I've Lurked Long Enough - Cort Headless Rebuild

[OntarioJeff]

Hello All.

I've lurked long enough on the forum and decided to start with a rebuild - although scratch build will be next.

Here is the starting point for my project. A Cort Headless with Steinberger Licenced Tuner.

It's rough, seen better days I suppose, but it will give me a chance to experiment and eventually bring it back to life.

 

[OntarioJeff]

A couple more shots to show you the starting point

 

[crazygtr]

Welcome to the asylum, lots of help and great people here.

 

[roberthabraken]

Curious to see how this turns out, seems as a fun project, subscribed!

 

[Meddle]

Holy forstner bits batman! And some of the bridge is missing, AND its an amateur defet AND one half of the P pickup is held in with generic screws... You have your work cut out! I'm looking forward to progress!

 

[OntarioJeff]

Yes, this bass has been beaten up over the years. My first quick snapshot shows that:
- there are a lot of forstner holes
- a few extra holes thru the body
- bridge saddles missing
- bridge cover missing
- bridge pickup missing
- frets missing
- strings missing
- cavity cover missing (not that it would cover the extended cavity)
- all pots and wiring missing
- a few, we'll maybe a few more than that, various dings, dents, etc

On the plus side:
- what remains of the body is solid
- neck is straight
- truss rod functions as it should

I'm looking forward to this rebuild as I have wanted to build a guitar for a while now. The rebuild gives me a starting point to jump in at, and then next time I'll up the ante and go for a full scratch build.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I don't play... But my 9 year old son has started taking lessons so he'll get to test it out and say whether Dad did a good job when all is said and done.

 

[reverendrally]

Wow, poor old thing. Love to see what you do with it.

 

[OntarioJeff]

Decided to start by seeing what was under that thick black finish. Spent the morning sanding, and this is what I found:

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Looks like a decent start.

 

[DWBass]

Good luck. I used to have one of those. Mine was in pretty good aesthetic condition except the truss access nut was stripped and I couldn't adjust the high action. Ended up trading it. Excellent sounding bass. Mine had EMG's in it.

 

[Shardik]

I like it. Didn't know that Cort made basses like that. I look forward to see what you come up with.

 

[bassgod76]

Sub'd

 

[OntarioJeff]

I had been debating how to fill the vast cavity in the back of this guy when cleaning my workbench today I came across a tin of Poly Resin.

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Built a dam from .030" polystyrene sheet and epoxied it in place, and I'm going to fill the cavity with resin later tonight. I'll probably plan it so that I can cap it with some thin wood stock I have lying around the shop to make it a little more consistant when it comes time to finish.

I'll post updates as I go.

 

[Ronbeast]

I don't know about the resin, as I've never worked with the stuff before, but if I were doing it I would have just squared up the area I wanted to fill and glued a new block of wood into the route.

As for the project, it's looking cool! I love Cort instruments (I own 3 Cort basses and a les paul copy) and with minimal work, you can get a really great instrument.

I don't know if I missed this above, but have you thought about what colour you'll be painting the bass?

-Ron

 

[Splods]

Wow, someone sure did a number on that bass.

Some of the faustener holes go all the way through, how do you plan to deal with it.

 

[OntarioJeff]

Ronbeast:. My first instincts was to clean up the hole and fit a new piece into it, and I might still go that way. Gonna get a nights sleep before I dig into anything else.

As for colour, I am undecided. It is not a restoration, I classed it a rebuild, so I'm not concerned about keeping the original appearance. I'll probably lean towards something bright and bold, but that might change before I'm done too. Hardware will all be gloss black.

Splods: Yes, at least one forstner hole has busted thru to the other side. Plus there were two more holes intentionally bored right thru the body. I plan on turning some tapered dowels on the lathe, plugging the holes, and cutting them off flush. The expanded cavity around those holes actually interferes with the output jack housing's space, so I'm going to have to be careful in that area to make sure I have room for the jack.

 

[Beej]

Those look more like spade bit holes than forstner holes to me. At any rate, given the damage there, I would personally be just removing that wing with the table saw and starting over with a new wing. Probably a lot less work than filling those cavities and going forward, but it depends on your tools, experience and time...

 

[Ronbeast]

I'm a big fan of blue basses, so of course, my suggestion for the color would be Lake placid blue. Simply classic, and very elegant. I think it would make that bass pop.

-Ron

 

[Philonius]

Subbed. I've got one of those in nice shape, maybe I can even give some "before" condition based help. I personally might go with Beej's advice; saw that fugly wing off and glue on a new slab o' wood.

 

[jonnz]

I got one of these as well, had it for 26 years since new, but the truss rod has gone, and the relief is horrible although playable.

Has anyone ever put in a new rod on one of these and if so are there any tips.

I have previously straighten the necks of old, 40+ years, 6 strings acoustics (with non adjustable rod(s), some have had two rods) by removing the fret board and resetting the rod(s), is the procedure with an adjustable rod basically the same in an electric bass? I know it will mess up the finish but at least it will be straighter.

 

[MPU]

Basically it's the same. Remove the fretboard, replace the broken trussrod and glue the fretboard back.