My ragdoll Epiphone ET-280 (pic intensive)

[slotrod65]

If the nut weren't bad, I would string her up and be playing right now. But, well... here is why that is not happening:



Tomorrow I will pick up some Lemon Oil for the neck, and I have an appointment to drop her off on Tuesday for a new nut.

I will post more then.

[Freuds_Cat]

I'm with you SR65. I will have a go at a lot of things on my basses but nuts?   nah.....!     

[exiledarchangel]

The reason why alot of vintage basses have shitty tone is because the magnets used on the pickups are weak, I believe those in your bass are a kind of weak ceramic rubber magnet?

If you could find some narrow bar alnico 5 magnets that would fit on the side of the steel thingy that the four polepieces are screwed, that would improve dramatically the tone I think. Just remember to place them like a p-90 pickup, same poles (like north on the bridge, south on the neck) facing the steel thingy. Glue them there and test it.

You could consider replacing the magnets with some of a similar size, then that would mean you could return to the originals without having a no-return route...

Here is a crazy thought - anyone out there ever played with those viscious little magnets you find inside failed hard-drives - there's a pair in every one and they stack quite well - you also get the sideline of really quite unusual drink-coasters...

Welcome to the RatCave...

Those magnets Kenny are neodymium, they have a VERY strong pull on the strings. I have a large collection of those due to my job.......

[slotrod65]

Yeah, I am thinking that these magnets are pretty weak. They are not rubbery, but are sort of a dark grey pot-metal, with a hole in the center. I thnk I saw a stack of them at Radio Shack!

Once the bass has the new nut, I will see how she sounds and go from there.

If the pickups bite, the first thing I will try is re-magnetizing, then I will try swapping in substitute magnets.

Phredster

[eb2]

Welcome aboard.  I find this fascinating.

[slotrod65]

Well, I just fed the fretboard with woodwind bore oil. I let it sit a minute then buffed it off with an old T-shirt. I kept buffing until I was sure no surface oil was left. Boy, the fretboard is lustrous!

I know have several hours of cleaning, polishing, waxing, and oiling into this bass. It never had it so good! Despite the nicks, scratches, bonks and corrosion, the bass really does look great.

Tomorrow I take it in for a new nut, then she should be good to go.

[slotrod65]

I have been reseraching this bass on the 'net, and have found that the company that became Aria produced these for Epiphone. In fact, Aria made their own sunburst finished version, with a more Fender headstock:





I also found this neato one pickup, bottom of the line version marketed under the "Tempo" brand. The distinctive pickup covers, knobs, and bridge hardware marks this one as kin to the ET280 and the Aria:

[slotrod65]

So... I had the new nut put on the bass. I was not at all happy with the "setup" job that they "threw in." The whole thing was under $40, so I am OK.
The truss rod still needed adjustment, so I did that... the bridge adjustment was not right, so the intonation was waaay off. Fixed that.
I went upstairs and plugged her in....

nothing on the treble pickup. no sound at all.

very quiet sound on the bass pickup.

I am not sure what is wrong, as I did test the pickups before assembly.

Any thoughts?

[gweimer]

I'm pretty sure that the electronics are about as cheap as they came back then.  Maybe the pots?

[jumbodbassman]

try the pups "hot wired" without pots with alligator clips.  Maybe you can isolate the problem.  lots of old wires that are probably very brittle.....

[Highlander]

Those magnets Kenny are neodymium, they have a VERY strong pull on the strings. I have a large collection of those due to my job.......

I strip a lot of HDD's that come out of faulty DVR's...

Anyone ever tried them on a pup...?

... During this process, I replaced all of the crappy flat head screws with the proper size phillips head screws: pickup cover screws, bridge screws, and bridge cover screws.

Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with a good screw, or even several...

[wellREDman]

wow that brings back memories,
my first bass, that I taught myself tp play on, way back in the 80's was a red ET-280 exactly like yours.
it sounded  like crap, had a neck like a sausage, and was made of some kind of pine/concrete hybrid.
but it stuck with me, as my spare when I was gigging, and as a loaner once I started teaching friends and family how to play, and my first attempt at customisation was stripping the body back to bare wood and varnishing it.
Now I am teaching a bit at the school where I work it came back out of the loft again. while I was trying to set it up for a lefty to use I made a revelation. as stock the bridge was in the wrong place! by dropping it back 2 inches it stopped it sounding like a rubber band ,
I also took a plane to the neck and reprofiled it  and suddenly it  was a dream to play
unfortunately the only surviving pickup stopped hearing the A string, and when I stripped it down to find out why ,the electrics disintegrated in my hands. the plastic round the wires literally turned to dust.
as the weight is also an issue(I cycle to work with guitar and bass on my back)  my plan is to replace all the hardware, chop most of the body off and make myself a very original 5 string travel bass.
so further to that, Slotrod if you want any of the original parts I have gutted from it, they're yours for the price of P&P. There's a single pickup (plus cover), bridge (no cover unfortunately), machine heads, scratch plate and pots/knobs. the nut unfortunately is not original, in fact it is a repurposed guitar nut that was on it when I inherited.
cheers
Red

[uwe]

Those basses are ugly in an endearing way! Everyone should adopt one.

[exiledarchangel]

So true. Who doesn't like that almost dead boing-ey "vintage" sound?

[wellREDman]

almost dead boing-ey "vintage" sound?

that was my point, move the bridge back 2 inches and it sounds like a real bass