NBD... Err... New Project Day: Martin Stinger SBL-10

[SilverFleet]

A while back, my nephew gave me this 80's relic: a 1988ish Martin Stinger SBL-10. He was given the bass by a friend who found it in his basement.

For those not familiar, this was a Korean-made bass (maybe a Samick-built one judging by the headstock?) that CF Martin & Co imported for a couple years in the late 80's to market to the Hair Metal/Shredder crowd as intermediate-level instruments. It's nothing crazy, but I'm a sucker for P/J's and Shredder/Hair Metal stuff, and I've always wanted an aged white-on-maple bass. Some "features":

These enormous brass saddles on a nonstandard bolt pattern bridge

Fender-style tuners, but the cloverleaves have separated from the screws, so they rattle like a banshee

Good sounding pickups that turned into someone's art project at some point, but it's got a 3-way switch, which is cool

As the title implies, this is a project. This was a basement closet find, and it had been sitting there for decades. Unfortunately, sitting in a basement did it no favors, as the neck is a disaster.

For one, the action is the highest I have ever seen on anything. I've tried everything: adjusting saddle height, changing to Fender-style barrel saddles, adjusting the truss rod, shimming the neck, and more. Nothing helps. For one, when the strings have tension, the neck bends like I've never seen. And after pulling the neck, I've confirmed that it's twisted as well. Great....

So what's the plan? I'm thinking cheap import Fender P-Bass-style neck with a maple board, replace the bridge with a Fender-style high mass, add some Fender tuners I have in my parts bin, new knobs, and done. Electronics work, the pickups actually sound great, and I love the aged, weathered look (except for the polka dots on the pickups, but I'll clean those).

If anyone has any info on these basses, especially specs, that would be much appreciated!

 

[UNICORN BASS]

Good luck with the neck, but a tiny drop of Loctite will take care of the rattling tuners.

 

[musicman556]

Don't know how much you want to sink into the project, but Fender's roasted maple necks are REALLY nice. I am absolutely sold on roasted maple since I got a Sterling Ray35 with a roasted maple neck. Stiff, lively, beautiful (to me), and feels FANTASTIC.

Since last fall's Fender price increases they went from $329 to $399, but my Sweetwater guy sold me one a couple weeks ago for $340 when I asked for a break. Fair enough, imho.

Also, congrats on the cool score. One of my buddies has had a silver Martin Stinger HSS SuperStrat copy since he bought it new in high school. His has been a great instrument!

 

[SilverFleet]

Don't know how much you want to sink into the project, but Fender's roasted maple necks are REALLY nice. I am absolutely sold on roasted maple since I got a Sterling Ray35 with a roasted maple neck. Stiff, lively, beautiful (to me), and feels FANTASTIC.

Since last fall's Fender price increases they went from $329 to $399, but my Sweetwater guy sold me one a couple weeks ago for $340 when I asked for a break. Fair enough, imho.

Also, congrats on the cool score. One of my buddies has had a silver Martin Stinger HSS SuperStrat copy since he bought it new in high school. His has been a great instrument!

While a Fender neck would be nice, I'm thinking something for under $100 would fit the bill, if possible. I could stretch the budget a little for something like a Mighty Mite neck, but even a used cheap Squier neck or a knockoff would be fine. I want a P-Bass-style neck for this one if possible, as I don't have a P in my arsenal right now. Trying to keep it cheap here if I can.

 

[SilverFleet]

So, I just found this thread:

Rescuing a badly-twisted 1964 Jazz Bass neck

It may be possible to un-twist this one. I'm not counting on it, but I might have a back heating pad kicking around and some clamps to try it.

 

[SilverFleet]

It's been a while since I updated this. A classic example of "life getting in the way" with other projects/interests taking precedent over fixing this bass.

That said, after messing with the original neck for a while, I realized there was no bringing it back. The thing is still a banana, and the wood somehow feels soft. So, I searched and searched for a cheap replacement neck. My requirements were as follows:
-Under $100
-Maple board
-Jazz Bass shape and taper
-Fender-style headstock


The goal here is to do it up as a poor man's 80's Fender Jazz Bass Special. It's 90% there with the pickup and knob configuration, so I figured a Jazz neck would seal the deal. After searching for a while, I found this:

On the left is a "roasted maple" Jazz Bass neck from TWT Guitars. It was about $70 shipped, and they seemed to have good reviews overall.

The roasted maple looks great in person. The funniest part is that it smells like maple syrup. Delicious.

The nut is supposedly a bone nut, and it seems to be cut well. The frets need a little bit of finishing and polishing, but that's to be expected at this price point and is something I typically do anyway with any stringed instrument I acquire.

Hard to see in the pic, but the back of the neck has a lot of figuring in the stripe and in the wood. It's really nice looking.

The only true blemish I can find is a scratch that runs with the grain on the edge of the headstock. At this price, I can ignore it.

I am digging the roasted maple with the aged white big time.

Next steps are mounting the neck, un-sticking the pots (they are frozen solid), and deciding what tuners and bridge I want to use. It's shaping up to be a fun one.

 

[SilverFleet]

Months later, and we're back. I was able to finally assemble this thing over the weekend.

Really happy with how this turned out. I ended up using the stock bridge; it's much heavier than the Fender-style bridge I had in my parts bin, and I wanted to try this one out before having to fill and drill the body for that one. Tuners were also from my parts stash; I had bought them years ago for another project but never used them. They are extremely OK, but they will do the job. It sounds great, looks great, and plays great!

That said, there are a couple of issues:

-There's a rattle in the neck somewhere; I think the truss rod nut is loose.

-One of the knobs and one of the switch positions is inoperable; I'll have to open it up to see what's up with that

Other than that, the only thing left is to get some sort of decal made for the headstock. It looks naked and weird without something on there. Haven't decided what I'll do for that quite yet.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

Clover leaf tuners tend to rattle where they slot into the worm, blue Loc tite is your friend.

 

[SilverFleet]

Another update: I wanted to fix the electronics, since things weren't working as they should. Turns out there were two issues: the J pickup was completely nonfunctional, and the 3-position switch was wonky. I opened up the cavity and got to work.

This is the original switch. If I am reading that date code right, it's from late 1985. Either way, it was junk. It's cheaply made and was really flimsy.

Luckily, I had a spare 3-way out of my Epi Explorer guitar project, so I swapped that in there. During the process, I noticed that there was a hot wire soldered to the ground pole on the J-pickup pot. After fixing that, everything was fully functional.

The tone of this bass is surprisingly great! The pickups are really hot and have high output, but have a really clean, powerful sound. This thing is a MONSTER. I'd almost liken them to the EMG Geezers, as surprising as that sounds. I was actually thinking of buying that set of pickups for this, but I can save my money now!

Also, the rattle seems to have gone away as an added bonus. I will definitely keep an eye on those tuners and probably get some Loctite on them at some point.

 

[SilverFleet]

After about a week of playing it after the switch replacement, I'm starting to have some issues with the electronics. When I got the thing, all of the pots were frozen solid, but I was able to loosen them with some Deoxit. And while they worked, they would get a little crunchy from time to time. Then, the fuzziness started. I replaced the input, but that didn't help.

At this point, I'm thinking it's time to replace all of the pots and the switch just to be safe.

Here's a look at what I'm dealing with, prior to the switch replacement:

all 500k pots, one tone, and two volume with the 3-way toggle.

My question is this: Can I just get a "guitar" harness like the one below and transfer over my filter caps on the right pots and call it good? Only difference I can see is that it doesn't have the filter pots.

It would definitely save me time and money to do it this way. If not, I'll buy everything piecemeal.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

Don't see why not, pots is pots.

 

[SilverFleet]

Wow, I completely forgot to update this.

Turns out, not only were the electronics all trash, but so were the pickups. I bought one of those harnesses that I mentioned above and a set of Guitar Madness Alnico V P/J pickups. When that showed up, I tried wiring it all up, but it sounded terrible! Turns out that the 500k pots on the harness weren't doing the trick, so I ordered up some full sized 250k pots, and that got me there. The bass sounds really great now! I did have to clearance the cavity a bit for the larger pots.

I also decided to keep the stock Stinger bridge with it's strange (and GIANT) brass saddles. I like the look, and there's a lot of mass to it.

Overall, I'm really happy with the build. It's been my main player since I got it sorted. It truly does feel like a poor man's Jazz Bass Special, and I love the look of the worn body with the roasted Maple Jazz neck. I still need to add a headstock decal of some sort, but I can't decide what to put on there. The added switch is something I never thought I'd like, but it's nice to be able to switch pickups quickly without rolling off the volume. It sounds killer!