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New project - my take on a '51 Precision Bass
- Thread starter SDB Guitars
- Start date
Man, that literally just made me laugh out loud... my co-workers all turned to look at me.
So, here it is, all strung up:
The pickup isn't screwed down yet, as I don't have pickup screws short enough that I'm comfortable wrenching down on them (the body is about 1/8" or so thinner than stock, and all I have are soapbar pickup screws, which attach at the top of pickups instead of at the base).
I plugged it into my iPhone using Amplitube/iRig, and listened to it on the Ampeg SVT amp model - it sounds pretty good. Maybe a bit much top end, but I have it wired directly to the output jack right now, and I'm sure a 250K volume pot will take off that slight bit of edginess. It's dead quiet, which is awesome, and sounds very "single-coil-ish".
I'm pretty pleased with it. It got a few coats of Waterlox tung oil varnish, and later on tonight it will get a coat of Briwax, which will get buffed out to a nice sheen. Now I'm thinking about knobs. I have some nice bloodwood knobs, and I'm considering whether or not bloodwood knob on bloodwood control plate would look cool, or too subtle.
The pickup isn't screwed down yet, as I don't have pickup screws short enough that I'm comfortable wrenching down on them (the body is about 1/8" or so thinner than stock, and all I have are soapbar pickup screws, which attach at the top of pickups instead of at the base).
I plugged it into my iPhone using Amplitube/iRig, and listened to it on the Ampeg SVT amp model - it sounds pretty good. Maybe a bit much top end, but I have it wired directly to the output jack right now, and I'm sure a 250K volume pot will take off that slight bit of edginess. It's dead quiet, which is awesome, and sounds very "single-coil-ish".
I'm pretty pleased with it. It got a few coats of Waterlox tung oil varnish, and later on tonight it will get a coat of Briwax, which will get buffed out to a nice sheen. Now I'm thinking about knobs. I have some nice bloodwood knobs, and I'm considering whether or not bloodwood knob on bloodwood control plate would look cool, or too subtle.
Looks like I need to make a minor adjustment to the shape of the headstock, now that I've looked at some pictures of the real deal... LOL This headstock was all done by eye and by recollection, no template or plan to follow.
Have you ever played through one of these?
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I think the Tonestyler blows away any varitone or conventional passive tone filter I've heard.
Beautious bass BTW.
I have not yet checked out the ToneStyler stuff. A bit out of my budget, ATM, for a personal instrument. Once the bass gets played out this weekend, it becomes my personal instrument (part of my harem?). I will then probably strip off the wax (the player's preferred finish), and continue to build Waterlox coats until it is nice and durable, and then maybe I'll consider electronics upgrades.
As it sits right now, for this upcoming weekend it will either have no knobs, or just a 250K volume control.
As it sits right now, for this upcoming weekend it will either have no knobs, or just a 250K volume control.
Hard to believe this thread hasn't been updated, the bass you've (most likely finished by now, I hope) built looks beautiful, great job! I've been thinking of attempting a similar build using Warmoth parts and such. How does this bass sound, any sound clips available? How do you think it sounds compared to a split coil precision bass model?
Believe it or not, it's getting used pretty much as is... Still no vol/tone controls (still the blank bloodwood control plate), just added a thumb rest in Fender's recommended location on the pickguard (at the end of the neck, adjacent to the E string, pitched at about a 22° angle or so). It gets played every couple of weeks. The action is crazy low, so it plays super fast. 
bthiemann80 said:
The bass sounds pretty jazz-ish, actually... but Phatter. I'm guessing that running the pickup straight to the jack without a volume or tone pot to mellow it out is contributing to that. I like it, though. It's very "zing-y". Clear without being overly bright, though it's not super-forgiving when it comes to string squeak.
The pickup is moderately hot, with all the clarity of a single coil, but no hum. It's brighter than a split-coil version, but I'm sure the lack of any resistors/pots in the chain contributes to that, as mentioned above.
No sound clips so far, but I'm working in recording something in GarageBand that will feature both this bass and the '60 Les Paul Special that I built (that can be seen in another thread of roughly this same vintage).
Ultimately, my decision was based on two things: price and availability. Both were solved because I had this bridge (actually a fairly inexpensive eBay Asian ABM clone) in a box on my workbench. I would gladly have used a Babicz bridge, or a Hipshot for that matter, if I had happened to have one here that I didn't had to purchase.
