Variax 700 Bass Mainboard Dead - What Next?

[cdoerman]

Hey everyone, my Variax 700 finally gave up the ghost electronically, but the neck and body are still mint and the saddles were working great before the mainboard died. I've only used this for studio work but always loved how it felt to play.

Does anyone have any suggestions for next steps? I hate to scrap it but I'm not sure I have the skills to retrofit it with traditional pickups.

I may list it as a project husk. Does anyone here need a donor body or working saddles before I put it on the general classifieds?

 

[ceetee]

Try something like that maybe.

6-string "WickedBucker" Flat Hand-Wound Surface-Mount Pickup

Quality instruments, kits, parts and gear for cigar box guitars, standard acoustic & electric guitars, other homemade instruments, cigar box amplifiers and more!

www.cbgitty.com

 

[Jack]

Is it a piezo pickup? If so there's nothing stopping you from fitting any other aftermarket preamp and running with that.

 

[ghostdog93]

Is it a piezo pickup? If so there's nothing stopping you from fitting any other aftermarket preamp and running with that.

I never played one (or even seen one on the flesh), but IIRC there are piezo bits under the bridge saddles. There is also some external power box that came with it.

 

[InkCow]

Try something like that maybe.

6-string "WickedBucker" Flat Hand-Wound Surface-Mount Pickup

Quality instruments, kits, parts and gear for cigar box guitars, standard acoustic & electric guitars, other homemade instruments, cigar box amplifiers and more!

www.cbgitty.com

I will say that the sticky widget with something like this would be figuring out how to ground it. I got a Lace USAB in a vain attempt to improve how my acoustic bass sounds, but it was too noisy without grounding and too complicated to rig up a way to ground it.

 

[cdoerman]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! Has anyone tried any of these things specifically with a Variax bass before? I'm leaning towards trying to sell it to anyone looking for parts for a project/rebuild. Let me know if anyone knows someone who might be interested in something like that.