First Rebuild, fretless, Polyphia Playing God, Clay tribute

[tobascovodka]

Like many others, I also saw the Polypohia Playing God video and really liked the look of the bass Clay plays. After a while researching and figuring out Clay was playing an Ibanez ATK (seems like a Japan only ATK305) I went on the hunt for a lucky victim. Found a few really nice ones online used and most from Japan, but they were all in the $800 range. Finally I lucked out and found a really inexpensive ATK 100 on ebay from a pawn, and set off on a new build adventure.

I've wanted to try a fretless for a while, this seemed well suited. At worst I'll have a shiny wall piece. (spoiler, it isn't a wall pies it plays and sounds great)

No, I do not want to partake in the current build off, seemed to have too many rules for me, especially since this won't be a scratch build.

The project is all finished so this might be a short thread. Here we go!

 

[tobascovodka]

Where it all begins, a budget pawnshop item listed as not working for parts only.

 

[tobascovodka]

Time for the work bench

 

[tobascovodka]

all the shiny bits go into the ultrasonic

all clean

and put back together

 

[tobascovodka]

on to the neck and fingerboard, sand off finish

remove fretboard with heat and all sorts of tools for prying. I dislike rosewood fingerboards, especially cheap ones.

scraping the remains of adhesive

 

[tobascovodka]

The royal blackwood fingerboard blank came in from LMI. Last build I used ebony but wanted to try out this stuff for the second build, and this is more appealing to me and not rosewood (brown on a black bass) which is like a million points in my book.

with some extra length if anyone wants to go diving

 

[tobascovodka]

time to make it pretty with some knife scale rivets for markers

and on the side as well, good time to go down to 24 fret length

time for fret lines, made my own jig from aluminum and acrylic. I really didn't want this to look like a mod after doing all the work to pull off the original, so the route lines are not all the way across the fingerboard

time for epoxy and glow powder

and after cure I get to sand and radius to 16"

 

[tobascovodka]

Is is still a fretless if I have a zerofret, lol? the reveal of that polishing time spent, like a mirror

wrapped the headstock

shot in the dark

made a TUSQ nut/string guide, made a truss rod cover from excess finger board wood cause that original is not pretty at all, and the wrong shape for this build.

finished the headstock assembly

 

[tobascovodka]

time for the part that made me furious... the body.
Yes this was a bass wood body,
vating part due to repeatedly having to strip the body due to paint issues.

so here is the first sand

first coat

second went on file too, then I sprayed the third coat, and had a bad crazing chemical reaction with something below... so I stripped it all down giving me a chance to deal with the cracks with some CA

Primed this time around

color, round two

waited 2 weeks for cure, color cured, primer refused to cure and stayed gummy even after an extra week. so I was pissed and had to strip again, this time with aircraft/marine stripper (nasty stuff, eats thru anything) cause the primer would just gum up the sand paper.

changed paint entirely primer to clear (stayed in the same line of paint for all 3) got thru primer great, got thru color great, then came the clear, first and second clear coat went fine, third coat for some reason caused another reaction, and made the whole surface crackle. If this this is what the bass wants to be so be it, I'm done fighting it. Hose it with MOAR CLEAR.

 

[tobascovodka]

I had to make a replica pickguard cause the original on the ATK100 was black and I wanted mirrored like the 300's, but they are impossible to find or really expensive ($75) did not get pictures of that but I used the original as a stencil and cut new ones from shower mirrors off amazon for $9 for two, so I have a backup.

time for assembly and a few critical touches
shielding, wiring

I also replaced 90% of the original hardware with stainless, and put thread inserts for the pick guard back cavity to use M3 hardware, I hate wood screws.
My new kitten Dante investigating the new addition.

first string up, with some labella golds, they look awesome with the stainless and brass indicators, but after a few days and some time adjusting the A snapped at the base and I had to get replacements, and went with the black nylon wrapped DiAddario. The LaBellas felt really clingy/sticky.

 

[tobascovodka]

The stock atk100 pickup is the dual coil in the triple coil enclosure and sounds super weak. Time for the nuclear option, a used Nordstrand big 4 will do the trick. And yes it sounds amazing as a passive setup.

 

[tobascovodka]

Comment below if you made it all the way from this before, and have some thing to ask, or say!
If you have a suggestion on improving from here, I would love to hear it!

Time to learn how to play fretless!

Song suggestions appreciated, I am only OK so no hopes of playing Jaco, and never will be.

 

[Cran]

This look stunning! Sucks about the body finish, but the finalised bass looks fantastic. I'd love to hear a demo!

 

[tobascovodka]

After the additional clear coats dried it really made it look a bit vintage like shrinking nitro, so I think I'll leave it.

 

[HardNHeavy]

like the sparkly headstock and sharing the refin process....that fretless neck looks great

 

[rashrader]

Gotta say, that's some solid work, but is that a zero fret on a Fretless? I only ask because nut slot depth on a Fretless is virtually level with the fretboard. Well, traditionally anyway.

 

[tobascovodka]

Gotta say, that's some solid work, but is that a zero fret on a Fretless?

Sure is, but does it count if it's a zero?

 

[rashrader]

Sure is, but does it count if it's a zero?

Yeah. No it's fine, but it'll definitely result in some really high action.

 

[tobascovodka]

Yeah. No it's fine, but it'll definitely result in some really high action.

Only if its not filed and crowned, which it is, might even go a hair lower

 

[Katoosie]

Oh, the body did not want to take that paint, I wonder what happened there.
Nevertheless, well done. I have a question - isn't the ATK supposed to have like half fretted half fretless fingerboard? Or am I confusing it with a different animal from Ibanez?