tommorichards

Its back...... http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/vintage-japanese-bass/1115010416

Well i guess this project is finished then. I never got round to doing the headstock properly, and i just sold it tonight to an interested party. Was fun making it.

not a bad idea on the strings as this is more of a mess around bass for me, so ill probably get a cheaper set of flats. Ive no idea how they get them that cheap. reasons?!

@davy Hmm, i see what youre thinking, but i like the 3 way toggle switch, and i dont really want it to get too complicated. @mooseblaster Yeah, i like the single volume and tone control, I never blend the volumes on pickups. However, maybe in the future a cap in series with a pickup ala rickenbacker could be installed. @redstriper The picups are fairly middy, even in the neck position, so i may get flats for it. These are the strings that i got it with, a little old and rusty, but "worn" haha. Probably will get flats on it when one breaks. Also, the second pickup i put in there is another bronco from ebay, which the seller has now run out of, though i was thinking of giving this a try if i were unhappy with the results http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371295502251?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2661&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Though the stock pickup is just a covered 6 pole guitar pickup.

I strung it up then afterputting the hardware back onto the headstock. Did my usual thing of only putting one string on and testing it. It got me excited to put it all together and try it out. So here are the 95% complete pictures, with just the headstock to do properly left to go before im hapy with it 100%. closeup: Angled long shot/arty And the full length shot. Just a note to self really, get a damned router. It makes life so much easier. Ill post a soundclip and youtube video when i get a chance. The bridge pickup is pretty much in rick bridge placement, so sounds very close, and the neck is just as close to the neck which also sounds pretty good. Beefy, but not EB0 beefy. Middle selection, very scooped, quite ricky, but moreso. I like it. Fun bass to play around with.

Now i took the scratchplate in from my shed and began to stick everything onto it to get it up and running. I did this the following night as i ran out of time following the routing out i did. This is the rough fit of the scratchplate to ensure it fitted, it did. Then the wiring up of the electronics which i then had to tape into place to ensure that the ran inside of the channels on the bass. Need a few tweaks as i was doing it as the scratchplate kept not sitting flat with the body: Everything wired up pre stringing. I tested the pickups with a screw driver to ensure that there was sound coming from it as id hate to have to take it all apart if there was one little niggle with it.

Next is doing the pikup routing and cavities in the body. As i dont have a router it was a drill press and chisels. Im also no very good at it but its all hidden so i didnt really care if it was abit messy...... rear pickup route: Pickup selector switch and channel route: And the neck pickup route. As i was chiseling out i went a bit too forcefully so took a chunk out of the neck pocket.... I was annoyed, but nothing to be done as the wood had been "squashed" so couldnt glue back into place:

Okay, i got this to 95% completion over the weekend. Its now playable and badass. All thats left is the headstock to do. I dont like the current colour, so ill get a laser print of the colour to match the body with the headstock logo already printed onto it, then cover it in lacquer or clear vinyl. I really hate spraying. So, cutting out the scratchplate, filing the edges to an angle: Close up: And halfway through drilling out the holes and pickup holes: Pretty much there, doing the pickup screw holes: I had to ensure that the holes for the screws were in line with the original plate as i had gotten the fit of the neck pocket cutout perfect and didnt want to mess it up. So there was a lot of filing, check, file a bitmore, check again etc. Im very happy with the fit now.