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I didn't get off that easy. I sent my first born son to the TB medium scale overlords and haven't heard from him since. I hope he was delicious, that cute little scamp.
That's because immigrants never get a fair shake.
Woah - my Misty precision has a new attitude! I finally switched out the original set of D'addario RW nickels with a set of Ken Smith's custom balanced SS rounds (.044 .063 .084 .106). If you like steel strings, I highly recommend these. I usually don't roll off the tone on the bass, but I found that a !/4 turn back with a fresh set of Smiths is killin'. 
I thought the Warwick was up for sale at one point? That Muckleroy is still pretty as heck! Nice Squier also.
I haven't done a family photo in awhile. My most recent member is the MIJ Squier on the left. Upgrades include a 62RI pup, CV HM Bridge with brass saddles, custom snakeskin pickguard and ultralite tuners.
Immigrant (or anybody else) --- any idea the weight characteristics of the Rondo and/or the Squier?
my 32" scale basses. Left is homemade telecaster thinline & right is Hohner EB40. Can I get a number?
BassHappy
Supporting Member
Hey Medium Scalers
I posted this elsewhere on TB a while back (like a fool) and was largely ignored - It must be because we are talking medium scale mods/builds here - normally anything Fender gets tons of responses.
So here goes...
Some of you have inquired about the two projects I have in the works, so I thought I would go ahead and post some details here. Both are rather inexpensive, and really pretty simple assembly type builds and mods.
Since I am not a craftsman myself, I need to ask for help in putting the projects together.
The first of these is a 1954 Precision Bass in medium scale using the bass above as my guide, but of course, I won't be "relicing" it. In 1954 Fender modified the original "slab" body by adding contours on both the front and the back of the bass. They kept the same body width as the original "slab" bass and it wasn't until later that they began to make the body slightly thinner as in the modern version of the P Bass. Since my 1951 P Bass is ash, I wanted to create this one out of alder. So, I had a body made for me and I decided this time to use a full size Fender body. I had the pickup and control cavity routs done, but no neck pocket and no bridge routs. I have to get the bridge placement exactly right for the 32" scale, and for this reason, I also had them hold off on drilling the ground wire channel. The alder is beautiful and the body is light.
I picked up a Fender Squire Vintage Modified Telecaster bass neck off of ebay for a cool $149.00. I love these necks, they are wider and much closer in size to the standard Fender neck, than the medium scale necks coming out of Japan. In fact, the neck width at the pocket is exactly the right size and needs no modification on either side to fit on a standard Fender body. Please note: I am NOT saying that the necks are interchangeable with full scale, or any other Fender bass neck - they are NOT - it's just that the width of the standard Fender body is correct without modification to accept this specific medium scale neck. One of my favorite features is that this neck has the frets mounted right into it - old school - with no fingerboard. I shipped the neck off to John Ingram formerly of PRS and he and his staff who stripped the gloss finish off the neck, sprayed a little vintage tint and finished it in beautiful satin.
Here is a photo of the neck in the exact postion required for the medium scale fit. Notice, instead of the top of the pocket being at the 6th fret from the top, - as illustrated in the full scale model above - it needs to be at the 7th fret from the top. This will result in a slighly deeper neck pocket. It will also cause the pick guard shape to be modified to embrace the deeper neck pocket.
I am using a Seymour Duncan "Stack" single coil pickup for this project. I have a Lindy Fralin in my 1951, but I want this bass to have a different edge than the 1951. I think I can accomplish this by the combination of the Duncan and the alder body. I am planning on using my trusty D'Addario Half Rounds on this bass, although I am sure some experimentation will take place. The 1951 has Labella Flats. Here is a photo of the body showing the exact bridge placement, with the pickup and the control plate in place.
As you can see I have a vintage Fender "through the body type" bridge sitting on the bass. I am very leery of the vintage two saddle bridges that were a hallmark of this bass back in the day. I have hassled over them quite a bit, and with my brand of perfectionism, I have never been able to intonate the bass exactly to my liking with those vintage bridges. Have said that, I do have one. I was thinking about the Wilkinson swivel bridge saddles, but if you are not going pure "vintage" why not make the upgrade and know that your intonation is perfect? Here is another view of the bass with the modern bridge.
And here is a shot of the vintage Fender bridge.
I am off to see my good buddy, Patrick Cummings of Brian Moore Guitars and iguitar fame. Patrick is our resident local genius and boutique guitar builder guru and does the setup work for me. I will leave the parts for him and over the course of the next month or so - he will:
Cut the neck pocket and mount the neck
Drill the holes though the body, drill the ferrule holes on the back and mount the ferrules and the bridge
Drill the ground wire channel from the bridge to the control cavity.
Modify my pick guard template to match the new neck pocket. I will wait to drill the holes which mount the control cavity - until the pick guard has arrived - and can be used as an exact guide to insure that the fit is perfect.
String it up and spend some time doing some simple tests to make sure that the strings line up exactly with the single coil poles and the neck and truss rod are properly adjusted. When Patrick is happy and the bass plays perfectly - I will then go back over and and play the bass for a while before we disassemble it for finishing. We will hold off on the electonics until final set up.
Remaining true to the period, I am using the exact two color burst finish as on the 1954 at the top.
The other project which is underway is the re-inventing of my Fender Squire Vintage Modern Telecaster bass, pictured above. Pat Wilkins is currently laminating a top on the front of the body for me. Pat has stripped the body and found that the body is actually made of Eastern European alder. Here is what he says about it:
"Hi Rick
Yeah, I was surprised at the quality of the wood myself. It's alder, not ash but it's very white alder. It looks like the same alder that I buy from time to time. It's Eastern European alder and usually sounds very good. It's a little bit more pricey than standard alder but I like it because it sounds good and is just a bit lighter than standard American alder too."
Here is what the body looks like after stripping it to the bare wood:
I will leave the back as it is and do the same finish as the front - I think the knots add personality to the wood. Pat is creating a top for the bass using this piece of quilted sapele.
He will then be finishing it in copper smoke burst similar to the guitar below:
The neck is similar to the one used above, and it also went to John Ingram for the royal treatment - stripped off the gloss, mild vintage tint and a new application of satin finish.
I have decided to go with all black hardware on this bass, including the telecaster control plate. I am also using an ETS peizo bridge from Germany along with the Richter pre amp which they recommend. I got so used to the peizos on my Roscoe basses that I am really in love with the "closeness" they provide. I will play with the piezo tone until I get it where I like it - and then lock it down. I will then simply use a volume pot on the piezos to blend them in with the single coil as desired. I have already drilled out the control plate and added the volume pot - so when I get the bass back, I can start the re-assembly process. I have both a white and a black pick guard for the bass, but I have a feeling I won't want to cover up that special top with plastic!
Happily, this will solve one of the visual problems I have with the bass as well. The body is oversized and the bridge looks out of place so close to the neck. This will allow me to put the tail stop at the rear of the bass, keeping the bridge section where it needs to be to intonate properly. I think this will really improve the overall look and feel of the bass.
As always, if you have any suggestions that may help getting this right, suggest away - and thanks for listening.....
Just updating - Pat Wilkins finished both the bodies and he is shipping them out today. Should finally be able to get these two medium scalers finished!
BassHappy
www.innertainment.net
New 32" scale project.I've had the neck for a while,it was a second becasuse of a small fill on the fretboard.I saw this white pearl "Z" body listed at a very reasonable price and decided i'd give it a try.
Looking forward to seeing this completed.
I want to build a Frankenstein-Flying-V-Bass with a guitar body. As I'm tuned to D-G-C-F I wanna go medium scale. Can you give me any advise where I can get a decent medium scale neck (2+2 headstock) for cheap?
a beautiful family photo indeed. i just got a great deal on the black sx 32..sounds ok but hoping to "make it sing"...how have you upgraded it? ...i like the tort pg... where can i get one this size? thx
Thanks Bro,
This link has all the upgrades on pg 2.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/essex-headstock-mod-blade-719052/index2.html
