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NBD: Lighten Up, Francis!

#21
Nice!
Any idea how much routing the body saved on weight?
3/4 of a lb. savings with just knobs, bridge, and tuners is awesome and that's with a D tuner.
I'm guessing that changing the bridge didn't save much if any weight?
 
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#23
ChrisBowsman said:
My favorite Strats I owned all had what's called a swimming pool route. For those unfamiliar, instead of routing individual pickup cavities under the guard, they take out a huge area to accommodate any configuration. A few weirdos, like myself, think the route contributes to a particular sound.
Click to expand...

I've got a Cyclone (half Mustang, half Strat) with the swimming pool route and I have probably half a dozen pickguards from different loadouts I've tried. Finally settled on a single bridge 'bucker, but there were a few fun configs in it (was triple humbucker for a while). I love swimming pool routes, for sure!
 
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#24
JimmyM said:
Oh, that body is definitely turdly. Won't get any argument from me. Bought it 20 years ago off Ebay for $80 fully loaded with a halfway decent pickup with too-high polepieces. Been my experimental body, and I never would have tried that routing under the pickguard if it wasn't, so it's good that it's a turd. Yet all 3 of my PJ's and my P have EMG Geezers and they all sound the same, including this one. I honestly couldn't tell one from another in a blind listening test. And that makes me very happy as I like consistency.
Click to expand...
Yep, I think w P's more than any other bass, once you settle on your pickup and strings, you could slap those on anything from a Lakland to a pawnshop beater and it's gonna sound essentially (if not exactly) the same, certainly in a mix.
 
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#29
JimmyM said:
This is my parts PJ, made up of an old Stew-Mac neck mated with a cheapo plywood body that I had routed out under the pickguard as much as possible without it collapsing.

View attachment 3706906

Believe it or not, it ain't bad and it sounds just like my proper Fenders. It became neck heavy after routing, and I wanted to paint it black but my wife would never let me, so I made it a play-at-home bass. But then I found out that routing out the body dropped it to 8 lbs, so I got really inspired to drop even more off it, especially on the neck. So today I got new aluminum knobs, a new Fender vintage bent plate with threaded saddles to replace the handscratcher cheap bent plate that was on it, and Hipshot USA Ultralites with a Bass Xtender for the E to replace the 70's style tuners I put on it decades ago.

View attachment 3706907

Again, before the hardware mods, it weighed 8 lbs. After all the mods, it weighs a whopping 7 1/4 lbs! I would have been happy losing half a pound, but I'm over the moon about this! That makes two FSO's I've got that weigh 7 1/4 lbs or thereabouts. I love my two real Fenders (both black) but they weigh 8 3/4 lbs each, and they're modded as much as I care to do. So I think I'm going to have to forego my "black basses only" rule and start bringing this one more often, especially when the wife comes out.

OK, so it's not really new bass day, so sue me. I don't care...I've got two super lightweight PJ's!
Click to expand...

... although not mentioned in your post, needless to say that the pickups choice is GZR-based ;)
 
#30
JimmyM said:
This is my parts PJ, made up of an old Stew-Mac neck mated with a cheapo plywood body that I had routed out under the pickguard as much as possible without it collapsing.

View attachment 3706906

Believe it or not, it ain't bad and it sounds just like my proper Fenders. It became neck heavy after routing, and I wanted to paint it black but my wife would never let me, so I made it a play-at-home bass. But then I found out that routing out the body dropped it to 8 lbs, so I got really inspired to drop even more off it, especially on the neck. So today I got new aluminum knobs, a new Fender vintage bent plate with threaded saddles to replace the handscratcher cheap bent plate that was on it, and Hipshot USA Ultralites with a Bass Xtender for the E to replace the 70's style tuners I put on it decades ago.

View attachment 3706907

Again, before the hardware mods, it weighed 8 lbs. After all the mods, it weighs a whopping 7 1/4 lbs! I would have been happy losing half a pound, but I'm over the moon about this! That makes two FSO's I've got that weigh 7 1/4 lbs or thereabouts. I love my two real Fenders (both black) but they weigh 8 3/4 lbs each, and they're modded as much as I care to do. So I think I'm going to have to forego my "black basses only" rule and start bringing this one more often, especially when the wife comes out.

OK, so it's not really new bass day, so sue me. I don't care...I've got two super lightweight PJ's!
Click to expand...

Good to see someone who appreciates the joys of a lightweight bass.

Those are good mods. One comment, you could have saved even a bit more weight had the tuners been Y-tuners, or better yet, Gotoh res-o-lites.

Happy playing, it looks great!
 
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#33
Wow, Jimmy. Thanks for posting this; it's very enlightening. I too would like to see how much wood was removed beneath the pickguard and would also like to remark that if that 'guard extended further to the left a lot more would could be removed, which likely would reduce the overall weight to beneath seven pounds.

I also would like to know what effect, if any, these mods had on dead spots.
 
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