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Trying to fix a worthless Bass
- Thread starter Markshan
- Start date
I went a little too heavy with the clear coat today. It would have been just fine except as I was doing it one of those white puffy pieces of pollen or whatever that blow around in the air landed in it and instead of going in the house and getting some tweezers like I should have I just reflectively reached in and picked it out, which left finger marks that were much worse than the actual debris. But since I saw it was trying to self level a little, I went ahead and sprayed more finish on. And then as that leveled I sprayed more finish on. Most of the head stock would be ready to polish now, but that one section still has too much ripple. So tomorrow I'll do a light sanding and hopefully a much lighter coat of clear and then hopefully be ready for the polish.
I bleeped up. I sprayed the extra coat of clear real quick before the Steeler game started and left it outside to dry. I just got an Amazon delivery and so I went outside to get it and grab the neck. The delivery was heavy and I fumbled with the door. I ended up completely unaware that as I was dealing with the heavy box that I had taken the headstock and shoved it in the door jamb. It didn't do anything deep but there are quite a few superficial scratches and white marks. If I had done the same thing further along I would just try to polish it out but since you can still see a tiny bit of ripple I'll sand again tonight and put another coat on tomorrow. It's still all masked so why not?
You bet. I'm not skilled, but I am tenacious!Bummer ! Rub it down , another coat of lacquer and polish it up . With the amount of clear coat on it , it should come up like glass
Last coat looking good. I'll likely get to buff and polish it on Wednesday.
One head stock is masked and one is unmasked. Again, I think this could fool people into thinking that I know what I'm doing.
I just cleaned it up with some Turtle Wax and a small buffing wheel from Harbor Freight on my drill. It's basically a black mirror now. Enjoy this picture of me because I'm not in the habit of putting up pictures of myself.
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Okay I need lots of pick up help.
So I decided tonight that I was going to try potting these 50-year-old pickups. I set up the crock pot and the wax and took to taking apart the pickup. I discovered heresy of heresies that the pickups are single coil with dummy poll pieces.
So I bought another set of Hoffner pickups from a very nice gentleman here on the board, but the pickups are smaller and the pickup rings are much smaller. I had already bought them so I had a backup just in case. I didn't buy them after realizing that the originals were single coil. It wouldn't be a simple matter to just swap those ones for the other ones.
Unlike the control panel where the size was such that I only had to fill in a little bit, the rings for the new pickups can almost fit inside of the holes for the old pickups. So I took apart the other set of pickups and they are in fact double coil and the actual coils themselves are almost the same size. There's less than a millimeter difference so I am thinking perhaps the best bet would be to swap the new coils onto the old plates. I would just need to do a little bit of filing to make it fit. By the way, since I had the wax all heated anyway I went ahead and dipped the newer coils although I wasn't sure if they needed it or not. I figured why not I'm doing it it's all ready to go.
So do I attempt to swap the coils into the old plates so that the old pickups are now humbuckers? Do I attempt to fill the body cutouts with putty and try to color it to match (I think this is the worst option personally)? Or do I try to either purchase or create retainer rings that will cover the old holes but also fit the new pickups? I do have a business acquaintance who runs a 3D print shop and perhaps I could send him both sets of retainers and get him to create what I would need from them.
I'm not at all into using the single coils as they are and actually think that trying to swap the wiring onto the other plate is the idea I like the best but there are so many things I don't know? Does it matter which direction the coils are in? Does it matter which direction the magnet is in? How delicate should I expect the wiring to be? Am I likely to break things taking them apart? What would you do?
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Since you asked, I'd probably just make new pickup rings but I'd make them out of wood and/or pickguard material, maybe aluminum. However, I'm just stubborn that way and you may have better results down another route.
Wood could work but I don't think pickguard material would be thick enough. I literally wouldn't have a clue about how to machine it out of aluminum. Because it's a violin bass not only is the top not flat but the one ring is much deeper than the other to compensate for the difference in the body and bring the pickups to the same height.
I don't know that I'm skilled enough to do it from wood.
How about the idea of swapping the coils? Have you ever done that?
I don't know that I'm skilled enough to do it from wood.
How about the idea of swapping the coils? Have you ever done that?
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I would use the original pickup rings and put plywood backing behind them. Don't forget you have that JB Weld you can use to either hold things or use as a touchup.
The rings on mine look to be made from bakelite, but it's an early 70's model I bought while stationed in Africa.
The rings on mine look to be made from bakelite, but it's an early 70's model I bought while stationed in Africa.
I meant that to be pickguard material glued to a wooden ring like I did on this.
The closest I've come to disassembling a pickup (on purpose anyway) was flipping the magnet on a P90 so it was in phase with the other pickups. They got assembled so they probably come apart. Just remember to keep track of what parts go where and get both magnets back in in the same north south orientation.
Oh, that's clever. It would cover over the holes that aren't right and drill through the ones that are. That does seem much simpler than swapping coils. I can get a sheet of black/white/black and cut the truss rod cover from it too. I guess I use the existing trim ring to make an MDF template then cut it out with my trim router? I don't have a router table. Double sided tape the template to the work surface then double sided tape the material to the template?
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