Gitterdone!!
Full tear down today, put a new set of Sheldon's Nickel wrapped strings on, did a full setup; relief, action, intonation, cleaned the bass overall, took the neck off, etc.
Sheldon was right that putting on a set of his strings took care of most of the weird tone problems this bass was having. I also then brought the relief back to nearly flat. I noticed that the D string was still having some troubles and backed the hight screw out by a turn which took care of the problem (more on that in a moment). Then I set to getting the intonation in shape. That took a while, I don't know what was on it, but the intonation wasn't even close...It is now.
Dead on. After getting that in shape, went back to the D string...thinking that some time to let the neck settle and actually having a ballpark intonation on the string might be what the doctor ordered, I dropped the string by half a turn...weird tones gone. Hrrrm. Re-fine tuned the intonation on the D again just to be sure...dropped it back another half turn on the height to its original and all is good. Not quite as low as the Rastaburst, but pretty close now. Oh, and I took some pictures along the way...
Old strings off, ready to rock.
Well worn headstock, Sperzel locking tuners.
Neck off! I'm uptight. Those neck screws are laid out so that I can put them back in the same position.
The Pau Ferro board is nice. gave it a quick cleaning with some lemon oil. The grain is tighter and smoother than rosewood and a bit more butterscotch/honey than brown.
Back of the neck is in surprisingly good shape. No dents, nicks or any other problems. Lots and lots of plies.
Back of the headstock. You can see a small patch where there's no finish. Whatev. SN#1098...which is kind of fateful, given the Rastaburst is #4098. Anyone got 2098 or 3098?
Heel and pocket. That bit in the pocket is a sticker of some kind. Very thin, so it's not acting as a shim or anything.
Lil' man in a boat.
Typical angled fretwear...no dents or divots. Good shape for a long time to come. This is the 3rd fret.
...A bit more wear on the body. Over each pickup in thumb anchoring position we're into the wood grain. You can tell this bass is a warrior.
I was ready not to like this bridge...but really do. Simple and intuitive and the string height screws (what those saddles really are, are super easy to adjust. This is before I went and moved them all over.
Restrung with Dingwall Nickel wrapped rounds and ready to go. Knobs off for tomorrow's adventure in preamp installation. It's gonna get the OBP-2 with a Volume/Blend/Stacked bass/treble. I'll play it for a bit then decide if I love or don't love the Bartolinis. If I don't it will get a set of FD-3's and a 4 way switch instead of the blend.
