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black & blond P makeover (etc)
- Thread starter JIO
- Start date
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Thanks DE! - I wish you could play it - it's really a great playing, great sounding P/J. In fact, let me make this offer - if you or anyone are reading about my Gildaxe projects here on tb and are honestly interested visits the Bay Area for business or on vacation (you know how great a vacation destination SF is) and has a free evening to check out all my Gildaxe basses through my killer amps (Ashdown Spyder/Eden 210 or a '75 Ampeg B-15N in the comfort of my home - drop me a PM. Please only inquire if you have genuine interest in what I do with Gildaxe as it is my private residence and not a business space. The basses I've produced are amazing and I would love honest feedback from players who will feel and hear the difference.
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Just for curiosity sake, I looked into gold (plated) hw. The gold Fender '62 stacked knob-set can be had ($30 for 2 sets), Wilkinson sells gold 70's style tuners ($50), Dunlop strap-locks come in gold ($28), Fender Deluxe bridge comes in gold ($75), but no one sells the 3 hole Jazz control plate in gold, and if they did and Fender produced it - it also would be $$$. Another reason I usually avoid gold!
Here you go:
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
enabler!
(ha!) ...no really Ivan, thanks man! I just ordered one and it came to about the same as an chrome Fender one on ebay. (I don't buy from China) I think I'll wait until I get it to see how it looks before I pull out the stops on the rest. But wait… it won't have gold frets… 
enabler!
Keep the silver knobs to offset the frets and save money in the process. I think the gold/black/gold of the control panel would be a bit impending compared to the rest of the bass. I'd have to see it to really make a judgement though. If you keep them knobs silver, the frets and strings will be too. So you've got one silver element in the body and one on the neck. Then the silver strings connect the two elements. Depending on how the sparkle looks in person, there's probably some silver in the finish.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Spot-on Ivan! There is silver in the finish - very observant and I agree that a silver & gold mix is the way to go. I could (or not) do the bridge in gold as I can get the exact same model (Fender Deluxe) for a good price ($43.99) and I just ordered a gold string tree. I don't want to replace the tuners with the Wilkinson set as they are close but not exactly like the Fender 70's-style/Getty Lee tuners on it which I'm so fond of. So, install the control plate, add the string tree and make the bridge call then.
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Nice! The 70s style Geddy tuners are great because they are so simmilar to lollipops (I eventually want to take the time to grind down the top humps on my CIJ mustang bass). Ontop of that they've got such a large footprint on the back of the headstock. Which is a big selling point IMO.Spot-on Ivan! There is silver in the finish - very observant and I agree that a silver & gold mix is the way to go. I could (or not) do the bridge in gold as I can get the exact same model (Fender Deluxe) for a good price ($43.99) and I just ordered a gold string tree. I don't want to replace the tuners with the Wilkinson set as they are close but not exactly like the Fender 70's-style/Getty Lee tuners on it which I'm so fond of. So, install the control plate, add the string tree and make the bridge call then.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Agree - but doesn't a Mustang have the smaller plated short-stem version? At least the original late 60's pops were the shorties. I have a set of '66 Mustang pops on a standard Tele hs bass I made and had to trim the headstock down to allow their use. If your CIJ Mustang has the same sized hs as the original, the GL/standard size will probably be too big for it. Also, I have 2 sets of the converted GL-to-pops tuner sets on basses. I didn't do it myself but they are done well and you'd never suspect they weren't real (other than not being Fender stamped)
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Yes, you're correct. The footprint is smaller and the stems seem to be shorter. I personally like the shorter stems for a shortscale bass though, but prefer the larger footprint. I guess you can't get the best if both worlds in this situation. The shape if the clover is the important part and everytime I see and play it, it's just begging to be modded.
Yes, you're correct. The footprint is smaller and the stems seem to be shorter. I personally like the shorter stems for a shortscale bass though, but prefer the larger footprint. I guess you can't get the best if both worlds in this situation. The shape if the clover is the important part and everytime I see and play it, it's just begging to be modded.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Oh, sorry - I thought you wanted to install modded GL tuners on your Mustang. You want to mod the tuners that came on it right? Should work as long as they are the larger fluted clovers like this pic.
The stock ones, yes. And they're definitely the right shape exactly like the ones above. I know because every time I play it, I cover the top part up with my thumb to see the magic of lollipop tuners (if only for a second)
Here's a photo for clarity:
(apologies for the brief tuner sidetrack on your thread)
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
The stock ones, yes. And they're definitely the right shape exactly like the ones above. I know because every time I play it, I cover the top part up with my thumb to see the magic of lollipop tuners (if only for a second)
Here's a photo for clarity:
(apologies for the brief tuner sidetrack on your thread)
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Lovely - yes, a pop conversion for sure. That style of clover is my favorite because of the smooth transition at the stem and that they are 'fuller' than the flanged squat ones. To make them pops, I think the way to do it is to first make a guide the exact shape you want out of a scrap piece of pick-guard material and clamp it to each tuner w/a small c-clamp - or a vice would be even better. (padded so as not to scratch the chrome - or even better 2 exact pg plastic guides on either side of the clover) Then use a nice fine-toothed metal file and slowly file the hump to your guide. Once it's close use a finer/tighter file followed by some buffing compound. Once you get the hang on one - the other three will go smoothly. Better yet, if you have a spare clover tuner in your parts bin, you could do the first test on it so you can feel-out what your doing before moving on to your Mustang set.
I see you play w/a pick. Since joining Bond Girl I've really gotten into playing with a pick and palm muting for that classic Carol Kay tone. It's ideal for our showbiz/lounge-rock tunes. I've always incorporated pick-style in my playing but now I'm really having fun with it and have developed some pick-finesse that I never had before.
Oh, and there's no such thing as 'sidetrack' on this thread - as you can tell by now I started it for a completely different project and since then it's morphed into other tangents! It's like life really - one thing developing into something else...
I think Hipshot will make you a set of HB1's (MM/G&L) with lollipop heads if you want. I have them on my Warmoth J-Bass. I got them second hand, so I have no idea the original cost. They were just a standard complete set and I wanted an X-tender to match but they don't show this combo available. I just dropped a line to Jason at Hipshot to ask about just converting my E string tuner. They made it happen for a reasonable cost.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Now that I think about it...I bought them in complete set of hardware that was taken off a bass, the owner converted from black to another finish. So these may have been part of a limited production run for some builder. They may not be geared up to make a one-off set. (pun intended!) It's no big deal to take an existing tuner and mount it to a Xtender key base, which is what they did for me. However, definitely worth the effort to ask.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,965
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
While considering the gold bridge again, I realized the one I was looking at is not the same model after all. Same saddles, but mine is a more "high mass" version. In fact I couldn't even find a chrome-plated one like it anywhere. I recall getting them on ebay (bought two) a couple years ago and I thought they were Fender. Fender makes one like it, but it needs to be the same for my custom fit. So unless one turns up, a gold bridge is off the table. Instead, I will install gold strap-locks to echo the string tree. The control plate will be the defining gold statement with smaller gold accents. Pics will follow when everything's installed.
