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NBD: Eastwood sidejack 32

#21
johnk_10 said:
i'm really diggin' this bass with the nitro'd neck with the rolled edges. that mod took it to a whole other level.
after playing it for a few hours, one thing that i did notice is that on the neck pickup only, the G & E strings don't have as much level or punch as the A & D strings do. it seems counter-intuitive since the pickup magnet pole pieces are not radiused to the fingerboard and are all flush with the top of the pickup cover, so you'd think that the 2 middle strings might have a little less output being that they're a little further away from the strings but that's not the case. and on the bridge pickup, only the G string is a bit weak.

..............so, i this situation reminded me when i told Leo Fender in 1978 that my stingray's G string seemed to have less output and sounded thinner than the other 3 strings. he said that he'd heard of the issue before and reached in his pocket and handed me several small ferrite discs in varying thicknesses that were the same diameter as a stingray's pickup magnet poles and told me to experiment with placing them on top of the pickup's G's magnet poles. that did the trick, so i made some for the sidekick 32's pickups out of drill stock. i placed them on top of the E & G poles on the neck pickup and one on the G of the bridge pickup and voila, it's perfectly balanced now.

here's a couple of pics of them on the pickups:

View attachment 2873749

View attachment 2873750
Click to expand...
Truly nothing else feels like good rolled edges - my USA Reverends have that, nice rounded smooth feel, they're a dream to play.
 
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#22
i'm finally done with all of the mods that i'm going to do to this bass.

i made a 3-ply parchment guard for it since i thought the original 5-ply white one was a bit much (very thick and too white), and installed the mosrite style knobs on it. i also added a treble bleed cap & resistor on the volume pot since even the slightest roll off of the volume pot cut a ton of top end at the output.

Sidejack32-01.jpg


Sidejack32-02.jpg


Sidejack32-03.jpg


Sidejack32-04.jpg


Sidejack32-05.jpg
 
#26
I always wondered about Eastwood basses. They definitely have the LOOK down. Seems like quality is there too, at least on yours. Even before you iced it out with all the mods.
 
#28
godofthunder59 said:
I hope that the quality is better than the V8 I had. The best thing about that bass was the case.........and even that was pretty flimsy .
Click to expand...

I've checked out a few Eastwood basses and guitars at a music store near me, I've noticed quality issues on some of them, others seem okay at least visibly, so I might be a little hesitant to buy one sight unseen as quality does seem to be across the board, you may get a good one or a lemon from the looks of it. However, I'm a sucker for retro shapes and Eastwood certainly has them.

Congrats OP on your bass, seems like you got a pretty decent one and nice job on the mods.
 

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