From SX to 'the real deal'

[Bassplayr94]

Well ill start off by saying G'day to you all.

I recently bought myself a used SX bass for $120AUD.
The color was a dark blue(it looked like crap) so i decided to mod the hell out of her. Stripped the paint and re-finished in a marine grade stain & varnish, Sanded her back and and finished it in FeastWatsons Clear Poly lacquer. Turned out great for my first finishing job . So now I have the body just waiting for upgrades to arrive.

I ordered the following from StewMac.

Fender replacement Bass neck(maple).
Adjustable tension tuners.
Premium P bass wiring kit(CTS pots/Cloth wire ect').
Had an old Wilkinson bridge lying around.

My order has arrived at my local airport so it should be at my door tomorrow(hopefully). I must add - VERY fast shipping(DHL EXPRESS) ordered thursday morning from Athens,OH - Arrived in Perth,Western Australia sunday night!

I will post pics once she is all together.
Has anyone else done this sort of work with SX Basses? I find it much more fun and less expensive to get a cheap bass that has a solid alder/ash body and mod it rather than buying an American Fender, Which go for $1700 brand new/$1200 used in Australia.

Cheers in advance.
Daniel

 

[bassbenj]

Well ill start off by saying G'day to you all.

I will post pics once she is all together.
Has anyone else done this sort of work with SX Basses? I find it much more fun and less expensive to get a cheap bass that has a solid alder/ash body and mod it rather than buying an American Fender, Which go for $1700 brand new/$1200 used in Australia.

Cheers in advance.
Daniel

G'day! Hey, this is the reason I own seven SX basses! Instead of most inexpensive basses where you put in a bunch of parts and money and still end up with a bass made out of some cheap stink tree wood, you can make an SX as boutique as you choose. For natural bodies it depends a bit on the luck of the draw as to how well the wood is matched but several of mine are matched amazingly boutique perfect.

So for a couple hundred bucks at most, you get all the raw materials to make a really decent bass that is a custom as you want. And because of price, SX are PERFECT for oddball experiments in things you aren't sure will work out (Like when I bought the SX passive Fender-clone 6ers).

As for me, I love the SX neck and hate fhe feel of Fender Jazz necks (but love the Fender P=bass neck...go figure) but that's your call.

For me, typically I don't get out the sander and have finish mods go beyond a new pickguard, but then, I've been more into hardware and electronic mods on my SX.

Wanna see those pics!

Except for one or two from the "cheap Chinese Junk" crowd, you'll find LOTS of SX modding love here!

 

[hrodbert696]

No pics, no bass. Let's see 'er!

So, if you don't mind revealing, what did the total bill come to for the upgrades?

 

[Bassplayr94]

I will post pics as soon as ive put it all together. still waiting for my dhl shipment which should be arriving today.

 

[Bassplayr94]

Oh and the total bill is around the $400 mark give or take.