Immo

Re-arranged with new patch cables.

Many Encores of that era have magnets wrongfully installed - both coils have North facing the same direction. This creates hum. It is very easy to check - just get a magnet, hold it firmly and check if one coil pulls it and other pushes it away - if so, the pickup is OK. If both coils push/pull the magnet, the polarity is wrong. Easy fix, just use a screwdriver to gently pull one of the magnets out, flip it upside down and use a superglue to attach it back

Mooer Bass Sweeper -> Polish Hate Fuzz -> Polish Love Overdrive -> Muza FD800 Modulation ToneBox -> Artec SE-ADL Buffered Analog Delay Need to replace the stiff connectors with patch cables soon. The white fluff thing sticking to the pedalboard's surface is cat fur

Pretty! And well kept. Is the bridge in line with the neck? Is the pickup proper-polarized? These are the two most common issues with those. But the pickup sounds great indeed. I compared the tone of this pickup (bought for 10 quid) with Seymour Duncan APB-2 Lightin' Rods active PU (worth ~100 quid) and while the APB-2 has more clarity and evenness and sounded a bit darker, I totally wouldn't pay 10x more for a pickup when these exist, especially when I admire kinda lo-fi sound.

I need help from someone who's a "maestro" of electronics. Strap yourselves in and try to keep up with the story, I shall share all the details. I "color-coded" all the electronics issues I had with the bass so it'll be clearer. My TwinSplit bass guitar has, well, two split coil pickups. I bought a stock Encore bass, having a second split coil form a same bass model laying around. So I decided to build a P-P-Bass, wired like a Jazz Bass. Once all was wired, the innards looked like this: When plugged, there was no hum. However, when two pickups were set at the same volume, there was a strong comb filtering-like effect, basically, the lows vanished and it sounded out of phase. I did some research and found out the way to fix it was to switch hot and ground outputs of one of the pickups. While I was tinkering, I also added a treble bleed mod to the south pickup's volume pot - after all, the south pickup was there to deliver treble! So, after the mod was done, the innards looked like this: Now the both pickups set on the same volume had full-bodied sound. However, after a while - not sure when exactly - a hum issue with the North one appeared. Either solo or paired, it hummed like a badly shielded pickup. I thought it's due to bad shielding the bass has. Due to various personal issues and the fact the hum wasn't that horrible, I always promised myself to fix it "the next day". I always thought it is a shielding issue. Only today, after someone mentioned that Encores had this stupid pickup design that had both coil magnets polarized in the same direction, I checked it with a magnet and discovered the North one indeed has this issue, while the South one does not. I flipped the magnet of one of the coils upside down. This haven't removed the hum and even restored the loss of low end issue, so I also reversed the phase of the coils connection (switched red and black wires). So now, the mess inside looks like this: The North pickup's hum is gone. Both pickups have a full bodied sound. But a new issue occurs, one that was absent before! Said issue is twofold: - there is a constant silent hum that vanishes when the strings are touched; then both pickups work fine - the pickups start to buzz really loud when the pole pieces are touched, but only if strings aren't touched at the same time (especially the South one has that problem, but it's probably due a bit more protruding pole pieces) The pole pieces of the pickups are not grounded; they go through the coil's bobbin and touch the magnet on the underside. The pickup slots are still poorly shielded; is this a shielding issue? I will shield it anyway, but I can order the copper tape only after Christmas. But do I have to do something else, too? Switch hot and ground wires on South pickup maybe (wouldn't this restore the comb filtering?)? Or maybe just flip the wires at the cable jack as now everything inside is reversed? I'll just add that I can't afford to pointlessly tear the bass apart every 20 minutes as the pickguard is not stock and some screw holes are misaligned so each unscrewing ruins them further. Thanks in advance!

Rear is a bit ugly, yet quite, uh, "rural" in appearance. The front is pretty and unusual, I like it.

Sorry for resurecting an 4 years old dead thread, but I just found an ad with an Made in India Encore (early '90s) that was strippe d and finished in natural, so I was immediately reminded of this thread here: Definitely resembles korina.

If you're into heavy stuff, I recommend this album. It's astounding and bass is one of the key things that make it great.

[quote name='gareth' timestamp='1473260492' post='3128444'] Assuming the neck is not foto flamed, I would get a new body [/quote] I want to use the original body because of several reasons: 1. I want it to be genuine MiJ Fender and I can't afford another MiJ Fender body (costs nearly twice as much as the bass we're talking about); 2. I'd rather not cave a battery hole in another innocent bass body; 3. this body works fine (already routed - see #2 - plus nice and lightweight) aside form the unrepairable lacquer coating, so why waste it?; 4. sentiment for this bass as a whole (as it's my first Fender and a first big thing I bought entirely for the money I earned with honest work); 5. love of customizing everything I own; 6. I want to learn new guitar refurbishing and maintenance skills, including those requiring thinking outside the box.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1473259532' post='3128428'] On the subject of using a rattle can, you can get for a couple of £ a handle that fits over the can and the button and makes it much easier to use. This is an expensive one as an example:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Can-Gun-1-Universal-Spray-Can-Tool-Recycled-Plastic-Ergonomic-Reusable-Paint-/321680557430?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368 [/quote] Cool idea, thanks! Wonder if anyone tried SprayPlast to, for example, cover the headstock with a protective layer. Wonder if it kills sustain. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1x500ML-MOTIP-SPRAYPLAST-RUBBER-REMOVEABLE-COATING-ORANGE-/142106577211?hash=item211636493b:g:mxcAAOSwhOdXowx5

I think I'll call local car paint shops and ask, but I'm pretty sceptic. But maybe I'm wrong? Anyway, the idea stated in the original post was to use quality spray paint. This guy presents it well and isn't really putting too much effort into the whole business while getting nice results ([url="https://www.youtube....7YrsbIPL6o18BLS"]five videos playlist[/url]). Hope the guitar's body is really lacquered with the spray nitro lacquer from the can.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1473170518' post='3127624'] (...) it sounds like you're not look to sell any time soon. [/quote] Yup, aside from horrible looks, it's a great bass and my first Fender, first maple fretboard and first P-bass (I like each of the three notions ) [quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1473170518' post='3127624'] What finish do you want btw? [/quote] Sherwood Green. My goal is to get an effect similar to this: ...but with the thumbrest above the E string and with a custom pickguard, preferably with a paisley motif.

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1473091677' post='3126832'] You probably already know this, but nitrocellulose is not good for your lungs. If you're spraying it yourself make sure you have decent ventilation - preferably a proper spray booth with extractor fans if you can [/quote] Yeah, but as you probably deduced form my previous posts, I don't want this party to get too expensive, so I'll stick with mask. BTW, the Northwest Guitars made a nice 5 parts tutorial on how to use their spray-can-nitrocellulose-lacquer thingies properly. The way they show it, it looks ridiculously easy. Then again, with my low skills, dexterity and aptitude, I'll probably end up with severely bruised ribcage, green hair and will spell "Fender Precision Bass" like "ugl-glug-glug-lugs" for two weeks.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1473081752' post='3126672'] Natural wear is acceptable :-) [/quote] Preferably Some fake relic jobs are quite OK.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1473079199' post='3126626'] There are two types of people - those who like "reliced" basses and those that don't. I'm in the latter camp, I really don't understand the attraction of adding fake wear... But whatever floats your boat... [/quote] Relic, either fake or real, is acceptable. But the cracked body - it's hideous.