I have a late 80's Peavey Foundation with Super Ferrite pickups. I got it new, played it extensively for about 15 years, then graduated on to other basses. I always kept it since I thought it would be hard to part with the first axe. 
In any case, I took it out of the case a few weekends ago, put on new strings, and plugged it in. I found that one of the volume pots was extremely scratchy, sound output was much thinner than I remembered. It looks like the bridge pickup is shot (one of the reasons I abandoned it years ago) as I can't get any sound out of it even when connected directly to the output jack.
Frets are also very worn. This one has a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, black body. It looks like a fret replacement is in order in order to get the action to where I am used to it now. I also can't get the action low enough without buzzing (due to the frets), however the neck seems straight.
So on to my question. I'm considering:
1) Yanking the frets and filling the frets with styrene, then epoxying the fretboard
2) Replacing the pickups
I've looked long and hard for replacement pickups. I was never that happy with the sound of the Super Ferrites, was thinking of Bartolini soap bars, however this bass used a pickup mounting ring and the pickup size is very odd (1.25" by 3.25"), and I can't find anything to replace them while keeping the mounting ring. The routes for the pickups are pretty ugly so I'm looking at having to make some sort of pick guard to go over the holes if I ditch the mountain rings.
So is this worth it? The bass was very cheap, however it is well made and still feels good (despite the crappy sound). Would this make an interesting project bass given the pickup change? Or perhaps its better to just sell it or leave it as-is as a wall decoration. I would love to have a fretless again (had a Carvin 5 string that was great) but wonder if this bass is worth the effort.
I'll post pics tonight so you can see what I have to work with, and if I decide to do the project I'll take pics throughout the process.
In any case, I took it out of the case a few weekends ago, put on new strings, and plugged it in. I found that one of the volume pots was extremely scratchy, sound output was much thinner than I remembered. It looks like the bridge pickup is shot (one of the reasons I abandoned it years ago) as I can't get any sound out of it even when connected directly to the output jack.
Frets are also very worn. This one has a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, black body. It looks like a fret replacement is in order in order to get the action to where I am used to it now. I also can't get the action low enough without buzzing (due to the frets), however the neck seems straight.
So on to my question. I'm considering:
1) Yanking the frets and filling the frets with styrene, then epoxying the fretboard
2) Replacing the pickups
I've looked long and hard for replacement pickups. I was never that happy with the sound of the Super Ferrites, was thinking of Bartolini soap bars, however this bass used a pickup mounting ring and the pickup size is very odd (1.25" by 3.25"), and I can't find anything to replace them while keeping the mounting ring. The routes for the pickups are pretty ugly so I'm looking at having to make some sort of pick guard to go over the holes if I ditch the mountain rings.
So is this worth it? The bass was very cheap, however it is well made and still feels good (despite the crappy sound). Would this make an interesting project bass given the pickup change? Or perhaps its better to just sell it or leave it as-is as a wall decoration. I would love to have a fretless again (had a Carvin 5 string that was great) but wonder if this bass is worth the effort.
I'll post pics tonight so you can see what I have to work with, and if I decide to do the project I'll take pics throughout the process.
