Another project (80's JB-Player neck-thru)

[daan]

I've had this bass for pretty much ever (since the early 90's, anyway) It's a Korean-made (possibly by Cort) P-bass copy, pretty standard other than the Jazz bridge pup and being a neck-thru design. 3-piece maple neck, and "soft maple" wings added.

My first nice guitar was the same brand, they had standard bolt-neck basses and guitars like mine, and the "Professional" neck-thru ones for 3-4X what mine cost. WHen I found this bass at a pawn shop in Milwaukee it was a few years old and a LOT cheaper than when I had seen them as new. I didn't know anything about them until I got online a few years ago, so I didn't know about where it was from, the construction, etc. Anyway mine was stock until this week, it plays and sounds great (to me anyway) so I didn't want to mess with anything. I did step on the cord and break the guardplate years ago, but I just added extra screws to hold the piece on.

 It has "Select by EMG" pups like a lot of low-mid import guitars from back then. The wooden parts, the tuners and bridge all seem good, but the electronics are all pretty cheap, though-mini pots and the "box style" pup switch.

Well about a year ago the selector switch got really loose, and I had to "wiggle" it to get sound to come out, and I wasn't sure it was actually doing anything when I did get sound. Also I found somewhere to get a black/red/black pickguard to replace the single-ply black one. I just liked it so much I was kinda hesitant to take it apart, since every time I start a project, it seems to never get finished...
So anyway I got my pickguard, a real 3-way lever switch and a couple pots. The routing in the body would barely fit a full-size pot in, let alone a bunch of wiring, so I ended up getting new mini pots. I debated enlarging the route (and going nuts and cutting a new output jack hole in the side, to avoid breaking the pickguard again)  but chickened out and got minis and kept the top output.

THe wiring was kind of strange, it sounded fine for all these years until the switch broke. The capacitor was attatched to the output jack instead of one of the pots, never seen that before. I also didn't know that the pups were attatched to the body, so it kind of suprised me when I took the old guard off and everything stayed on the bass...

I just played it like that for a while, just because it was kinda strange.

[daan]

So I got it all wired up, attatched the components to the guard and bolted it all back together. It plays! I was convinced I'd have to re-do it a half-a-dozen times like my other project, but it seems to work just fine now. It sounds about the same as before, other than the 3-way actually works... THe tone rolls off nicer, before it was mud from 0-9 and then bright, and now it seems to have a better taper (if that's the right word, it gets progressively darker instead of the on-off like before)
THe old knobs don't fit on the new pots though... I may have to go buy knobs.
It looks great, I've wanted something other than straight black for a while. I remember seeing black guitars with red binding and pickups when I was a kid, so I had this idea in mind until I actually found this guard.



It sounds pretty good thru my little Peavey practice amp, now I wanna go to my buddy's place with his "real" amps to see what it does thru those.

[Dave W]

Your wiring skills are improving! The pickguard effect is nice.

IIRC, JB Player was originally a Kaman import brand, part of what became KMCMusicorp distributors, which was bought by Fender in 2007 as part of the Kaman deal and later sold off.

[Nocturnal]

I like it. Looks like we had the same idea. This is what I did to my St. Blues:




Excuse the crappy pictures.

[Pilgrim]

I'm not a fan of all-black, but that red highlight makes a BIG positive difference in the look as far as I'm concerned!

[daan]

I like it. Looks like we had the same idea. This is what I did to my St. Blues:




Excuse the crappy pictures.

Nice! Great minds and all that...
WHat pickups are in that? How does it sound?

[daan]

OK so I do have a question: The knobs that came with the bass don't fit on the pots I have now. How do I go about figuring out what size they are, so I don't order more knobs that don't fit? I've seen "import" sized knobs, and I'm sure everything on here is imported, so...
Also, I had a Gotoh 201 in my "wish list" forever, and my wife got it for me for my birthday! (awesome)

After the "bridge fiasco" on my other bass (I changed the bridge and managed to screw it down in the wrong spot twice) do I dare try putting this on here?
She also got me a REALLY nice "Couch" strap, heavy black vinyl with a red stripe, it's so much nicer than the 20 year old woven nylon thing that's been on there forever. (no pix, sorry...)

[Nocturnal]

Nice! Great minds and all that...
WHat pickups are in that? How does it sound?

Those are the original Dimarzio pickups. This bass sounds amazing!!! I also installed a Gotoh 201 bridge on it.

[Granny Gremlin]

OK so I do have a question: The knobs that came with the bass don't fit on the pots I have now. How do I go about figuring out what size they are, so I don't order more knobs that don't fit? I've seen "import" sized knobs, and I'm sure everything on here is imported, so...

Don't fit how: too big or too small?  What kind of pots did you put in there?

US made stuff (and older British) will be 1/4" shaft.  Everything else (metric) will be 6mm which is just a hair bigger.  If you have some calipers you can check.  If not then a 6mm shaft knob with set screw will work for either vs press on knobs for knurled shafts which have to be the right size. 

If you're ordering online, Taydaelectronics.com is the cheapest and have some cool knobs.  They're legit (I use them for pedal building parts; best price on certain things like Tantalum caps) but the shipping will take a while (Asia).  Other than that, if you're in the States I recommend BitchesLoveMySwitches.com (Brooklyn).

Dig the project by the way.  Nice choice with the new guard.

[patman]

It should sound awesome...EMG Selects are the best

[Dave W]

The Gotoh 201 is a drop-in replacement for a standard Fender bridge, same 5-hole mounting pattern. IIRC the mounting are spaced 11/16" apart center-to-center (17.5 mm)

[amptech]

OK so I do have a question: The knobs that came with the bass don't fit on the pots I have now. How do I go about figuring out what size they are, so I don't order more knobs that don't fit? I've seen "import" sized knobs, and I'm sure everything on here is imported, so...

Are they solid shaft (like the ones granny explained) or split? Most imports are coarse knurled, while cts pots and gibson knobs are mostly fine knurled. Just post a pic of the shaft.

If you have a knurled shaft and knobs are for solid shaft, there are shims available too.

[daan]

Don't fit how: too big or too small?  What kind of pots did you put in there?

US made stuff (and older British) will be 1/4" shaft.  Everything else (metric) will be 6mm which is just a hair bigger.  If you have some calipers you can check.  If not then a 6mm shaft knob with set screw will work for either vs press on knobs for knurled shafts which have to be the right size. 

If you're ordering online, Taydaelectronics.com is the cheapest and have some cool knobs.  They're legit (I use them for pedal building parts; best price on certain things like Tantalum caps) but the shipping will take a while (Asia).  Other than that, if you're in the States I recommend BitchesLoveMySwitches.com (Brooklyn).

Dig the project by the way.  Nice choice with the new guard.

Both sets of pots (the OEM ones and the ones I bought) are splined, the knobs are just press-on, but the hole in the bottom of the knob is smaller than the shaft part of the new pots. THey're Alpha ones, if that matters. I will check out the links you posted, thank you!

[daan]

The Gotoh 201 is a drop-in replacement for a standard Fender bridge, same 5-hole mounting pattern. IIRC the mounting are spaced 11/16" apart center-to-center (17.5 mm)

Unfortunately what I have now, has one screw on each corner instead of the 5-in-line mounting. And the bridge is a different size than the Gotoh one, so it isn't "drop-in", just like on my other bass. It's thicker, too so I wonder if I'd have to recess it or something, so it didn't stick up too high. Obviously my measuring skills are suspect, considering how easy changing the bridge SHOULD have been on the other one...

[Nocturnal]

I would be surprised if you needed to route for the bridge. It's not as thick as some bridges baseplates are so I think you are ok. I'm not an expert on neck angle and things like that tho.