NBD/bridge question

Highlander · May 29, 2012, 04:35:07 PM

Missed this one as I've been AWOL rather a lot of late, so welcome, if somewhat late...

The routs look well done and look factory (Max made a comment that he had the "exact same" bass - same pup's Max?) and that area under the bridge looks like there was an earthing wire there (pic is indistinct) by the compression marks on the body - strongly recommend putting one in...

I agree about the fin - nicely aged looking and the grain is nice too...

daan · May 29, 2012, 06:58:03 PM

Hey guys. I can't say for sure if the pups are the original to this bass, but I've seen other 70's MIJ basses with these.

This is a "Ventura" branded one from the 70s and I had a "Global" that had very similar pups

Anyway the missing ground wire would explain why it was so noisy. When I did open it up, there were lots of splices and electrical tape on the wiring so who knows what's been done to this thing over the years. I'm going to try to wire the pups it came with into the control panel I got.
As far as the finish, I really like the way it looks, I just don't like the ba-zillion scratches and dings, there's a couple deep scratches, almost gouges in there I'd like to do something with. Maybe I'll try the thick super-glue trick on those. The really nice ambered color is staying though. If I do refinish it (in 6 or 7 years or whenever I'll have time...

) I'd get amber shellac to try to match the color.
Thanks for all the replies though, and the bridge.

Dave W · May 29, 2012, 10:45:57 PM

It might be possible to improve the scratches with the right auto polishing compound.

Pilgrim · May 30, 2012, 10:47:44 AM

Quote from: Dave W on May 29, 2012, 10:45:57 PM
It might be possible to improve the scratches with the right auto polishing compound.

Right - and Dr. Bassman posted a method of filling finish scratches with super glue a while back - might be worth searching for.

daan · May 31, 2012, 11:02:00 PM

One of the gouges in the back.

Who knew it was so hard to take a pic of clear superglue laying on clear finish? Anyway I have quite a bit on there, and all I did was the back. I will be trying to level it out in the next couple days when it dries (assuming with the way my luck runs, something will fall onto it and get glued to the back of the guitar in the meantime

)
So speaking of luck, today's adventure was working on the tuners. The stockers, besides looking like pot-metal and not holding tune all that well, buzzed and rattled. THe "elephant ear" part were loose on 3 of them, one so much I could pull it off the tuner shaft. I got a "gift card" as a bonus from work a couple days ago, so I decided to get some tuners. I ordered what I could afford with my bonus (Wilkinson-brand ones, they looked waay better than the stockers) but when they arrived, this is how they looked:

Now, that ain't right... I called the CS people and they sent me a new set pretty quick,

They went the right way but kind of "overlapped" each other, like the shaft holes were 1/2mm too close together or something. I was complaining about working on this to my Dad and he offered to come over with his Dremel tool to help out. Once he got here (and dinner was done and the kids were in bed) he discovered he lost the collett-thingy somewhere, so we couldn't use the power tools to fix it. So I got to spend some quality time with my Dad filing down the edges with...well, files. They fit OK now, other than one of the holes is just too big for the bushing to stay in by itself. It's cool though 'cause I got to work on my bass and BS with my Dad for a couple hours.

Dave W · June 01, 2012, 07:00:12 AM

It's hard to tell from your photos, the headstock of your bass must be slightly smaller than a Fender. That's probably why they overlapped. They look fine now.

clankenstein · June 01, 2012, 03:55:59 PM

that looks pretty good.

Highlander · June 01, 2012, 04:50:10 PM

Quote from: Dave W on June 01, 2012, 07:00:12 AM
It's hard to tell from your photos, the headstock of your bass must be slightly smaller than a Fender. That's probably why they overlapped. They look fine now.

Dave...! they were lefties...!

Dave W · June 01, 2012, 05:41:03 PM

Quote from: BUFF on June 01, 2012, 04:50:10 PM
Dave...! they were lefties...!

I'm talking about the replacement set he got, which still had to be filed down.

Highlander · June 02, 2012, 05:07:15 AM

Ahh... just re-read it...

(sloping off to the front garden concrete quarry hell...

)

Pilgrim · June 02, 2012, 09:39:21 AM

Quote from: BUFF on June 02, 2012, 05:07:15 AM
Ahh... just re-read it...

(sloping off to the front garden concrete quarry hell... )

....beset by squirrels.

Highlander · June 02, 2012, 04:06:54 PM

Curiously enough, right beside the ski-slope... err... the path in question, there's a six year old oak sapling that was planted by one of those cute little critters - an older one that turned up the same way now resides in a six acre field owned by my buddie down in Devon...

They have their uses... (no mention of barbies, pur-leese...

)

daan · June 14, 2012, 10:35:29 PM

Had another few minutes to work on this, the super glue trick works great. Well as long as I don't try to trim the excess off with a razor blade, that pulled 99% of the glue off, to the point that it didn't look like I filled anything. So I had to do everything twice. It's dead flat now, even though you can see the scratch (years of funk buildup stained the wood in the bottom of the scratch, nothing I tried made it any less noticable so I just filled it and moved on). Hey it's a 30 year old copy bass, I'm not looking for perfect, just better than it was. (And the weird discoloration on the top horn was there when I got it, I tried sanding it but it never got any different looking. Maybe when I get around to taking this back down to bare wood I can fix that.)

I kinda got crazy with all 5432654 scratches, dents and chunks so the back is nice and flat now. The edges need lots of help but I think I have the procedure down now so it'll go faster. I filled some of the holes on the front. There used to be 2 tug-bars on there, they are long gone but the holes are still there, under the pick guard. I have 4 different colors of wood filler so I tried them all out on the holes to find one that matched the best and filled the holes with that one.. Of course all the holes look competely noticeable now that they're dry, dangit.

The plan was to drill all 21 of the holes to re-install the hardware (5 for the bridge, and 16 for the tuners) but my girls woke up from their nap before I had time to get out the power tools. Next time, anyway... why do all my projects take so long?

Oh yeah the neck plate is really weird, it's long and narrow. Mine is all corroded and the screws are chewed up. I wanted to get a nice looking one, but it's not regular size so I may end up having to just try to get screws at the hardware store, and polish the damage out or something.

Dave W · June 15, 2012, 09:12:30 AM

Looks pretty good to me.

You probably won't be able to find the right size neck plate. You might try some WD40 and steel wool first.

daan · June 17, 2012, 03:55:54 AM

Does it have to be STEEL steel wool? I do have some of that copper looking stuff on hand (and a TON of those 3M scuffing pads) but I can buy SW when I get (around to) buying my neck screws. I already tried auto buffing compound on the plate and it didn't do anything to it. Maybe if we can find the collett thing for my dad's Dremel that would make the polish job go better. Or, I could just leave the plate alone, and actually finish putting the bass together so I can play it?