Frankenbass Rebuild

Hey everyone,

I figured I should probably post in this section more often to help motivate me to get some projects off my bench. I'm still learning things so anything you think I can do better, let me know! My goal is to one day make basses from scratch and not from parts.

This weekend I've taken to tackling a Precision bass that started life out as a Highway One (1?) but has become a testbed for electronics and necks.

Pardon that the before shot is slightly out of date, since the bass was wearing piccolo strings before I took it apart.



So the bass had a buzz due to a busted ground wire. I installed a new wire and a new pickguard. I still need to drill some extra holes since this bass is now wearing a 10-hole Precision guard. The art is old but I also took a pair of scissors to a sticker I got from a local boxing gym for the pickguard.



The neck is a Warmoth. I'm at least the second owner. When I got it there marks all over the fretboard from someone bending the E and A strings with rounds. Who bends like this on a fretless? I lightly wet sanded the whole board with 600 grit sandpaper, taking care to preserve the original radius of the fingerboard. It took a couple of passes but it is silky smooth and mark free! It took some time with a dremel and a diamond file to cut away the pickguard where it was overhanging down onto the neck pocket.

Tuner bushings were installed by lightly tapping them with a hammer.



I went to bed after I "doweled" the old tuner holes with tooth picks. Whatever was on here before had super small screws. Pardon the crooked ones, they were fixed after the photos.



Today after work I'm going to drill for the res-o-lites I bought from Gotoh.

 

Thanks. One of my bands regularly does benefits for the immigrant rights and education. We're a folky kinda band and this bass was formerly used in a bunch of rock bands.

Here's the boxing gym's truck that drives around and basically shows what the sticker looked like when it was whole.