The other one started off as another black and white one purchased second hand, with the idea of turning it into a kind of Junior '51 P bass. There's already some similarities: Two saddle bridge, single coil pickup, slab body.
After disassembling, the body rout was filled in with a combination of wood and filler (mostly filler). I turned the pickup rout around 180 degrees compared to a P bass - figured that if Leo had known everyone would take the chrome pickup cover off he might have made the rout a bit tidier. Rattle can paint options are a bit limited in terms of getting a butterscotch blond vibe, and body filling definitely precluded a transparent finish. Its a bit more safety yellow than I would have liked, but I sanded back a little bit into the off white base coat and that has taken the edge of it plus 'aged' (rather than relic'd) the finish a bit. I've got used to it now.
Custom cowpoke pick guard, sort of based on the Warmoth '51P pick guard, which is why it has too many screws (but conveniently uses all of the screws from the bronco pick guard). Tele bass control plate with standard bronco knobs. Football style side mounted jack. I thought about using the recessed side jack but I like using a right angle plug and that doesn't work with a recessed jack.
GFS 70's Grey bottom Strat pickup (which has similar construction to a Duncan antiquities SCPB pickup, but only costs $25 and fits in the Strat size rout). Still 6 pole pieces, so at the moment I have painted the old no-holes bronco pickup cover and blu-tacked some aluminum foil dots on top. I was going to just leave the 6 poles exposed but they protrude above the top of the bobbin quite a lot and I found I was hitting them with the strings quite a lot. I might order one of the 4 pole musicmaster bass pickups that are available one day, but the cost shipped to NZ is about the same as the total cost of the project so far, including purchasing the bass.
At the other end I've cut the head stock to a sort of 'pregnant Tele' shape. I always think the Tele style head stock looks like a piece has broken off it, so this is my compromise. The decal is part of a Squire Precision II decal from luthierdecals.com. La Bella deep talkin' bass flats.
That's it for now. Does it sound anything like a single coil P bass? I'm not sure. I don't have one to compare it to, but it sounds pretty good. I tried the GFS pickup in the black bass when I first got it and it mostly sounds like a higher output version of the original bronco pick up.
