budget bassist

Took the bridge off and found some nastiness.. used a scotchbrite pad to clean up the body a bit and sanded the back of the bridge but I think I’d maybe like to replace it long term.

Getting stuck into cleaning up the fretboard. The wood was thirsty as, and covered in crap. Nothing bugs me more than seeing someone else’s finger grime on a fretboard 🤮

I think I might also order a new nut since that’s not in great shape, and perhaps a truss rod cover. Otherwise it’s not looking too bad. Frets could use a file/crown but I’ll play it for a bit before I get into that.

You might recognize this from a thread I recently posted. I decided to pull the trigger, sight unseen. A friend picked it up for me because I have a broken leg.

2004ish Corvette standard 5. Active 2 band EQ. Paid $500CAD and it came with a gigbag, levy’s strap and Dunlop strap locks. I’m happy with that.

Plugged in and it sounds remarkably good for what it is - certainly has that unmistakable Warwick sound, which is what I was hoping for. Very tight string spacing, low action. I’m happy so far.

The bass itself is in great condition, it just needs a damn good clean. It’s obviously been well played but relatively well looked after. The fretboard is filthy, there’s some dusty gunky discolouration around the bridge, and the low b tuning machine has been spaced out weirdly which I’ll be investigating. Otherwise it’s in pretty great shape so the plan is to just clean it up, and I’m excited to spend some time playing it.

Hey folks,

I'm trying to spend a bit more time playing bass and thinking about a punt on something with 5 strings since a lot of the music I'm interested in right now is fairly heavy/crunchy prog metal type stuff, think Tool, Karnivool etc.

I've found locally here in Vancouver an old Rockbass Corvette, looks like around 2005. The used market (and the market in general) here is much smaller than in the UK, and things tend to be A. impossible to find and B. expensive, so I can't afford to be as picky as I'd like.

I owned a german Corvette $$ and a Streamer $$ about 10 years ago or so and loved the neck, loved the sound. I tend to enjoy a really crisp yet dark sound that cuts through well and works well dialling in a little crunch - I found those $$s to work perfectly for that.

My question is, am I going to find anything remotely like I'm hoping for, or am I going to be disappointed?

I'd also like to add that I currently have a broken leg and so getting over there for a test run is a little difficult for me right now, so I'm trying to do as much research as I can

I've attached photos from the listing

Thanks for your help!

1 hour ago, Norris said:

It's a bit difficult to tell from the photos.

 

Fret wear tends to happen underneath the strings, meaning that the frets start to have dips in those places. Levelling the frets and re-crowning will obviously remove material, and eventually after a few goes you will not have enough fret left and have to replace them. Usually you should be able to redress the frets 3 or 4 times depending how much material you need to remove to get them back to being level.

 

Whether you need to replace them depends on how high you like your frets to be.

 

Perhaps borrow another guitar for a short while to see if it's the instrument or you? 😂

Hah, thanks. I do have another guitar, but I've been playing the LP more because the shorter scale length makes finding chords a little easier. I'll muddle on for a little and see how I do.

First off, this not a bass, but a guitar, but this is one of the more knowledgable/helpful/active forums around, and I always appreciate the help.

I'm trying to spend a little more time playing guitar/bass (broke my leg recently and I don't have much else to do), playing my Les Paul last night (some of you might remember this being my project guitar - thread here) I'm really struggling with chords, more than I remember. While certainly my technique could use a lot of work, I'm wondering if it could also have something to do with the frets being pretty worn. I've attached a couple of photos - the heel end looks pretty good, but the nut end looks quite worn. 

My question is, how bad are they, and are they salvageable without a complete re-fret? Being that this is my project guitar, I've come so far that I'd quite like to try the work myself.

Open to comments/suggestions. Thanks!

6 hours ago, Hellzero said:

I guess you mean a neck pickup...

Yes, thanks.

I'm bringing this thread back to life somewhat. I've been playing the bass a little more lately - it didn't get much time last year due to other projects. For anyone that's actually interested, I built a squaredrop camper - thread here. It's becoming obvious that I like projects and building things then...

While playing recently, I decided that the Chinese preamp is a POS and needs to be replaced. A colleague of mine I think might have an older Aguilar preamp to donate. I sourced a barrel jack so I can hopefully relocate that to the hole I drilled in the appropriate location. I also decided that I'm not a huge fan of the single pickup.

Back when I built this thing I was mostly playing either metal or funk and modelled my sounds after the likes of Flea, Dave Ellefson of Megadeth etc. and really liked the aggressive, nasally bridge pickup sound. These days I'm playing a bit more dub, reggae etc. and really wish I had a neck pickup, so I might attempt to fit one. I'm thinking another MM pickup to keep things matchy matchy. I'll likely try to find a Fablab to laser cut a template for the pickup cavity and hand-route the hole with my cordless Dewalt router (that thing is really nice, recommend one to anyone doing this type of work). Shouldn't be too hard. 

Once that's done I'd like to source a nicer bridge and the body could use a fresh coat of oil, it's starting to look a little dry.

Will try to keep this updated as I go. Now to start shopping for parts...

We have a winner. Still pondering purchasing it. Seems like a good deal but do I need it?… do i want a 5 string?…

Thanks! I did ask for a photo of the back of the headstock but the seller isn’t able to get one for a few days.

if it’s an SR800 as you say seems like a good buy, I should probably go for it  I did stumble across those and discounted it because of the lack of figuring but that’s the closest thing I can find so I reckon you’re right. Thanks!

Hey guys, should be an easy one for those that know, but after a solid Googling session I'm not any the wiser.

I think it's an old SR700 or something with bartolinis but Google isn't showing me any photos in that burst finish

It's on my local marketplace for $550 (CAD) and wondering if it's worth it. I'm thinking yes but would be nice to figure out what it is.

Cheers!

Today I fitted the dot inlays. Little bit of a nerve wracking job, got a couple of them wrong where I drilled a tiny bit too deep and had to drill them out and redo them. The third fret marker looks a bit hairy but I’m otherwise pretty happy. I think the mother of pearl contrasts and complements the dark look of the guitar nicely.

Sold the SG to a dad buying it for his kid for $250. That’s a profit of $185 towards my house/car repair fund and a hopefully happy kid with a nice guitar. Win/win.

Some mother of pearl dots showed up today, test fitted one into a scrap piece of wood and was halfway through removing it before I thought I should take a photo. 
 

Much easier than I thought though this was a piece of soft wood. I used a piece of painters tape around the bit as a depth stop. I think I’ll try to make a neck rest out of some scrap wood before I try to do the real thing.

edit: will try to get the photo in focus next time…

Finally got this properly set up, wiring finished and playing nicely. Ran into some electrical gremlins which the local shop took care of for me after I was ready to tear my hair out. Just need to get the intonation dialed in and the fret markers once they show up and I was waiting to sell the tuners to buy some nickel ones but I might just do it on my next pay check.
 

Well, I finally got it all together, strung it up and played it. It needs some work as far as setup and intonation go, but so far it feels good and it makes nice sounds. In my haste I realized I fitted the bridge pickup upside down and so it’s slanted the wrong way and thus very quiet… oops 😅 

One other thing I’m thinking of doing is fitting some dot inlays on the fretboard, mostly because I like the look of them over a blank fretboard.

I’ll try to get some nice photos of it when I have some decent daylight, but these will do for now 

A little more work on the LP. Let the oil dry for a week or so and finally scuffed the top to 2000 grit then buffed using a drill mounted buffing set. It’s definitely better than it was and has a nice sheen but there are some slightly dull spots so I’m not 100% happy but for now I’m just going to build it and play it. I might try to buff it a bit more later on when the oil has had more of a chance to cure properly. Here’s how it looked last night.

It’s nice enough but if I’m going to have an SG I’d like it to be a set neck. There will always be more cheap guitars

Short side project, I found an Epiphone G310 SG on marketplace tonight for $60 - bad photo and the ad said it needed stings and a knob might be broken.

I chanced it and snagged it. After getting home I found that it was filthy. I mean FILTHY. I had to scrape the gunk off the fretboard with a blade. Frets polished, board cleaned and oiled, body cleaned. I swapped the bridge from my les Paul so I could put the chrome bridge on the LP (it’s also in better shape).

Tightened the nut on one pot, new strings, set up and it looks way better, plays and sounds good. I’m going to use it until my les Paul is finished and then flip this for a profit - I’d hope to get $150-$200 for it.

Such a simple and satisfying job. I can’t believe how bad some people let their fretboards get. I can’t stand the look of the gross black goop on the fretboard. This is what came off.

Polished the frets today and oiled the fretboard. Still waiting for the top coat of oil to cure before I buff it.

Thanks for the above replies, I should have mentioned that I plan on using this for guitar and bass so anything bass-specific is out of the running.

12 hours ago, thodrik said:

I have the iRig HD2. Really easy to use. Comes with amplitude which is great for guitar and so so for bass unless you buy extra gear. Used it for some basic recording and it worked well with a few different DAWs.

Thanks - out of interest what do you mean when you say it could use extra gear for bass?

Hey guys,

I'm on the lookout for a solution that'll let me practice at home without using my amp and the IK Multimedia IRig pro i/o or the Irig HD 2 looks like what I need, has anyone got/used one and can comment on functionality etc? I'd probably lean towards the pro simply because it comes with the full version of Amplitube but would appreciate if anyone has any input.

I'm looking for something that I can connect to my laptop to use with amp modelling software and play along to music ie spotify etc. whilst being able to look at tabs etc. so if anyone has any alternate suggestions they'd be welcome.

In terms of requirements it just needs to have the single 1/4" jack, connect via USB, I guess it'll have a headphone jack though I plan to use bluetooth headphones. The fewer wires the better.

Thanks all

10 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Indeed, the output jack location is ... strange.

Yeah... I drilled the hole for a barrel jack like you might find in a warwick and I guess this was my temporary solution to use the jack that came with the preamp. Surprisingly it's not actually in the way when sitting, and I think I may have even gigged it like this.

I decided to glue down the small sections at the bottom with super glue. Looks okay, not amazing.

Got a few coats of oil on now, I’ve learned some hard lessons about sanding - I wet sanded the guitar with a fine grit of sandpaper and it took the stain back just a bit in a few places. I guess I’m going for the ‘roadworn’ look!

After that I tried fine steel wool and that seems to have worked a little better.

Thinking about trying wax after the oil as I’m not sure I’ll quite achieve the satin sheen I’m looking for on the top. I really like the way the neck has come out however.

Note that in the below photos the back is wet and the front is dry. I really like the wet look. Any ideas if wax will help me achieve a similar look?

My bass turned up yesterday - thanks dad! He shipped it to me from the UK for Christmas. 
It looks like I put a 3-band 9v preamp in there. It works and sounds pretty good but I need to figure out how to relocate the jack socket and probably put some foam around the battery. 
The bass could use a good setup, the action is pretty high and I’d like to replace the bridge eventually but it works for now.

Photo with an ampeg ba110 that I managed to pick up for $20 not working. Looks like somebody had pulled out the headphone jack while the amp was on and made it go bang. Just sanded the contacts a touch and works perfectly.