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Yet another SX (Essex) SJB-62 3/4 Short Scale Modification Thread

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GassieBall

Oct 15, 2006
1,300
30
#1
I know, I know, not another one. But I loved my Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Short Scale Bass so much that I took the plunge and ordered an SX SJB-62 3/4 Short Scale Jazz. Actually, I ordered two. The "olympic white" is fretted and the 3-toned sunburst is fretless.

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As I don't play fretless too much, I also ordered this:

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The brown truck should be coming tomorrow, and I plan to document everything I do with photos and post them here, and I would love everyone's input.

Just as a side note, I have Lakland and EBMM basses so I sort of know what a good quality instrument feels like. My buying an SX is much more for the fun of modding and seeing what I can do, so please, let's not talk about why I'm spending resources on doing this instead of just buying a more expensive bass. :)
 
#5
The basses came today. Needless to say, my skepticism abounds. Let's see what $100 can buy these days.

I bought a hard case with the olympic white one and the sunburst came shipped in a single cardboard box. The neck came separately with minimal packing.

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The white bass was inside a case wrapped in plastic. The case is OK. The latches aren't the strongest, but they'll do. There's a spacious pocket inside.

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#8
On to the Olympic White bass inside the case. There were two layers around the bass, a thicker foam and a thin plastic. The strings were wrapped with paper.

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Overall, this bass looks pretty good. It definitely is a diamond in the rough. The finish is smooth. No major flaws. The hardware and pickguard seem to be installed well.

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The bridge seems no better or worse than any MIM fender bridge. If anything, it would be more stable with 7 screws instead of the usual 5.

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The control plate is smaller than a standard jazz plate. It's sort of cute. The jack seems pretty stable when I plugged it in. The pickguard is flush against the plate with no gaps. The pots turn smoothly but do have a little crackle :( You can still see some plastic around the nut of the jack.

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#10
As for the neck, the good part is that it seems pretty straight. The frets look parallel, and there is only minimal bow from the factory. The neck is bolted tight to the body with no gap or wiggle room.

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The rosewood seems dry. It looks like they didn't take too much time sanding down the fretboard before doing the fretwork in that you can still feel a little of the rosewood grain. No big thing I guess. There are a couple of minute dents in the fretboard and what seems to be some polishing paste residue around the frets. The dots are flush and the nut is plastic with minimal glue around it, which is the opposite of what I've seen on other cheap basses. There are some rather noticeable (fingernail?) marks between the nut and the first fret. As for the fret job, it ain't half bad. I've played MIM fenders that would literally give me a gash in my fingers. When I run my fingers over the edge, I can feel some sharpness, but not too much. This won't be to hard to fix.

The headstock has an even clear finish. There is only one miniscule varnish bubble on the very edge that I can feel. Otherwise, not too bad. I'm not too keen on the vintage orangy finish, but if that floats your boat...

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The tuners seem sturdy. Not too different from MIM Fenders. A quick turn shows a 20:1 ratio. Screws are all tight.

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#12
Pickups look good. Actually, they sound really good too. I forgot who said it, but there is a thread out there praising the stock SX pickups. The weird thing is, this really does sound like a jazz. I thought the short scale would through things off and make it sound muddy or something. Indeed, there does seem to be quite an emphasis on the fundamental, but the single coil tone really does shine through. When I dime all three controls, it doesn't seem as bright as my Lakland (or MIA Fender or L2000 single coil mod previously owned) but I think anyone would easily say, "yup, that's a jazz bass." The tone is rather sweet, not brittle at all. I would say that it it sounds like a 34" scale jazz with the tone rolled off a bit. I don't know what the stock pots are, but I plan on putting 500K replacements perhaps to add a little brightness when I need it. As I mentioned, the pots are scratchy. They gotta go!

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The intonation is WHACK. The saddles are way high. I'm gonna let the bass sit overnight before I tweak the truss rod. It's been 90 degrees here and I don't think I need to go crazy on it that fast since I have no idea how long it sat in the brown truck. :)
 
#13
On to the fretless sunburst :hyper:

I was worried about the single-box packing, but luckily there was no obvious shipping damage.

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I would say fit and finish are nearly identical to the white one. The wood of the three-piece body is not matched all that particularly well as you can see pretty distinct grain patterns. But the finish is deep and the sunburst is evenly distributed. There are a couple of minute scuff marks on the lower horn that I can buff out. Again, the neck is seated well and looks straight. Headstock is identical in review as the white bass, save for a couple of tiny dings in the wood on the upper edge near the cloverleafs.

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It's funny, the same plastic around the input jack is on this bass, too.

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The setup is a little better on the fretless, perhaps that's cause it's an easier bass to set up, but it too will take some tweaking later.
 
#15
The blocked neck is really handsome. A couple of minor pinpoint finish bubbles when I run my hand over it. Interestingly, the heel of the neck is straight across, whereas the existing necks are curved. I hope that doesn't cause a problem on install :( The inlays are flush with no excess glue that I read about in other threads on SX's.

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The holes are 11/16 so it will fit a 1/2 inch tuner just fine. There is no string tree so I'll have to scavenge that from somewhere.

Again, cheap plastic nut with not too much glue. Looks easy to replace later. Note the flaw on the bass side of the rosewood behind the nut.

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The fretwork is much better on this neck compared to the stock necks. Much less noticeable sharpness on the edges and a lot less polishing paste. I dunno why. :confused:

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#16
Hmm, there is a little neck dive. Not terrible, but noticeable. When I switched to a neoprene thicker comfort strapp it was less noticeable, but I think with the standard tuner weight and the small body, I wouldn't expect anything else. Same when sitting on my leg/knee.

On the otherhand, my Warwick Corvette dives much more.

So I have some Hipshot Ultralites from another project that never took off, so they are going on the blocked neck. I'm sure that will take off 1/2 a pound or so and alleviate some of the neck dive.

I running up to get the scale to see what I'm really dealing with weight wise.
 

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