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Gene Simmons LoBue Tribute Build

#1,181
Tonight I got some work done on my passive LoBue.
First, I routed out the body.
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Something happened while routing. I'm not sure what happened, but I will need to employ some epoxy to fix it.
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Template removed.
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Lessons learned about order of operations prompted me to work on the control cavity, first.
Basically, all shaping should be done BEFORE mounting the neck.
Lining up the area to rout.
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Next, I took my template sheet to mark where the pot shafts should be drilled.
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Next, I routed my control cavity. I thought I had routed enough, but test fitting my pot showed I needed to keep going.
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After some deeper routing, she's looking good.
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Last step tonight was to route the control cavity cover inlay.
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I'm done for tonight!
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#1,182
Tonight was about starting body edge rounding and final shaping.

Because I'm not hastily gluing the body and neck together, routing round was a snap on my passive LoBue.
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My active LoBue was torn down after her maiden band practice.
Rounding her pickguard.
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This is why I should've waited before gluing my active LoBue together. My router can't round the corners near the horns and neck pocket. Doh!
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However, some hand sanding worked fine, so it wasn't a complete disaster.

To close out the night, I sanded a slight forearm contour in my active LoBue.
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After re rounding this newly honed edge, she looks good!
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#1,183
How's this going? & i thought of something if ever you wanted a spector bass like gene's. You could always find an ibanez GIo soundgear bass for cheap & modify it (with wtvr pickup you choose) & do some aesthetic work to it. At least that's what i plan on doing in the future in modifying the body to get the right shape, plug & drill new control holes, re-paddle & re-shape the headstock & then do some painting. But all that later on in my life.
 
#1,184
Looking pretty good, nice work so far.

In a recent interview with Gene for a British bass magazine he said that his one requirement about basses is that they should have an all access neck and that when he started working with BC Rich on what eventually became the Punisher, they took a good look at his old Spectors and basically went from there.

But that made me wonder why he never played a Rickenbacker, since if it's an all access neck you'd want, they were the first who made a bass like that.
 
#1,185
Blazer said:
Looking pretty good, nice work so far.

In a recent interview with Gene for a British bass magazine he said that his one requirement about basses is that they should have an all access neck and that when he started working with BC Rich on what eventually became the Punisher, they took a good look at his old Spectors and basically went from there.

But that made me wonder why he never played a Rickenbacker, since if it's an all access neck you'd want, they were the first who made a bass like that.
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My guess would be that it was either to expensive back in the day for Gene, or he didn't like all the frills &/or look of it. But i guess we'll never know unless someone asks him.
 
#1,187
Will_White said:
I searched gene simmons rickenbacker and apparently he owned one and it was used in a playboy shoot in 1978, an azureglo 4001
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I remember it, it was the photo shoot of Star Stowe, rumored to be Gene's girlfriend at the time (she has since passed away). By '78 Gene could no doubt afford any Bass he wanted but I have to say,
I think it would look odd. There are some rare shots of him with a P and it looks out of place, however, the shots of him with a TBird (Phantom of the Park) actually worked. Too bad he didn't stay
with that for a while but probably too bulky. Aside from the Axe, most of his basses have always been compact and/or streamlined, focusing on the 70's era. Just my thoughts...
 
#1,189
Update:
They are both almost ready for paint. Less fabricating the pickguard and mounting the bridge cover for my vintage LoBue, it almost there.
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Now for my moral dilemma. Someone in the Kiss inner circle is inquiring about buying one, as is, for a few bucks less than a finished one. I already think I have buyers.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that the Demon himself might be sporting this during the show's in the KISS KruiseV.

Do I sell finished items at full price to folks who have offered, or do I explain the situation to them, sell one for less, and hope it becomes a used item by the man himself?

Your opinion??
 
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#1,192
So last night, I had the choice to start finishing work on my two LoBues, or stuff a new pickup into my first one; I chose the latter.

Yes, the pickup in there is historically fairly accurate tonewise, but in a live setting, it was really lackluster and anemic.

I had this EMG 35DC I've always wanted to stuff under the pickup cover, so tonight was a good time to perform said surgery.

The pickup is pretty much the same width as the mudbucker cover, so I had to be careful.

Luckily, the rout template was a tad larger than the pickup.

I just added masking to the edges of the template to make the rout smaller.
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After some sanding and fitting, it was installed.
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I had to slightly modify the attach point on the pickup cover to make it work.
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I also added an EMG presence controller for my third knob function.

I have some tweaks to perform, but I was happy.
 
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#1,194
Nocturnal said:
Do you know what the output was for the pickup you were using? Are you after a higher output or a thicker/fuller sound?
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I had that one guy who was banned wire me a mudbucker. Is it authentic to what Gene had? Yes, but it had such low output versus all my other basses.

I wasn't looking for something thicker or fuller, per say. Just looking for something with comparable output to my other basses
 
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#1,197
bassgod76 said:
Now for my moral dilemma. Someone in the Kiss inner circle is inquiring about buying one, as is, for a few bucks less than a finished one. I already think I have buyers.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that the Demon himself might be sporting this during the show's in the KISS KruiseV.

Do I sell finished items at full price to folks who have offered, or do I explain the situation to them, sell one for less, and hope it becomes a used item by the man himself?

Your opinion??
Click to expand...
What ever happened with this?
 

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