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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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A couple of years ago, a mate of mine, Mike, had got himself a Fender Rascal bass. He loved the switch arrangement and sound from the Seymour Duncan lipstick pickups, but the Jaguar-type body was a bit too unwieldly for him. So he asked me to build him a new body - and donated a beautiful piece of English Walnut from the last tree that his late pal, Merve (a lumberjack from teens to retirement) cut down.
So that's what I did. Made a new body in the style of a Precision Lyte and transferred everything else over:
I made it fully reversible so, if he ever wanted to sell it, he could revert to stock and not lose any of the value.
But two years later, it remains his 'go-to' bass and he tells me he has no intention whatsoever of ever reverting to sell. And he still loves the sound-scape he gets from what is, essentially, a Stratocaster-equipped bass. So, 'could Andyjr1515 reshape the body, find a neck, make a black pickguard and find some lipsticks for it?'
My old man always used to say when I was beginning my career in industry, "Always tell 'em 'Yes' and then work out how you're going to do it afterwards."
So the answer was 'Yes'
A quick session on the bandsaw got me the basic outline:
With a potential lyre left over
Then the soul-destroying process of removing the finish (actually, not as bad as some):
The four dints were to acommodate the original Rascal bridge (odd design with projections on the bottom).
The bitsa bridge that Mike gave me would leave these showing so I'd have to think about that.
In the meantime a paddle-headed neck (30" shortscale but with 21 frets...a VERY unusual combination for a bass) sourced from Eden in the States arrived.
I added some black dots, a couple of ebony swifts for the 12th fret and a couple of swifts for the headstock (cut to a fairly traditional shape):
Just in case they showed, I decided to add a central cut out, make the dips proper straight-sided chambers and then carved some walnut to fit:
Then sanded all the edge profiles towards the finished shape and finally added a couple of coats of Chestnut spirit stain:
But basses usually have longer neck pockets to add a bit more oomph to the joint. Unusually, the Rascal has a guitar-style pocket. So, as I am also taking a bit of area off, I will go for machine screws and inserts to bolt it on with.
The one thing I have learnt is that the inserts for machine screws have to be in EXACTLY the right place. What I do nowadays is use a decent quality bradpoint drill of exactly the right size, clamp the neck in place, check the alignment and then use the bradpoints to mark my centres. Then off to the drill-press with the larger bradpoint. Note I use a radius block to make sure that the neck is completely square with the drill:
And inserts carefully inserted and sanded flush:
This view makes it look like the inserts are offset - it's just the thread...the holes themselves are exactly where they should be because if they are not, there is no way that the machine screws will fit.
And they do (phew! )
I've wiped-on Osmo Polyx satin on the body as the protective clear coat. The neck will use the WezV tru-oil method but actually using Danish Oil instead of Tru-oil for the neck.
I've also cut a scratch-plate from black plastic but - to add a different vibe - veneered it with ebony:
I've also taken a punt on an Artec set of lipsticks - the SD ones are around £125 EACH - and there's three of them:
It's getting closer...
:P
I reckon you should start something from scratch ...
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Does this mean I win, @TTony ???? Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty pleeeeeeeeease
What, again???
It also wasn't helped that I used one of those nice CTS DPDT push-pulls - the push pull is wonderful...but the pot itself was completely duff!!!
Anyway, in changing the pot, I also reverted to a standard tone/volume arrangement which worked fine.
The 5-way and push pull (bridge; bridge+middle; middle; middle+neck; neck; all three; neck+bridge), while pretty common for 6-string electrics is nevertheless a novelty on a Bass. Certainly, I don't know of any other bass that uses 3 pickups/this kind of combination.
I lined the control chamber area of the scratchplate with copper foil and did the biz. Forgot to take a pic with the replacement push/pull but this is broadly how it looked with the CTS still fitted: