That's actually black limba but I did own a walnut Warmoth body at one time.
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Show Your Pandemic Mods
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
You wear it well but dang, sorry about your eye.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Thanks for tipping me off on this thread - I'll have to fire my secretary for not putting it in front of me!
Well yes, new projects for me have been a silver linings that offset the pandemic isolation which is finally lifting. I addressed a number of 'back-burner' projects and began a few new ones. I'll start with early 2020 up to the present.'63 Burns of London Vista Sonic medium scale. Full restoration - thread here: Project Vista Sonic (rut row, JIO's at it again!)
Next - ongoing modding of my '93 American Standard Jazz bass - thread here: Diary of a bass
Added bridge pu mod - short-scale '60s Teisco Del Rey acquired with a ebony fretless neck mod - added a Guild RI Darkstar/Bi-Sonic and Manton vintage RI pu selector knob.
'67 Watkins Rapier short-scale bass - full restoration. Thread here: Incoming resurrection project... '67 WEM/Watkins Rapier short scale
Piezo short-scale fretless Coral Longhorn hollow-body project - thread here: Japanese Hollowbody Longhorn bass project and Harmony H-19 guitar resurrection
'68 Silvertone (Dano) 1443 Hornet refinish project - thread here: Hornet Crackle Kraze Batman! Craquelure effect finish
And finally, my Devil Magnum - thread here: Devil Magnum
And finally I am caught up on the thread for now. Devil Magnum, eh? Now that's a body/neck combo I wouldn't have thought would exist, and there it is. As always, all I can say when I see your stuff is "WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!"Thanks for tipping me off on this thread - I'll have to fire my secretary for not putting it in front of me!
'63 Burns of London Vista Sonic medium scale. Full restoration - thread here: Project Vista Sonic (rut row, JIO's at it again!)
View attachment 4274836
Next - ongoing modding of my '93 American Standard Jazz bass - thread here: Diary of a bass
View attachment 4274803
Added bridge pu mod - short-scale '60s Teisco Del Rey acquired with a ebony fretless neck mod - added a Guild RI Darkstar/Bi-Sonic and Manton vintage RI pu selector knob.
View attachment 4274814
'67 Watkins Rapier short-scale bass - full restoration. Thread here: Incoming resurrection project... '67 WEM/Watkins Rapier short scale
View attachment 4274830
Piezo short-scale fretless Coral Longhorn hollow-body project - thread here: Japanese Hollowbody Longhorn bass project and Harmony H-19 guitar resurrection
View attachment 4274834 View attachment 4274848
'68 Silvertone (Dano) 1443 Hornet refinish project - thread here: Hornet Crackle Kraze Batman! Craquelure effect finish
View attachment 4274844
And finally, my Devil Magnum - thread here: Devil Magnum
View attachment 4274846
Finally got to visit the entire thread and I am blown away by how industrious so many of you have been. Ranging from the beautiful to the quirky, too. That's quite fine. I like quirky.
Are you giving out any awards? Most beautiful? Quirkiest? Best use of a 9/16" stainless hex cap bolt?
I've had folks tell me that Firebird pickups worked really well in them and I threatened to try a set, but I've left my Turser stock out of cheapness. Weirdly, I believe the acoustic sound of it has improved over the years, but while I can make the pickups work, it doesn't sound as good as my old Realistic from the 60's. Maybe one day I'll revisit that idea. Won't be today
So I bought mine used and it was in need of some TLC. I am weird in that I like high output pickups that I temper with flatwounds (usually, rounds right now) and for some reason it’s just a combo I have slid into. I play in church a lot where we use monitors and frankly I don’t have a ton of control of my sound (although our sound guy is awesome and I love that guy). I think that is, in a nutshell, what has informed my gear decisions over the years, right or wrong. So, I was on the lookout for the highest output pickups I would find that were also drop in and found these. They sound and respond well to my playing but I could totally see them not working for others.
The bolt machining repair WAS exceptional. I'll give you that.Are you giving out any awards? Most beautiful? Quirkiest? Best use of a 9/16" stainless hex cap bolt?
There we go.Thanks for tipping me off on this thread - I'll have to fire my secretary for not putting it in front of me!
'63 Burns of London Vista Sonic medium scale. Full restoration - thread here: Project Vista Sonic (rut row, JIO's at it again!)
View attachment 4274836
Next - ongoing modding of my '93 American Standard Jazz bass - thread here: Diary of a bass
View attachment 4274803
Added bridge pu mod - short-scale '60s Teisco Del Rey acquired with a ebony fretless neck mod - added a Guild RI Darkstar/Bi-Sonic and Manton vintage RI pu selector knob.
View attachment 4274814
'67 Watkins Rapier short-scale bass - full restoration. Thread here: Incoming resurrection project... '67 WEM/Watkins Rapier short scale
View attachment 4274830
Piezo short-scale fretless Coral Longhorn hollow-body project - thread here: Japanese Hollowbody Longhorn bass project and Harmony H-19 guitar resurrection
View attachment 4274834 View attachment 4274848
'68 Silvertone (Dano) 1443 Hornet refinish project - thread here: Hornet Crackle Kraze Batman! Craquelure effect finish
View attachment 4274844
And finally, my Devil Magnum - thread here: Devil Magnum
View attachment 4274846
I am, and I'm giving the first two to me. Didn't need the bolt so much for these mods, so you guys can fight amongst yourselves for it.Are you giving out any awards? Most beautiful? Quirkiest? Best use of a 9/16" stainless hex cap bolt?
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Thanks, I'm not a machinist by any means. I just took a few long lunches at work when their mill wasnt being used.The bolt machining repair WAS exceptional. I'll give you that.
And keystock is expensive. That bolt was only $1 at the hardware store.
In October we played a bandmate’s son’s wedding. Bride and groom were Tech grads, I’m a tech grad, bandmate is a dawg, so...
Looks to me like a sweet SX refin by a really happy dude who went to school in Georgia
I’ve probably elaborated on that pic more than I should have already
Nerds are smart enough to buy nice cheerleaders. The rambling wreck was acquired in 1961 by Dean Dull. My dad was at tech at that time and participated in the refurbishment. It’s been refurb’d several times since.
Dull was still Dean of Students when I was there in the 80s. He invited me to his office for a personal chat when the dorm RA found some contraband in my desk drawer.
Fortunately he didn’t seize it and I was able to burn the evidence.
Since nobody asked, here's a few pics of mods that were done just before the pandemic...
Put a Fender threaded saddle bent plate on my Hammersmith PJ to replace the Badass-style stock bridge. Reduced its weight from 7 3/4 lbs to 7 3/8 lbs. The bridge works as well as any of them. You just need to let the saddles splay and adjust your threads accordingly. Not for those with OCD but I don't have it.
Also did the same to my cheap parts PJ, which has been an ongoing project bass for years. A few years ago I had the body routed out under the pickguard to see what would happen to the sound if you lightened up a body that much.
Turns out it sounds exactly the same, except the pickguard's a bit louder acoustically when you bang your fingers into it. Did bring the weight to 8 lbs, though the balance was off. Then last year, I started thinking about how much weight I could lose off it if I replaced the tuners with Hipshot Ultralites and Xtender. Finally decided to do it about a month before the pandemic hit.
The finished version, clocking in at a svelte 7 1/4 lbs now:
Still #3 out of my 3 PJ's but at least I have one in a different color besides black. Would have painted it black while I was doing the other two finishes if my wife would let me. Turned out she was right. I look better with black basses but I still look good with this one as long as I choose the color of my shirt carefully.
Put a Fender threaded saddle bent plate on my Hammersmith PJ to replace the Badass-style stock bridge. Reduced its weight from 7 3/4 lbs to 7 3/8 lbs. The bridge works as well as any of them. You just need to let the saddles splay and adjust your threads accordingly. Not for those with OCD but I don't have it.
Also did the same to my cheap parts PJ, which has been an ongoing project bass for years. A few years ago I had the body routed out under the pickguard to see what would happen to the sound if you lightened up a body that much.
Turns out it sounds exactly the same, except the pickguard's a bit louder acoustically when you bang your fingers into it. Did bring the weight to 8 lbs, though the balance was off. Then last year, I started thinking about how much weight I could lose off it if I replaced the tuners with Hipshot Ultralites and Xtender. Finally decided to do it about a month before the pandemic hit.
The finished version, clocking in at a svelte 7 1/4 lbs now:
Still #3 out of my 3 PJ's but at least I have one in a different color besides black. Would have painted it black while I was doing the other two finishes if my wife would let me. Turned out she was right. I look better with black basses but I still look good with this one as long as I choose the color of my shirt carefully.
Last edited:
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Thanks Jimmy! Your thread snuck under my radar! I agree with you that this strange period ended up resulting in a lot of inspired examples of our tenacious creative spirit! It's like, "oh yah? - well take some'a this!" Thanks! I finally had a chance to preview it at our singer/keyboardist outdoor baby shower on Sunday and I think I'm going to add another pu as it is a bit 'wanting' outside of a controlled studio situation. I have a '60s MIJ (Teisco related) single-coil pu with the correct spacing so I just need to figure out how to merge it electronically with the piezo.
