EMG456 Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Right then – never done one of these before but I’ve enjoyed reading others’ adventures on here and seeing the outcomes so here goes. Firstly, a bit of background. A long time ago, when I was young and fairly foolish, I was looking for a bass to use for fingerstyle playing which my favoured Ricks at the time did not suit. I was also interested in the new “slap ‘n Snap” styles which were beginning to be heard (who knew?!). I found a likely looking bass in a local shop which the guy assured me was a Fender Precision although it had no headstock logo and I tried it and bought it for the princely sum of £125. When I took it to bits to clean it up, it turned out to be a 1961 Precision Bass. It had been sunburst finish but a previous owner had stripped the finish off and roughly varnished it. This was a common occurrence in the 70’s and I knew many Fenders that looked like that. Anyway, I refretted up to the 12th fret and it became a great bass to play – kind of like a comfy old pair of slippers! A major bass purchase in the early 80’s necessitated the sale of a few instruments and the Fender went to a friend who had had it on loan for a few months – he still plays it to this day. Now, I tend to prefer twin pickup basses but I always had fond memories of that old bass and a couple of years back, during a trip to London, I spied an early Jazz Bass in the Gallery which looked like my old P’s twin! It turned out to be a Bill Nash bass but it so captured the vibe of my old bass that it set me thinking... I could re-create the old P in J form. So I started out looking for a project bass to use. For me, the obvious choice given the prices charged these days for old Fenders, would be a Japanese built Jazz from the 70’s or 80’s. But these instruments are now themselves genuine vintage guitars and I didn’t want to take a perfectly good old instrument and hack it about so a waiting game ensued... and this is what I ended up buying. It’s an Aria Pro II JB 600 from 1977. It has had a hard life and has a few features which did definitely not come directly from the Matsumoku factory! Like the unusual tuning arrangement! Or the unique fingerboard customisation – yes, a 21 fret Precision board will just fit straight onto a 20 fret Jazz neck – no problem! But most importantly, all the demolition has already been done on this bass. It’s already an unloved and abandoned lost cause and nothing I can do to it will make it worse so it’s a real rescue mission – I think it will now be known as the dogs trust bass! More to follow soon... Cheers Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 That fretboard overhang (not at the 21st fret - I mean looking at the nut with the board wider than the neck!) reminds me of a 70s Fender jazz I played in Sound Control Glasgow a few years back. Some muppet had removed the binding and sanded the channel left behind (although only partially) so the neck was wider than the fingerboard. Worst dogs dinner of a bass I've ever layed hands on by a country mile. At least this has more chance of being salvageable! If it were me I'd replace the board altogether. Probably be a better job than defretting, slimming the board to the neck and refretting it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I bought an Aria Primary bass - a 1978 Precision copy - in a three guitar job lot for £50. It's an outstanding bass. I thought about looking for a Jazz version but too expensive...I think I saw yours on eBay a while back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 [quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1396881679' post='2418319'] If it were me I'd replace the board altogether. Probably be a better job than defretting, slimming the board to the neck and refretting it again. [/quote] Well, I hadn't really intended to spend much on this but there were a few things about the fingerboard that led me to the same conclusion. So the neck went straight off to my pet luthier- Jimmy Moon in Glasgow. The old bass I'm using as inspiration for this one had one of those extremely dark, almost black Brazilian Rosewood fingerboards that Fender put on in the early 60s. It's not possible to obtain that wood any more so Jimmy has sourced a nice dark ebony board for me and will polish it up to a nice sheen. Position markers will be clay dots and I've supplied him with a set of the Gotoh vintage style reverse wind tuners to put on. Should be very nice- ETA for the neck is sometime in May. Cheers Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 [quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1396949394' post='2418940'] I bought an Aria Primary bass - a 1978 Precision copy - in a three guitar job lot for £50. It's an outstanding bass. I thought about looking for a Jazz version but too expensive...I think I saw yours on eBay a while back. [/quote] You got a fantastic deal there! Yep, mine came from the bay in November or December. With the postage I paid £105. Anything from Matsumoku of this vintage is really well put together with quality materials so it stands a great chance of being an excellent bass. Cheers Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 (edited) [quote name='EMG456' timestamp='1396989713' post='2419586'] You got a fantastic deal there! Yep, mine came from the bay in November or December. With the postage I paid £105. Anything from Matsumoku of this vintage is really well put together with quality materials so it stands a great chance of being an excellent bass. Cheers Ed [/quote] I was looking on Gumtree late one Friday for a project and spotted the advert for the Aria and two awful six string guitars and Encore and a [s]Jim Deacon[/s] Nevada strat - the seller actually dropped the guitars round the next day too. I cobbled one decent six string together and gave it to my nephew and then set about work on the Aria. It was in a shocking state. The pots had sheared off (no knobs), the pickup was dead, the neck had a horrible front bow (the truss rod was completely slack). On the plus side, it had a set of Schaller machines on it, but they were installed at offset angles (a la Warwick). I rewired it, installed a new (Wilkinson) pickup, reset the machines, straplocks. It sounds/plays lovely - tonally it just gives me an option over my Thunderbirds, plus I've had a tendency to use it at gigs where I don't know the venue...I guess I'd rather that the Aria got nicked over one of my Gibsons. P Edited April 9, 2014 by NancyJohnson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 [quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1397038397' post='2419921'] I was looking on Gumtree late one Friday for a project and spotted the advert for the Aria and two awful six string guitars and Encore and a Jim Deacon strat - the seller actually dropped the guitars round the next day too. I cobbled one decent six string together and gave it to my nephew and then set about work on the Aria. It was in a shocking state. The pots had sheared off (no knobs), the pickup was dead, the neck had a horrible front bow (the truss rod was completely slack). On the plus side, it had a set of Schaller machines on it, but they were installed at offset angles (a la Warwick). I rewired it, installed a new (Wilkinson) pickup, reset the machines, straplocks. It sounds/plays lovely - tonally it just gives me an option over my Thunderbirds, plus I've had a tendency to use it at gigs where I don't know the venue...I guess I'd rather that the Aria got nicked over one of my Gibsons. P [/quote] I've seen your Aria in another thread, it's bloody lovely! If you ever fancy moving it on you've got a certain buyer right here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I forgot something in that deal. There was also a Park practice amp as well. So I got the Aria bass, an Encore and [i]Nevada[/i] (not Jim Deacon) strat and a Park practice amp for £50.00. The Schaller machine heads are probably worth that figure alone. Anyhow, back on topic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) So, with the neck away to be rebuilt, I now need to get the body sorted out. It seems to be finished in the sort of orange coloured stuff you usually find on garden sheds and fences so that needs to be sanded off to reveal what we have underneath. Now this bass has definitely had a life and when this project is finished, I want it to reflect that so I’m hoping I’ll be able to clean up the body whilst still retaining some of the battle scars. Firstly, strip out the control plate and pickups. I had to undo the jack socket nut before I could lift the control plate off because the earth wire from the bridge to the jack was so short. I’m going to fit a stacked knob control plate like the earliest Jazz Basses so this plate and pots will just go away into a box and kept should I ever decide to sell the bass again. I am hoping to re-use the existing pickups but I’m not a fan of the exposed pole pieces sticking up quite proud of the covers – the edges are quite sharp and I find that they can catch your fingers. The plan was to fit some kind of spacer under the cover so that the pole pieces would barely protrude. Unfortunately as you can see, it looks like the good folks at Matsumoku saw fit to pot their pickups in epoxy so that’s not going to be possible. Oh well, when it’s finished I’ll make a judgement call on sound and feel and if I don’t like them, I’ll look for a pair of DiMarzio model J’s to pop in. [size=4][color=#000000]With the hardware removed, this is what we have.[/color][/size] And the back... [size=2][color=#000000][/color][/size] [size=4][color=#000000]I start with the sanding block and the wood is starting to appear out of the murk. It seems that we have a four piece ash body so I’m quite happy with that.[/color][/size] More sanding and the wood is getting lighter and lighter looking. You can clearly see the original sunburst finish in the neck pocket, control cavity and pickup routes. The bass will be fitted with a tort scratch plate so most of the battle scars on the front will be covered over but any that won’t be, I’m hoping to preserve under the new finish so I need to be careful how far I sand. Edited April 30, 2014 by EMG456 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) So, this is the body with about 8 coats of Colron finishing oil on it. I botched it up the first time and had to take it all off and start again. The best method I found of applying it was to pour a small amount of the oil onto whichever side of the body you were working on and spread it out/ rub it in using a lint free cloth – in my case an old t shirt. Wipe off any excess with nice smooth strokes and leave to dry for 6 hours before adding another coat. The instructions on the tin said to wipe the excess off after an hour but I found that by that time, the oil had formed a sticky mass and was impossible to buff out to a smooth finish. By doing it in one process, you get a very thin coat each time but the actual finish is surprisingly good – glossy but you can still see the texture of the grain- I’m liking it! Edited April 30, 2014 by EMG456 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 For the pickups, couldn't you make a spacer for the top? Perhaps even make one out a nice wood? Or even cut out of an old scratch plate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 Beautiful vintage style Stack Pot control plate and shielding kit from [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/7835-kiogon/"]KIOgon[/url] of this forum. Thanks John! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 [quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1398865400' post='2438425'] For the pickups, couldn't you make a spacer for the top? Perhaps even make one out a nice wood? Or even cut out of an old scratch plate? [/quote] I hadn't thought of that - it's a possibility. I'm trying to keep it "old Fender" appearance so a cut out of a piece of black plastic would certainly do the job. It seems obvious now that you've pointed it out- thanks. Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 Looking go so far! P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted May 19, 2014 Author Share Posted May 19, 2014 (edited) To keep the vibe that I want for this bass, it needs a tort scratchplate on. one of the members here was selling a couple of different ones a while back and so I bought them on spec thinking that I would just sell one on. Needless to say however, being an Aria, neither of the plates fitted properly. So I decided to have one made. I spoke to Howard [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/4905-the-bass-doc/"]The Bass Doc[/url] on here and he said he had a nice piece of vintage style tort he could use for a plate. Now there was just the matter of getting a template that fitted the bass without my having to send the body away to him. I'm not great with a craft knife but at one time I had about ten years involved with computer aided design so I'm reasonably handy on the PC so I decided to take a pencil rubbing of the front face of the body and scan it on my flatbed scanner. I could then tidy it up and print it out at exact size and make any adjustments to the image file. This way I could give Howard a number of copies of the template for him to work with. It took two or three iterations moving certain screwhole centres a little before I was happy that the template was correct. Here is the finished body with the new control plate and one of my printed templates during that process - mmm, of course on a 70s style ash Jazz body, a white plate would look good but I'm sticking to my guns just now!! And here's the type of image that I sent Howard as a template for the plate. Note that this is not the final version - there's still an extra screwhole in this one which had been used for a thumbrest on the bass when I got it and the cut out for truss adjustment is what's routed out on the body. The final plate will just have the little crescent Fender used to put on their plates. This means the plate will have to come off for truss adjustment but that's not a lot of bother on a Jazz and it's much easier than it was on my old Fender P or my Tokai P/J where the neck actually has to be loosened or removed before the truss can be adjusted! If anybody would like a copy of the template, PM me and I'll send you a pdf but remember, it's only for an Aria Jazz from the late 70s. I can't show you the finished effect because the body has now gone over to Jimmy Moon so that the geometry can all be checked as the new fingerboard is fitted and the neck remounted but here is the lovely scratchplate Howard made. Progress will now halt until I get the bass back from Jimmy which is targeted to be sometime this month. He's very busy and knows that I'm not short of a bass or two so I won't be holding my breath! Cheers Ed Edited May 19, 2014 by EMG456 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted May 19, 2014 Share Posted May 19, 2014 Really looking forward to seeing the completed article! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 (edited) Well, it's been a long time - sometimes life just gets in the way of everything and I seem to have had virtually no time for Basschat but definitely time for an update. Jimmy Moon finished the neck at the very end of May and I picked up the newly rejoined neck and body at the start of June. The neck is of course very nice indeed - exactly what I was looking for so it was a quick scramble to get the pickups on and see what it sounded like. I really didn't like the protruding pole pieces so I decided to see if the poles were a simple push fit in the bobbins. I don't recommend you try this on valuable old pickups but I figured that I was not going to get the use out of the pickups as they stood so... I took one of the pickups and supported it on a couple of bits of softwood, leaving a small gap under one of the pole pieces. I then took a pair of pliers, closed, and placed the side of the jaws on the top of the pole piece and pressed down... hard. The pole piece moved down through the bobbin! Repeat the process for all 16 pole pieces over the two pickups and I now have two vintage looking pickups with virtually flush pole pieces so they really look the part. I was hoping they still worked as it was possible that the windings could have been broken internally by my antics. Anyway, installed [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/7835-kiogon/"]Kiogon's[/url] shielding kit and pre- wired control plate including the brass strip bridge earth and wired the pickups. They both worked but were out of phase with each other. The bass had sounded a bit odd when I got it at first before I took it all to bits but it was kind of difficult to put your finger on things when you're playing a bass with three dead strings, no nut and an oversized fingerboard! Checked the wiring and the pickups were wired correctly so reversed the phase of one and hey presto- everything working as it should - the two pickups are actually out of phase if you wire them up according to how they should look! So here's the bass at that stage - still to put the scratch plate on - was waiting for some slot head pickguard screws to be delivered - all to keep the the vibe of my old p-bass that this project was based on. And the pickups after the pole pieces had been lowered... Next post - the finished bass! Edited November 19, 2014 by EMG456 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 (edited) Here we go then, scratchplate mounted- all done and it has turned out brilliantly! [sup][/sup] The ebony board with the clay dots looks and feels old and fantastic. [sup][/sup] It's a slab board like the early Fenders [sup][/sup] [sup][/sup] Managed to keep the battle scars under the new finish so it's obviously an old bass in appearance. [sup][/sup] [sup][/sup] It sounds great - the pickups are fat and warm and provide all the sounds you might expect. The ash body makes it quite heavy but it's comfy on a strap, relatively noise free and is a fitting tribute to my old P-bass. So there you have it - '77 Aria Precise Bass JB-600. New ebony fingerboard, clay dots, '70's style frets, Gotoh reverse wind tuners, stack pot controls. Back in active service again! Cheers Ed Edited November 19, 2014 by EMG456 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scojack Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 (edited) Turned out brilliantly ..love the look of that ebony FB Edited November 20, 2014 by scojack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 A happy and good looking ending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Great looking bass, good job mate. Cheeky question: any sound clips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMG456 Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1416475402' post='2610505'] Great looking bass, good job mate. Cheeky question: any sound clips? [/quote] Not cheeky at all - will do some tonight! Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Looks wonderful! Great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Lovely job pal, but I think it looks better without the pickguard! Gotta show off the wood! Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rk7 Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Great work, and a lovely bass at the end of it all. Congrats RK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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