Fender Telecaster Bass transformation

[chromium]

Always love reading that blog. 

That's looking real nice - it has sort of a "root beer" hue about it, which I like a lot:

[hieronymous]

Picked up the bass today! Don't have any good detail pics, but got one shot of me putting it through its paces tonight:


It sounded really good. Didn't hurt that I was playing it through a nice rig. The string-to-string balance needs a little bit of work, and I only used the Alembic pup tonight. The filter is cool - there are a couple of sounds that aren't that usable, but more that are killer.
 
Gonna try to take a few pics of it in natural sunlight the next couple of days.

[Chris P.]

Cool! I can't wait to see them!

[Dave W]

Natural or unnatural sunlight , I just want to see it clearly.

[hieronymous]

Natural or unnatural sunlight , I just want to see it clearly.

Your wish is my command!




Not the greatest pictures, but they should give an idea. The finish looks different in both - hard to say which is more accurate. Been playing it a fair amount - really enjoying it!

Added one more of me playing it:

[Dave W]

The middle pic looks like what I remember the color ought to look like. Hard to see the others well enough.

The transition from the pickguard to the P pickup looks almost like it was original. Nicely done. Usually the added P looks out of place.

[godofthunder]

Nice work ! that bass looks beautiful, love the color ! I had a factory CAR one years ago, wish I still had it .

[chromium]

Sweet!  Nice little board behind ya there too   

Strings look like flats(?) - what'd you end up using after you got rid of the Jamersons?

[hieronymous]

Thanks for the comments - I think Krishna did a great job, and it sounds pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Who knew that active pickups could sound so warm? Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's going through an Alembic F-2B preamp and a vintage compressor.

We recorded some tonight, and I threw together a demo, because I want to rerecord this again tomorrow night:



I put a fresh set of D'Addario Chromes on it today, played with fingers with the Alembic pickups with the filter wide open. Plus there's a distorted bass track that's the humbucker into a Budda Phat Bass distortion and EH Small Stone, through the F-2B of course. The synth is an MFB Synth Lite II through the Alembic. All three of those tracks are also being squished a bit by the compressor (can't remember what at the moment) so they sound nice and syrupy. The Rhodes part is in Reason, and is just a rough track to give an idea of .

(On listening to it on my computer for the first time, I realize that the level is pretty low overall. And it will definitely sound better on computer speakers.)

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Looks like Krishna has done well.
Cool how it was Mocha before too!!
So give us the scoop & more pics!!!

[hieronymous]

Still haven't had a chance to take pictures in natural light - we've been busy, and it's been cloudy and rainy here in Marlborough, MA lately. But my wife was experimenting with her camera while we were recording, and she said this is the most accurate shot of the color she could get given the lighting and conditions:



I think it might even be a little bit more red, almost more like a wine color. Here's another shot just to confuse you:



It's definitely not this light - Krishna said that it's difficult to photograph translucent finishes well, and I believe him now!

Here's another track from the first night - the filter is set in the midrange somewhere:

We recorded some good stuff last night. Who knew you could slap with flats? I didn't!

I had the filter open almost all the way, but I didn't realize that I also had the bright switch engaged on the F-2B!

[chromium]

That Activator setup seems to do the job nicely - tight lows, well balanced mids, and not brittle on the highs.  The lack of mids and brittle highs are what kinda turn me off a bit with some active setups (my 2eq Stingray, for example - just my tastes, though). 

Nice sound on the slap, too!

[bostonguitarrepair]

Hey Harry - glad you like how the Tele Bass turned out - that is an interesting pickup, that Alembic - hmm, may have to keep my eyes open - though I'd still say I'm a "grey bottom" guy.

The color came out a bit darker than I had hoped - I had to go darker to cover up some flaws in the wood left over from prior refins and concurrent undercoat damage on the edges - plus one big divot in the middle of the back that I had to dig old bondo out of and then lacquer fill (tried cyanocrylate/crazy glue first but it looked terrible). 

I wish I had an actual 73 UNFADED Fender in mocha to see what it looked like new - I had a (borrowed) 74 Mocha Strat many years ago, and I remember it being a walnut-ey reddish brown, but then I see all these pictures of other Mocha Fenders online that are definitely a yellowish "feces" brown (I'm sorry, that's what it looks like !!) - maybe the red element fades out over time ?? 

There were some areas of original finish on the edges of the body that WERE a darker color, and thats what I used as my guide. If I were to do it again, maybe a little less red and add a little lemon yellow.

One tidbit of info - I used a maple plug for the Tele-style pickup route that had been added (its under the new slightly extended guard I made Henry) and it matches almost perfectly under the translucent brown, even though the body was ash.

Also - as impressed as I was with the sound of the Alembic pickup, I was more surprised by the sound of the stock Fender humbucker - very different from the Gibson mudbucker, more bite and tighter bottom end - anybody here tried a Fender humbucker in an EB-0 ??  I bet it'd sound good !

Thanks for all the kind comments also guys !

krishna

[hieronymous]

Krishna updated his blog post on the Telembic. I've got some more recordings in the can too - I'll post when I can. The bass itself is still back in Massachusetts, waiting to be shipped back to me here in CA - I just got in last night, despite a four-hour delay, someone passing out on the plane near the end of the flight, and nearly falling asleep on the hour-and-a-half drive home after midnight...

[hieronymous]

Here's one of the tracks I posted before, but longer and with guitar overdubs by my buddy Damon who also owns Oxbow Studios where much of the music I've done over the past six years has been recorded:



My playing is sloppy in places, but I think the overdubs make it more listenable.