Rogue Vogue's USA Fender P/J bass

Next up is a repair for my good friend and DJ/producer Rogue Vogue a.k.a drummer extraordinaire Jonathan Marks.  Jonathan wanted this bass back to functional for use in his studio.  He wanted to have a bass that could cop the old school 70's funk and disco vibe.  We decided on flat wounds for the strings to help.  Took the bass out of the case and noticed a few things right off the bat.  This thing was looking pretty rough.  Lots of mojo on this one, chips and scratches and dents galore.  The strap button on the horn was ripped off and a huge gap was there instead. Plus there was what looked like finish cracks all around the top horn.  After some further investigation it turned out that it was actually just really old duct tape residue.  So I went at the body with some cleaner and rubbing alcohol to get all the grime off.  It's looking much better already.

And here is a shot of the repair to the horn from where the strap button got ripped out.  Patched it with dowel and wood glue.

So then I plugged it in and noticed that with the cable all the way in there was no sound.  Started to pull the cable out a bit and heard some sound.  Decided to open it up and take a look.  Removed all the pickguard screws and knobs and tightened up the jack.  That took care of it.  Then played tittie twister on the knobs for a minute or two to clean the pots out.  All good.  

The other major thing I noticed about this one was there were some pretty significant dings in the neck. They seemed like they were only in the finish.  So I figured that this would be a great candidate for a neck refinish.  I decided to use a technique that a lot of guys are using now for "relic-ing".  First thing was to tape off most the area I didn't want effected, especially any rosewood. I scrapped off the old finish on the neck with 60 grit sandpaper down to the bare wood.  Then sanded 150, 200 and 320 to get it nice and smooth.  Then put on the first oil finish coat (the soak coat).  Using tru oil for this one.  Here is a crappy shot of the neck after the first coat

You can see from the different colors where will be refinished.  

Update 10/24!

Final coat of finish is on the neck.  Here are some pics of the re-finish with Tru-Oil.  Really happy with the way this one came out.

You can even see some nice flame figuring popping out of the neck now.  The last coat needs to settle for at least a few days before buffing/polishing.

Removed all the tape that was protecting the fretboard and noticed the rosewood was looking pretty dry and crappy.  Rubbed it down with some alcohol than went at it with some Howard's Feed N Wax (love this stuff) and brought some life too it,

Flatwound strings and Dunlop Dual Design strap buttons installed.  Checked neck relief which was good… maybe could use a little tightening but I prefer slightly higher action on a P Bass.  Saddle height and intonation set.  Pickup height set.  Flatwounds are a little brighter than I had hoped (which is characteristic for the D'Addario flats from what I hear) which is fine because they will darken with time.  Here is a quick video of how the bass sounds.  All in all I am very happy with the way this one turned out.  Just need to buff and polish the neck in a couple days and this sucker is done.

4. Fender American Standard P/J Bass
-Re-Finished Neck
-Plugged strap button tear out hole. Replaced buttons with Dunlop Dual Design Straplocks
-Tightened up input jack.
-Setup/Intonate/Tightened hardware/Cleaned/Changed strings to Flatwound

2nd Repair... 1st disappointment

So for my second repair for Low Down Instrument Repair I will keep with the "friends who are band directors" theme.  This must mean I am getting old... all my musician friends are becoming teachers!
My buddy Luke has a student who is a bass player.  I grabbed this bass from Luke with the only explanation of what was wrong being "It doesn't work...at all.  No sound."  Pulled the bass out and noticed it is a decent looking SX bass.  Terrible finish on the body but some real nice figuring on the maple neck.

One major problem I noticed right away was the action.

NOW THAT IS SOME HIGH ACTION!  So first thing I did was to address the "No Sound" issue.  Took off the cavity cover and sure enough there it was.

The second wire connecting to the output jack was detached. So removed the broken wire and old solder and re-soldered up everything and it was good as new.  With one major issue.  The neck pickup was real weak on the E and A string.  I am guessing the pickup is partially dead.  Didn't look into it because as soon as I got the electronics working I got a call from Luke saying that this wasn't his students main bass... and his student didn't really care about this bass so I didn't have to repair it.  So I said screw the pickup and lets just try to get a set up going for fun.  Shimmed the neck and nothing changed.  Lowered the saddles and it helped a very little bit.  Went at the truss rod and surprisingly this thing was sporting a dual action truss rod.  I tried my best with the truss to make something happen but it always ended up the same.  The tension felt real weird with this bass and I could bend the neck WAY to much.  So my guess is the truss rod is busted.  I tried every possible adjustment and no luck.  So this one goes back to the student with slightly lower action (but still WAY TOO DAMN HIGH).  But hey, at least it is making sound now.  Best bet with this one would be to scrap the neck and pickups and sell the body and hardware.  I would not suggest anybody buy one of these basses.  The Squier seemed much better quality.  One thing that bothered me about both the SX and Squier was the gig bags my buddies gave them to me in.  They might as well just wrap the thing in a garbage bag.  I can't believe these companies charge for these gig bags.
3.  SX Jazz Bass
-Re soldered wires to output jack
- Attempted setup.  Truss rod more than likely broken.

First things First!

So my first two repairs for The Lowdown Instrument Repair shop were a pair of basses from my buddy Frank Alongi's school program in Lemont.
First was a Dean Edge 4 string bass.  One of these guys

So got the bass and plugged it in and no sound.  Opened up the cavity and it was a mess.  Wires disconnected and worn out.  Started de soldering all the wires/pots/etc.  Found a wiring diagram from Talkbass.com and re soldered everything.  The output jack was giving me real problems.  The wire lead was two parts in one and it was super skinny (hot and ground). Also was having trouble getting a good connection between the output jack hot lead and the jack terminal.  Eventually got it right... but this thing could have definitely used a complete rewiring (wasn't in the picture because of a short timeframe). Then gave it a good ole setup.  Removed and boiled/cleaned the strings, adjusted the truss rod, action and intonation and tightened all the hardware.  Polished her up and sent her on her way.
Then came #2.  A Squire Affinity jazz bass.

This one needed a new tuner and a lot of setup work.  Was looking online for a direct replacement tuner and had some trouble. Turns out now Squier uses the crappy, flimsy tuners on these basses.  This was an older model with a more traditional full back mount, clover style tuner.  Found what looked like a direct placement from allparts but they were sold out.  So eventually just replaced the broken tuner with one I had from a scrap Douglas jazz bass neck I have laying around.

Drilled some new holes and voila, it was on.  Very slight difference in the look but not noticeable to the untrained eye.  Then went setup crazy.  Shimmed the neck, adjusted the truss, action, intonation and slapped some new D'Addario strings on it.  Adjusted the pickup height and plugged it in to check it out.  Sounded great but when I unplugged the cable from the jack the bottom of the control plate just popped off.  The screw at the bottom of the plate had completely stripped out of the body.  So plugged it with a dowel and some wood glue, let it sit for 24 hours, redrilled,  and it was fixed.  Did a couple plug/unplug passes to make sure it was solid.  This one was feeling so good when I finished it that I brought it to my church gig and played it.

1. Dean Edge 4 String
-Setup/Clean/Tightened Hardware
-Repaired Electronics
2. Squier Affinity Jazz Bass
- Replaced broken tuning machine
- Setup/Clean/Tightened Hardware
- Shimmed Neck