JohnDaBass

Yes, as sadly missed Brother Dave evangelizes in his review of his own Fender 51 RI on his website (which survives his passing). "WARNING! You should NEVER USE THIS PICKUP AS A THUMBREST because there is no plastic cover like on the other Fender bass pickups you may be accustomed to using as a thumbrest. This is partly why these originally came with a big chrome pickup cover. If you apply too much pressure with your thumb, you can break off the fiberboard top of the bobbin and the poles will then fall out on the floor. I’ve heard this can also happen if a string gets popped too hard and catches under the fiberboard bobbin top. Once the bobbin top pulls off the pickup it won’t work until you replace the pickup. It doesn't get softer or lose tone, it is DEAD SILENT" A fellow Bass Chatter is in the process of 3D Printing a bespoke plastic cover to go over and protect the Jess Loureiro pickup. I'll post some pics when it arrives.

From the pix it looks like there's enough "meat" on the wrong neck to reshape it to the shape you want. Occasionally with Chinese shippers they would rather give a full refund without asking for the item to be returned. It may turn out that you get the neck you want with a bit of reshaping work for no money( assuming they give you a full refund)

Perhaps it should be called an Emperor Telebass. I'll get my coat!

It's not a thumb rest it's actually a 3D printed cover for the Pup. I haven't named the kind Basschatter until I get his permission. I've sent a drawing of the Pup and he is designing the black plastic cover with screw bosses to completely encase the Pup. I'll post a photo once it arrives.

Heard great things about Jess Loureiro Pickups and I was really impressed with Discreet’s series/parallel switch system to extend the tonal range of the PUP. So I duly ordered the 51-P split coil PUP from Jess in Spain. Delivery turned out to be a bit of a saga with the Spanish version of Royal Mail ( Correos) loosing the first shipment but TNT safely delivered the second PUP. As the control plate I chose to use was from a Telecaster Guitar I wanted to take Discreet’s concept a stage further and got talking to our very own God-Father of Looms & Tonal magician KiOgon. John has provided me with some amazing looms in the past, and having discussed my ideas he went away and designed a loom for my Tele-P. Basically the 3 position switch which switches the split coils from series to parallel and thirdly adds a specially selected extra capacitor into the circuit to provide an additional tonal option. The detail that KiOgon goes to is phenomenal. The extent of his commitment led to him stripping down one of his own P Basses to test the loom to make sure it worked as per his design. See photos below In another post I enquired if anyone could propose a solution to my (Bad) habit of resting my thumb on the top edge of the Pup on my P basses. Fortunately a BC member has offered to manufacture, using a 3D Printer, a Bespoke cover for the Pup so once that arrives I will update progress on the build.

Perhaps someone would like to provide a scale to this parameter "Flubbyness" so that we could judge an amps suitability on its "Heft" and " Flubbyness". Us mere mortals could then assess which HPF gives the best Flubbyness control without any loss of Heft😂

I like the combo pickguard design, a really nice blend of Telecaster guitar and '72 Tele bass. Should the bridge pup be closer to the bridge?

As an avid follower of the Basschat market place I came across a suitable over sized Telecaster Guitar body. The seller was uncertain of its past use but on receiving the body it fitted perfectly with my plans. There were a few nasty marks and chips so not wishing to strip and refinish the body or fill and over spray paint it I decide that “Mild Relic” was the way forward. The really bad chip at the top edge of the body was a prime candidate for some gentle Relic wear marks. Having gotten sucked into the gentle relic work I added some “Belt wear” and some further chips and marks with a sixty year old “toffee hammer”. ( those of us of a curtain age will remember Christmas Day afternoon tapping away at a slab of concrete hard toffee to break it. Most of the parts have now arrived Next part of the story is the pickup.

Why don't you add a small hole in the top right hand corner large enough to take a broom handle and a length of string for the perfect backup in case of a power failure!!

First step was to source a neck and start the reshaping of the head. This has been extensively covered by others far more skilled and talented than me so I have simply shown the progress through the following photos. The templates I printed off were not quite what I wanted and I modified them slightly to match more closely to my ‘72 Tele Bass and ’51-P RI. I did remove the last fret and over hang of the fret board at the heel of the neck to enable me to “square off” the heel of the neck similar to my pair of ‘72s (Kindly note the obligatory crack in the pickguard on the '72, the PUPs were so heavy their weight would cause the cracking. I mounted the PUP directly to the body on my duplicate) This photo was taken to show the squared off end of the neck, ignore the impression that the fret widths are wrong due to the "perspective effect" caused by my poor photographic skills!!

Inspired by Basschat HB 51P mods & upgrade builds by Bruno, Discreet & others etc, I developed a desire for something similar but different. I have a lovely all original Fender 72 Telecaster Bass which, back in 2004 I wanted to duplicate as I no longer wished to gig the Old Girl. To start I managed to source an original 72 Humbucking PUP from a guy in the USA and had it refurbished by Bareknuckle PUPs. To create the duplicate I bought a Fender MIM Mike Dirnt and a Fender CIJ 51P RI. I changed necks added the Humbucker and sold 51P RI. During the short time I owed the 51-P RI I was not particularly impressed with tonal range of 51P. So my mission on this 51 & 3/4s Tele-P build is to create something similar to this:-

+1

Consider a used Fender Rumble 500 v3 head with a Barefaced One 10. Tiny package with a huge sound and great range of tones. Even better would be to build yourself a Beyma 1x12 cab designed by Phil Starr & Stevie. (Take a look at the Easy 12" build thread).Those Beymas are monsters.

Great job. Looks fantastic , any chance of a song clip?

I owned a Micro VR head and delivered a great Ampeg sound in a small package. Only used with 8-Ohm cabs as I read somewhere that it didn't like running at 4-Ohm. Great looking vintage vibe.

Recently purchased a 32ins flat wound set from Pestie and I'm really pleased with their performance. I normally use Fender 9050ML flat wound strings on all my other basses and the Status flat wound strings appear to be brighter than the Fender without loosing any bottom end thump.

Are you planning to remove the fretboard overhang to make the neck appear more authentic?

They look great Johnny, well done. You'll be really happy with those fitted with Beymas. Enjoy

Looks fantastic! Bass, amp and cabs look JUST right! Have noticed any difference in sound when stacking the cabs horizontally?

Hi Johnny, Great diary of two marvellous builds. Great job really enjoyed. Well done! What lacquer did you use on the head stock?

Hi Monk, That's sounds fantastic, I'll PM you a sketch of the pickup.

Hi Andy, Just about to start a new Bitsa project and I wish to wipe-on gloss varnish to the Head, front & back of the neck. The neck I have purchased is a maple, satin finished J neck from K***e in China. What hard glaze wipe-on would you recommend to achieve a good covering of the water slide decal on the head? Do I need to mask off the frets when applying the gloss varnish to the fret board or is best to just gloss varnish the face of the Head as the MIM Fender jazz necks?

Why not try a DiMazio Split P lots of power with a huge range of tones, and maybe add a ZiOgon loom. Job done!!

No there are short scale slot head EB3s. I have a 1969 walnut Gibson slot head EB3, handsome deep, deep booming sound with a variety of tones from the 4 position selector switch. Bought new in 1970 while working at the Sound Centre in Cardiff.