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Crispy Cherry

#27
This is a German Hopf Studio Bass, as played by the mighty Lemmy in Hawkwind. I would try and get some large single coils of this style.
hopf-5-rrf.jpg
 
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#31
This poor thing is way beyond my repair skill set.

I've never been a fan of SG basses and never played one for any real length of time, but I have a few SG six strings and I can attest to the neck dive on those (NEVER sit down to try out an ax in a music store! Ask for a strap or buy one, if you must).

I'm very interested in the rebuild (build?) as well and that's why I'm posting so I can follow the thread.

If you have a youtube channel, a video series might be fun (time-lapsed, of course).
 
#34
Ok let's see if I can answer some questions here.
First @Bruce Johnson, dude your posts are always the best lol and it seems ya never fail to make me rethink things a bit. I have a pretty good theory as to why this neck ended up the way it is.
20220423_115256.jpg

Being as it's laminate, as can be seen here under the headstock face, I'm thinking it probably drooped while it was in the fire. All the glue reached its melting point and gravity and heat did it's thing. It might do me some favor in resetting it, than again it might just delaminate. That said I like your idea of leaving the neck joint be, at least for now until I get a better idea of what it's going to take to get this curly cue straight again. Anyway thank you Bruce your posts are always super insightful and helpful.

Re- neck dive,
20220423_115002.jpg

I don't think even with heavy tuners this one will have an issue being as it's balanced fairly well now by the time I load the body up it'll be a-ok.

As far as parts go I was looking at gotoh gb10's, a DiMarzio model one in the neck and to compliment that some sort of something in the bridge. I'm not diehard set on any of this mind you, other than the neck pickup being a large humbucker as that is a key element I absolutely need to see here. The bridge itself I've tossed around on. Current ideas are an original badass (spendy) a roller tune-o-matic with a modified bigsby, or perhaps something altogether custom.

So moving forward Im gonna clamp the neck into a little relief, or as close as I can get it, and start hitting it with a heat gun (least invasion thing first) It probably won't work but I gotta try.

I need to do that in my garage and right now I'm fighting something off, had a sore throat last night that turned into fever. Testing negative for covid and my fever has subsided so that's good, but I'm not too keen on playing with more heat today lol
 
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#37
SamanthaCay said:
Ok let's see if I can answer some questions here.
First @Bruce Johnson, dude your posts are always the best lol and it seems ya never fail to make me rethink things a bit. I have a pretty good theory as to why this neck ended up the way it is.
View attachment 4668148
Being as it's laminate, as can be seen here under the headstock face, I'm thinking it probably drooped while it was in the fire. All the glue reached its melting point and gravity and heat did it's thing. It might do me some favor in resetting it, than again it might just delaminate. That said I like your idea of leaving the neck joint be, at least for now until I get a better idea of what it's going to take to get this curly cue straight again. Anyway thank you Bruce your posts are always super insightful and helpful.

Re- neck dive,
View attachment 4668154
I don't think even with heavy tuners this one will have an issue being as it's balanced fairly well now by the time I load the body up it'll be a-ok.

As far as parts go I was looking at gotoh gb10's, a DiMarzio model one in the neck and to compliment that some sort of something in the bridge. I'm not diehard set on any of this mind you, other than the neck pickup being a large humbucker as that is a key element I absolutely need to see here. The bridge itself I've tossed around on. Current ideas are an original badass (spendy) a roller tune-o-matic with a modified bigsby, or perhaps something altogether custom.

So moving forward Im gonna clamp the neck into a little relief, or as close as I can get it, and start hitting it with a heat gun (least invasion thing first) It probably won't work but I gotta try.

I need to do that in my garage and right now I'm fighting something off, had a sore throat last night that turned into fever. Testing negative for covid and my fever has subsided so that's good, but I'm not too keen on playing with more heat today lol
Click to expand...


I don’t see how a Bigsby on a bass could be anything but awesome. :D

@Snert yes, multilam like a Kubicki except it’s the other way around. Framus and several of the German and Japanese manufacturers did it before Phil came out with the Factor basses.
 
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#40
Yup, not uncommon on 60s-70s instruments. Something Framus did quite a bit

upload_2019-9-24_11-9-44.jpeg
8ee344a9f5e53b242d435f57e9fc2424.jpg


I think Bruce's suggestion of replacing the fingerboard is the best way to guarantee a functional neck. You can resurface or heat and bend it to straight, replace the truss rod and reinforcement (if there is any), and make sure you've got a nice, solid fretboard in the end result. I'd imagine stripping the finish and crack repair is the first step? Then examining the neck joint and evaluating if it has to be reset?
 
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