WBO 2025: Meteora Texas Tea Double P90s

[JFlo]

I am doing an assembly build with some factory seconds.
Body: Fender American Ultra II Meteora. in Texas Tea
Neck: Sadowsky RSD Metro Line maple
Pickups: 2 x Stonewall Bass P90. parchment
Preamp: Darkglass Tone Capsule clone
Pickguard: brushed gold
Bridge: Gotoh 404sj-4 in cosmo black

I have been obsessed with Fender's Texas Tea paint job. They recently released the American Ultra II Meteora bass in it and I was able to score a factory second body off ebay. It just has a gouge in the neck pocket. The neck is a Sadowsky factory second but there is only 1 tiny fretboard mark, perfectly playable. I've been eyeing the Stonewall Bass P90 pickups and thought this would be a great match. It turns out Fender's double jazz pickup isn't quite the same size as a jazzmaster pickup so I'll have to embiggen the routes. I'll also have to route a notch for the truss rod wheel. Looks like Fender doesn't sell the new style 3 screw string through bridge so I'm going with a Gotoh string through bridge.

 

[Beej]

That is gonna be a looker!

 

[JFlo]

I embiggened the pickup routes, cut the truss rod wheel notch, patched the neck pocket with Kwik Wood, did the first coat of conductive paint in the cavities and made the pickguard template out of MDF (cut with a jigsaw, sanded and finished the pickup route with a template). I'm not very skilled with freehand template making so this was good practice. I can never seem to get smooth curves.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Making templates is definitely a skill and like any skill you get better with practice. For outside curves I like a long file or sanding beam and sand along the whole length of the curve. For inside corners I use a half round file or round sanding block (a piece of PVC for instance) and hold it at an angle to the template instead of perpendicular to it and sand along the curve. Kind of like draw filing. It helps me to keep from making divots in the template.

 

[JFlo]

Holding the block at an angle is great advice, thank you! I have that exact problem of making divots.

 

[JFlo]

I plugged 2 holes in the neck with dowels and drilled the new mounting holes. Since i couldnt find the correct neck plate, i drilled out the body for countersunk washers. I drilled the bridge mounting holes and made the pickguard. The little plastic chips all over my garage reminded me why I don't usually make pickguards

I chose the Gotoh bridge for the string-through option (and because I like the color) but the string holes are farther back than Fender's design. It didn't look like it would intonate right if I lined up the holes so I scooted it back. It'll be top-load only, no big deal.

 

[JFlo]

I had no continuity after 2 coats of XGP shielding paint so I used copper foil tape instead.

Pickups are mounted. I populated the Darkglass preamp clone from PCB Guitar Mania and wired up the electronics.

The Sadowsky neck heel is a full 1/8" thicker than Fender spec so I set up my router sled and trimmed it down.

Then I made a mistake with the belt sander.

I hand sanded it to minimize the divot. Next up I'll seal it with some Varathane Ultimate. Sadowsky's nut design is pretty cool:

 

[JFlo]

I sealed the raw spots with a couple coats of Varathane ultimate and put it all together. Behold: the RSD Metora Express!

The pickguard isn't perfect and the frets could use a little attention but I'm gonna call it done. The bass p90s really do sound like jazz pickups with more bottom. I like the preamp, it's pretty subtle. This is officially my longest bass. It only fit in my gator gig bag with the headstock pad removed.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Looks good! Not a criticism, genuinely curious, is one neck mounting screw different or is it just the way the light’s hitting them in the last picture?

 

[JFlo]

I was wondering if anyone would notice lol! Yes, one is a flat head instead of oval. My other matching screws were too long so I had to run to the hardware store.

 

[Beej]

Fantastic!

 

[NKBassman]

I'm really curious about those pickups and how they sound.

 

[JFlo]

I will make a recording. Stonewall makes some really cool pickups but there aren't many demos out there.

 

[JFlo]

Here is my entry for the WBO 2025 (assembly): the Meteora Texas Tea Double P90

Body: Fender American Ultra II Meteora in Texas Tea
Neck: Sadowsky RSD Metro Line maple
Pickups: 2 x Stonewall Bass P90 parchment
Preamp: PCB Guitar Mania Bass Capsule (Darkglass Tone Capsule clone)
Pickguard: brushed gold
Bridge: Gotoh 404sj-4 in cosmo black
Wired vol/vol, bass, lo mid, hi mid, active/passive switch

 

[Lo_Basserson]

I saw the Texas Tea Meteora Ultra in-person today. This is one of those paint jobs that look okay in pics, but is awesome in person.

 

[JFlo]

I agree. It's hard to describe, golden brown with hints of green.

 

[Lo_Basserson]

I agree. It's hard to describe, golden brown with hints of green.

Exactly. When I saw at the pics on the Fender site, I was just like, "Meh. Metallic Brown." Then, you see it in person and catch the slight shifts in color, and it's really cool.

 

[Justyn Brando]

This is rad! I was just looking at a Meteora body on Ebay and the Jazzmaster bass style pickups immediately came to mind. I stumbled upon this thread and was happy to see I wasn't the only one who thought of them. This turned out great, how much did you have to widen the pickup routes to make them fit?

 

[JFlo]

Thanks! Maybe 2mm wider, the length was identical.

 

[Justyn Brando]

Thanks! Maybe 2mm wider, the length was identical.

That's great news. I lost the bidding war, but I think I'll eventually grab a body and do a custom build like yours. Saving this post for inspiration