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Hunk-A-Junk Basses Club
- Thread starter fretlessman71
- Start date
Lucky 13 for me! Booyeah!
(Truth be told, the number 13 has no significance whatsoever in Hindu culture, so it's neither lucky nor unlucky for me.)
But, yeah, I totally dig how folks in this thread are all about their "rescue" basses. I don't know what kind of life my rescue had before I found it, but it's gone from zero to hero with me.
I had another amazing rescue bass that I had for about five or six years but sold last year. It was a Guitar Factory 6-string that looked like it survived several Bob's Country Bunker gigs sans chicken wire. I snagged it for about $420 but I could tell it must have cost 4-5 times that when it was first commissioned. That thing was probably the best bass I ever owned. It was a boutique instrument (albeit a battered boutique) and the ONLY 6-string whose neck I was ever truly comfortable on. I used to call it "Incredible Hulk" because it was a big, heavy, green bruiser with a monstrous tone. I sold it, though, because it weighed 12.5 pounds according to the bathroom scale. If it were a couple pounds less, I would have kept it as a forever bass even though I'm not a 6-string guy at all.
(Truth be told, the number 13 has no significance whatsoever in Hindu culture, so it's neither lucky nor unlucky for me.)
But, yeah, I totally dig how folks in this thread are all about their "rescue" basses. I don't know what kind of life my rescue had before I found it, but it's gone from zero to hero with me.
I had another amazing rescue bass that I had for about five or six years but sold last year. It was a Guitar Factory 6-string that looked like it survived several Bob's Country Bunker gigs sans chicken wire. I snagged it for about $420 but I could tell it must have cost 4-5 times that when it was first commissioned. That thing was probably the best bass I ever owned. It was a boutique instrument (albeit a battered boutique) and the ONLY 6-string whose neck I was ever truly comfortable on. I used to call it "Incredible Hulk" because it was a big, heavy, green bruiser with a monstrous tone. I sold it, though, because it weighed 12.5 pounds according to the bathroom scale. If it were a couple pounds less, I would have kept it as a forever bass even though I'm not a 6-string guy at all.
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D
The kitty on the chair looks very sceptical about the other kitty, lol.
I remember your thread a while back about this project. I gotta say, it has turned out really cool. Nice job!
I bought this First Act for my grandson when he was 6, and at 10 he's only touched it twice.
He's interested in being a drummer, so it became my sandbox for mod experiments.
Now it's actually pretty cool and sounds great, plus I didn't realize it's a medium scale.
I play my Mustang most of the time and the tight string spacing has spoiled me.
So, I've tried my best to love my Thunderstick but the wide string spacing is a chore.
You can dog out First Act if you want, but this Pbass kicks ass.
Specs:
- Epi TBird tuners
- Cameron Thunderstick headstock decal
- Black string tree
- Ebonized fingerboard
- Custom maple colored PG w/ black screws
- maple knobs
- Black Wilkerson bridge
- Seymour Duncan SPB-2 Hot P-bass pickup
- Cream PUP covers
- GHS Boomer rounds
I've got a cheap set of 5 strings on the way to try BEAD tuning,
and I'm considering a brass nut because I don't have sense enough to quit.
057912
I don't have any current pics but here's one w/o PUP covers & Blackened fingerboard:
He's interested in being a drummer, so it became my sandbox for mod experiments.
Now it's actually pretty cool and sounds great, plus I didn't realize it's a medium scale.
I play my Mustang most of the time and the tight string spacing has spoiled me.
So, I've tried my best to love my Thunderstick but the wide string spacing is a chore.
You can dog out First Act if you want, but this Pbass kicks ass.
Specs:
- Epi TBird tuners
- Cameron Thunderstick headstock decal
- Black string tree
- Ebonized fingerboard
- Custom maple colored PG w/ black screws
- maple knobs
- Black Wilkerson bridge
- Seymour Duncan SPB-2 Hot P-bass pickup
- Cream PUP covers
- GHS Boomer rounds
I've got a cheap set of 5 strings on the way to try BEAD tuning,
and I'm considering a brass nut because I don't have sense enough to quit.
057912
I don't have any current pics but here's one w/o PUP covers & Blackened fingerboard:
That truly is a bitchin bass! Great job!Nothing quite as exotic and exciting as some of the other posts here but this is my Epiphone EB-0. Not the recently discontinued version but the ones they made around 25 years ago. Made in China. The body is about twice as thick as it should be and it weighs a ton. Very crude looking.
The tuners were the absolutely worst I have ever tried. The pots had dropouts from day1. The pickup was HORRIBLE (and I actually like mudbuckers, just not THIS microphonic mess). The fretwork was poor beyond belief! Buzz, buzz, buzz.
One of the saddles was the wrong type. On these 3-point bridges the saddles are supposed to be numbered 1-4 with different sized notches for the strings and different heights to make the strings follow the neck radius. This one had a G-string saddle for the D-string. Which of course meant that the D-string was too low and buzzed like crazy unless the entire bridge was lifted and the overall action much too high.
The finish is absolutely disgusting. The neck finish is ok, pretty much like it should be on these basses with the wood visible beneath the transparent cherry finish. But the body... Not only is the finish a different shade of red than the neck, it is also extremely thick and 100% opaque. The bass looks more or less like it has been dipped in plastic.
It was a total impulse buy, just saw it in a store and thought "hmmm, I've always wanted one of those Jack Bruce basses" grabbed it and paid for it without testing. Big mistake.
The only reason I kept it for all these years was that I couldn't bring myself to sell such a piece of junk to anyone or even GIVE it away. It was totally and utterly useless.
Then I heard about the Curtis Novak EB-BSx...
So I got some new tuners. Found a set of new saddles on ebay. Pulled the frets and installed new ones. Gave it a good setup. It suddenly felt like a totally different bass! Very playable.
With the bass feeling pretty good now I decided to get the EB-BSx (which costs significantly more than the entire bass...). I also replaced all the rest of the electronics.
And... WOW. It's like all the good stuff of a mudbucker but without the bad stuff. A lot more clarity than the Epi Sidewinders and much, MUCH tighter lows. It's dark sounding for sure but almost unbelievably FAT. Definitely not an allrounder but very, very cool sounding and I've actually used it a lot in the studio. To be honest I now like it better than my Gibson SG-bass.
The only things that didn't change is that the body still looks like crap and that I'll never sell it (but for totally different reasons).
And yeah, the knobs are the left hand type so the numbers are backwards, way to go Epiphone.
View attachment 3887800
picked up this 85 rb630 for 25 bucks with the intention to restore it and then sell.... but i started playing it more than the fender i had been playing/modding for ten years so ended up keeping this. combo before-after picture
and here's an 85 Epiphone rock bass i picked up at a pawn shop. didn't need nearly as much work but still was completely disassembled, cleaned, and polished where necessary
and here's an 85 Epiphone rock bass i picked up at a pawn shop. didn't need nearly as much work but still was completely disassembled, cleaned, and polished where necessary
That Ibanez Roadstar II was my very first bass back in '83! Does this have the 2 x 2 headstock?
nah 4 in line with the heart tuners
my 85 rb850 was my first bass in 1997
my 85 rb850 was my first bass in 1997
Here's mine. This started out as one of those sub-$100 no-name cheapies from eBay. I pulled the frets, filled the channels with styrene, planed the fingerboard, lowered the nut grooves, and fully shielded the control and pickup cavities. Now it plays and sounds just as good as any moderately-priced fretless I've ever had my hands on.
It will eventually get new pickups and controls, but I'm in no rush to start a new project.
It will eventually get new pickups and controls, but I'm in no rush to start a new project.
I don't get it... I fixed that myself TWICE...
So long as you know that you're #2.... which, given the subject matter, is oddly appropriate.
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Hey, tell us how it came to be this way and how you got it! (And what kind it is...)
New member list:
#1 - fretlessman71
#2 - Volker Kirstein
#3 - Killing Floor
#4 - filwitheneff
#5 - Yools
#6 - JRA
#7 - Esteban Garcia
#8 - HardNHeavy
#9 - brushfirewolf
#10 - Pauly 4001
#11 - bobyoung53
#12 - PennyroyalWe
#13 - Dincrest
#14 - chadface
#15 - EatS1stBassist
#16 - @Deleted member 271037
#17 - @Andy R
#18 - @ejaggers
#19 - @thetragichero
#20 - @Warpeg
#21 - @coy garcia
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#100 - Stumbo
#1 - fretlessman71
#2 - Volker Kirstein
#3 - Killing Floor
#4 - filwitheneff
#5 - Yools
#6 - JRA
#7 - Esteban Garcia
#8 - HardNHeavy
#9 - brushfirewolf
#10 - Pauly 4001
#11 - bobyoung53
#12 - PennyroyalWe
#13 - Dincrest
#14 - chadface
#15 - EatS1stBassist
#16 - @Deleted member 271037
#17 - @Andy R
#18 - @ejaggers
#19 - @thetragichero
#20 - @Warpeg
#21 - @coy garcia
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#100 - Stumbo
Agreed. I was too young to know if mine sounded good or bad; I was so enamored with just PLAYING that tone quality was hardly a consideration...Very nice!
Here’s a neck I took off a bass so I could Use the body on another project. It was cracked and repaired at the factory so I kept it after they offered a discount. So with nothing to lose, I tied wire around it and using a torch flamed it. The wire made small dents on the headstock the neck and where it meets the fingerboard. Looks like cymbal marks. Anyway, here’s a picture with five coats of Tru-Oil. Probably ten more to go.
D
I don't think the pic in my earlier post showed just how thick and bulky the body of my old Chinese EB-0 is compared to a Gibson or the later (and much better) Epi EB-0.
So here you go. Next to my Gibson SG Bass. The Epi is almost a slab compared to the elegant curves of the Gibson. The thickness of the body is more like a P-bass.
But here's where it suddenly got interesting: Something seemed a bit off with the placement of the nut/bridge when I put this old Epi EB next to the SG. So I measured it...
The Gibson SG is 30.5". The recently discontinued Epi EB-0 was also 30.5". My old Chinese EB-0 is condiderably shorter scale. Rough estimate: Around 29.3". Which means it's practically half way to a mikro-bass.
I wonder if this was deliberate or if someone messed up the inches to metric convertion at the Chinese factory... They sure messed up a lot of other things on this bass so it wouldn't surprise me. They make GREAT guitars in China these days. Back then... not so much. It intonates perfectly so at least they got THAT right.
And yeah, the windings on the short scale Pyramid Pure Nickels ARE around the tuning pegs... Same strings on the SG are a perfect fit. For some reason I've never noticed this before. But the strings have been working great for years so it's definitely not a problem.
Well, that's a surprise. I'm glad I gave that old piece of junk another chance. I think I like it even better now.
Of course, it would still have been crap without the amazing Curtis Novak EB-BSx. Huge credit to Mr Novak for coming up with such a brilliant idea for a DROP IN replacement. It may look the same on the outside but there's a BEAST underneath that metal cover.
So here you go. Next to my Gibson SG Bass. The Epi is almost a slab compared to the elegant curves of the Gibson. The thickness of the body is more like a P-bass.
But here's where it suddenly got interesting: Something seemed a bit off with the placement of the nut/bridge when I put this old Epi EB next to the SG. So I measured it...
The Gibson SG is 30.5". The recently discontinued Epi EB-0 was also 30.5". My old Chinese EB-0 is condiderably shorter scale. Rough estimate: Around 29.3". Which means it's practically half way to a mikro-bass.
I wonder if this was deliberate or if someone messed up the inches to metric convertion at the Chinese factory... They sure messed up a lot of other things on this bass so it wouldn't surprise me. They make GREAT guitars in China these days. Back then... not so much. It intonates perfectly so at least they got THAT right.And yeah, the windings on the short scale Pyramid Pure Nickels ARE around the tuning pegs... Same strings on the SG are a perfect fit. For some reason I've never noticed this before. But the strings have been working great for years so it's definitely not a problem.
Well, that's a surprise. I'm glad I gave that old piece of junk another chance. I think I like it even better now.
Of course, it would still have been crap without the amazing Curtis Novak EB-BSx. Huge credit to Mr Novak for coming up with such a brilliant idea for a DROP IN replacement. It may look the same on the outside but there's a BEAST underneath that metal cover.
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The Gibson SG is 30.5". The recently discontinued Epi EB-0 was also 30.5". My old Chinese EB-0 is condiderably shorter scale. Rough estimate: Around 29.3". Which means it's practically half way to a mikro-bass.
Is it perhaps the exact distance of a single fret? When you compare the two? The Mikro Bass is basically like putting a capo on at the first fret, if you catch my drift...
