The Last Bass Outpost

Sorry for the lack of updates, I ran out of steam and there was stuff round the house to do (put up shelves, fit an extra front door lock because our neighbours keep dubious company, blinds to put up).

Anyway, I've got my second wind, so here we go

I got to work on attaching the neck to the body. Having never made a neck pocket in my life before (this neck is so different from the old one it's like making a new one) I was nervous about this. I was reading this very useful article which gave me the impetus to get off my backside:

http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/pocket/index.htm

However, I'm not quite ready to go straight to the body, so instead I made a template out of MDF marked with a centre line so I can place it on the (similarly marked) body. Using the same trick of clamping two lengths of wood to the sides of the neck then removing the neck I got this (with a router with a roller at the top of the cutter):



Applying this to a spare bit of MDF yielded this:



Which unfortunately was "70s Fender" tight



No worries though, I have a trick for this eventuality.  I will apply an appropriate number of layers of electrical tape to the guide roller, pulling the cutter away from the template edge and making the hole a little smaller.

In other news I have decided to get some high end headless hardware to do a right good job of this project.  I have gone with ABM stuff.



Eventually, I hope it's going to end up something like this:




Except that the pickguard will be black.

Does the Hodad have a 1 meg tone pot? That would explain the almost all or nothing effect.

It does - a 1Meg/100k stack pot.  The most unusual pot values on a concentric I've come into contact with.

That would be a cheap and easy fix with a better quality pot and/or possibly a different value tone cap, pot value and taper.

I know, but that doesn't change the fact that it's how they appear on your doorstep in stock condition.

What color is yours? I have a black one that got the last set of Fralin Thunderbuckers from RS Guitars that is rapidly becoming my favorite bass. Mine also seems to have a MUCH slimmer neck joint, as the three others I have ever held all had baseball bat necks on par with the worst Gibson ever put on their RD's, while mine has an almost Fender Jazz-like first position.

 It must have been fate for that particular bass and myself because I bought her online from a Guitar Center in Chicago last year. I had never adjusted a three-point before, but the simplicity and aethestic of that big hunk of metal coupled with a kickass set of pickups, pots, caps and wiring and nice set of flatwounds make my Paul sing, sustain, and growl in ways a Fender style bass could never begin to replicate.

I had played and HATED the Bartolini equipped, Fender syle-bridged Gibson LP Studios and Customs when they were new, and had it not been for Eddie from the Supersuckers, I would have written off the entire line.

My Epi was black with cream binding.



Was?  It had to go when I got my Guild B402-A.  One in, one out.  Now I really have nothing to trade, so I'm going to have to save up for my next one

For what it's worth, I loved this bass, it had a chunky neck (which I like - Jazz necks feel like toys to me) and the fit and finish was excellent.  Lovely flowerpot inlay on the headstock.  I wasn't that impressed with the tone of the stock pickups so I gutted it and fitted EMG-HB pickups with an EMG-BQC control (3 band EQ with mid sweep).  I also hated the fact that the Epi had no selector switch, so I fitted one.  Drilling into a carved top, set neck instrument was an interesting challenge

I also dislike the 3 point bridge, but without major complicated surgery there wasn't much I could do about it.

Been there, done that with the Gibson G-3:



Also I had for a short while a Danelectro Hodad:

I have a Tribute L-2000.  It is my only sensible bass.  MFD pickups are amazing.  Do people really think that they're "basically Fenders"?  Seriously?

Allow me to introduce the latest addition to my collection of "under-appreciated American basses of the 70s and 80s" - a 1981 Guild B402-A.  Please excuse the rather washed out looking mobile phone pics:





Here's one better colour from the auction (showing the original hard case):



I've always been intrigued by the Guild B300 series basses, I loved the quirky shape coupled with the traditional build touches like the set neck and 2 + 2 headstock.  However, I questioned the need in my collection for another passive, 20 fret, single coil bass (that base being covered very nicely by the Gibson G-3).  So it went on the "if I was loaded/bored" list.

That was until I discovered the B400 series.  Early active electronics, 22 fret nonsense anyone?  Yes please!  I realised that I had seen one before - one of the weird ones that they stained the front and back faces of the body and left the rest (including the contours) clear. 



I probably thought "Yuck!" and left it at that without even thinking.  Anyway, while doing my research I discovered that they were only made for 2 years (1980-81) and only 335 were made (assuming all serial numbers were allocated).  That's 335 total of single and double pickup varieties.  That's not a lot.  I didn't feel too hopeful.

So, imagine my surprise when one dutifully appears on eBay, right on cue.  I hummed and hawed for a day or so then decided to go for it.  You only live once and all that.

Well, I'm delighted with it.  Sounds great, feels great, looks weird - completely at home in my collection!

A couple of nights ago I did some cleaning - dismantled the tuners and cleaned them up, polished the brass nut and the frets.  I'll take some nicer pics with a proper camera soon.

Last night I put together some soundclips.  They're not very good (recorded direct into Audacity through an E-MU 0202 USB) but hopefully they show the tonal variety.

http://www.ifb.co.uk/~matthew/mp3/b402-a%20soundclips/

Hmmm, some private jokes being passed around here

I think I've scored a neck so while I wait for it to arrive I've been removing the finish from the body.  The black stuff isn't too bad but there's a sealer coat underneath that is proving a lot tougher to shift.