as long as you have the right drill bit.
How you doing the wrap?
I’m contouring the vinyl around the pickguard and overlapping it with cuts along the way to account for the curves. However, it’s not coming out as smooth as I’d like and I’m having to trim a lot more than I intended, but that’s ok. I’m going to take my time to get it right, and I have extra vinyl if I need it.
I am thinking of doing a copper leaf treatment on my pickguard. Initial test run today was super messy, sticky, and frustrating.
Copper and Gold leaf are cool to see but really tricky to do right. I’m using Cricut vinyl and it’s removable if I want to change it in the future. It sticks nicely to the pickguard but when I was lining it up I could unstick it without ruining anything.
@mpops1990 That neck is beautiful. On the upper horn, in the first picture, it looks like you could feel the wood grain. Can you?
Also, I created this topic for sharing anything having to do with Warmoth.
Warmoth Bass Builds
I might have to try that instead.
You can see it more than you can feel it, but yes I only did one coat of pore filler. I kept the finish incredibly thin with only 2 coats of clear coat. My goal wasn’t to get a glossy factory finish, but I wanted something that would wear and age relatively easy
The Peavey is going to need more work than I thought. I’m having 2 issues, 1 probably related to string height and the other is a tuning issue. I’m not getting much volume from it even though it’s cranked up to the max and I can’t hear it at all in the Waza although it does work through the mixer, but that’s at full volume too… That might be a saddle adjustment though. The bigger issue is the strings. After putting the pickguard back on, I restrung it. Everything LOOKS normal but the tuners (the Waza, Yousician and the Snark) all think the A string is the E string on down.
Are you sure you put the stings on correctly?