An SXcapade

[nutdog]

Saw this on craigslist, old style headstock, decent price, what the heck...

Came with a planet waves strap, bridge/neck covers, gigbag, hex wrench and a korg tuner. 8.8lbs on the bathroom scale. 3 piece body, alder maybe, maple neck/board with blocks and binding.

Action was high. Adjusted relief, truss rod works fine, but with saddles fully down still 7/64in at the 12th fret. In contrast, my roadworn J is 4/64. Nut slots seem about right but maybe could go a little lower. Probably will need a shim to do better.

Sounds ok. Pots are a little scratchy. I was told it was bought for a beginner that never played it so it probably sat for years. Looks pretty new. The neck pickup output is a good bit higher than the bridge but might be evened with height adjustment. A couple of frets edges are sharp and need filing.

The strap is very comfy. Might be using it regularly.

So I might work on it, leave in the youth room at church, resell to a student or part it out. Not sure yet.

 

[rllefebv]

Nice bass! A neck shim will get your action where you want it... 1/16th?? I'd be clanking all over the place

-robert

 

[nutdog]

Nice bass! A neck shim will get your action where you want it... 1/16th?? I'd be clanking all over the place

-robert

It is nice and close to fender recommendation but I alway thought that was needlessly high. It's definitely a good, playable bass for the money.

 

[Mastermold]

I have that same bass, I think it was the 3rd or 4th SX bass I bought and it was around 2008 or so I think when I was having fun buying SX basses. I gave away or sold most of them but this was one of the few I kept. It was/is a good one so I hung on to it intending to mod it at some point but it plays/sounds decent in stock form so I left it.

 

[dabbler]

Nice one! Possibly the only other old headstock sunburst I wish I had bought,

 

[Mike N]

The one in my avatar is close, other than I have dots on the neck versus blocks.

.......and I have flats with a tort guard

 

[bassbenj]

AS one with a large SX collection like Dabbler, I STRONGLY recommend you give it a proper setup and any mods that may be needed (like say shielding) and give it half a chance. I mean old headstock, alder body, decent neck with working truss rod, what is not to love? If it has original strings the first thing you should to is get a new set of your favorites. I personally like to install treaded inserts on the neck as I think it gives the bass a much more "solid" and expensive feel and any shimming can be taken care of at the same time. As a big SX owner I'd caution you to give it a chance before you just relegate it to abuse in the "youth room". You may be quite surprised by it.

 

[nutdog]

Previously on SXcapades: Got this cheap bass. Pretty cool but highish action. What to do...

Episode 2: Goldilocks and the Three Shims

Shim shiminey shim shiminey shim shim shiree... Armed with some cool tools, internet expertise and a credit card our fearless hero goes in search of lower action.

StewMac 3 pack:

Neck off. It's a tight fit in the pocket.

Shaped shim fits perfect:

The first shim, .25, was too low. Action went to 6/64 but saddles still bottomed out.

Skipped to the 1. It was too high.

But the .5 was just right. Actually somewhere between .5 and 1 might be just right. Action on the E is just hair over 4/64. The saddle could go a bit lower but not much. It has some buzz when fretting a low G but nowhere else so perhaps a fret is low/high. Otherwise it's pretty sweet.

It was intonated without any need for adjustment. I adjusted the pickup heights and the volume between the two pickups evened out.

There is a slight buzz that goes away when touching the strings or bridge even with the pots all the way off. Grounding maybe?

Stay tuned.

 

[Stu_Bass]

.25 + .50?
I bought the full shim pack and bitched to SM both about the outrageous price (as usual with them) and the insulting shipping cost. They cut me a (one time) break on shipping. Their stuff is darned handy but the prices are triple what I consider to be the high side of reasonable. And shipping on a featherweight package USPS should be no more than $2.
Rant over.
Glad you got it worked out.
Play on!

 

[Stu_Bass]

Previously on SXcapades: Got this cheap bass. Pretty cool but highish action. What to do...

Episode 2: Goldilocks and the Three Shims

Shim shiminey shim shiminey shim shim shiree... Armed with some cool tools, internet expertise and a credit card our fearless hero goes in search of lower action.

StewMac 3 pack:

View attachment 1414238

Neck off. It's a tight fit in the pocket.

View attachment 1414237

Shaped shim fits perfect:

View attachment 1414235

The first shim, .25, was too low. Action went to 6/64 but saddles still bottomed out.

Skipped to the 1. It was too high.

But the .5 was just right. Actually somewhere between .5 and 1 might be just right. Action on the E is just hair over 4/64. The saddle could go a bit lower but not much. It has some buzz when fretting a low G but nowhere else so perhaps a fret is low/high. Otherwise it's pretty sweet.

It was intonated without any need for adjustment. I adjusted the pickup heights and the volume between the two pickups evened out.

There is a slight buzz that goes away when touching the strings or bridge even with the pots all the way off. Grounding maybe?

Stay tuned.

likely the single coils. does it also go away when both pups are on full bore?

 

[nutdog]

likely the single coils. does it also go away when both pups are on full bore?

No, buzz in all positions that goes away when I touch the strings.

 

[Kelly robinson]

Buzzing on my newer version disappeared with a decent shielding job - I did also upgrade the pickups to a Fralin and Fender custom shop but I believe the shielding job was the main reason for the improvement - along with making sure that the bridge ground was working well - Kelly

 

[Turnaround]

......and I have flats with a tort guard

That's easy to fix.

 

[bassbenj]

No, buzz in all positions that goes away when I touch the strings.

"the sign" that a shield job is in order.

 

[bassbenj]

.25 + .50?
I bought the full shim pack and bitched to SM both about the outrageous price (as usual with them) and the insulting shipping cost. They cut me a (one time) break on shipping. Their stuff is darned handy but the prices are triple what I consider to be the high side of reasonable. And shipping on a featherweight package USPS should be no more than $2.
Rant over.
Play on!

You get an Amen from me. I love some of the SM tools and things I've bought but it was always a struggle to face up to high prices. The mental anguish is always over do I spend for the over-priced cool thing and make this job easy, or save money and go the hard way. I must admit that every over-priced thing I've bought from them really worked well. I mean none
+ of it is TV Ronco grade stuff, but they got it priced right on the cusp because each purchase is a struggle between yes and no.

 

[nutdog]

.25 + .50?
I bought the full shim pack and bitched to SM both about the outrageous price (as usual with them) and the insulting shipping cost. They cut me a (one time) break on shipping. Their stuff is darned handy but the prices are triple what I consider to be the high side of reasonable. And shipping on a featherweight package USPS should be no more than $2.
Rant over.
Glad you got it worked out.
Play on!

You get an Amen from me. I love some of the SM tools and things I've bought but it was always a struggle to face up to high prices. The mental anguish is always over do I spend for the over-priced cool thing and make this job easy, or save money and go the hard way. I must admit that every over-priced thing I've bought from them really worked well. I mean none
+ of it is TV Ronco grade stuff, but they got it priced right on the cusp because each purchase is a struggle between yes and no.

The .25 and .5 together might be the trick but I ran out of time. But since this is a primarily an educational endeavor it will happen eventually.

In regard to pricing at first glance it seems high but it's a specialty precision product. Finding the right material, sanding it to the perfect angle, over and over until it's just right...easily worth $40 of time. These were labeled and individually packaged.

Shipping cost include packaging and prep. $30 worth of delicate wood in a first class envelope USPS? But since I was paying the shipping I went ahead and got some nut files I'd been wanting for years. Expensive? Perhaps, but google bass neck shims and bass nut files and see how many places are selling them at all, let alone for dirt cheap.

The flip side is, if I keep putting time and money into a cheap bass, it's not really a cheap bass anymore. But this is mainly an opportunity to experiment without messing up something of high value. So over time I'll probably check the wiring, shielding, may even try my hand at fret leveling. But as it stands this would make an excellent beginner bass and I even took it to last night's gig as a backup. Something tells me if I used it instead of the roadworn J (also burst/tort) I doubt anyone would notice but me.

 

[nutdog]

Got some copper tape and was ready to shield. Plugged it in. No buzz. Not sure why but no shielding today. It may have something to do with the jack. I heard some buzz briefly when I set it down but couldn't recreate it.

Put the .25 in with the .5. Perfect. Getting 4/64 at the 12th fret E with just a bit of fret buzz around the 3, 4 and 5th fret on the E and G when plucking firmly. Seems like a high fret, no fret buzz anywhere else. Turning out to be a nice bass.

 

[Pachap]

Glad you .25 and .5 in. I'd go ahead and shield it, and make sure the ground is properly connected.

 

[nutdog]

Did the shielding and played it in the youth room. It's an electronic jungle with cables, amps, computers, outlet strips, etc. If it was going to buzz it would do it here. Just normal light single coil buzz, nothing with both pickups even. It sounds good with stock electronics. I'll leave it there and hopefully train some new players.

I wasn't impressed with the initial playability but with a little research, time, effort and about $30 it's now a perfectly usable and gigable instrument.

 

[Pachap]

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love playing bass and guitar. But I think my biggest joy, source of relaxation, and relief of stress comes from tinkering and updgrading instruments. I don't know why I haven't bought one directly from Rondo yet, but I troll my local Craigslist almost daily and visit pawn shops often, and if I see their P bass or PJ clones anywhere for a good price, it's coming home with me. Then I can gradually updgrade it, play it, learn new things, relax and enjoy it a new bass for cheap.