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Modulus Mob
- Thread starter rockstarbassist
- Start date
I really looks like some dumb bastard took a flat blade screwdriver to the neck
But she is purrity
But she is purrity
Pretty much, yeah!
I can't even imagine the work it'd take to defret a graphite neck like that...
I can't even imagine the work it'd take to defret a graphite neck like that...
When I first bought it, I thought I was getting a great deal for a great bass, but this is going to be a long repair and it is going to cost a good bit of money.
I hear ya man. The body and electronics are a sight to behold, and I'm sure to play once you get a good neck and stuff, but yeah- you're gonna have to want that one to make it a player again, unfortunately.
It wouldn't exactly be a "Modulus" still, but I wonder if there's any way you could get a non-graphite neck for that, and it still work, not look funky aesthetically, etc..?
Cause are those early-model Lane Poor's in there?
They are bart's of some kind. The neck could not be replaced. It is a neck through...Graphite Guitar Systems will do the fretwork for $200 and the fretboard and back of the neck with be on top of that. Modulus wants $425 for the fretwork alone. I think I am going to be sending it over to Gary in Washington.
Dang I keep forgetting it's like the TBX's!
Well in that case, a fretjob is really going to spruce it up nicely.
I'm always looking for a nice TBX, that's reasonably priced...
And yeah, if someone else can handle it, I wouldn't send mine for repairs to Modulus.
Well in that case, a fretjob is really going to spruce it up nicely.
I'm always looking for a nice TBX, that's reasonably priced...
And yeah, if someone else can handle it, I wouldn't send mine for repairs to Modulus.
Dang I keep forgetting it's like the TBX's!
Well in that case, a fretjob is really going to spruce it up nicely.
I'm always looking for a nice TBX, that's reasonably priced...
And yeah, if someone else can handle it, I wouldn't send mine for repairs to Modulus.
LMAO! What do YOU consider "reasonable price" for a less than 75 custom/hand made piece that hardly exist today & IF found, with NO issues?
~S~
Dude, believe me- the first chance I get, if you still have yours, I'm all over it!!
If I could recoup enough from my Q5 I had built, I'd be on yours in a heartbeat...
When I talked with Modulus, they said it was a very early TBX, but it just seemed like a very generic term.
What your saying is that my bass is one of only about 75 ever made?? Gary, at Graphite, I guess used to work at Modulus in the early days.
What your saying is that my bass is one of only about 75 ever made?? Gary, at Graphite, I guess used to work at Modulus in the early days.
Yeah the TBX stands for (of sorts) neck-through, and very very few were made.
Besides D-man's here, I've only seen I think 3 others that were for sale. And that's ever since I've been into Modulus, which is a good 7-8 years now, with my eye always out for one.
There was one from a guy in Nashville on the 'Bay earlier this year I should have nabbed. It went for like $1700. Beautiful quilted maple top in natural and gold.
Yeah the TBX stands for (of sorts) neck-through, and very very few were made.
Besides D-man's here, I've only seen I think 3 others that were for sale. And that's ever since I've been into Modulus, which is a good 7-8 years now, with my eye always out for one.
There was one from a guy in Nashville on the 'Bay earlier this year I should have nabbed. It went for like $1700. Beautiful quilted maple top in natural and gold.
IIRC, that bass had issues with the neck/bridge area.
TBX = Through Body Experimental.
All were not equally optioned regarding woods, p/u's, bridges, fretless, hollowbody..., so, many were one offs, all hand made by a small "team" at Modulus supervised by Geoff Gould(who now has his own line of bass'). There were NO compromises when these were built.
They have a very different tone than a b/o Modulus, very hi-fi & sustain for days, with unreal clarity. Shame they never made more...
~S~
PS: On a side note Phil Lesh was the person responsible for the push/idea with Mr. Gould for these models. They didn't go into regular production due to the cost factor it took to build them the way they did along with the materials/tooling needed.
You're probably right. It had to be something for it to go for that low, I just couldn't remember what it was.
And he's right that you're unlikely to find 2 the same, much less even similar... I've yet to play one, but I can just imagine... I've gotten my mitts on some of the early 90's stuff, and it's just night and day different.
And he's right that you're unlikely to find 2 the same, much less even similar... I've yet to play one, but I can just imagine... I've gotten my mitts on some of the early 90's stuff, and it's just night and day different.
Wow. Someone did that gem a great injustice.
If it were mine, I think I would probably take a cheaper route of repair, but if it has the mojo you are looking for, go ahead and drop the loot.
If it were me, I would be very tempted to attempt a repair.
1. use a rotary tool or other to clean up any loose material.
2. Use a coarse file and a small piece of ebony to create a sizable amount of ebony dust.
3. Mix up, in workable amounts, a high-grade, slow-setting, two-part, clear epoxy.
4. Mix the dust with the epoxy (about 1:2) and overfill the fret slots and the damaged areas. Make sure they are higher than the original board.
5. Re-plane the fingerboard using a radius block and progressive grits of sandpaper.
6. Play the heck out of a sweet fretless or re-saw the fret slots and refret the neck.
I have used this method to fill in damaged ebony more than once, and it works VERY well. And, it is nearly invisable. I am all but certain it would work just as well with the phenolic material
I might consider removing the dot markers and filling those as well, as the sanding may leave them no longer attractive.
Not easy, but it would be pretty cost effective. If you could get the neck back in shape, you could have most any qood tech re-fret the neck.
I would use the same method to repair the back of the neck, except I would probably mix dye with the epoxy as it will more easily buff out to match the higher gloss of the back of the neck.
The impression I got (from talking to Geoff Gould back in Fall 1988 when I ordered my Modulus) was that prior to 1988 there were very few (if any) suffixes used for Modulus basses. There was just the Quantum 4, the Quantum 5, or the Quantum 6, and they were all neck-thru instruments.
Sometime in '88 they came out with the first bolt-on Quantums, which were called Quantum SP. These had a more-or-less conventional neck heel, not the big Integrated Neck Joint of the current SPi models.
Then when people wanted a 5-string with a wider fingerboard they came out with the Quantum 5 SPX. ("X" in this case presumably stood for "eXtended fingerboard width".) They also used this same neck to make a few 6-string instruments; that's what I wound up ordering, a Quantum-6 SPX.
It was only then (which chronologically may have been 1989 at this point) that they started referring to the neck-thru instruments as TBX...to differentiate a Quantum-5 TBX from an original Quantum-5, or a Quantum-5 SP, or a Quantum-5 SPX. And then the SPi came out, and then they moved out of Folsom Street & Geoff left and all hell broke loose.
Anyhow...would love to know how many neck-thru instruments (either TBX or pre-TBX) Modulus actually made.
Not what Geoff told me when I spoke on the phone with him a few years ago.
Also, where are all the pre-TBX neck thrus today if that's all they made back then, even in very limited quantities?
The # on TBX was around 75 & definetly under 100, including 4,5,6 strings. They even had a few 34" 4str. that were produced but stuck with the 35" on almost everything made.
Not sure about your "X" theory, but maybe that's what it could have stood for earlier on due to the fact of the "non-wide" width of the neck?
I will try to contact Geoff again on all this, he's a very nice man & basically the "Grandfather of graphite" necked bass' along with Steve Moses.
~S~
I know someone who's got a mid 80's Q6 neckthru, but it isn't serial numbered or TBX'd, so to speak. That's pretty much the only one I've ever heard of or seen.
