I have the same Hartke head! I bought it broken and fixed it. Built and enclosure and wrapped it in vinyl.
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Some would probably say it shouldn't have been revived, but if it's all you have, more power to you. And if you can control your inside and outside lights, fan and garbage disposal, more the better.
PortaBeater. I got it as a short scale used guitar at a GC out of state traveling for work. $35 used.
Cheap bridge pieces, tuners and p pickup from Amazon.
Full length strings from one of my Squiers.
Holds tune. B standard with .135 B. Tone and volume bypassed. A little noise but sounds better than it has any right to.
Cheap bridge pieces, tuners and p pickup from Amazon.
Full length strings from one of my Squiers.
Holds tune. B standard with .135 B. Tone and volume bypassed. A little noise but sounds better than it has any right to.
Attachments
The one in the middle. Almost all of it came from the TB classifieds.
Mighty Mite super light body.
Looks white but actually very light blue.
Mighty Mite J neck.
DiMarzio PAF era pickup
Hipshot Ultralite tuners
Just over 7 pounds and growls like a beast.
Mighty Mite super light body.
Looks white but actually very light blue.
Mighty Mite J neck.
DiMarzio PAF era pickup
Hipshot Ultralite tuners
Just over 7 pounds and growls like a beast.
This one started it's life as a Mexican-made Fender Precision Deluxe Active Bass. Took the jazz neck and bridge from there, bought a new body from Rockwood (alder - a little heavy), a Fender Original '62 pup and a triple ply black guard. Currently with lighter gauge rounds, I usually have it with LaBella of Fender flats.
I've done 3, but this 3rd one is the one I'm happiest with and occasionally gig:
I put four Franks in my my Frankenbass. (sorry if everyone is sick of this project, but I'm not)
Gibströmbackder SB-4353
Gibströmbackder SB-4353
Less Frankenstein, more voodoo. It is a Warmoth 51 P body (solid maple, which I regret) and Aguilar Super Singles. Artwork is silkscreened on.
Mine is more straight forward. But it is a parts/Franken bass.
Love that octa baritoneis there a build thread on that?
No, but I did manage to snap a few photos during the build. Hopefully no one will mind if I borrow this thread to do a quick run through.
Body and Pickuard from Warmoth. I believe they call this Blue Shell. It's the Anti-Tort!
The pickups were GFS Tele blade style humbuckers. With 9 strings so oddly grouped, I figured it best to avoid polepieces. They sound... ok.
There's my shielding job. I think I did alright.
The neck is a 30.5 scale baritone model from DC Kunkle. He sells his necks through ebay. I added 3 extra holes.
The three tuners on the left were salvaged from my horribly decapitated Dean Rhapsody 12-string bass.
I had to do some research to track down a matching set of Grovers for the other 6.
I know the string retainer is slightly wonky. It does what it needs to do though. I was afraid if it was too close to the nut it might be too much tension and pull out if it had to hold down ALL the strings at such a sharp break angle.
As for the bridge... Well a 9-string is a tricky proposition that's why I decided to go with a threaded 3-bridge tele. You might not believe it, but it intonates pretty dang well in this pic ...like near dead on, even the octaves! I selected gauges according to a tension formula aiming for the same tension across the board. That's my only explanation. In this photo it is tuned aaA ddD ggG. I've since dropped it down to eeE aaA ddD with some heavier gauges and lower overall tension. I had to move the saddles, but It still intonates straight across like this.
The control plate is reversed from a normal Tele because I wanted to be able to do volume swells and tremolo with my pinky.
It's a fun instrument to play. For the future, I've got my eye on some Lace pickups and the nut could be filed a wee bit lower.
On the right is the only known closeup photograph of my very first (1977) "Frankenbass".
It's the neck off a Japanese Beatle bass copy, bolted (lol) to a home made "alembic-inspired" body hand carved out of solid mahogany, with hand-rubbed gel stain tobacco sunburst finish. (Body design taken from a WHO concert poster I had on my bedroom door as a teenager). Actually had a fair approximation of a Series I "point" carve at the bottom, but that part is obscured in this pic...
Found a more distant pic, but the "point" is now obscured by my strap end wrapped around it:
(oh well...)
The neck's original cheapo Japanese tuners got upgraded with Schaller M4s, and the black pickup is a Schaller bass humbucker. RS66 strings. Bridge and tailpiece were mail-ordered from Carvin. Later additions were the psychedelic day-glo paint job and the cream-colored EMG active mini-humbucker (from the first batch of EMGs ever imported into Canada!). The Schaller pup was disconnected from the circuit but left in place to fill the hole...
Honorable mention to the enormous solid-wood coffin case (pawn shop find!) I ended up hauling it around the country in. It was a true "Franken-case" with a large bolted-on leather belt functioning as the handle
It's the neck off a Japanese Beatle bass copy, bolted (lol) to a home made "alembic-inspired" body hand carved out of solid mahogany, with hand-rubbed gel stain tobacco sunburst finish. (Body design taken from a WHO concert poster I had on my bedroom door as a teenager). Actually had a fair approximation of a Series I "point" carve at the bottom, but that part is obscured in this pic...
Found a more distant pic, but the "point" is now obscured by my strap end wrapped around it:
(oh well...)
The neck's original cheapo Japanese tuners got upgraded with Schaller M4s, and the black pickup is a Schaller bass humbucker. RS66 strings. Bridge and tailpiece were mail-ordered from Carvin. Later additions were the psychedelic day-glo paint job and the cream-colored EMG active mini-humbucker (from the first batch of EMGs ever imported into Canada!). The Schaller pup was disconnected from the circuit but left in place to fill the hole...
Honorable mention to the enormous solid-wood coffin case (pawn shop find!) I ended up hauling it around the country in. It was a true "Franken-case" with a large bolted-on leather belt functioning as the handle
then i must finish Stellabass, the Fakembic... i'll strung "her" in BEAD
"The poor guy's bass" Fakembic half-building.
"The poor guy's bass" Fakembic half-building.
LMAO! Now that is Franked out with bit of McGiver throne in too boot.
