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Advice to help me resurrect my old SX P-copy?!?!?

Muddslide

Muddslide

Feb 23, 2007
5,284
5,082
Mobile, Alabama
#1
Hello, All.

So, I have this Rondo Music SX57P P-bass copy. It is black with maple neck (old headstock.)

This poor instrument endured a flood back at the end of 2010 and I've been hanging onto it since, thinking I'd like to bring it back to life.

The body suffered the most...the electronics were underwater for a time and the body was covered in silt when I got it back, salvaged from the flood.

The neck, surprisingly, seems untouched. I always dug the neck on this bass.

I think the neck plate and screws are okay. The bridge even seems like it will work, but I want to make this a little beater/player again and I would love to get some advice & suggestions for components to use.

Initially, I was going to strip the paint and do a refin. I thought if the wood looked nice I might even just give it an amber tint, but the more I think of it, the more I like the idea of black 'n' maple. Plus, it's less work. I've done refinishes in the past and enjoy it, but I mainly just wanna get this back into playing condition. I do, however, plan to paint the white pickguard black.

Let me state what I hope to do with this bass and then enlist your help with regards to buying the components I need (where to source, best quality, etc.) I will probably have a tech do the work, but I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron so I might be able to bust it out.

ALL of the electronics will need to be replaced. I don't know a great deal about wiring harnesses, pots and caps, etc. I was thinking of getting an SD 1/4 pounder for the pickup, but I also thought it would look nice "tuxedoed" with black body, black guard and a white pup cover. Does anyone know of any P-pickup replacements that come in white, or could I just buy white P-pup covers and install them instead of the stock ones? (I imagine if I go with a SD 1/4-pound pup the holes in new pickup covers wouldn't be large enough for the quarter pounder polepieces.

So, if anyone can recommend a good pickup replacement for this model specifically, I'm all ears. Especially if there are some in white. I have heard that some replacement pups required extra routing, etc. to fit well into some SX basses...

Also, could someone recommend a good wiring harness, pots and caps? I'm not sure which I'd need or where I should source them...

I would like to maybe replace the bridge and the control knobs. This may not be necessary, but if anyone has swapped out the bridge on their SX for something a little higher-end or more substantial that doesn't require a ton of fiddling with, I'd love to hear about it. I've heard that replacing the control knobs on these basses can be dicey because of the fit. Any guidance in this area is appreciated.

Finally, tuners. The stock tuners weren't really waterlogged or damaged in the flood as far as I can tell, but they aren't the greatest quality. Replacing the tuners would probably be the last piece of this puzzle, and I may decide to forego that altogether, but if anyone has upgraded their SX tuners to something nicer that didn't require extra drilling, etc., please let me know.

Phew. Wow--I apologize for the very long post. I enjoy projects like this and I really very much do appreciate any help, advice, suggestions...I played this bass a lot for 3-4 years before it got flooded out and my older daughter learned on it, so it has a modicum of sentimental value. I had considered just selling it as a project bass for $40 or something and scoring a Squier P of osme kind, but since the Squier P I most wanted to buy (VM in amber w/ maple neck) is no longer in production, I'd like to try to get this old girl up and running again.

Again, thank you to anyone who cares to chime in.
 
#3
Pocket4 said:
Sounds like a lot of fuss for a $109 bass. I love a challenge too, but if it isn't OK to play right now, I wouldn't change it. Maybe set it aside for another day?
Click to expand...

I see exactly where you're coming from, but I just thought it'd be a fun project. On the other hand, for less than I'd probably spend on bringing this one back to life, I could score one of those new Squier Affinity P/Js ($179 or so...)

A lot of people, though, have used SX stuff as mod platforms and sunk significant $ into them....if I resurrected this one I could always just do a little here, a little there, score a wiring harness when I could swing it, get a new pup...

Mainly the neck is so nice I'd like to have it on something playable. I don't like the way it just sits in the corner of my junk room, giving me those come-hither looks..
 
#5
As Pilgrim said, you're essentially dealing with a P-Bass; and calling the wiring in a P-Bass a harness is a bit of an exaggeration. If you can solder at all, you shouldn't have a problem. I'm currently accumulating the parts for a Warmoth SS P-Bass. Between the Seymour Duncan Vintage pickup; copper shielding tape; vintage cloth wire and vintage caps; and good 250K pots (left-handed ones, at that), I've spent a little less than $200. Were it me, I would take it completely apart; make sure the body isn't waterlogged; clean the bejeezus out of everything; and go from there. And you might be surprised - if the electrics are dry and clean, they might still work. It's not like you dredged it up from the wreck of the Titanic or anything...:thumbsup:
 
#6
Might even be able to reclaim the original pickup(s). If there's no juice in the circuit, the water shouldn't have done much real damage, might try rinsing it out very well with distilled water and then just letting it dry very very thoroughly. (Hey, it works for the old original IBM keyboards I use, I've spilled coffee, soup, who knows what into them, and they're always fine again after a very thorough rinse and dry.)

Whether it's worth the effort, well...

(Then again, SX pickups aren't all that great, that's generally the first and most effective upgrade folks do to them.)
 
#7
I would toss and replace the old pots, though, much more opportunity for the insides of them to get messed up than the pickup (especially if the pickup was potted/sealed).
 
#8
Pilgrim said:
Electronics are easy. There's nothing there but a pickup, two pots and a couple of caps. Fender has wiring diagrams online. You can buy everything you need on Ebay, and a used pickup will be just fine. Leave the tuners, bridge and knobs alone..there's no value in replacing them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a wiring diagram for a P is about as simple as it gets. One wire from pickup to ground, the other to the volume pot, then the tone pot with the cap, then the jack. Takes maybe 5 minutes if that to solder the whole thing.
 
#10
GIBrat51 said:
...I'm currently accumulating the parts for a Warmoth SS P-Bass. Between the Seymour Duncan Vintage pickup; copper shielding tape; vintage cloth wire and vintage caps; and good 250K pots...
Click to expand...

May I ask where you got the vintage cloth wire, caps and pots?

bholder said:
Yeah, a wiring diagram for a P is about as simple as it gets. One wire from pickup to ground, the other to the volume pot, then the tone pot with the cap, then the jack. Takes maybe 5 minutes if that to solder the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Over the years I've read & heard a lot of instances where people have wired the tone and/or vol direct to the jack, bypassing the pots altogether.

One school of thought is that this creates punchier tone and higher volume.

Does anyone have an opinion on this, or experience with this particular mod?

(May start another thread for that topic if I get no responses here...)
 
#11
Muddslide said:
May I ask where you got the vintage cloth wire, caps and pots?



Over the years I've read & heard a lot of instances where people have wired the tone and/or vol direct to the jack, bypassing the pots altogether.

One school of thought is that this creates punchier tone and higher volume.

Does anyone have an opinion on this, or experience with this particular mod?

(May start another thread for that topic if I get no responses here...)
Click to expand...
Any path to ground reduces the signal, even if it's through a big resistor. How much of a difference it makes, not sure - I've done it on a couple of basses, in my experience, the difference seems relatively negligible (might just be my hi-freq-deaf ears though).
 
#12
Muddslide said:
Hello, All.

So, I have this Rondo Music SX57P P-bass copy. It is black with maple neck (old headstock.)

This poor instrument endured a flood back at the end of 2010 and I've been hanging onto it since, thinking I'd like to bring it back to life.
---
Phew. Wow--I apologize for the very long post. I enjoy projects like this and I really very much do appreciate any help, advice, suggestions...I played this bass a lot for 3-4 years before it got flooded out and my older daughter learned on it, so it has a modicum of sentimental value. I had considered just selling it as a project bass for $40 or something and scoring a Squier P of osme kind, but since the Squier P I most wanted to buy (VM in amber w/ maple neck) is no longer in production, I'd like to try to get this old girl up and running again.

Again, thank you to anyone who cares to chime in.
Click to expand...

I've lots of SX and love them. Even resurrected one or two, though not from a flood. Since the neck seems fine, the key to his whole project is the condition of the body. I wouldn't assume just because it's been under water it's ruined (unless it is, of course). There are legends of water-soaked wood making killer drums and string instruments. And an SX is decent wood to begin with so there's a good chance it may still be good or even great!

For me there are two ways to deal with this depending on the condition of the wood and ability to refinish it. One is your plan to refinish even with paint. I've had good luck with minwax rub-on in either polyurethane or tung oil depending on look you want (natural or shiney) Should work great to restore neck. Body well, same or even paint. Strip it down to zero and sand and then decide. Other plan would be to rework it but keep the "laying in a swamp" look ! Also VERY cool for a bass! IN that case you try to keep it looking scroungy but replace important things like electronics and just take bridge apart and try to get it working with new screws tapping the holes etc, but keeping the swamp look.

Electronics is toast. No biggie. Just a couple pots and jack. On an SX proper procedure is to replace all that anyway. Lots of parts places online to get stuff. You'll want to do a copper foil shielding at the same time you redo electronics. Pickups are probably toast if they were underwater. You can test them by hooking to cable and tapping on poles with paperclip or small screwdriver. If needs replaced pickups lots of folks raving about Geezer Butler EMG pickups. If it has a bent metal bridge I'd replace that too which is the standard thing to do even if the bass is new. You can find great bridges in parts places online for $20-$30. A good cheap place to find usable tuners is the parts department at Rondo. Very often they have removed tuners for a total SONG! Keep your eyes open!

I think this is a great project. Did one myself. Bought some Bart pickups from a guy and for $10 he threw in the trashed bass for "parts". Well eyeing it over I decided like you to you bring it back to life. New electronics, new bridge, new strings, new pickups, good cleaning and polishing, some neck sanding and I tell you that "trash" bass just kills now.

Good luck.
 
#14
 
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#15
Really do appreciate everyone's input. I'm sort of at a crossroads. I'm thinking I might actually save money by just scoring one of those newish black Squier Affinity P/Js and slapping the SX maple neck on it.

I just really like that neck, and this way I'd end up with a nice black 'n' maple, wouldn't have to buy anything extra and I'd end up with a spare Affnity neck that I could maybe slap on the SX down the road.

Hmmm. Decisions.

I've read good things about the new P/J Affinitys. Are they standard body thickness? Is there anything about them that people feel need to be upgraded or modded right off the bat?
 

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