The Last Bass Outpost

Sure does.
Please keep this alive

Will do - I'm hoping to have it back next week...


     - georgestrings

I've wanted one for awhile, and grabbed a donor Epi T-bird off of my local CL a few months ago for $100, with a hardshell case... I've actually enjoyed playing the Epi, after setting it up and tweaking it to my tastes - and have gigged it a little with great results... This has convinced me that the stock pups will work out just fine, as long as the neck change doesn't alter the tone drastically - we'll see...

I've been scouting for a Fender P neck since then - since the Epi neck was almost 1.7 at the nut, and one of my main players is a Highway One with a similar neck... I was pretty sure I was going to buy a MIM off of ebay for around $200, when my local CL came thru for me again: I picked up an '11 American Special P neck for $125 last sunday!!! This neck is like new, and I LOVE the profile - the only downside is that the tuners aren't very good - I think the seller scrounged them up from somewhere, and used the '11 tuners on a Warmoth neck he had - no biggie, considering... I'm leaning towards springing for some Hipshot HB7s for it - we'll see... I'm going to have a local NAPA mix up a can of seafoam green laquer, and spray the body myself - then put the Epi Goth stuff back on it until I decide what I want to end up with...

I'm taking it down to my luthier to have the body routed out for the neck - then, we'll get this party started!!! Here's some pics of what I have so far:








The Epi Goth neck will probably go on ebay - I sort of hate to part with it, since it's got great fretwork - but I really won't have a use for it once the body is routed out... Anyways, I'll update this thread as the build progresses...


     - georgestrings

Holy crap Georgestrings; got enough MM Subs?

Hahaha!!! - I suppose, but I'm actually considering picking up one of the SUB guitars to complete my Music Man SUB collection... IMO, they've been one of the best values in an MIA bass for awhile now...


    - georgestrings

I did a candy apple red one like Marks but routed the body instead of the neck heel. It needs to go about a 1/4" deeper and 1/8" wider on each side. If you stay with the original 3 point it needs a thin shim under the neck to get the neck angle right, the original necks heel is tapered but the pocket is flat. When I routed the body I covered the edges of the neck pocket with blue painters tape and went real slow with the router and got a real clean edge with no chipping.

This has been especially helpful, as that's the exact approach I'm considering...

 Which end of the neck pocket did the shim have to go??? It would be nice if I could figure a way to route it so that I don't need a shim, to be honest... I'm sure I'll have a better idea once I remove the neck - although I don't have alot of wood working experience, I'm a very experienced mechanic - and have successfully built a few nice Fender basses and guitars, besides doing all my own setups for quite a few years now..


     - georgestrings

 I ended up marking the original fret locations with tape on the body, it was srprising how much material had to be removed from the heel to get the new neck's frets to be in the same place - I didn't want the reach for the low frets to be too long.

Interesting - I appreciate the sharing of your experience on this, Mark - I'll be sure to post about it when the time comes for the build... In the meantime, I'm going to play it as is until I score a Fender neck for it - gonna gig it friday, actually - just for grins...

   - georgestrings

I think Mark did one also. Metallic red??

With a collection of 'birds like his, I'm sure there's one in there somewhere...


    - georgestrings

Gots da big neck, like my white CS/LE. It appears the newest bolt-on Epis finally went to a 1.5" nut width.

Yeah, it's a shade under 1.7" at the nut - but feels just like my P basses, which isn't a bad thing...


     - georgestrings

Nice. I bet any combination of that stuff sounds great!

Thanks - it's all worked pretty well, I have to admit... I used the rack and 810 in a loud 2 guitar band - both used Triple Rec halfstacks, and I never had to push it hard to get the job done... I picked up a like new MIA Ampeg BA115 a couple of months ago, but am not sure when I'll use it - it was such a good deal, I couldn't resist... I've also been keeping an eye out for a 400+, just because I've wanted one for awhile....


      - georgestrings