Next up thru the shop is a BC Rich Gunslinger guitar that belongs to Shawn Makarov. Shawn has a refinishing shop here in town and actually did the lacquer finish on LowDown Basses #003. Shawn had refinished this guitar himself and wanted someone with a little more knowledge of repair work to re assemble it.
So pretty straight forward here. I started by bolting the neck back onto the body. Then I tackled the tuners and bridge system. This was my first time working with a Floyd Rose and found it to be a really cool bridge. Took me a minute to get the bridge angle just right but got it dialed in eventually. Then I got the nut installed and also got the neck pickup installed.
After that I strung it up to get an idea of where the action was and also to get the floyd rose really dialed in.
I was waiting on Shawn to choose a bridge pickup and eventually he decided on an EMG passive humbucker. I got everything wired up but was having trouble with the neck pickup working in series. It was fine in parallel but really weak signal in series. Double checked my wiring a few times and eventually just decided to wire both pickups in parallel.
Here is the guitar all put back together and setup and happy!
17. Shawn's BC Rich Gunslinger
- Completely reassembled guitar including re installation of all hardware and re wired in new pickups
- Re string, setup, cleaned, etc
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Friday, August 29, 2014
Joel's Guitar and Joel's Bass
Up next thru the shop were two instruments each owned by a different Joel.
First up, a Fender Japanese P bass Special owned by Chicago bassist Joel Kelsey. I did some setup work on Joel's main bass, a very nice Sadowsky, a little while back. When I was there I was checking out this P bass and Joel had mentioned it could use some love. I had him bring it by the shop so I could check it out. Originally I thought it had some nut issues but after checking it out I realized it just needed somme fret work.
So I did my usually process of taking of the strings, cleaning everything up, and then taped of the fingerboard.
I leveled the frets as best as I could. Unfortunately there was a pretty serious hump in the fingerboard so I couldn't get it quite as level as I wanted. But all in all it was a big improvement. Crowned, polished and re strung the bass up. Started doing my usual setup process and noticed that I couldn't get the pickup height dialed in like I wanted to. Joel said one of his main issues with this bass was that it sounded kind of weak and thin. I double checked all the electronics and they seemed solid. It is a passive bass so good pickup height is very important. Opened things up and found this.
Definitely not a very good foam job. So I placed some pickup foam under both pickups and added height adjustment screws. Got the height dialed in and finished the setup and here she is!
Next up was my good friend and all around great musician Joel Norman's Ibanez semi hollow Artcore guitar. Joel was having problems mostly with the jack… because it was inside the guitar :)
So pretty straight forward here. Got the jack fished thru the side hole, added an extra locking washer for extra support.
Then I re string the guitar with a nice set of flats and gave it a setup, cleaning, etc. Came out playing great and sounding way better with the flats.
16. 2 Joel's - 2 Instruments
- Fender P Bass Special. Fret Level. Setup, Re String Cleaned, Adjusted pickup height foam and added springs.
- Ibanez Artcore Guitar. Repaired detached input jack. Re String, Setup, Cleaned.
First up, a Fender Japanese P bass Special owned by Chicago bassist Joel Kelsey. I did some setup work on Joel's main bass, a very nice Sadowsky, a little while back. When I was there I was checking out this P bass and Joel had mentioned it could use some love. I had him bring it by the shop so I could check it out. Originally I thought it had some nut issues but after checking it out I realized it just needed somme fret work.
So I did my usually process of taking of the strings, cleaning everything up, and then taped of the fingerboard.
I leveled the frets as best as I could. Unfortunately there was a pretty serious hump in the fingerboard so I couldn't get it quite as level as I wanted. But all in all it was a big improvement. Crowned, polished and re strung the bass up. Started doing my usual setup process and noticed that I couldn't get the pickup height dialed in like I wanted to. Joel said one of his main issues with this bass was that it sounded kind of weak and thin. I double checked all the electronics and they seemed solid. It is a passive bass so good pickup height is very important. Opened things up and found this.
Definitely not a very good foam job. So I placed some pickup foam under both pickups and added height adjustment screws. Got the height dialed in and finished the setup and here she is!
Next up was my good friend and all around great musician Joel Norman's Ibanez semi hollow Artcore guitar. Joel was having problems mostly with the jack… because it was inside the guitar :)
So pretty straight forward here. Got the jack fished thru the side hole, added an extra locking washer for extra support.
Then I re string the guitar with a nice set of flats and gave it a setup, cleaning, etc. Came out playing great and sounding way better with the flats.
16. 2 Joel's - 2 Instruments
- Fender P Bass Special. Fret Level. Setup, Re String Cleaned, Adjusted pickup height foam and added springs.
- Ibanez Artcore Guitar. Repaired detached input jack. Re String, Setup, Cleaned.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Rickenbacker 2060 El Dorado Restoration
A few months back I came across a Rickenbacker bass on craigslist that I didn't recognize. After a little research I found out it is a rare Rickenbacker 2060 El Dorado. From what I can tell they were made in the nineties as a "alternative" to the traditional Rick models. I was looking for a restoration example for the shop and this one seemed to fit the bill. The guy didn't really realize what he had and I got it for a great price.
When I went to pick it up I found it to be in way worst shape than the ad had lead me to believe. But I decided it was still too good to pass up. Here are some pics I took of the bass when I got it home.
The headstock was all dinged up and sporting an odd Aria chrome tuner.
The maple fretboard was nasty and had cigarette burns by the headstock. Frets were very worn, especially in the lower notes.
The neck and body…
And the pickguard and hardware… it was in pretty bad shape.
I started by removing all the stock hardware and cleaning it. I found out that pretty much all the intonation screws for the bridge were stripped. I managed to get them all off and replaced them with some stock screws I had in the shop.
Got the neck separated from the body. You can see the spider webs and cracks in the finish on the body.
Another shot of the pickguard and electronics, this time with the bridge removed.
Here is a shot of the controls still hooked up. Pretty interesting setup. 3 way pickup selector switch and a master volume and tone control.
And the controls separated from the pickups…
And here is a shot of the underside of the pickups. Another interesting aspect of this bass is the pickup height that is adjusted from some hex screws on the backside of the body.
Here is the body completely stripped of hardware…
The next thing I tackled was the neck. First was to plug the mounting hole from the odd Aria tuner.
The hole for the actual tuning machine was a little bigger than the others but I tried out one of the other stock tuners and it fit reasonably well and seemed sturdy.
Then I started removing the frets.
Then I started removing the frets.
After that, I sanded down the maple fretboard to remove the gunk.
Then I started tackling the binding. The finish over the binding had become discolored and was chipping off all over the place.
So I started stripping off the chipped finish with a razor blade to make things a little easier for whoever was going to do the finish stripping. Here is a shot of the binding stripped and sanded smooth.
Then I sanded off the finish on the neck with 120 grit and sanded it down to 300. Then I applied a french polish with Tru Oil which came out really nice. Really complimented the subtle flame in the maple. Here is a shot of the headstock after the last coat of Tru Oil.
Next up was to make a new pickguard. I ordered a white sheet from Stew Mac and traced around the original pickguard to get a rough shape.
Then, using double sided tape, I taped the original pickguard onto the rough shaped one and used the original as a template and shaped and sanded accordingly.
And here is the new one side by side with the original.
The neck was ready for the re fret and the body was ready for stripping and re finishing.
After some research I found out about Marty Bell and after seeing his work decided he would be a great candidate for the body refinish. He was great to deal with and had a really quick turn around time and was very reasonably priced for the work that had to be done (especially considering all the binding).
Here some pics Marty sent me after the re finish. He did an amazing job!
After some research I found out about Marty Bell and after seeing his work decided he would be a great candidate for the body refinish. He was great to deal with and had a really quick turn around time and was very reasonably priced for the work that had to be done (especially considering all the binding).
Here some pics Marty sent me after the re finish. He did an amazing job!
Once I got the body back I ordered all the period correct hardware. This bass was originally equipped with Schaller Tuners which are more or less identical to the Scahller M4 tuners which are made now. The bridge was an early model Roller bridge. The newer Schaller Roller bridges have three mounting screws instead of 4 like this early model and the footprint of the early model is slightly different. I was able to find the same exact knobs on the Pick O The Ricks website. I also ordered new gold pickguard screws as well as a new gold input jack plate.
Here are the electronics, knobs and pickguard installed.
Here are the electronics, knobs and pickguard installed.
And here is the sidejack plate…
And the Roller bridge…
I am still trying to acquire all the necessary tools for a re fret so for the time being I brought this one to my good friend and expert repairman Carl Pedigo (a.k.a The Chicago Bass Doctor) for the re fret. He did an amazing job as usual.
Once I got the neck back from him I installed the tuners and the nut. There is tiny gap from the odd Aria tuner but you can barely see it from the back of the headstock.
Once I got the neck back from him I installed the tuners and the nut. There is tiny gap from the odd Aria tuner but you can barely see it from the back of the headstock.
Then I hit the neck with some Howards Feed N Wax and tried to buff out some minor scratches that came from Carl's neck jig.
Then I strung it up and started to dial in a setup. I decided to shim the nut to accommodate for the new frets. I filed down the nut slots to get things just right and then dialed in the rest of the setup. Then I screwed the truss rod cover/emblem back on and BAM! Here she is all restored and setup. The bass plays really nicely and the tone of this thing is very unique.
The original neck plate with serial number…
And here are some of the comments from Talkbass.com
- "very nice. love these start-to-finish bass rescue threads. thanks for sharing."
- "Nice restoration on one of Rickenbacker's sleepers"
- "Tslice - excellent refin job. Nothing better than a bass "brought back to life". Congrats!"
- "Man I don't know how I missed this when you first did it wow is that pretty congrats on breathing new life into a great instrument."
15. Rickenbacker 2060 El Dorado
- Complete restoration including Re Finish, Re Fret, new gold hardware.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
LowDown Basses #004
Here are the finished shots of LowDown Basses #004. This bass is for sale! Email me @ Tslice4@yahoo.com if you are interested in purchasing it. Very affordable instrument! Hand rubbed oil finish on the neck. Quality bridge and tuners. And it weighs just under 7 lbs with no neck dive!
#003 is in the finishing stages right now.
LowDown Basses #004
"The Pawlonia P"
Lightweight Pawlonia wood body/Vintage Ivory finish/White-Black-White pickguard
Maple neck(subtle birdseye)/Rosewood Fretboard
Seymour Duncan SPB-2 P pickup/Passive/CTS Pots/White pickup covers
BadAss II bridge/Hipshot Ultralite Tuners
Strung with LaBella Deep Talkin' Flatwound strings
You can see parts of this bass build and #003 here
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/2nd-build-the-nostalgia-bass.1030067/
#003 is in the finishing stages right now.
LowDown Basses #004
"The Pawlonia P"
Lightweight Pawlonia wood body/Vintage Ivory finish/White-Black-White pickguard
Maple neck(subtle birdseye)/Rosewood Fretboard
Seymour Duncan SPB-2 P pickup/Passive/CTS Pots/White pickup covers
BadAss II bridge/Hipshot Ultralite Tuners
Strung with LaBella Deep Talkin' Flatwound strings
You can see parts of this bass build and #003 here
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/2nd-build-the-nostalgia-bass.1030067/
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