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project jazz bass

phatduckk

phatduckk

May 24, 2006
531
1
48
SF Bay Area
www.fuzz.com
#1
so a while ago i decided that it would be fun to have a j bass agin but thought if i was gonna go for it id have to get one that was exactly how i wanted. a sadowsky would have been rad but they cost more than i wanted to pay so i opted for teh "project" route:

i finally have all the parts:
usacg j bass body: trans white
warmoth neck: all indian rosewood
jretro
lindy fralin split jazz pups
badass 2
tort pg

here's a few crappy pics. hopefully ill get the parts over to my local dude tomorrow :)

DSC00510.jpg


DSC00512.jpg


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DSC00515.jpg
 
#5
moro said:
Wow, solid rosewood necks are super sexy.

Who's your "local dude?"
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ya i got the rosewood neck idea from musicman. i played one of their rosewood axis guitars and the neck felt great. all their necks are unfinished (oil n wax) but the rosewood has this special thing goin' on. its nice

my preferred local repair guy is named Terry Hyatt - he's in Redwood City. He's a very cool person and he does great work for a great price. He was recommended to me by the folks who work at Gelb Music (i trust those guys). Terry works thru his house... if you want contact info PM me and ill reply back with his number.
 
#6
Jonny Rochester said:
Nice. Let us know what the JRetro sounds like. I want one.
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i have a uretro in my PJ frankenbass and love it. to me the bass sounds way better with the uretro than it did when it was passive.

off the gate, with all eq set to 'center', its just louder... then with all the eq adjjustments its super versetile and you can dial in a lot of tones. im a fan of onboard preamps.

ill let you know how the jretro sounds in a couple weeks
 
#10
Looks like it will be very cool. How does the rosewood neck sound compared to a good maple neck? Warmer? More/less highs? I think it's neat that rosewood has enough oils in it and small enough pores to go without a clearcoat finish. Looks fantastic. How heavy is it?

Also, (1) Is the body Alder? and (2) What kind of bridge are you planning? :hyper:
 
#12
SuperDuck said:
Looks killer. Did the total price come in under a Metro?
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i beleive it did... i didnt really research sadowsky prices once i got the itch to go the project route. from a lil browing it seems like metros are at least $2k. is that correct? some of this is based on one i saw at a local shop (played and sounded awesome btw!) and prices ive seen on bass central.

for the sake of being transparent... here's how much everything set me back. these are off the top of my head... so prices may be off a bit but not too much.

j bass neck: $300 (Invalid Link Removed showcase item)
swamp ash body: $190 (http://usacustomguitars.com/)
body paint: $240 (http://usacustomguitars.com)
heal contour: $25 (http://usacustomguitars.com)
badass 2 bridge: $50 (local shop)
schaller bml tuners: $46 (warmoth)
fender tort pickguard: $35 (local shop)
fralin split j pups: $240 (bestbassgear.com/lindy-fralin-pickups.htm)
misc parts - screw, neck plate, copper foil etc: $8
strings - Ernie Ball Super Slinkys: $16 (local shop)
jretro: $300 - actually steve is a friend so i paid less (http://vintagebass.com/j-retro.htm)

if you add that up its about: $1450 so far unless my calculator skills suck. not bad huh? its somewhere between a new MusicMan and a Metro. I think i picked some high quality parts and have high hopes that they all play nice together. we'll see...

the whole project could have easily been cheaper. the neck i got is pretty expensive compared to a maple one on warmoth (ex: there's currently a maple neck in the showcase for $180). you could easily get less expensive PUPs and preamp too. you could save more money purely on cosmetics with a non transparent finish and going sans-pickguard.

unless i forgot something that's the whole pricelist excluding what Terry's gonna charge me to put her together and set her up.

not bad in my mind. I 100% trust Terry with all my gear and have tremendous faith that he'll be super maticulous when putting this together for me.
 
#13
bassman10096 said:
Looks like it will be very cool. How does the rosewood neck sound compared to a good maple neck? Warmer? More/less highs? I think it's neat that rosewood has enough oils in it and small enough pores to go without a clearcoat finish. Looks fantastic. How heavy is it?

Also, (1) Is the body Alder? and (2) What kind of bridge are you planning? :hyper:
Click to expand...

no clue on the weight yet since its in peices and not assembled. ill let you guys know about the weight once its all together. i dont have a scale handy to weigh the parts seperately either... sorry about that.

the body is swamp ash. everyone i talked to recommended swamp ash for the trans white.

i play MusicMan basses. i have 6 of those and one frankenbass (my first bass ever modded to hell). all of my basses besides the 30th sr4 have "unfinished" necks (oil n wax) and i love that feel!!! its great that the RW has enough oils to not worry about oil n wax.

my 30th ray has a RW neck but i cant make a great comparison to a regular ray b/c the 30th also has a mahog body... apples n pears. LoL. but, yes, its supposed to have a nice warmer thing going on (from what i read - im no wood pro). i play heavy handed and use stainless steal strings so im not worried about the highs... + the preamp can help (tho you dont wanna 100% rely on electronics shaping the tone)

the bridge will be badass 2. i thought of getting a badass 3 cuz its string thru... but eh, i like the badass 2 (all fenders i ever had got that mod done and i liked it a lot)
 
#20
That's going to be a nice looking bass, and with components like that put together well I'm pretty confident you're going to like the results. That's actually a lot of bass for the money if you intend to keep it, although resale can be a bit of a loser on this sort of project, as I'm sure you already know. Very tasteful, though, you can't beat getting a bass that has exactly the options you want!

I agree with you on the headstock BTW, keep it natural - just personal preference, obviously.

I have Nordy hum cancellers in a Jazz and they work just great with a J-Retro; I bet your Fralins will, too!
 

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