Samick SAKB5-6690 Restoration Thread

Didn't realize how rare these were. I saw a fretless one once, but, you know, it was fretless, and I ain't into that. Rescued this one from OfferUp so I'll post more pics as I go.

Raz

 

Blech.

 

This bass was originally blue but it has aged to a teal green.

 

All clean! Waiting for tuners and knobs to come from Amazon...

 

SN starts with '299...' but I haven't decifered it yet. It may be Feb of '99 or 2002 September, not sure.

 

Pretty much done; it needs a new barrel jack so I'll order one soon. Taking it to practice tonight to get a better feel for the tone. Sounds fine through headphones; the DR's that I had sound very bright.

Nit-picks: the nut is too large but required for the way the tuners angle the strings. I may try a slightly different approach to winding them with the next set. Also, the bridge is worse than the one on my Douglas. It works but it's a pain; I had to bend the saddles down a little to get the action lower, and there is no adjustment screw to pull them back when setting intonation. Got them to work but it really needs a proper bridge.

Aside from that the neck is as straight as a Shoshone arrow and the frets are in excellent condition; I'm getting a slight buzz with the upper strings but they are set ~2mm or less above the 12th fret so more work is needed. Just waiting for the neck to set in some more before making further adjustments to either end.

Probably only a tiny audience for this thing but perhaps someone may find it interesting some day.

Raz

 

The DR Marcus Miller Fat Beams I had on it were bright, but also really aggressive sounding. Almost like it had a little grind to the sound. This bass might work better in my metal band; I'll have to wait a bit to try it through that other rig. The B string was a .125; I'm used to a Kalium .142. They had pretty good sustain.

The bridge pickup is worthless by itself. The neck pickup sounds beefy and aggressive; blending them tones back the aggressiveness a bit and softens the sound, scooping it slightly. I'm not normally pleased with most bass pickups when soloed so having the neck pup as an option is nice. The sound reminds me of Duff's tone on Welcome to the Jungle - a little grit and it would be right there.

That's all for now...