I bought this a little while ago - a Yamaha RBX A2
It cost buttons.
It's comedy enough as it is - white top, battleship grey back and neck, passive, but a 9v battery to power the comedy volume and tone LED lights.
However, it has two things going for it:
- stupidly light. Must be 7lb ish
- pickups are decent and sound good.
So - I'm going to go for a rebuild. Why comedy? Cos it's painted in what appears to be spray on plastic UPVC window material - I suspect it will be an utter bitch to remove.
No more flashing LEDs so I will have to fill the holes somehow.
Apart from the fact its not a solid body and it will no doubt look shite when the crappy paint is off, it should be a doddle no?
It's stripped and ready for some action:
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Yamaha clearly coated it in some sort of powder.
Random orbital sander and 15 minutes (!) and it came right off the neck..
No more battleship grey for this..
very light, very resonant and a bit different. I applaud Yamaha for trying.... i don't think they were that far off with these, they just didn't sound that great
*okay, balsa is technically a hardwood, a very soft and light hardwood. the veneer is maple i think.
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I figure once started..
Bit more to do yet on the body but it's close.
1.14kg or 2lb 8oz approx.
I may may well have to turn this into an ultralight build...
Some more sanding to do and some more minor paint removal needed.
Gave it a weigh in with most of the parts on and it's 6lb 1oz
Which prompts me to ask where's the comedy in "comedy bass rebuild"?
Its the bass thats comedy, not necessarily the rebuild..
And there was me thinking the comedy was the player..
I am tempted to do a car paint spray job just to see how bad they are..
That goes without saying..
Either that or it's a stain finish, but I do want to protect those sides a bit!
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To be honest I don't mind a bit of natural relic
I coated a guitar version in copper leaf. I just keyed the existing finish rather than totally strip... although its good to see the construction underneath here
If I were you I would take this opportunity to inlay some wooden disks where the control holes are - allow you to use normal controls rather than the recessed cups
See if you can get someone to wind some new pickups too
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I might try the pickups again again and if not I might get them rewound.
Still tempted to stain it and see what happens too
And the only difference between gloss, satin, and matt finishes, are the thinners used. I needed some matt paint for a tractor bonnet a few years ago, and I was surprised to learn all it involved was using a different thinner when mixing the paint.
How about gloss black sides, then something satin/opaque for top and back?