Fender Frankensteins

[Gorn]

New bridge day. Exciting stuff.

 

[Gorn]

New bridge day, now featuring....intonation!

I installed it and started playing and then got really mad at the bridge. Why does my bass sound so off? Did I damage the strings? What the hell? And then I remembered you have to intonate a new bridge. I'm really stupid sometimes.

 

[Basshappi]

Here's one I just finished.
62RI MIJ neck
Indo Squier vintage modified body.
I call this one my fretted Jaco.

Basswood body sounds too nasal I'm eyeballing a 62RI MIJ body ice metallic blue on eBay.
Can anybody here verifying the MIJ 62RI bodies are alder?
One add says it could be basswood

The 80's era MIJ's were often alder (mine is) but they started using basswood on a lot of their models later on. You might look for a body that has a trans/ burst finish as those are more likely to be alder or ash.

 

[mojomike001]

I installed it and started playing and then got really mad at the bridge. Why does my bass sound so off? Did I damage the strings? What the hell? And then I remembered you have to intonate a new bridge. I'm really stupid sometimes.

Occasionally my wife tells me, "Sometimes you're so stupid" to which I usually reply, "At least it's not all the time."

 

[crucislancer]

New bridge day, now featuring....intonation!
View attachment 603030
I installed it and started playing and then got really mad at the bridge. Why does my bass sound so off? Did I damage the strings? What the hell? And then I remembered you have to intonate a new bridge. I'm really stupid sometimes.

I recently got one of those vintage bridges for my Frankenfender jazz, and installed Optima flatwounds as well. I like the fact that you and set the string spacing. A bit of a change from the BAII bridge I had on there, which I am going to use for a new project soon.

 

[Gorn]

I played a friend's jazz bass with a chrome bridge pickup cover. I really liked it. Would it look weird on my okoume since it doesn't have a pickguard?

 

[mojomike001]

Get the cover and mount it with two sided tape to see if you like it before drilling holes.

 

[Gorn]

I was thinking about a bridge cover too but I don't like those big jazz bass ashtrays. Do people put P bridge covers on jazz basses?

 

[bassstrangler]

2011 MIM P Bass with 2014 Squier Chris Aiken neck.

 

[bassstrangler]

The reverse of the last bass This neck was very sprouted and was very unplayable. Bought the Chris Aiken as a direct replacement neck. Worked on the MIM neck and it is now a good bass. Needs more fret work but thank goodness for Fret Doctor as well.

Can I have a number? Thanks

 

[bassstrangler]

here it is

 

[jeffreylee]

I've always wanted a 'classic' sixties Fender P. And HAD to be LPB and tort. At a certain point I realised that finding such a beast at an affordable price was never going to happen. But it had to be a real Fender for me! My P is a '72 body refinished in nitro, a '66 neck and neck plate. Fralin pickup, Spitfire pickguard, Gotoh Res-o-lites, Badass bridge (not an original look but I've always liked them). It's just over 8lb's, sounds, looks, and feels like a sixties Fender, but for around half the price. I gig it every week.

 

[mojomike001]

Latest FrankenFender build. Still a work-in-progress. Mighty Mite body and fretless neck. Body is very light weight ash, under 4.5 lbs. Dimarzio J's. Coming is a Hipshot type A aluminum bridge in black and a black loaded control plate. I'm hoping to come in at about 8lbs or so when complete.

 

[mojomike001]

Project pretty much complete. I may still swap out the tuners for some black Hipshot Ultralights.

 

[Kernkamp]

Here's mine! It's a road worn Jazz body with a fantastic all maple All Parts neck that's been oiled like a Musicman. I bought it at a pawn shop and is hands down one of the best player jazz basses I've ever had. Pickups are completely shielded and silent. Whoever put this together did a fantastic job. It's become one of my favorite all time jazz basses.

 

[Fuzmaster]

I posted this in the PJ club thread, but now thinking I should have just posted here.

I'm in the process of modding my AVHR Frankie to add a pup selector switch and reduce overall mass.

The switch is NKK #M2024SS1G01 (SP3T on-on-on). Front/rear positions isolate the P/J pups, middle position brings in both. I tried to rewire the original VVT schematic with 500K volume pots, but they seem to be too much for passive pickups, so I'm going back to 250K volume pots. Also added a Sprague 0.047uF tone capacitor.

The Gotoh RES-O-LITE tuners save almost 1/4 pound on the Am Special neck, and BadAss II bridge is actually lighter than the Fender High Mass bridge that came on the AVHR from the factory.

So far, it looks like finished weight will be around 8.0-8.25 lbs. Original weight was 8.6 lbs.

 

[Fuzmaster]

My AVHR now complete with mods. Gross weight: 3780g (8 lb 5.3 oz)

Future project fodder: lightweight swamp ash Warmoth PJ body (1738g).

Whatever else, it will have a Fender neck on it.

 

[nendo]

Completely re-did by Bass - Took me 4 weeks. Would of been sooner but I had trouble with the paint reacting

This is the bass I started off with

And re-sprayed it and upgraded all of the hardware - Upgraded the pickups too VINTAGE NOISELESS™ JAZZ BASS PICKUPS, Changed the bridge, replaced the pots. Only thing I'm missing is the control knobs but I can't find ones that fit

 

[mojomike001]

Project pretty much complete. I may still swap out the tuners for some black Hipshot Ultralights.



View attachment 609389 View attachment 609390 View attachment 609391

That headstock looked all wrong to me, so I had to paint it black and go with the black hardware to complete the look.

 

[Double E]

Here's my Fender Frankenstein...

It's a Fender MIM Classic '50s body with an added J bridge pickup, hipshot vintage bridge and a very sweet Warmoth wenge/wenge neck loaded with Grover Titan tuning machines with the E tuner modded by Hipshot with a drop-D lever.

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