GEO's 1st bass restoration

[MonetBass]

Loving this, JIO! Can't wait to see the final outcome.

One thing I'd like to point out, though, is that the term is neck HEEL, as in the heel of your foot.

 

[JIO]

Let the un-wankifying begin!


Determining where the heel rout goes - how did I ever do this w/o a laser?

Pocket routed -

Heel snug In the pocket -

coming up... filling holes, leveling gaps, shaping the neck heel etc, etc, etc.

I don't think it was ever 'right'...

 

[JIO]

Loving this, JIO! Can't wait to see the final outcome.

One thing I'd like to point out, though, is that the term is neck HEEL, as in the heel of your foot.

where is spellcheck when you need it?! I will fix all heel references -

 

[JIO]

Whatever it takes -

A little Bondo will address this transition and fill gaps - could be a good fake-name... Phil Gapps

I enjoy this part of the project - shaping & sculpting

 

[JIO]

Reinforcements - as the skunk-stripe was prone to rising under tr tension, I first made the thick brass 'stop' and after seeing how close the tr end was to that stop, I used nails to fill any space between the stop and the tr end. Crude, but I just want to stop it from rising under tension. On top of that, I will add a thin steel plate anchored with six 1" flat-head screw to further reinforce that critical area. Pics of that soon -

Sprayed 1st primer coat. -

...and picked my finish - Violeta Lakers (?) as in the Lakers basketball team?.. and Hologram Effect Glitter! Once you go purple, you have to go full on!

 

[Indiedog]

How fun it just was to binge on this thread, JIO! As usual, you take something very rough and make a diamond out of it.

And I love that this model was your first bass. So very cool!

 

[JIO]

How fun it just was to binge on this thread, JIO! As usual, you take something very rough and make a diamond out of it.

And I love that this model was your first bass. So very cool!

Thanks Steve - I think that was a big part of making it a playable instrument. I wanted to experience playing the bass I started on as the bass-player I have become. So still sorta' nostalgic I guess but only hanging it on a wall to point at was not enough.

 

[JIO]

Turns out I don't need the added thin steel cap' on the neck heel as the upper neck-plate (thick steel) will provide enough stability. As the center screw is short due to the tr, I will add two more screws at the heel section for extra measure. It'll look odd but whatever. While determining where to position the bridge for correct alignment (which was way off) I realized it is not 34" scale. The nut to 12th fret measurement is 16-3/4" so it's just short of full-scale at 33.5". And then there is the metal pg - to position it correctly so the center line goes through the center of the pu (which is attached to the pg) it needed to shift over. Because of this, the pg neck heel cutaway needs being modified. It's far from ideal with big gaps on both sides of the heel, but that's preferable to one side snug and the other way off. (as in; symmetry over "that looks off") The edges were rough from the factory - so I filed and sanded them smooth which looks & feels much better. Once the face is polished it'll look like new.

And after thinking about it - I decided to do the whole finish myself. Pat did a stellar job as usual on the other Tempo (sold for a loss) so I've spent that money already. Once I knew it was not the bass I thought it was, I just wanted it gone - life goes on. So doing such major restoration work on this one to make it playable allowed me to finish it as I wish, as I would today on a custom build of mine. It brings it full circle related to who I am from 1966 to now.

More work to do to make the body-neck transition smooth - The final work on the neck will be done once it comes back from warpednecks.com -

Difficult to illustrate - but... before -

after -

 

[JIO]

Two added screws - gotta do all I can to stop that tr from lifting the 'skunk stripe'. I've since shaped the heel so it conforms to the top of the neck-plate. It's actually a really elegant neck-joint and my further shaping/conforming the body-neck connection will look really good - way better than the original. The neck is ready to ship to warpedneck.com -

The body on the other hand is still in progress - finally fully fitted (pg/bridge) but not w/o some routs. Don't look at how many bridge-plate holes I've drilled (and filled!) I'm going to have both the tug-bar and pu bolted to the pg & not into the body like it was, which explains the 3 circular routs.

Expecting a perfect alignment of bridge/nut/fb/strings over pu poles on this bass... breaks down to; "close as you can get. It'll be close enough.

E -

A -

D -

G -

center -

 

[Indiedog]

Two added screws - gotta do all I can to stop that tr from lifting the 'skunk stripe'. I've since shaped the heel so it conforms to the top of the neck-plate. It's actually a really elegant neck-joint and my further shaping/conforming the body-neck connection will look really good - way better than the original. The neck is ready to ship to warpednecks.com -

View attachment 7245696
The body on the other hand is still in progress - finally fully fitted (pg/bridge) but not w/o some routs. Don't look at how many bridge-plate holes I've drilled (and filled!) I'm going to have both the tug-bar and pu bolted to the pg & not into the body like it was, which explains the 3 circular routs.
View attachment 7245720
Expecting a perfect alignment of bridge/nut/fb/strings over pu poles on this bass... breaks down to; "close as you can get. It'll be close enough.

E -
View attachment 7245719
A -
View attachment 7245727
D -
View attachment 7245729
G -
View attachment 7245728
center -
View attachment 7245730

I love it!

How did we ever get anything done correctly before lasers??

 

[JIO]

I love it!

How did we ever get anything done correctly before lasers??

Hah! Strings, and not guitar strings!

 

[Reedt2000]

Hah! Strings, and not guitar strings!

Yup, I still do it that way. I like butchers twine cause it's very slightly elastic.

 

[JIO]

Yup, I still do it that way. I like butchers twine cause it's very slightly elastic.

Once you try a laser - you'll never look back!

 

[JIO]

Filled all imperfections on the body, sanded and 2nd coat (quick dry) primer. First coat colour -

That's a purple I can live with! Once cured I'll do a light sanding and shoot another coat.

 

[Count Bassie]

Filled all imperfections on the body, sanded and 2nd coat (quick dry) primer. First coat colour -

That's a purple I can live with! Once cured I'll do a light sanding and shoot another coat.

View attachment 7246246
View attachment 7246248

Sicko.

 

[JIO]

Sanded the 1st colour coat which is very different than sanding lacquer. (more time consuming) It's because Montana sprays are acrylic based and more plastic feeling. When using I always do a lacquer clear coat which feels better, is easier to (wet) sand and amber's over time, which I like. The Hologram glitter vehicle is clear acrylic and the flakes will create a bit of texture. So doing the clear-coat in lacquer aids in building up material so leveling can be done w/o invading the flakes.

For reference - the tobacco (which will also be lacquer) covers a lot of real-estate both front & back and the pg covers a lot as well. Add to that there's not a lot of finesse in how it the burst was shot. I'll do a bit more refined version but keep it in the same ballpark.

 

[JIO]

Zowie! - it looks mauve-ilous! The light 'blotches' are sunlight glare filtering through our tree. I did the whole body to give me more opportunity to wet-sand smooth where the burst will be. As always - it looks much better in person as you move it around.

 

[Reedt2000]

Pretty groovy

Matching headstock? With burst?

 

[JIO]

Pretty groovy

Matching headstock? With burst?

Groovilisious! ~Yes, and on the neck when it gets back from being straightened - like this -

 

[JIO]

I did a very light sanding on the body and shot clear gloss lacquer (Stew Mac) over it. It's fairly smooth but I wanted the tobacco (also Stew Mac) over the clear, and once done clear over it all. A tobacco sandwich... so far so good. Also - mailed the neck to warpedpeck.com in Texas.