Well it's done.........
Most significant observation.....the two-point bridge and tailpiece do add to the sustain, not entirely suprizing, but a very cool side effect! One question.........Gold knobs or Black? ???
Before
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa2/dsn1959/5f_3.jpg)
During
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa2/dsn1959/misct-birdpics044.jpg)
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa2/dsn1959/miscT-bird2003.jpg)
After/Now
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone007.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone002.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone009.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone005.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone004.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone011.jpg)
Woo-Hoo!!
WoW!
That........ is fantastic Scott! Like I said, when you've got the time I'll send you mine. Jeez that's great! Nice work. FWIW I like the gold knobs on it.
Outstanding! I need to do that with my white '76 (it's got a Badass now).
Gold knobs - it's more sixties and goes well with the purdy pelham.
Stunning job. Birds look so cool in colors. It makes you want one in every color, like Marks.
Very nice bird! Great job on that one. How did you remove the old finish?
Great job on that bass!!! Looks fantastic!! I'd go with gold knobs to make it look more vintage.
Excellent!
Black knobs.
Great work - that looks awesome! (I say Gold knobs... )
What did you use to flatten that area under the bridge in order to make room for that veneer that you grafted on? Router? Did doing the veneer turn out to be easier than dowelling the holes from the old bridge? The whole 2-point mod is awesome. That whole thing came out really good!
P.S. I like the gold knobs.
Quote from: doombass on January 29, 2008, 05:19:52 PM
Very nice bird! Great job on that one. How did you remove the old finish?
I used "Aircraft Remover" ( which also rids the entire area of stray aircraft ) the low odor version is not too horrible to work with, although it will destroy any plastic such as binding or the T-birds' headstock overlay.
Quote from: chromium on January 29, 2008, 08:55:20 PM
What did you use to flatten that area under the bridge in order to make room for that veneer that you grafted on? Router? Did doing the veneer turn out to be easier than dowelling the holes from the old bridge? The whole 2-point mod is awesome. That whole thing came out really good!
P.S. I like the gold knobs.
I used a router and a jig I fashioned to remove the raised center section from the bridge pickup route to the edge. I did dowell the three-point holes and then rebuilt the center section with a piece of mahogany from a very unfortunate '59 Martin ( long story ) in the past I have found that "plugged" holes tend to eventually show through the finish.
Quote from: Dave W on January 29, 2008, 06:12:59 PM
Excellent!
Black knobs.
Gold knobs it is! ;)
Thank you to everyone for all the compliments, I just need to get a bird for the pickguard and I'll call it done. As mentioned earlier, the bridge/tailpiece combo does seem to increase the sustain a bit compared to my other Orv.
Scott
Very, very, very nice! Love the bridge. If I have some spare money I'll think about them for my Bird and SG RI.
And gold controls!
Droooooooooooooooooooool !
Wow, that turned out great!
I agree with you onthe plugged holeds. I have found that whenever I do a fill or graft of some kind, the eventual lines that show up from the nitro shrinkage can be minimized if you fill the edges of your patch with thick super glue and sand it back. There just isn't much shrinkage with that. I did it on the 60 NR I grafted a new headstock onti and I can't find the seam at all.
Gold knobs would be cool on this!
Maybe I should do this with the 2003 TB carcass I have sitting in my shop.
Looking good dude!
So much of an improvement. Nice work. I am torn on black or gold knobs. Either with the insert looks right. Gold works with the sparkle paint, black works with the chrome. Keep a set of the other in the case and change them every once in a while.
Thanks again guys for all the compliments, I'm really enjoying everything about the way this mod came out.
More sustain than my three-point 'birds, although it is not anything really obvious, it's more of a feeling, the guitar "vibrates" more. Of course the whole thing is pretty subjective, it may all be in my head ( or that the string are four days fresher ) than my black "stock" Orv.
The gold knobs seem to be well ahead in the voting, at first I was not as taken by them as I thought I would be. They made the bass look like it was "trying too hard" to look vintage, but after living with them a few days it looks much more right to me.
Well now all I have to do is play it a lot, so it dosn't look like a brand new '63-'65 'bird, as nice as the paint job turned out, it screams refin...........
If I ever get my pickups back from Seymour Duncan it will be on to my next project, doing the Bi-centenial treatment to the black 'bird. I've got the guard, chrome bridge and handrest covers, chrome bridge, chrome p/u rings and correct pickup covers ( with S/Ds' '60s' style internals )............ can't wait.
Cheers All!
Scott
i like the gold knobs on that bluebird
I took a few more pics ( and some of the Ripper/G3 ) taking advantage of a beautiful 70 degree day ( Sunday ).................it's supposed to snow tomorrow ??? and the lawn looks terrible...................
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone007-1.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone004-1.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone012.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone009-1.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone003.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone015.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone016.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone017.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone018.jpg)
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/bassVI/PelhamBlueOrville63-65clone013.jpg)
Cheers, Scott
Scott, That paint......WoW! Looks fantastic in the sunlight.........I haven't seen that here in Seattle since mid - October, 70 dergrees ,? maybe September, so I'm jealous.
Darn, I slipped in again, this time with Mark. Wanted to quote him, but hit "modify" instead, as if there is anything you wanted modified with him. Anyway this is just to explain the edit comment ... I deleted my original comment which is now at the end of the posts with the quote. Oooops!!! :-[
Wow! With such a beautiful basses you only need two.
Beautiful on both counts!
Wow!
What a stunning job. On both.
Quote from: TBird1958 on February 04, 2008, 10:16:17 PM
Scott, That paint......WoW! Looks fantastic in the sunlight.........I haven't seen that here in Seattle since mid - October, 70 dergrees ,? maybe September, so I'm jealous.
Don't be, Mark, you are a creature of the night!!! Any kind of tan or even worse healthy complexion ::) would be plain ... wrong ... like a TBird with a poly finish ... ooops, I didn't say that! :-[
I'm in love with that Ripper 3.
And the pelham blue is the nicest I've ever seen.
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Quote from: Bass VI on January 29, 2008, 09:59:54 PM
Gold knobs it is! ;)
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
both look really great, what a beautiful pair!
Those basses just look fantastic!!!
Both are really nice basses, great job.
Love the G-3/Ripper
"Don't be, Mark, you are a creature of the night!!! Any kind of tan or even worse healthy complexion would be plain ... wrong ... like a TBird with a poly finish ... ooops, I didn't say that!"
If there's one thing I don't have........its tan lines, I do my very best to maintain a very healthy shade of pale.......Like here, I'm purple! (http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd306/veronicasteed/NYE_LRS_20071231235058_2000x3008.jpg)
As for Poly vs. Nitro, I love poly. I can easily A-B my 'Birds and thru my rig and by everyone's vote including mine the poly finished purple '77 is easily the best sounding bass in my collection. FWIW tho, I don't think finish has much to do with the sound of these basses........
It makes me wish I had not put the tinted nitro on one of my pelham projects. I love the gold knobs. That G-3 has me more and more inspired to start tracing the outline on my mahog plank! Damn pretty!
Quote from: TBird1958 on February 05, 2008, 09:30:15 AM
As for Poly vs. Nitro, I love poly. I can easily A-B my 'Birds and thru my rig and by everyone's vote including mine the poly finished purple '77 is easily the best sounding bass in my collection. FWIW tho, I don't think finish has much to do with the sound of these basses........
Heresy! :o ;D
Of course I agree with you.
Beautiful job and great pics, Scott. :)
Thank You All!
I'm not even gonna get started with the poly vs. nitro wars, I use nitro because I'm familiar with it and it's much more "reveresable" than poly, although certainly not as durable. I'm fairly certain any perceived difference in sustain from my other ((2) poly finished) Orvilles has much more to do with the two point bridge and the tailpiece than the paint job. This is further supported by the incredible amount of sustain the Ripper/G3 has, most certainly, from the string through body design. The six way switching and three pickups also give it a pretty broad pallet of tones, I recorded some samples, but I can't make them small enough to imbed in a post, anyone have any suggestions?
Anyway thanks for the kind words,
Scott
Quote from: Bass VI on February 05, 2008, 10:44:21 PM
I'm not even gonna get started with the poly vs. nitro wars....I'm fairly certain any perceived difference in sustain from my other ((2) poly finished) Orvilles has much more to do with the two point bridge and the tailpiece than the paint job....
I agree, it's not a matter of one being better than the other, that's just personal preference. IMHO it's just not a tonal factor in a solidbody.
Quote from: Bass VI on February 05, 2008, 10:44:21 PM
....I recorded some samples, but I can't make them small enough to imbed in a post, anyone have any suggestions?
Did you see Blazer's post up in The Bass Zone? His mp3 is hosted here: http://www.sendspace.com/