N(P)BD! (MIA FrankenFender content)

[RBrownBass]

Here ‘tis- my Mahvelous ‘Merican Mocha Mongrel…

MIA Hot Rod 70s RI Jazz body & neck plate. Same body blank as the ’74 RI, but comes routed P/J, w/no ashtray or thumbrest holes, mine was factory CAR nitro from eBayer The Stratosphere. I stripped it, freedremeled out space for a neck J pup and sent it off to Southbound Custom for a transparent brown poly finish. My photos do not do justice to their work.

’74 RI neck, tuners, pickups (bass is shown with both SME pups and Fender Super 55s, but I went with the ‘74s ultimately) and ’75 RI bridge & pickguard. Added a longer G string intonation screw & thumbrest for aesthetics and Dunlop Strap locks w/traditional buttons.

Richter control plate. No soldering, no shielding. These things are great.

I’ve wanted a walnut-finished alder/rosewood 70s-spaced MIA Jazz since forever, and Fender finally made it possible without a lot of heavy sanding to remove a factory poly finish. This build has cured my FMIC GAS for the forseeable future.

The build’s cost --parts (including the case and the pup/bridge covers), labor (refinish) and all shipping-- came to right at $1550.00, but I’ve got only about $600 of post-project plan cash in it because I sold off a lot of stuff and used some parts I already had. Assembled by me (Priceless!). It’ll get a full pro setup once the “New bass!” feel wears off and I can part with it for a while.

 

[JoshC]

Hot damn! That's a sexy bass. Nice job with the build.

 

[RBrownBass]

Hot damn! That's a sexy bass. Nice job with the build.

Thanks! I don't really have a lot of my own labor involved- just the pup rout work, but I did choose the finish and assembled it, and I'm the first to get a sound out of it as an assembled instrument. That mattered a whole bunch to me. As many issues as I have with FMIC, I really did feel like this build should be from Fender parts.

I should put up some photos of the bass without the covers, but I don't have them here. I'll try to do that tomorrow if there's still interest enough for the thread to be on page one.

 

[Malak the Mad]

Thanks! I don't really have a lot of my own labor involved- just the pup rout work, but I did choose the finish and assembled it, and I'm the first to get a sound out of it as an assembled instrument. That mattered a whole bunch to me. As many issues as I have with FMIC, I really did feel like this build should be from Fender parts.

I should put up some photos of the bass without the covers, but I don't have them here. I'll try to do that tomorrow if there's still interest enough for the thread to be on page one.

That's exactly how I put together my parts-bass…selected everything, put together what I could with a box of ordinary tools and handed it off to someone who had the proper guitar-tech/woodworking/electronics skills to do the rest.

And for the record…the more pics, the better!