U.S. Peavey Club

[Supadope]

The wood guessing game. This is my 92 Foundation with the black poly stripped. Any thoughts on wood type? I like the grain structure so likely going with a tung oil finish.

View attachment 5451342

 

[bigtone23]

I have disassembled the Foundation getting ready to strip the body. I noticed one thing that is different than on humbuckers. On the neck pickup the red wire is ground and on the bridge it is the black wire. I know when you have two single coils making up a humbucker you do attach north and south on the same pair, but when they are separated, is this also the case?

This flip of the wires is normal with the Super Ferrites. The SFs, and some Gotoh made single coils on some of my early 80s Ibanez guitars, do this. I first noticed this wire color flip when I was replacing pickup switches in a couple Ibanez decades ago. The pickups sounded in phase and hum cancelled, so it was apparent that it was proper, so I made note and copied the scheme on the rewire. Apparently, these winders would just use the same color wire to start and finish the winds on the coil, regardless of the coil winding direction and magnetic polarity. When it came time to hook them up, the RW/RP of one pickup would require the reverse wire hookup to be in phase with the other pickup.

There has been many instances where someone rewires their Foundation/Dyna/etc... and wires both pickups up with red for hot and black for ground, resulting in an out of phase tone. Flip one and all is well.
Eventually, pickup makers just offset the RW/RP pickup wire colors to avoid this confusion.

Also, these are very low resistance (5.1Kohm neck and 5.2Kohm bridge). Are those the normal values? The bass was played by a real pro before disassembly and he loved the sound.

They're about right.

Multimeter readings show resistance which is just how much wire is used. As Peavey's Super Ferrite used a fairly strong ceramic magnet the pickups didn't require all that much wire.

Yep!
All of my Super Ferrites (both bass and guitar versions) meter in the low 5s, yet they balance with other pickups that have higher resistance, but weaker magnets.
Low wind to get clarity, strong magnets to get output. It's a great combo.

The wood guessing game. This is my 92 Foundation with the black poly stripped. Any thoughts on wood type? I like the grain structure so likely going with a tung oil finish.

View attachment 5451342

Looks like alder (or something very similar/closely related). I remember my 93 Foundation body being the same wood, which I thought was alder. Only had a little peak at the grain in the neck pocket, that and the hardness of it seemed like alder.

 

[Stealth57]

This flip of the wires is normal with the Super Ferrites. The SFs, and some Gotoh made single coils on some of my early 80s Ibanez guitars, do this. I first noticed this wire color flip when I was replacing pickup switches in a couple Ibanez decades ago. The pickups sounded in phase and hum cancelled, so it was apparent that it was proper, so I made note and copied the scheme on the rewire. Apparently, these winders would just use the same color wire to start and finish the winds on the coil, regardless of the coil winding direction and magnetic polarity. When it came time to hook them up, the RW/RP of one pickup would require the reverse wire hookup to be in phase with the other pickup.

There has been many instances where someone rewires their Foundation/Dyna/etc... and wires both pickups up with red for hot and black for ground, resulting in an out of phase tone. Flip one and all is well.
Eventually, pickup makers just offset the RW/RP pickup wire colors to avoid this confusion.



Yep!
All of my Super Ferrites (both bass and guitar versions) meter in the low 5s, yet they balance with other pickups that have higher resistance, but weaker magnets.
Low wind to get clarity, strong magnets to get output. It's a great combo.


Looks like alder (or something very similar/closely related). I remember my 93 Foundation body being the same wood, which I thought was alder. Only had a little peak at the grain in the neck pocket, that and the hardness of it seemed like alder.

Maybe korina?

 

[58kites]

Maybe a plywood veneer over the core wood?
Peavey didn't use alder, they used poplar for many of the opaque painted bodies.
By 1992, the Foundation and Fury bodies might have been made overseas for Peavey.

 

[kodiakblair]

@58kites
Good Brother, after some folks going all Kellyanne Conway on me for the Hackberry and Naturalite revelations I'm afraid you're on your own

 

[58kites]

@58kites
Good Brother, after some folks going all Kellyanne Conway on me for the Hackberry and Naturalite revelations I'm afraid you're on your own

I know truth can be painful sometimes, but it can be a growth experience!
My advise to anybody these days is, stop stripping Peavey basses that have opaque paint jobs...there is nothing exciting under there.

 

[Stealth57]

Maybe korina?

That’s the consensus so far.

 

[MCF]

@58kites
Good Brother, after some folks going all Kellyanne Conway on me for the Hackberry and Naturalite revelations I'm afraid you're on your own

Please do not mention that “person.” Her ex is much happier these days.

 

[58kites]

I don't think Peavey used Korina for any of their basses, definitely not for a '92 Foundation.
I have a '92 Foundation body that I stripped, it has a ply of veneer over the top (front) and bottom (back) and who knows what in between.
It also had lettering stamped somewhere in the neck pocket that was not English.

 

[bigtone23]

Maybe korina?

I don't think Peavey used Korina for any of their basses, definitely not for a '92 Foundation.
I have a '92 Foundation body that I stripped, it has a ply of veneer over the top (front) and bottom (back) and who knows what in between.
It also had lettering stamped somewhere in the neck pocket that was not English.

I agree, I don't think Korina (African Limba) was used. By 92, Peavey was even more cost conscious with their wood choices. Gibson made the market price for the wood soar. If Peavey used it, it would have to be the pretty gnarly looking/stained/cracked and filled stuff (which most Korina is) just to be painted over.

Maybe a plywood veneer over the core wood?
Peavey didn't use alder, they used poplar for many of the opaque painted bodies.
By 1992, the Foundation and Fury bodies might have been made overseas for Peavey.

For sure. Once the bodies switched to the narrower/smaller/sharper edged version with the rectangular bridge, I'm convinced those were imported and will die on that hill. My 93 Foundy had a part # sticker under the neck plate that looked suspiciously like the serial number stickers found on many Korean made instruments of the era. Plus, the neck pocket stamp didn't follow traditional US date stamp protocol. The fonts used on both the sticker and stamp are very 90s Korea.

@58kites
Good Brother, after some folks going all Kellyanne Conway on me for the Hackberry and Naturalite revelations I'm afraid you're on your own

I know truth can be painful sometimes, but it can be a growth experience!
My advise to anybody these days is, stop stripping Peavey basses that have opaque paint jobs...there is nothing exciting under there.

Truth! Even some of the natural and sunburst bodies have rather odd/mismatched body pieces!

 

[Stealth57]

I agree, I don't think Korina (African Limba) was used. By 92, Peavey was even more cost conscious with their wood choices. Gibson made the market price for the wood soar. If Peavey used it, it would have to be the pretty gnarly looking/stained/cracked and filled stuff (which most Korina is) just to be painted over.
For sure. Once the bodies switched to the narrower/smaller/sharper edged version with the rectangular bridge, I'm convinced those were imported and will die on that hill. My 93 Foundy had a part # sticker under the neck plate that looked suspiciously like the serial number stickers found on many Korean made instruments of the era. Plus, the neck pocket stamp didn't follow traditional US date stamp protocol. The fonts used on both the sticker and stamp are very 90s Korea.

Truth! Even some of the natural and sunburst bodies have rather odd/mismatched body pieces!

My neck pocket stamp and serial number under the neck plate are identical.

 

[Matt Kustom]

When I saw the picture my first thought was Swamp Ash.

 

[58kites]

My neck pocket stamp and serial number under the neck plate are identical.

That is how mine was as well.
Peavey had those bodies made overseas, and at that time Korea is where that was happening for a number of companies, Epiphone being one of them, very likely the same plant Peavey used.

___________________

It's definitely not swamp ash.
This Gen 1 Fury looks like ash, Davie informed us a year or two ago that it is hackberry, the body above looks nothing like this.
My '92 Foundation body is much lighter and also softer than my Gen 1 Fury hackberry body.
Hackberry weighs like ash and is hard like ash.
They make a lot of baseball bats and shovel handles out of hackberry.

 

[Stealth57]

Another shot after removing the sanding sealer.

 

[58kites]

Another shot after removing the sanding sealer.
View attachment 5453007

Post a pic that shows an edge of the body as well as the top.
Back the camera out a bit and move down so you can see the transition and the edge.
Does the seam we see down the right third (by the right edge of the pickup routes) continue through the heel of the body?
This top is three pieces, there is another seam at the left edge of both pickups as well.
Does the back have the same seams in the same places?

 

[Stealth57]

Post a pic that shows an edge of the body as well as the top.
Back the camera out a bit and move down so you can see the transition and the edge.
Does the seam we see down the right third (by the right edge of the pickup routes) continue through the heel of the body?
This top is three pieces, there is another seam at the left edge of both pickups as well.
Does the back have the same seams in the same places?

I haven’t sanded the edges yet so the photo doesn’t show it, but, yes, the lines match up front to back and on the side.

 

[58kites]

I haven’t sanded the edges yet so the photo doesn’t show it, but, yes, the lines match up front to back and on the side.

Seems that would indicate it's a three piece body and not a veneer top and bottom sheet.
After sanding that will become much more obvious I would think.

 

[Bitterdale]

The wood guessing game. This is my 92 Foundation with the black poly stripped. Any thoughts on wood type? I like the grain structure so likely going with a tung oil finish.

View attachment 5451342

Regardless of the type of wood, it looks great!
You really lucked out, most solid color bodies do not look as good stripped down.

 

[MNAirHead]

I’m aware that some did not come with Hipshot or gotoh or shaller factory.

but I also owned the g bass and b quad
And randy Jackson and cirrus basses. I used gotohs on my b quad 5 and Hipshot on my bquad 4

and both Hipshot and gotoh on two different cirrus basses and even Hipshot Tuners on a tl 5


I was making a point that a Hipshot 3/8 size will fit

Is the positioning screw the same on all of them?

I'm learning that the local shop can source me Gotoh for $100 for a set... since it's my favorite bass, may splurge

 

[PeaveyPlayer]

P

Is the positioning screw the same on all of them?

I'm learning that the local shop can source me Gotoh for $100 for a set... since it's my favorite bass, may splurge

yes
I haven’t hadn’t any issues

if you want pics I’ll upload some