Duarte

I am considering it! Or at least the headstock. Still undecided though.

First day without torrential rain in Sydney for a few weeks, so updates can begin! First coats of primer are on - revealing a few points that need attention. Also, the neck has arrived. I found a great deal on this pretty nice Samick neck, which fits perfectly and feels quite good. Hardware and custom pickguard are on order.

Don't fear the basswood. The Bongo has nothing to prove at this point, basswood works. And it has a big old booty. I'd be thankful for the lighter basswood body of the EBMM, over heavy mahogany. Also, I'm not sure what 'indonesian mahogany' really is, but it may not be actual mahogany. (edit: I'm guessing here)

Yeah, I've always hated the goofySBMM tuners. Not sure why they've done that.

True, my 93 Sterling is a ceramic pickup and sounds phenomenal. The Bongo has always been neodymium though so it's interesting they've made that change. Looking forward to hearing one for sure. The 2-band Stingray is a beast of its own, it'd be interesting to hear a Bongo with similar voicing!

These are ceramic pickups with 2 band EQ, so yeah, their electronics are definitely not up to the real thing. Still, I'm interested to hear one.

Far out, I never thought this would happen. I've owned a heap of Bongos and they're so good. Render me intrigued.

Excellent work, I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

I just keep finding myself with such poorly treated instruments - not that I'm the best person to be bringing them back to life, but hey I'm learning, and I can't make it any worse than this, right? So as the franken-reggae bass goes through multiple obsessive stages of paint before being finished off, this guy comes in. The plan is for a straight up punk P bass. Think single volume knob, bright colours. The body, I'm told, is a Greco from 70s/80s. This checks out, I have a few Greco basses around and it makes sense. It has the pancake body construction and weighs an insane amount. The pickup seems to be OK. I have a neck with a pointy headstock coming from Korea (an old Samick I believe, it should fit). First order of the build is to strip the finish, remove those broken screws, and fill that hack job cavity. I will update slowly as parts start to arrive, and as I work on the other project. This is how I received it (pickup also included) Stripped, screws pulled, and epoxy resin to fill the hole. Bridge as I was checking it lines up with original holes (of course it does). More coming!

Great colour! And an amazing gift.

Stuff arrived! However, the paint isn't quite as smooth as I'd like it, so there's a little more sanding/painting to do first.

I did manage to dig out photos of the body from when I picked it up - just so you have the complete timeline of the project. The bridge is actually still good so I will retain it for a future project. It's good quality Gotoh part, which is actually still in production. So, I ordered an identical bridge, only in black (because it's cooler).

Wow that thing looks monstrous, I love it! I'd be interested to see the build process on that. Edit: just realised it's a Spear! Still beautiful. My idea was to have the red/gold/green colour scheme on the pickup covers themselves, with the rest of the bass being that kind of military/camo green you see on reggae sound systems and things. Hopefully it looks half as good as yours! I did conider this kind of thing! But I think it's above my skill level just yet - next time? I knew I had to have it when I saw those little slanty guys. Not sure how I keep finding these weird basses in disrepair haha! Project update coming soon, night shifts for the next few days, stay tuned

Nice washing line! I used a heat gun and scraper, it was a really tough, thick finish to get off. I do like this method because if you get it just right, you can take huge sections of finish off quite cleanly. I actually caused a few more gouges to the body as it was thicker than I anticipated. Ended up giving myself more work to fix everything haha.

Hi everyone - I'm back with a build! It's been a little while, but it feels good to have found a project that inspired me. In a local guitar shop here in Sydney, I found some 'junk' they were selling. It was an abused and messed up body from a Tokai MJB50, an incredibly rare bass which I've never seen anywhere else. I found it in the 1989 Tokai catalogue after a little bit of digging https://guitar-catalog.com/guitar-and-amp/tokai/1989-vol15/en_03.html It is cool because it has 3 pickups, and space for some funky wiring. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the body as I got it, but it was dinged up, pickups missing, electronics seized up. It cost me $50. I've always wanted to make a reggae themed bass, with a rasta inspired colour scheme. We're going with a deep jungle green satin finish, black hardware (all gotoh), and each pickup coloured green, yellow and red (pickups from Herrick). Simple on/off switches for each pickup, with master volume and tone. I found a Tokai neck from an APB57 on ebay from Japan. It's a beautiful piece and fits perfectly- so here's what I've got so far! More updates to come very soon, as hmore hardware and pickups arrive. Disclaimer: I'm a total novice working in my garden so I'm not going for pro results, I'm just having fun making and spraying on my washing line! Thanks for looking and I hope you like the result Body stripped: Grain filled, primed: first coats of jungle green, on the washing line of course! Tuners and string tree fitted, and finish rubbed satin smooth on the back of the neck, musicman style: