TheDaivisch Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) I thought I'd share my experience taking an Ibanez ATK810E and heavily modifying it. My wife nearly divorced me over it (or at least made me move into the shed) so thought I'd share it with some people who might appreciate my efforts! I refinished it with a hand applied/hand rubbed Cyanoacrylate finishing glue and replaced all of the electrics. Why? Because the ATK800 series is a combo of great build quality, lovely wood, perfect pickup combo and neck, but suffering from a finish too easily damaged which is a little too "flat"/matte for my taste and average electrics that didn't fully realise the potential of the wood. Also I'm a glutton for punishment/Like a challenge/subconsciously enjoy p*ssing my wife off. Having tried TruOil (lovely finish and great to work with, but not tough enough) wipe on Poly (too soft, drying time too long) Polyurethane glue (surprisingly nice to work with, nice finish, not quite tough enough) on previous attempts, I settled on superglue (CA) having seen people do it on YouTube successfully. It provides a very quick to apply very hard and very easily polished finish. After trying a bunch of CA brands, I found Starbond Semi-flexible Thin Adhesive SBEM0250 to be the best. It was hand applied using kitchen roll applying in straight lines with the grain, using accelerator. I then used 600 grit wet and dry on rough/uneven spots with a polishing block on flat areas, then 1200 grit wet/dry followed by 4000 grade Micromesh for final finish. The finish is effectively a thin top coat on the existing poly, as I found stripping off the existing thin poly coat on the ATK800 to be unnecessary work having also tried that previously. On other thicker coats, that will likely be a different story. The finish isn't full on mirror gloss (I didn't want that) has a very slight organic grained texture to it and retains the open non-filled grain of the previous finish, which to me is perfect compromise and I now have a finish I can relatively easily repair. In the pics you can see the difference in the finish, from matt to gloss. For the electrics I removed the entire wiring loom and electrics and replaced everything. I replaced the pickups with a Nordstrand MM4.4 and Nordstrand NJ4SV for completely hum free operation in all coil combos. It's a traditional vol-vol arrangement on the passive side with a *bridge coil*-*both in parallel*-*neck coil* switch setup for the humbucker (the same switching as the original bar the treble filter on the neck coil of the bucker). The switch is a Dimarzio EP1111. The pots are CTS; 500k for the big buck and 250k for the Jazz, wired in parallel. This is all screwed into a lovely John East SPM-02 preamp. John is an absolute gent providing outstanding very personal customer service (dunno how he does it..) Selectable frequency points on the pre mean I can get then exactly right for the pickups and bass. I also added extra shielding, including by running a copper foil covered drinking straw run through the routing for the neck pickup wiring into the control cavity. The bass had been well gigged and the poly on the fretboard noticeably a little worn, so I stripped it (Stanley blades, nail files and wire wool) and refinished it in buffed TruOil. The scratchplate is custom made by Jacks Instrument Services. Lots of trial and error on previous basses, stress, arguments, late nights in the shed and learning from forums and YouTube but I'm proud of this and it sounds absolutely fantastic. Real powerful organic rich bass tone with excellent impressions of Stingray, active Jazz and some unique tones all of its own. Edited February 5, 2020 by TheDaivisch New pics 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDaBass Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 That is absolutely gorgeous. My favourite wood combo of ash body and maple neck & fretboard. The variety of tones must be sublime. Fantastic job thanks for sharing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Nice. Proper Stingray killer they are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 I had one - nice bass, and as @Machines says, "Proper stingray killer". My issue with it was the God awful "bridge"....was this designed to span the Mersey or something?? For me, it spoilt what was otherwise a really nice bass.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDaivisch Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 55 minutes ago, TheGreek said: I had one - nice bass, and as @Machines says, "Proper stingray killer". My issue with it was the God awful "bridge"....was this designed to span the Mersey or something?? For me, it spoilt what was otherwise a really nice bass.. I like it! And definitely can't be bad for tone and sustain....I get it might be a bit marmite and weighs a bit ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 2 hours ago, TheGreek said: I had one - nice bass, and as @Machines says, "Proper stingray killer". My issue with it was the God awful "bridge"....was this designed to span the Mersey or something?? For me, it spoilt what was otherwise a really nice bass.. Incidentally what is under the bridge (on the bass, not the RHCP song)? Love the figuring of the wood but the big 'orrible bridge spoils it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 3 hours ago, lemmywinks said: Incidentally what is under the bridge (on the bass, not the RHCP song)? Love the figuring of the wood but the big 'orrible bridge spoils it. Wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, Machines said: Wood. Cool, would be disappointing if there was some horrible routing under there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 1 hour ago, lemmywinks said: Cool, would be disappointing if there was some horrible routing under there. I had an ATK200. Took bridge off out of curiosity and it was just like a normal bridge but a bit, bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDaivisch Posted February 14, 2020 Author Share Posted February 14, 2020 On 31/01/2020 at 17:13, lemmywinks said: Incidentally what is under the bridge (on the bass, not the RHCP song)? Love the figuring of the wood but the big 'orrible bridge spoils it. It's different. I like it. Can't help weight though.. it weighs a ton on its own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassbandit Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Hi what happened with this one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarPig Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Lovely looking bass, I've had 3 ATK's over the years, never an 810 though. Nice upgrades, this ticks many boxes with versatility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDaivisch Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 24/04/2020 at 14:41, Bassbandit said: Hi what happened with this one It's still MIIINE. And still loving it. As another poster says, it ticks many boxes tone wise so not craving another bass right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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