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So here is my bass:
The fit and finish of this bass is perfectly excellent, and the design avoids some of the pitfalls I feel are present on some semi-hollow and true hollow basses (flame suit on). There isn't needlessly long wiring runs, simply to locate a switch of pot down the far end of one of the horns. The bridge is also perfectly functional and normal, unlike a Trapeze design. I've heard horror stories about the Hagstrom Viking reissues, for example. The wiring also lacks the usual idiosyncrasies, so there aren't any weird passive filter matrices or panels of toggle switches. The pickup is also in a fairly logical place for a single pickup instrument.
Flame suit off.
I did not mind the stock pickup, but it seemed mercilessly hot for the job required. I also felt it was a bit vanilla really... the bass could have been anything. I didn't get a Stingray characteristic from it, just quite a compressed mids-heavy tone.
I'm surprised there aren't more basses that stick a series-wired humbucker in the 'sweet spot' middle position, though.
I've made some modifications since I first received it. I carved the pickguard myself, using a Vantage 'guard as a template. I cut it from a parchment Telecaster pickguard that I swapped out on my Fender. I was going to put on a black pickguard, but the white paper template I created looked so good. It reminds me, subtly, of a red Mosrite Celebrity III bass I saw on Ebay a while back.
I also added a Stratocaster-style output jack. The top is surprisingly thick, and the supplied output jack kept coming loose. I couldn't ever get it tight enough, and I damaged the wiring a few times trying. The Strat socket gave me another means of accessing the wiring run, and it spreads the strain of the cable a little more over the top of the instrument. It also fires the cable out at an angle that directs it straight to where the strap is, so it is quickly out the way and off the top of the instrument.
I also added the MXR-style knobs.
The pickup worked pretty well. I purchased a cheap black MM-style humbucker and chiseled out the epoxy and coils, until I had an empty black case. I used a G&B branded P pickup in its place. I used various tools to chop down the flatwork until I could get both pickup halves inside the pickup case. I also reversed the coils, so that the D-G half was closer to the neck, and the E-A coil closer to the bridge. I drowned the whole thing in black epoxy as a final measure.
I have the bass strung with D'Addario chromes, and it makes a nice clunky, dunky tone. It doesn't sound too muffled or too booming, and it doesn't sound too much like a P bass either. It records pretty nicely. I'm really not sure how to describe it. It doesn't sound like any other basses I've heard or played, but it also doesn't sound too unique or unusual either. You wouldn't know it was a hollow bass necessarily. It isn't an EB-2, Starfire, Coronado or Jack Casady model, but I suppose there are wee bits of all of them in there.
I've just become involved in a psychedelic project, and this bass seems like a good choice. I've ordered a few empty MM humbucker shells, so I'm going to roll another pickup with a skinned Thunderbird pickup. I have a shelf of Epi-style Thunderbird pickups I got from various sources, so I'm not entirely sure what one I've just skinned. It might be from my Tokai Thunderbird, which would be good if true.