I've been away from Talkbass for a while, but I'm coming back with a bang!
Here at last is the culmination of the last 4 months of colaboration between myself and Tomm of "Redemptionbass". If you just want the pictures, skip the next few paragraphs of backstory...
It started out as me wanting a mahogany replacement body for my Darkstarred 1980 Peavey t-40 pictured here .
It was a fine bass. It sounded great, and the neck shape is one of my favorites, but the body was quite heavy, even after routing some wood from under the pickguard. I was also falling in love with the look of the Lakland Decade's I had played (but not their j-width necks) and though a p-width mahogany Decade was a few thousand out of my price range, I wanted to try something in that vein.
I contacted Tomm went to visit him at his shop and selected the orientation of the two halves of this 2-piece body. You can read about that process here .
He made me the body, and after I filled the grain with benwood filler mixed with "red mahogany" stain, I finished it with 9 coats of hand rubbed satin polyurethane. I took the opportunity to strip and refinish the exstremely battered back of the t-40 neck also and to "satinize" the headstock with some steel wool. At this point, I ended up deciding to dispense with the v/v/t/t/3-way configuration and the Peavey bridge and go with a V/V/T and Badass II. The bass returned to Tomm to deepen the pocket, Install an aluminum nut (the original had been replaced with plastic) and redrill a few holes I screwed up and here is the result!
Front
Though very similar to a Decade, here you can see the slightly elongated upper horn, SG style body cuts, and Wal-ish lower horn that were some of my main requested design elements
Back
The cavity cover is a piece of oak veneer from an antique desk. As well as the upside down Peavey plate (just like the T-40) we installed the orignal T-40 neck tilt adjustment assembly.
Full
Sorry about the pic quality, I couldn't get a clear shot of the whole bass.
Headstock
That's right, Genuine T40. The satinizing came out well, but there are some huge dents on the bottom rear edge of the headstock. As much as I like the original t-40, I didn't want to have the satin body and gloss headstock like the original t-40's.
How does it sound? It sounds thunderous. I have a nice broken in set of pure nickle rounds on it, and it is deep and clear and super punchy. Putting an aluminum nut on has brought in some clarity and ring, but it's not harsh at all. The BAII has all the sustain of the original huge Peavey Bridge. The strings tame the highs alot but I have no doubt it could have highs in spades with a set of stainless rounds.
It also plays really well. After sanding off the finish, I steamed and sanded out nearly all the dents out of the back of the neck (there were many) and refinished it. It's very smooth with only a few imperfections where I couldn't raise all of the dents completely. Being a very well used neck, the edges are fairly rolled, and there is no fret sprout to speak of.
It is really everything I wanted out of this project. It has the sound and look that I wanted, with a lighter wieght, but retains a classic look and has the "broken-in" feel of the original. The only possible improvement, will be that I will probably make a couple of pickup rings to bring the pickups a bit closer to the strings and them bring the poles down a bit. It's not necessary however, and it may be years before I mess with that. I might add a darkstar decal also.
Materials:
2 piece mahogany body
Neck, tuners neck-tilt and neck plate from 1980 T-40
BAII bridge
CTS pots and Sprague Orange capacitor
New Aluminum Nut
2 Darkstar pickups
3 Radio shack knobs
Here at last is the culmination of the last 4 months of colaboration between myself and Tomm of "Redemptionbass". If you just want the pictures, skip the next few paragraphs of backstory...
It started out as me wanting a mahogany replacement body for my Darkstarred 1980 Peavey t-40 pictured here .
It was a fine bass. It sounded great, and the neck shape is one of my favorites, but the body was quite heavy, even after routing some wood from under the pickguard. I was also falling in love with the look of the Lakland Decade's I had played (but not their j-width necks) and though a p-width mahogany Decade was a few thousand out of my price range, I wanted to try something in that vein.
I contacted Tomm went to visit him at his shop and selected the orientation of the two halves of this 2-piece body. You can read about that process here .
He made me the body, and after I filled the grain with benwood filler mixed with "red mahogany" stain, I finished it with 9 coats of hand rubbed satin polyurethane. I took the opportunity to strip and refinish the exstremely battered back of the t-40 neck also and to "satinize" the headstock with some steel wool. At this point, I ended up deciding to dispense with the v/v/t/t/3-way configuration and the Peavey bridge and go with a V/V/T and Badass II. The bass returned to Tomm to deepen the pocket, Install an aluminum nut (the original had been replaced with plastic) and redrill a few holes I screwed up and here is the result!
Front
Though very similar to a Decade, here you can see the slightly elongated upper horn, SG style body cuts, and Wal-ish lower horn that were some of my main requested design elements
Back
The cavity cover is a piece of oak veneer from an antique desk. As well as the upside down Peavey plate (just like the T-40) we installed the orignal T-40 neck tilt adjustment assembly.
Full
Sorry about the pic quality, I couldn't get a clear shot of the whole bass.
Headstock
That's right, Genuine T40. The satinizing came out well, but there are some huge dents on the bottom rear edge of the headstock. As much as I like the original t-40, I didn't want to have the satin body and gloss headstock like the original t-40's.
How does it sound? It sounds thunderous. I have a nice broken in set of pure nickle rounds on it, and it is deep and clear and super punchy. Putting an aluminum nut on has brought in some clarity and ring, but it's not harsh at all. The BAII has all the sustain of the original huge Peavey Bridge. The strings tame the highs alot but I have no doubt it could have highs in spades with a set of stainless rounds.
It also plays really well. After sanding off the finish, I steamed and sanded out nearly all the dents out of the back of the neck (there were many) and refinished it. It's very smooth with only a few imperfections where I couldn't raise all of the dents completely. Being a very well used neck, the edges are fairly rolled, and there is no fret sprout to speak of.
It is really everything I wanted out of this project. It has the sound and look that I wanted, with a lighter wieght, but retains a classic look and has the "broken-in" feel of the original. The only possible improvement, will be that I will probably make a couple of pickup rings to bring the pickups a bit closer to the strings and them bring the poles down a bit. It's not necessary however, and it may be years before I mess with that. I might add a darkstar decal also.
Materials:
2 piece mahogany body
Neck, tuners neck-tilt and neck plate from 1980 T-40
BAII bridge
CTS pots and Sprague Orange capacitor
New Aluminum Nut
2 Darkstar pickups
3 Radio shack knobs
Cool!
It's a great looking bass, and it sure seems like you are happy with the sound you get from it. Project basses are sure fun. Congratulations!
