Gibson RD Artist bass salvage project

[monsterfiddle]

Hi,

I recently acquired an RD Artist body which I want to try to make a useful bass out of.
There's some shabbily made custom inlays on the fretboard, the body has been repainted badly, and it has been stripped for parts. The only thing I have is the body.

From what I can tell it seems to have been transparent (natural) originally.

Full body shot:


The bridge has made an imprint in the new paint:


Headstock front looks ok:


Inlays not looking so good. The top three are not even solid pieces:


Tuner imprints on the back of the headstock:


I tried to take pictures of the other paint imperfections, but it didn't show so well.

Just to be clear: I'm not trying to restore this to its original configuration, I just want to make it into a useful instrument for myself. I'll most likely use modern parts. Hate me if you want.

I'm posting this in the hopes of getting some useful suggestions and information, and someone might also find it interesting.
I'm not a luthier, and I don't pretend to be, so anything I'm not comfortable with doing myself I'll have someone do professionally for me.

I think my first course of action will be to remove the paint, then I'll have to decide on which colour I want it to be. I'm thinking black, white or silverburst.

Not sure what I should do about the fretboard. Thoughts?

Edit: Changed pics to thumbnails, they were humongous.

 

[bholder]

nanananananana...... "We can rebuild it, make it better than it was"....

Shame about the fretboard inlay though, not sure what to do about that.

 

[monsterfiddle]

Yes, the inlays are a problem. I have three options as I see it:

1: Leave them as they are and live with it. Might be problematic.
2: Remove them and make J-bass style block inlays instead. The RD Artist guitar has square block inlays, so that might not be so bad.
3: Remove the entire fretboard and have someone make me a new one.

Any other suggestions?

 

[RBS_Johnson]

Do the inlays stick up above the fretboard? If not then you could just fill any holes with epoxy and wood dust. If you have to remove them I vote rectangular blocks.

For pickups: either a set of Peavey T40 humbuckers or a set of MM style humbuckers. Preamp of choice.
For paint I think silverburst gets my vote.

You've definitely got yourself a cool project, I'll be following along.
-Jake

 

[Beej]

Have you confirmed the neck's quality? I see a stripped RD Artist and unless it was done many years ago, it may have been stripped of parts for a reason other than scavenging the electronics. I wonder about the neck and remaining playability. Have you tried adjusting the trussrod, or looking down the "barrel" of the fretboard to see if there are any twists or bumps? Might want to eliminate those problems before tackling further.

There is some good information about those basses and parts here: The Gibson RD Artist Technical Specifications I played guitar in a band with a guy who played an RD Artist bass and that sucker was really nice even if it was an ergonomic dud...

 

[monsterfiddle]

Do the inlays stick up above the fretboard? If not then you could just fill any holes with epoxy and wood dust. If you have to remove them I vote rectangular blocks.

For pickups: either a set of Peavey T40 humbuckers or a set of MM style humbuckers. Preamp of choice.
For paint I think silverburst gets my vote.

You've definitely got yourself a cool project, I'll be following along.
-Jake

No, the inlays are flush with the fretboard. I think I'll have to remove them though, as they are unevenly shaped and positioned, not to mention those that are not even a single piece.

Thanks for suggesting the Peavey T40 pickups, I hadn't thought of those. I'll definitely keep those in mind. I've considered MMs, but they are a bit bigger than the original pickups. I want to avoid routing if I can. The T40s look smaller than MMs, I'll have to see if I can find the dimensions on those.
I have an OBP-3 lying around, I'll be using that I think.

 

[monsterfiddle]

Have you confirmed the neck's quality? I see a stripped RD Artist and unless it was done many years ago, it may have been stripped of parts for a reason other than scavenging the electronics. I wonder about the neck and remaining playability. Have you tried adjusting the trussrod, or looking down the "barrel" of the fretboard to see if there are any twists or bumps? Might want to eliminate those problems before tackling further.

There is some good information about those basses and parts here: The Gibson RD Artist Technical Specifications I played guitar in a band with a guy who played an RD Artist bass and that sucker was really nice even if it was an ergonomic dud...

Taking an extra good look at the neck might be a good idea, thanks for that. I'll take a look when I get home. From what I've seen so far, it looks like the previous modifications was done a while ago. It was quite filthy when I got it, looked like dirt and dust had been built up over years.
I'm guessing it was stripped of parts just because it was ugly, and the parts would be worth more individually. But best to make sure there's no problem with the neck before doing more work.

If the neck is OK, I'll try to get the paint removed over the weekend and post some pics. After that I'll be going away for a few weeks, so I won't be able to do any more work until I get back.

 

[Ronbeast]

I love RD basses. Probably my favourite design Gibson bass.

I've always dreamt of doing one up with a hipshot supertone, dimarzio x2n-7 pickups (I believe the "marauder" pickups were guitar sized iirc?) and a filter based active preamp.

I'd strip the paint and get back to that maple body in all its glory!

 

[RedVee]

I really don't know this bass, 1/2 brother to the T'bird?
Is the EB13/14 a descendant of these RDs?

I vote for T'Bird style pups, seem to be a few sources these days.

 

[monsterfiddle]

I love RD basses. Probably my favourite design Gibson bass.

I've always dreamt of doing one up with a hipshot supertone, dimarzio x2n-7 pickups (I believe the "marauder" pickups were guitar sized iirc?) and a filter based active preamp.

I'd strip the paint and get back to that maple body in all its glory!

I've ordered a Babicz bridge for it, the standard bridge for new Gibson basses. I've had both Supertone and Babicz on a Tbird I used to own, liked the Babicz better.

Aren't the x2n-7's for 7-string guitars? Seems a strange choice for a bass.

I'm not so sure the maple body is all that glorious underneath the paint, we'll see once I get it removed

 

[monsterfiddle]

I really don't know this bass, 1/2 brother to the T'bird?
Is the EB13/14 a descendant of these RDs?

I vote for T'Bird style pups, seem to be a few sources these days.

Half Tbird, half Explorer maybe?
You can read about the RD's here: The Gibson RD Artist bass guitar

I think the EB's have their own lineage.

 

[johnson79]

I vote for big block inlays like a Les Paul Custom. Would fit the Gibson theme.
Strip it, fill any extra holes, add some pickups and hardware and it will be one cool bass.
(assuming the neck is in good shape)

 

[Ronbeast]

Aren't the x2n-7's for 7-string guitars? Seems a strange choice for a bass.

I'm not so sure the maple body is all that glorious underneath the paint, we'll see once I get it removed

They are 7-string guitar pickups, you are correct, but they are wide enough for your typical 4 string bass plus they're voiced nicely for basses and the rails look badass. Do you have measurements for the Gibson marauder pickups that were originally in the bass? I was under the impression that those were guitar sized humbuckers ( same ones used in the RD guitars), but I'm not 100% positive on that.

Chances are, if it was originally a natural maple RD, the pieces are pretty nicely grain matched. I love the look of plain maple, especially with black pickguard and hardware, but it's definitely not for everyone.

 

[monsterfiddle]

They are 7-string guitar pickups, you are correct, but they are wide enough for your typical 4 string bass plus they're voiced nicely for basses and the rails look badass. Do you have measurements for the Gibson marauder pickups that were originally in the bass? I was under the impression that those were guitar sized humbuckers ( same ones used in the RD guitars), but I'm not 100% positive on that.

Chances are, if it was originally a natural maple RD, the pieces are pretty nicely grain matched. I love the look of plain maple, especially with black pickguard and hardware, but it's definitely not for everyone.

I agree, the rails look very cool. The dimensions of the original pickups are 73.5mm x 42mm x 27.3mm, which I think is a tiny bit bigger than standard guitar humbuckers.

 

[RBS_Johnson]

I'll second the seven string rails. I've heard from multiple people that they make good bass pickups.

 

[monsterfiddle]

Ok, time for an update.

The neck looks straight to me, so I decided to go ahead with removing the paint. I seem to have misplaced my truss rod wrench, so I haven't been able to test that.

I started out with a heat gun, and it did come off, but it would have taken ages. I read on a forum that someone had used paint remover for furniture with success, so I decided to try that. That stuff was insane. It looks like clear slime, or thick, transparent snot.
I smeared it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and the paint just fell of. I spent only a couple hours, and the bass is now paint free.

Looking closely in the pickup holes, I noticed a slight change in colour which suggests that this was a sunburst originally.
I also found some unexpected holes, and some broken and sanded down screws. There was probably a thumbrest installed there at some point.




I was only able to get one of the bridge anchors out, waiting for a tool to help me with the others.

You can actually see the serial number now.


I think the headstock inlays came out beautifully after removing the doubly thick yellowed clear coat:


The picture really doesn't do it justice, it looks awesome.

I need to change the bridge anchors, since the threads don't fit the screws on the new bridge, but all anchors I've found with M8 threads are slightly smaller than the old ones. What's the best way to securely fit a small anchor in a large hole?

I'll be going away now for a few weeks, and won't be able to do any more work on this until I get back, so there won't be any more progress updates until sometime in August. I think I've decided on silverburst, so I need to find someone that can do that for me.


Bonus pic: Full body with the new bridge.

 

[ctmullins]

Love the RD! Might build one someday.

If this is going to be a player and not a showpiece, I would just leave the inlays as they are. Nobody but you will notice.

The T40s are fantastic pickups, but they're big. The actual body of the pickup measures 2.025" by 3.265", but that doesn't include the mounting ears top and bottom; accounting for those you'll need a cavity that's 2.125" by 4.20". By contrast, a MM is 1.9" by 3.54", not counting its (much smaller) mounting ears. And remember that the T40 pickup is designed to be suspended from a pickup ring or pickguard, while the MM is screwed directly to the body.

Plus, the MM is designed for Leo-style string spacing, whereas the RD has the smaller Gibson-style spacing. The MM would still work fine, but visually would be off a bit. Because of the narrow spacing, there's also no need for 7-string guitar pickups; any six-string guitar pickup will have enough sensing area. If you are headed down this path, I can unequivocally recommend the Wilde L90 4H.

Silverburst sounds killer!!

 

[theNecatoR]

Silverburst sounds killer!!

I would advise against silverburst, but just because that is what I am planning to do with mine XD


Great buy though, I had that same body in my watchlist and was sad to see it go, but now I know it is with a fellow TBer, I am glad and waiting to see it finished!

 

[Axstar]

An interesting project! I personally feel that MM-type humbuckers would make the bass look like a Chinese knock-off. I would personally use hotrail humbuckers with fat rails, like Dimarzio X2Ns (they made a bass version as well). To keep the '70s modder theme running you could use Dimarzio Model G, or Schaller Bassbucker pickups. The wildcard option would be Bi-Sonic/Dark Star pickups, such as the new Guild reissues.

 

[monsterfiddle]

Wow guys, you are giving me a lot to absorb! I'm apparently severely undereducated when it comes to pickups, and I'm really enjoying learning about all the different models you've suggested.

I now feel that guitar sized humbuckers is the way to go, I made cardboard cutouts of a lot of different sizes just to see the scale of them on the body, and most just seemed off.
So now it's just a matter of finding the right ones... It's a jungle out there.

Again guys, I'm really grateful for all the feedback and insights. You rock!

Btw, does anyone have any experience with the Lace alumitones? The chrome deathbuckers look awesome, but I have no idea how they would sound in a bass.