OBD (old bass day) - warpedneck.com works a miracle.

[dune]

It is alive!!!
I honestly never thought I'd be able to play this bass again.
Hats off to warpedneck.com!!!
After almost 30 years of it having been unplayable due to an uber ski jump (neck kink) I am absolutely certain that this 1983 El Toro plays better now than it ever has.
After I refretted it, reassembling this bass revealed that it needed to be shimmed. I tried .25, then .50 and finally combined both to arrive at the "Goldilocks": .75.
I've never seen it with anywhere near this low of an action. I'm so used to seeing it crazy high that it looks kinda strange to me now. I was also kinda surprised that the electronics were all still functioning - new 9V and good to go.

A shot that highlights the weather checking:

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Love the battlescars!... And the whammy!
Glad to see it back in service.

 

[eddybuzzard]

It is alive!!!
I honestly never thought I'd be able to play this bass again.
Hats off to warpedneck.com!!!
After almost 30 years of it having been unplayable due to an uber ski jump (neck kink) I am absolutely certain that this 1983 El Toro plays better now than it ever has.
After I refretted it, reassembling this bass revealed that it needed to be shimmed. I tried .25, then .50 and finally combined both to arrive at the "Goldilocks": .75.
I've never seen it with anywhere near this low of an action. I'm so used to seeing it crazy high that it looks kinda strange to me now. I was also kinda surprised that the electronics were all still functioning - new 9V and good to go.
View attachment 7166243
A shot that highlights the weather checking:
View attachment 7166262

Woah!
Man, did you actually wear the paint off of it?
Congrats on it's second (?) tour of duty!

 

[dune]

Woah!
Man, did you actually wear the paint off of it?
Congrats on it's second (?) tour of duty!

Thanks!
Yes, that wear is all authentic. Bought it in late 1983, then 4-5 sets per night, 6 nights a week, 48-50 weeks a year for well over a decade.
It was the 80's, so a LOT of slap. Here's a shot of the back. I wore a lot of studded belts.
View attachment IMG_7803.jpeg

 

[dune]

Love the battlescars!... And the whammy!
Glad to see it back in service.

The whammy was a great conversation piece and it sure looked rock and roll.
I used to say that it made the bass sound way better because it's so massive, but that was likely just confirmation bias.
It's a pain to adjust and intonate, as both of the 1/16" Allens are directly under the strings.
I also wonder if it might actually lessen the sustain because of the moving parts. It would be interesting to test that.
Doesn't look like they've changed the design much at all. Not surprising considering what I'm sure is very low demand.
I see where they're going for $450 these days. When I built the "clone" of this bass a couple years ago, I passed on the whammy.

 

[JRA]

pretty cool, congrats!

 

[bodollar]

Warpedneck (Erik) has brought a few necks back to life for me.

 

[watspan]

I have an SB-2 w/ truss rod maxed out and too much relief. Sound like something he can help with?