The Last Bass Outpost

I haven’t been around for a while, because of dumb life stuff. But recently I found a group on Facebook (not sure how everyone feels about that place, so I won’t link to it unless someone wants to see it) Basically someone found an abandoned building full of Hofner bodies and started a group where people save and rebuild the bodies into new guitars. Anyway years ago I had a Hofner bass, a 500/4. I’m sure I posted it all over here already… I had to sell most of my gear off at one point, and of course I’ve been looking to replace it since. I managed to get a body from them, and have been (slowly) trying to make something playable out of it. I wanted to post pictures, but my Photobucket account has long since disappeared-how is everyone sharing pics these days? Oh yeah, if anyone has a spare Hofner neck laying around, I can give it a good home… 

So I was at the Guitar Center before work Friday. They had a Gretsch Jr Jet bass, the 2-pickup model.
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/gretsch-guitars-g2220-electromatic-junior-jet-ii-electric-bass-guitar
I had one of these when they first got reissued in the late 90’s. I really liked it, it sounded and played great. Unfortunately the body was Plywood, and before it was a year old, the finish “sunk” and you could totally see the layers or plies. Also, the neck warped so bad that even with maxing out the truss rod, I had to pull the bottom dozen frets just to keep the strings off them... I took it back to GC several times for adjustments (before I just yanked the frets, obviously) I tried returning it or making a warranty claim, but the manager refused and told me it warped because I must have stored it wrong... l
I ended up using the pickups and tuning machines on my Hofner, and giving the rest of the “husk” to my luthier friend (who did the fret pulling).
So I saw the Jr Jet at GC, it played and sounded good. Plus it was a burst finish instead of all black like all my other basses... I have 2 black P copies and I want something different, and I can afford this one. I just don’t wanna get burned again...
Have any of you-all gotten a Gretsch lately? Are they better made than the one I had? I remember the other one I had, said “Made in Korea” and this new one says made in China. Oh, and I remember paying about the same in 97/98 as these are listed for.
I just tried for way too long to attach a picture of this, but Photo Bucket is being stupid again. You’ll just have to click the link to see them.

What are the pickups in the Les Paul basses? Are they the same size and construction as "guitar" humbuckers, or are they something completely different? I've only ever really seen pictures of these basses, I've never actually handled one...
I had a Hondo Jazz copy, with humbuckers (sort of mini-HB sized) and I'd kind of like to make something like that again, except this time with good materials. I saw an unrouted J-bass body online, and I could probably get a standard HB routing template and not screw it up too badly... and there are eleventy-billion flavors of guitar HB's, so I'm sure I can find something I like. Unless LP basses are something different, and I'm barking up the wrong tree...

So my hours at work changed again, so I had 40 min. of free time before work today. Just enough time to check out a guitar store near work that I hadn't been to before (Capitol Guitar in St Paul)
They had some interesting stuff, including this "no name" semi hollow bass:
That's what the tag said, "No name"... Anyway it looks fairly recent, the pups look like the "mini humbucker" style like my Gretsch had (and there's plastic still on them) It's kinda heavy, so I'm guessing it's got a center block or something. The tailpiece is real close to the bridge, so I'm wondering if that isn't stock. I should go back next week and see what I can trade my Hondo jazz for it...
Thanks, in advance, guys!

Yeah I know I could just google about them, but I figure somebody on here has one, or had one, or knows all about them rather than wading thru a bunch of dead links and old ebay adds... Anyway on to the pix:



The Hohner. It had about 11-ty million finish cracks all over it, and the headstock looked like it was angled towards the strings-the opposite of "tilt back" headstocks, if that makes sense. It seemed to play OK, from what I could tell. It was pretty cool looking. I would have gotten more pix but the store guy came over and asked why I was photographing it (oops)
Obviously it was fretless, but had the cool marker inlays at the top of the neck. I've never actually played a fretless, and I sounded as bad on it as I thought I would     

THe Ohagan:





I'm a sucker for neck-thru instruments, I just love the way they look. Despite that it looks like something I should have right under my chin, playing "Level 42" songs on it... I thought it was really cool, if kinda out of style now. Of course I didn't have the $800 they wanted for it. It was kinda heavy, which I'm sure is because of the construction.
So if "shreddy" guitars are coming back in, (and they made more NR Thunderbirds, not that I could afford those, either) does that mean that EARLY 80's stuff will get popular again? Like pre-hair-band era gear?

In case I haven't plastered these pics up here enough already, here goes:
I've always liked EB-2 style basses. So far I've had

an Ibanez AS-140 (had it less than 6 months, and had to sell it to pay my daughter's hospital bills. I think I paid as much for the case, as I got for the bass AND the case  )

A Hofner 500/4, I got it in the early 90's from a music store in Minneapolis. THey knew nothing about it ("I think it's a Beatle bass neck on a Univox"), nobody else locally seemed to know what it was either. I loved it though, and only sold it recently because I got laid off and needed $. (Stupid bills)

A "Conqueror" EB-2 copy, I totally got ripped off on this. I paid $300 for it, and it was completely warped (neck AND body), the electronics didn't work and I'm pretty sure it was made of cardboard.
Anyway I keep looking at semis in/near my price range, and found a "Douglas SPB-1100" at Rondo Music. It looks (and feels) just like the Ibanez I used to have. I could actually afford it, too which is a plus 
ANyway, on to the pics:








I remember my Ibanez having really sloppy F-holes (raggedy wood with no finish on it) and this one appears painted. It has nice multi=ply binding, nice inlays, the neck feels REALLY nice (as much as I liked my Hofner, that had a teeny neck. I'm glad I don't have them both to compare because I'd rather play this one)
It arrived while I was at work. I get home after midnight, so I saw a box leaning up against my garage door. (I thought I'd have to sign for it, apparently not...) The one side looked fine, but the side against the garage had a GIANT hole in it!

Well I was fully awake now! I of course ripped it all open right in the driveway, expecting the worst, but fortunately the bass itself was in another box, and completely unmarked (and still reasonably in tune!)
I also ordered what was billed as the gig bag for it (they listed a hard case, but that was out of stock)

THe bass fits in it (barely) but the looooong pocket on the front and the hole in the bottom

make me think this is a cello case or something. I gotta find something to put over the hole, since the strap button is totally outside the case when the bass is in there. The headstock more or less pushes the top of the case tight, so there's NO extra room.
So the action is nice (if a little high), it sounds good thru my little Peavey amp (better than I remember my Ibanez sounding, but that could just be the "honeymoon period" I'm in with it. Of course since I always have terrible ideas, now I'm wondering if a "Thunder Bucker" could fit in here without major surgery. I can feel that this has "mini pots", so my "mod-itis" wants to get in there to put full-size ones in. Oh, and what does everybody think of the "Stingray" pups? I know I've never played a "real" one, but I see replacement ones all over online, not that this really NEEDS to be changed.
Anyway I'm stoked, I stayed up WAY too late playing this last night, and was almost late for work fooling with it today. I got a semi again, after not having one for too long. LIfe is good. 

I've been working on this bass longer than I'd like to admit, but it's finally in one piece and I can play it.
It's a 70's Hondo II Jazz copy. Rather than the plywood like most of them I've seen, this one's made of ash (or something that looks like ash anyway) I took all the electronics out (they didn't work anyway) and Our Intrepid Leader gave me a bridge to replace the terrible one it came with (Thank you again, Dave!) I found some "Firebird style Mini-Humbuckers" on ebay for less than $20 for the pair. These are something like within 1/4" of the same size as what came out of it, are most likely Artec pickups that sounded good in my other hacked-together bass

I also found a "pre-wired Jazz bass control panel" for less than $30, probably a used take-out from something because it had really long leads for the pickups.

I had wired everything up a couple times, and it never really worked. I could wire either of the mini-buckers to the output jack and get noise, but not thru the pots. I futzed and futzed and ended up just re wiring it with new pots and the diagram from SD http://www.buzzardsbass.com/electronics/wiring/diagrams/J-Bass/Jazz.gif
Now it makes noise, but turning the knobs doesn't seem to affect anything, like the sound doesn't change. After seeing the amazing builds you guys put up here I'm kinda embarrased to show my hack-work around here,    but I have a couple questions for you experts:
1. could my lack of tone change be from bad parts (everything was as cheap as I could afford) or more likely me just wiring it up wrong?
2 Would just wiring it vol/tone/3-way make more sense than the v/v/t (or blend knob or whatever) make more sense? (and be less likely for me to screw up)
3. I did notice on playing it for the first time that the "G" string was a lot quieter than the other 3. Also, after measuring it 543264326 times to get the bridge in the right place,

the pup routs are shifted way over to the "E" side, I'm guessing my quiet string is because the pups are not under the strings quite right?

They SEEM to be OK, but who knows... with the old ones, if I centered the pickup under the strings, the top of the pup route could be seen under the pickup ring.

I centered these pretty evenly, but that one string is still not as loud as the others. 
4. The action is WAY higher than it used to be- I guess spending 4 years in my basement didn't do it any good...

I strung it up and raised the bridge up enough to get it to stop buzzing, and now it's the stereotypical "half-inch high action". I've never actually adjusted a truss rod before, go figure, and don't wanna break this one (it's totally not worth getting a new neck for, not that I could either afford one, or know how to adapt a standard one to this odd ball shaped thing. It does have a headstock adjusted truss rod, and the nut on it appears to adjust with an Allen key,

but the one I have that fits the nut doesn't seem to want to move at all, and I don't want to snap anything. Also, I don't actually know which way I should be turning it in the first place, so I thought I should consult the experts before I make stuff worse. Can I even adjust this out, or is the neck now warped too much to have a playable bass? THe action was nowhere near this high when I bought it, or I wouldn't have gotten it in the first place. I should mention that the neck has never come off it since I got it, and it's been in my basement pretty much the whole time, other than when I worked on it outside in the summer a couple times. I figured it was more humid down there in the winter than upstairs in our wood-heated house, but I could be wrong...

THank you guys, especially for having me in the coolest bass hang-out on the net.

I always wondered what happened to people's railroad set-ups when they were done with them. Apparently you re-invent your property as a "railway resort".

http://looneylisting.com/2014/01/22/railway-resort-is-apparently-a-thing-an-amazing-thing/




Legendary property complete with its own documentary and special feature by CNN!
Globally acclaimed and masterfully engineered, the fabulous 19.67 acre estate regarded as the finest railroad of its kind is now for sale in Sherwood, Oregon!   Lending itself to the imagination while presenting endless possibilities, you'll find beautiful landscaping, gardens, pasture, arena, views, spectacular outbuildings and main house that's been fully remodeled with precision, framing this railway resort. For those seeking and appreciate that absolute one-of a kind find, here's the perfect paradise that uniquely its own!

The Home Features

Remodeled Home Built in 1930
Three level Cape Cod style home with Master across all upper level
4,908 Square Feet
Gourmet Kitchen with Granite, Tile & High-End Stainless Steel Appliances
Designer Paint Colors
4 Spacious Bedrooms
3 Full and 1 Half Bathroom
Formal and Great Room Living
Bonus/Media Room with Fireplace, Wet Bar, Poker and Pool Table Area
Home Gym
 The Land Features

19.67 Acres of all Useable Land
Beautiful Territory & Views
Large Deck & Covered Front Porch for Outdoor Living
Barn with potential for 6 stalls and hay loft
Large Shop
Amazing model train museum
Fenced Pasture
Professional Landscaping
Fabulous world-class railway surrounding property
Adventure park