All was going well, I found a nice neck and the only work that needed done was to replace the low end logo with something more classy - a 70's fender precision. I sanded the old logo of, got a new logo and sprayed the two in laquer ready to go...
The next day when I went to apply the logo there was a disaster awaiting me - more white laquer!!!!!! the headstock was white and flaking, while the logo was a crusty mess. There was no option but to sand the headstock down, and start over (with a new waterslide logo - back to ebay...). AARRRGGHHHH!!!! Lots of swearing followed...
The problem of course was that to refinish the headstock I had to remove the machine heads. Normally you'd apply a logo before fitting them, but I was lucky enough to find a cheap neck with the tuners already attatched. As fitting the tuners on the last bass was a pain in the neck (lots of small screws), I was glad not to have that job. Now I had the worse job of getting them OUT.
Three out of the four screws on each tuner were no problem, but in each case one of them jammed, and stripped the screw head. More swearing was involved. Eventually I got two of the tuners off. The other two I dismantled in place, and was able to rotate them out of the way.
Once that was done the refinish was easy. I sanded, then gave the headstock a couple of coats. Wait till the next day, and apply the waterslide. That was a bit tricky as the logo is much larger than the tele logo on the last bass, but it came out OK in the end. Then another overnight dry, before a whole load more coats.
The laqure dries pretty quick, so I only had to leave it a few more hours, and it was dry enough to drop the machine heads in, then bolt the whole thing together (nice and easy as everything was pre-drilled). Then all that was left was to string it up...
At that point I noticed a problem - the strings were off-center on the neck, and were only just over the pickups... The neck seemed pretty square, and the fact that the pickup is so far out means that the problem is probably the bridge. It looks like the bidge is about 5mm to low on the body!!!! Ouch. That's just a pain.
The options are to find a different bridge that lines up with the screw holes, redrill the screw holes, or just live with it. The only way to decide is to play it and see:
Powering it up, it actually played pretty nice out of the box. The action is still settling in, but it felt really good for a first fit, and while the strings aren't over the pole pieces it didn't seem to affect the balance of the strings. The G string is nearer the edge than the E string but it doesn't really matter. I guess I'll live with if for a week or two and see how I feel.
Meanwhile I've been looking out for more parts. Bodies have been going for silly cash this week - a tanglewood body (like this one, but without hardware), that was described as badly needing stripped and refinished (it way worse condition) went for £45, when I got the loaded one for £23 a few weeks ago. However tonight I got a win... A Pink generic P Body - for £13 (including shipping). At one point it looked like I was going to get it for a penny + £10 shipping, but someone started bidding it up in minimum increments with 2 minutes to go. I was STRESSED watching the clock run out, but I got a great deal... remember the very first post in the blog (go back and check). I wanted to build Billy's PINK bass, and considered reworking a P body. Guess what I'm doing next!!! Well not quite - it's not going to be identical, so maybe I'll put a Jazz neck on!
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