Sibob Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 (edited) Ok so following on from my Encore/Fender-like/Allparts Precision build thread a couple of months ago (very happy with it, gig it regularly. Sound/song clips coming soon), i think I've caught some kind of bug. I couldn't resist buying this body from Kevbass: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] ...with a view to giving it the much needed TLC it requires. It's an alder Fender Highway body. I have a refinish hooked up from a family member who is a furniture builder/woodwork college tutor by trade and builds guitars for a hobby. The provisional refinish ideas are as follows: -Two-Tone Sunburst -Vintage/Alpine/Olympic White (a solid white basically) -A natural finish (might look boring with the alder body) Hopefully with a Nitro finish in all instances. Of course this all depends on what he has available to work with, which will become apparent when he sees the body and we talk more, he might say it'll have to be Black, who knows. The rest of the provisional spec is as follows: - Dimarzio UltraJazz set (high output, passive humbuckers) - Hipshot Ultralight Clover tuners (ala Lakland) - Badass II Bridge - Pickguard is most likely to be tort, although may leave it off if the finish has to be natural - Standard Jazz control plate and knobs Neck: I'm playing with the idea of a Warmoth Birdseye Maple neck (see Warmoth post in this same forum), mostly because i'd like the birdseye, and they also do the option to accommodate the smaller Hipshot tuners. This is open to anyones suggestion though, i don't think i want to go down the graphite route, its a bit pricey and i do like wood tones and aesthetics. The reason behind the Dimarzios at this stage is because i want to try and find a high output passive bass that can replace my active basses in my originals band (playing in Drop C), although am open to other ideas, what other hot/high output passive jazz p'ups are out there?. The reason for the Hipshots is because i really like them on my Lakkie 44-02D, and if i go for the Warmoth neck, they'll help keep the weight down. So thats about it i think at the mo, its very early stages, haven't even received the body yet lol But i got excited ! Si p.s. If anyone has any of the parts I've listed above for sale.....well you know....tell me! Edited January 23, 2009 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umcoo Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Black with tort guard and birseye maple neck would look sweet! I shall watch with interest young padawan. I threw some ultra jazz in an old mim jazz I had. It was like a new bass! Good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tait Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 not two tone sunburst! BORING!!! white in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifi2112 Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 1stly - good luck with the build ! 2ndly - I was gonna buy that body but I guess you beat me to it ! I was gonna strip it then stain it (got some black stain - used b4 looks pretty good) then metal pickguard. Got 1 on Geddy Lee jazz - looks ace .. (tho maybe not everyones taste) .. gonna put 1 on Warmoth jazz too ! Already had tuners & noiseless pups ready .. guess I'll have to sell em now. Unless another jazz body & neck come along (cheap ! lol) Si ps. will watch this space to follow your progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-soar Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Burgundy Mist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 [quote name='lwtait' post='121640' date='Jan 16 2008, 06:09 PM']not two tone sunburst! BORING!!! white in my opinion.[/quote] Haha, when you said two-tone was BORING, i was then expecting you to come out with "Purple Sparkle" or something.....but no.....White!! lol I love sunburst And Olympic White But i am coming round to the idea of Black But we'll see Also it seems you can get the Hipshot Ultralights in standard Peg Hole sizes, so that either opens up some other neck options, or knocks $25 off the Warmoth price I've also been considering Wizard pickups which i know are very popular, had a quick email with Andy. They're in the running i think, but it all still seems to point to the Dimarzios! hmmmm Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-basser Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 cant decide black or white...it'll just have to be checks wont it, or half an half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 (edited) Just my tupence worth of the hardware front, Unless you really want a bad ass i would look at other bridges, they are good but they are expensive, you need to cut the slots and in some cases you can have problems getting it low enough leading to neck shims Gotoh ones are good for the money and the 201 is nice if you want something which looks like a fender but works ! Hipshot bridges are also very good but again expensive When i looked into tuners I did look at Ultralites but again the cost is very high and if you look at the specs you end up paying a load of money for a very small weight saving. As an example i have just changed the tuning machines on my warwick, i used Warwick originals cost? 6 Euro each perfectly good kit and cheap as chips. Im not dismissing you hardware choices just be open to other kit, do a little research and it becomes an enjoyable part of the process. Badass, other bridges are available. Edited January 19, 2008 by steve-norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 +1 on something different to Badass. Gotoh 201 or Hipshot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tait Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 [quote name='sifi2112' post='121665' date='Jan 16 2008, 06:37 PM']1stly - good luck with the build ! 2ndly - I was gonna buy that body but I guess you beat me to it ! I was gonna strip it then stain it (got some black stain - used b4 looks pretty good) then metal pickguard. Got 1 on Geddy Lee jazz - looks ace .. (tho maybe not everyones taste) .. gonna put 1 on Warmoth jazz too ! Already had tuners & noiseless pups ready .. guess I'll have to sell em now. Unless another jazz body & neck come along (cheap ! lol) Si ps. will watch this space to follow your progress[/quote] i think i saw that, was there a thread about it a while back? if its the one I'm thinking of it looked cool. [quote name='Sibob' post='121809' date='Jan 16 2008, 10:45 PM']Haha, when you said two-tone was BORING, i was then expecting you to come out with "Purple Sparkle" or something.....but no.....White!! lol I love sunburst And Olympic White But i am coming round to the idea of Black But we'll see Also it seems you can get the Hipshot Ultralights in standard Peg Hole sizes, so that either opens up some other neck options, or knocks $25 off the Warmoth price I've also been considering Wizard pickups which i know are very popular, had a quick email with Andy. They're in the running i think, but it all still seems to point to the Dimarzios! hmmmm Si[/quote] I thought you were deciding between white, two tone sunburst or black! Surf green is my favourite colour for a jazz, by far. (although i did used to have an ocean turquois one that looked amazing) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted January 20, 2008 Author Share Posted January 20, 2008 (edited) Yup its still between Two Tone, White and Black, the 'Purple Sparkle' comment was referring to a few posts above it. With regards to hardware, I'm definitly open to other options! I saw in another post that the 201 isn't always a perfect fit and "the 201 doesn't always fit the bridge base well and looses transmission" through the body, which i assume means a drop in sustain, i think that was a quote from Mr Shuker, It does look nice though. So perhaps a 203 would be better!?, although that looks similar to a Fender, and i was thinking about something more High-Mass like the Badass Haven't looked at Hipshot bridges yet. The Hipshot Ultralights are fantastic tuners, really love them on my lakland! And if i go for a Warmoth neck, which by all accounts are quite heavy, they may be necessary, even if the result is only a slight weight loss. I do have some Schallers on another bass which are quite nice, but around the same price as the Hipshots, so for the price i'd rather have the UltraLights Cheers Si Edited February 3, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 (edited) Ok so a few tiny little updates!! The body refinish is underway, we're going for black with a nitro finish. A black scratchplate will set this off nicely methinks! Badass II purchased Hipshot Clover Ultralights purchased (both courtesy of board members) Neck will be a flamed maple neck/fingerboard made by our very own ChopdaBass, but have to wait for the body to be finished first! Still waiting on finding the Pickups! And i still have to get my hands on some other misc hardware bits (see my wanted section listing). Thanks to Nico who tryed to send me some bitsa control plate gratis, typically the Royal Mail decided to lose the jiffy bag!!!! More updates soon i hope Si Edited June 16, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted June 16, 2008 Author Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) Wow, this has been a fair time coming, but I think we're just about getting there! Here's some pictures of the refinished body: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] You may notice a couple of issues, there's a slight discrepancy in the paint on the top horn, so it needs to be 'stripped back a little, repainted...' and blah blah blah.....I'm such a woodworking 'tard! lol The other, slightly larger, mistake is that I asked the person undertaking the refinish to fill in the 4 small screw holes surrounding the rear pickup, so obviously he's filled in the pickup screws holes within the rout haha, so they need to be re-routed. He says no problem with that! Oh and here's the revised neck spec: Flame maple neck with birdseye maple fingerboard, Black side dots only Truss rod adjustment headstock end 34" scale with 22 frets Typical Jazz bass rear & fingerboard radius I also got went a bit geeky the other day and photoshopped what the bass might look like when finished: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] Everything is purchased now except the pickups and scratchplate, so if anyone has some DiMarzio UltraJazzes and a Black scratchplate hanging about, help a brudder out! Just to re-cap, the idea of this particular project is to build a passive solution for my originals band First Signs Of Frost, the material is fairly 'hi-gain' and the DiMarzios are the highest output passive pickup I can find. The bass will be tuned C, F, Bb, Eb. The bass currently filling the void for this band is my butchered OLP 'ThingRay' with Barts & 2 band 18v East pre. Updates soon! Si Edited October 9, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Mmm, I love black basses, this will look grand with the maple neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted July 7, 2008 Author Share Posted July 7, 2008 (edited) So...little update The body is now alllll done, and I dropped it round Ian's (chopthebass) house last night. He's building the neck for this project (neck spec in the post above). I saw the wood being used, and not only is the birdseye fingerboard beautiful, the flame maple that'll be the neck is stunning!! There isn't going to be any 'progress' photos, mainly because I just want to see the finished product, but also so Ian can just get on with the build and won't have to faff around dusting his poor camera whenever it's in the workshop Thats about it at the moment, Pickups are purchased, still need a black Jazz scratchplate to fit a US Jazz though Lovely Si Edited July 15, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 looking good Si, black/black/maple basses look badass imho, I'm looking forward to seeing pics of this neck too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 (edited) Ok so, after saying that I wouldn't be asking for any 'build' pictures of the neck, I couldn't say no when Ian offered them because of some slight time setbacks. So here we are: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] The last picture here shows the overhang nicely, this was necessary to have a 22 fret fingerboard! It has been constructed in a way that the scratchplate slides right on under the fingerboard! Schmexual! The fingerboard will have a Satin Lacquer finish There are some other headstock mods happening that will get explained when I have the visual aids handy! The birdseye in the first 7 frets looks beautiful, I can't wait to see the flame on the back of the neck! Si p.s. The white scratchplate and control plate/knobs in the pictures aren't what will be installed. Mine will be a stack knob arrangement with black scratchplate. The Badass II is mine though! Edited August 20, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopthebass Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Si Just got back from hols, so I'm right on it!! Next job is the headstock, then the lacquer. It's gonna look good. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassmonster Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 mmm, i do rather like my birdseye maple, looking good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbass Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Its nice to see this Body finally being put to use (something I never had the time to do), its looking good Si, a bit supprised you decided to stick with black! but you cant knock black on maple now can you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted August 27, 2008 Author Share Posted August 27, 2008 (edited) [quote name='kevbass' post='270617' date='Aug 26 2008, 10:31 PM']Its nice to see this Body finally being put to use (something I never had the time to do), its looking good Si, a bit supprised you decided to stick with black! but you cant knock black on maple now can you? [/quote] Yeah, I mean I had started the build with a couple of other colours in mind, sunburst & white etc, but I started wanting something a little less 'vintage' looking. I also started getting jealous of all the lush looking black on black basses being touted around the 'Porn' section lol. I'm really pleased with how it's all come together, it hasn't been a quick process, but nothing worth having ever is! Yesterday I purchased the last little bits and pieces, 2nd stack knob, black scratchplate, pickup switch etc, it's all basically ready to assemble when the neck is done, will being coming out on tour with me in November Cheers guys Si Edited August 27, 2008 by Sibob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 this is looking really nice, good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 Cheers Steve! You'll forever be the guy who so nearly supplied me with the pickups for it haha Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 Argh, I was gonna wait until I had pictures of it to post.....but I couldn't contain myself! GUESS WHAT I'M PICKING UP TONIGHT!!! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eude Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Nice one dude, that's gonna be one sexy bass! Looking forward to seeing at all assembled! Cheers, Eude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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