BEAUTIFUL JOB, MOSSTONE!
I'm so glad it turned out the way you wanted it to. As for those knobs? I like them just as they are; anything flashier would distract the eyes from what they
should be looking at, IMO. Very, very nice...
Yeah, that looks sweet! Love me some tort on almost anything, that looks particularly good with the sunburst. My son has a Jay Turser clone, a lot of fun to play. Id eventually like to build a kit clone, as I get older the short scale and light weight get more attractive. Nice job all around.
Nice job!
I'm in a Beatles band myself, and have 2 friends who both own Rogue violin basses - as you've found, they're pretty amazing for the money.
I like what you've done, but am not a fan of the rosewood knobs on the tort plate - the knobs are handsome, but they're buried visually. Adding some contrasting knobs would be a nice touch.
Have you considered a set of the Hofner teacup knobs? The off-white should match the binding & color of tuners fairly well, and if the gold circle in the center doesn't float your boat, maybe replace with either a chrome circle (to match the hardware) or a yellowish circle (flame maple?) that matches the interior color of your bass.
What matters is what makes you happy. Good luck!
I think I agree on the knobs, they just look brown against the tort, something contrasty would punch it up. But it's your bass! Live with it for a while, easy to swap knobs. Maybe give us armchair quarterbacks a vote on knobs?
That really is a beauty @Mosstone. you've taken it a lot further than I would have, what with refinishing the headstock and all, but it looks great! Imma see what I can do with mine to improve tone. I've got the allparts PUs, but I'll look into getting new bezels from pickguardian.
I am inspired.
Thanks for the props guys! It was a lot of work, and took a lot of patience... I appreciate the kind words!
The Rogue makes a surprisingly good mod foundation. I replaced everything except the bridge, but that's not entirely necessary. The stock tailpiece, for example, is just fine. I only replaced it with a genuine Hofner TP because i originally planned to make this a Hofner clone (and I found one for half the standard retail price).
The construction of this bass is surprisingly solid, the fretwork is well done, and it has a beautiful finish. I think if they sprayed just another coat or two of poly, and spent a little more time buffing, it might equal the quality of the finish on the Chinese Hofner... But that's picking nits at this price range. After upgrades, this bass looks, sounds and
feels like a bass costing much more.
Most of the mods were largely cosmetic... The only thing this bass really
needed were better pickups and a way of getting the bridge pickup closer to the strings. I also grew to
hate the stock controls. I much prefer having a tone pot, rather than turning pickups on and off to alter the tone. I also like the Wilkinson tuners better than the stock ones. I don't think it's 100% necessary to replace them, but if you keep the stock tuners, the banjo tuner buttons are a
must-have. I know, it's only cosmetic, but those big, modern chrome tuner keys just don't belong anywhere near that bass.
I may replace the bridge at some point. The stock bridge gets the job done, but it looks a little rough... Though you can't really see that from more than a foot away.
I think I forgot to mention that I had to glue small pieces of toothpick (I used a razor saw to cut tiny little plugs) in the bottom of the post holes for the height adjustment screws, to prevent them from emerging through the bottom of the bridge and digging into the surface of the bass.
The knobs are still a conundrum. My design intuition tells me they should contrast with the plate, and I tried a set of Gibson-style, gold, reflector-top bell knobs, but that seemed to clash too much.
That was a while ago, though... Before the bass was put back together. I may put them on again and take a picture of it, just to get some other opinions from you guys.
The rosewood knobs do blend in too much and make the whole thing look a little too dark. I
do think it's probably better for the knobs to go unnoticed, than to look garish, or out if place, but I'm not 100% satisfied with them.
@nixdad, I have a pair of teacup knobs that I was going to use when I was planning to make this a faithful copy of a 500/1, but since I abandoned that plan, I haven't given a second thought to actually using them. I'll put them on as well, just to get an idea of what they'll look like on the bass, and take pics so y'all can weigh in.
If I decide to go that way, I'll have to order another pair, to get the 3rd knob (I wish all guitar knobs were sold individually... I hate having to buy four when I only need three!).
