LowDown Basses #001 & #002

Here are the very first 2, in what will hopefully be a long line, of LowDown Bass Guitars.  These two basses represent my discovery of building and repair and how much I have come to love it.  I learned so much in the process of building these and am very excited to see how #003 & #004 turn out… stay tuned!  Special thanks to JLee Photography for the photos. (And no these are not for sale, I'm keeping these 2!)
Specs.
LowDown Basses #001
"The Koa Jazz"
Ash Body/Mahogany Veneers/Figured Koa top and back
Maple Neck/Rosewood Fretboard
Aguilar OBP3 Preamp (Bass/Treble/Mid -push/pull freq./Active-Passive Switch)
Nordstrand MM 4.4 w/3 way coil switch and Nordstrand NJ4SV pickups
Hipshot Ultralite Tuners/Gotoh 201 Bridge/Dulop Dual Design Straplocks. Gold

LowDown Basses #002

"Fire Red P Bass" (Strung with LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats!)

Basswood Body/Custom Fire Red Sparkle Finish

Maple Neck/Rosewood Fretboard/Quilted-Birdseye Maple Headstock Cap

LowDown Quilted-Birdseye Maple Veneer Pickguard

Nordstrand NP4 pickup/Passive/CTS Pots/Orange Drop Cap.

Hipshot Transtone Bridge/Hipshot HB2 Tuners/Dunlop Dual Design Straplocks. Chrome

Here are links to see the build history for both basses.

Koa Jazz - http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/my-koa-jazz-bass-project-first-timer-971224/

Fire Red P Bass (also LowDown Basses #003) - http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/2nd-build-nostalgia-bass-1030067/

Joel Norman's Guitars and a Michael Kelly Acoustic Bass

Things stay pretty basic this time around with 2 guitars and 1 bass.

1st up is 2 guitars that belong to my good friend and musician extraordinaire S. Joel Norman. 

The Strat got a re string, setup and cleaned and tightened all the hardware.  Here is a pic of the happy guitar!

Then I tackled his nice, well worn Guild Acoustic.  First it got a re string and a thorough cleaning.  Then I tackled replacing the broken input jack.  The jack had ceased to hold a cable in place.  I removed the nut and tried un screwing the jack.  It didn't budge.  I tried tapping it loose with a hammer and wood block.  Nothing.  I tried wrenching it off with pliers.  Not a budge.  So I brought it over to my good friend Carl Pedigo to take a look.  He went at with a bunch of tools before finding a clamping wrench and rotating it counter clockwise.  Then he was able to work it the rest of the way out.  It had actually threaded into the wood of the guitar because the hole wasn't reamed out properly, you can see what it did to the guitar below.

Then I pulled out and disconnected the old jack.  It was in pretty rough shape.

And installed the new one.

And finished up by fixing the new jack to the body.  

Finally, I replaced a broken nut on a Michael Kelly acoustic bass that I wanted to sell.  The old one broke while re stringing.  Here is a picture of the final, hand carved bone nut.

11.  S Joel Norman's guitars and a Michael Kelly Bass

- Re string, setup, tightened hardware, cleaned Strat

- Re string, cleaned Guild acoustic

- Replaced broken jack with Fishman Stereo Jack

- Removed old nut and installed hand carved bone nut on Michael Kelly Bass

- Re String, cleaned, setup, tightened hardware on bass

Arthur's Brubaker Brute 5 string

Next up is some work on a bass that belongs to a student of mine. He has a Brubaker Brute bass which is Brubaker's "budget" line of basses.  Arthur had Villex pickups in the bass and wanted to match them with a Villex preamp.  He was able to find one and asked me to install it.  It definitely turned into more than just a simple preamp swap.
First off, I took off the pickguard to take a look at what was in this thing electronics wise.

To my surprise I realized that it was wired passive and the battery leads were just hanging free.  Also, I was surprised to see the shielding job in there.  Not the cleanest and solder everywhere.
I proceeded to take off the strings and find that the E String bridge saddle didn't have a intonation screw or spring.

Also in the process of taking the strings off I found that the B String tuning key and become smashed and was clamping the end of the B String.

I was able to work the string out then attempted to just bend the tuner back in place.  No dice, it broke.
I set about ordering the new parts needed and disconnected all the controls in the cavity and taped off the pickup and battery leads.

Then I tried to make sense of the Villex "preamp" Arthur gave me.  First off, there were 4 knobs that just looked like simple pots and one with a strange module on it.

I was able to eventually figure out that the system was setup for two volume controls and a 3 band EQ. I taped off the volume knobs for future reference.

After a lot of searching I was able to find out the preamp was a Villex passive NVT tone module.  I was also able to find 2 Villex wiring diagrams online.  One was for 2 volumes using all 4 of the pickup lead wires and a 2 band preamp, and the other was for pickups with 2 wires and a 3 band preamp.  I eventually called and talked to WIlliam Villex and he informed me that the Villex classic pickups in the bass were not meant to work with the NVT preamp.  I was surprised but decided to give it a go and wire it up anyways.

It appeared everything was working when I wired it up.  Although, when I was doing the tap test I noticed one of the EQ knobs seemed to be working much more than the others.
This bass previously only had 4 holes in the pickguard for preamp and 1 for the output jack.  Obviously the NVT is a 5 knob system so I had to install a side mounted input jack.  I started by matching the curvature of the jack to the butt end of the bass and seeing if it would work with the pre existing control cavity.  I found my spot and drilled a pilot hole to where I wanted it to be installed.

Then I dug out the area with the smallest Forstner bit that would work for the size of the jack.

I also drilled the screw mounting holes for the jack.  The jack route didn't lead directly to the control cavity so I had to drill a hole for the lead and ground wires to the jack.

Then I wired everything up and was getting a really bad buzz.  Double checked all my grounds and even swapped out the pot on the module.  Realized that I had my output jack wired backwards.  Fixed that and set the controls and jack into their respective cavities.

Then I attached everything to the pickguard and closed it up to make sure it would fit.  Here is a shot of the jack fully installed.

I added some extra foam under the pickups to boost em up a little higher.  The original foam was pretty compressed.

I also replaced one of the pickup screws which had stripped.  Then I also found out the pickguard screw hole at the control are tip above had stripped out.  Because of it's important placement I decided to plug the hole and re drill for the screw to hold tight.
Then I installed the new tuner, and the new bridge saddle.  Ended up swapping out the volume pots with some nice CTS pots I had in the shop. Strung it up with some D'Addario Nickels, gave it a setup, tightened all the hardware, rubbed down the back of the neck with some #0000 steel wool and hit it with some wax to smooth it out.  Plugged it and was very surprised to find out that the bass actually sounded real good.  The Villex pickups have a very high output and I am sure that is what William was talking about with problems paired with the NVT.  The NVT works like multiple passive tone controls.  When the tone knobs are all the way open the signal is passing thru unaltered.  Rolling down the knobs starts to bleed the frequencies from the output. The high end is a dead ringer for a jazz bass style passive tone control.  The bass knob removed a little bit of low end which was useful since these pickups are so hot. The mid knob was the most dramatic and added in a significant scooped mids sound that I suspect in small doses would be nice for slapping.
Here she is all ready for her owner

10.  Arthur's Brubaker Brute
- Installed Villex NVT tone control system
- Installed side mounted input jack
- Installed new B String tuner and E string intonation screw and spring
- Setup, re string, clean, tightened hardware

Epiphone AccuBass Restoration

Up next is an Epiphone AccuBass I picked up on craigslist as a restoration project.
When I originally picked this thing up it was in decent shape but definitely had some issues.  The bridge was missing the G String saddle, it wasn't strung up and there were the usual cosmetic issues associated with a used bass.  Plus, upon further inspection I found that the E string tuner was loose and there was a small crack near the tuning peg.
So, first I went to work on the tuner issue.  I plugged the hole with a dowel first.

I let the glue settle and then trimmed the dowel down to size.  Then I redrilled the tuner hole and reinstalled the tuner.  Viola! Problem solved.  Next thing I wanted to do was take a look inside at the electronics guts.  I took everything off and noticed that the pickup was not really in the best of shape.
So I installed Seymour Duncan Basslines P Pickup

Unfortunately, upon further inspection I found that the pickup winding lead had become disconnected from the pickup.  So I took the SD pickup out until I can get it fixed up. I had an active EMG P pickup in the shop from another part out project, so I threw that one in there instead.  Also, by some miracle, I had the exact same bridge from a part out.  So I just removed one of the saddles from the other bridge and threw it on this one.

Then I strung it up with some brand new Ernie Ball round wounds, gave it a setup, and cleaned everything up.  Gave the back of the neck the usual scotchbrite pad rub down and a little wax to smooth it down.  And now she is all ready for a new owner.

9.  Epiphone AccuBass Restoration
- Repaired broken E string tuner mount
- Repaired bridge
- Swapped stock pickups for EMG active P bass pickups
- Re string (roundwounds), setup, cleaned, tightened hardware

Makaya McCraven's Ibanez EX

Sticking with the theme of drummers and purple ibanez basses… here is Makaya McCraven's purple P/J Ibanez.  I had a rehearsal a couple weeks back with Makaya and mentioned that I would love to take a crack at fixing this one up.  He agreed and told me he wanted flats and for it to play and sound more like a P Bass.

First thing I noticed was the nut had some pieces of what looked like toilet paper wedged under the string (work courtesy of the one and only Josh Ramos I hear.  Next time use aluminum foil).  So obviously the nut slot was cut too low.  I tried to pop the nut out to shim it and unfortunately broke it in the process.  So this one got a new nut (with some serious help from my good friend Carl Pedigo)

Next thing I noticed was that this thing had some serious mojo built up on it.  So I went thru the usual process of cleaning everything.  Wiping down the board to remove the funk and hitting it with a little Howards Feed N Wax.  Then I noticed that the back of the neck had some pretty serious gunk build up.    You can see it in the discolored areas in the pic.

So to remedy that I went at the back of the neck with a grey scotch brite pad for a few minutes until it was gone.  Then I hit the back of the neck with some Howards as well.

Plugged it in and noticed the tone knob wasn't working at all.  Opened up the cavity and found out why

Capacitor was not hooked up correctly, plus the 2nd volume pot was wired straight to the jack.  Re-wired everything and replaced the battery and the foam around the battery in the cavity.

Then I strung it up with the flats and gave it a setup all around.  

Good as new (almost…)

 8.  Makaya McCraven's Ibanez EX bass
- Replaced Nut
- "De-Gunked" finish on back of neck
- Re wired electronics
- New strings (flats), setup, cleaned, tightened hardware

Andre Beasley's Ibanez GT

Just got this one last night.  Was on a gig with drummer Andre Beasley and he mentioned he was having some issues with his bass and was wondering if I knew anybody who could look at it.  I said me obviously! Luckily he had it on the gig with him, so I grabbed it and brought it home.  He said the action was too low especially in the first few frets and there was a crackling noise from the electronics.  So first thing I looked at was the setup issues.  As I suspected the nut was cut too low.  To confirm it I put a little aluminum foil under the E string (which was the worst) and restrung it.  Helped significantly.  So I figured this would be a great candidate for a nut shim.  First thing was to pop off the nut. Then I grabbed some maple veneer I had laying around and rough cut out a shim piece with a razor blade.

Then I cleaned up the shape and glued the shim into place.  Waited a bit for the glue to dry and then carved out the truss rod access area with my exacto knife.

Then glued the nut back on and re strung the bass up.  Huge difference.  Lower notes were playing much better.  Gave the bass a setup all around and cleaned it and gave the fretboard a little rub down with some Howards.
I plugged it in and played it for awhile and no buzzing or crackling.  Opened up the cavity and took a look at the preamp.  This thing actually had a circuit board in the control cavity (old school!).  Everything looked normal but to be honest, this kind of electronic setup is a little out of my comfort range.  So if it keeps making noise I will refer Andre to my good buddy Carl Pedigo.
7. Andre's Ibanez GT 4 string
- Shimmed Nut
- Setup
- Cleaned

Same kid, different disappointment

So here is the next one up.  This was a Squier Affinity Precision bass brought to me by my buddy Luke Malewicz.  This was his students, the owner of the SX bass I worked on before with the busted truss rod.  Well this kid has no luck with basses apparently.  The bass looked just like this.

So Luke gave me this one just saying that it wasn't making any sound (again!?).  So I opened it up and found this

The wiring was all goofy.  I don't know who wired this, if it was the factory or another repair guy, but it was weird.  So I found a P Bass wiring diagram and completely re wired it.  I was getting sound know but a lot of buzz and not a lot of signal.  Tried an alternative wiring, but same issues.  So I called my good friend Carl Pedigo and brought it over to his shop.  He double checked my wiring and found an issue.  When I went about re wiring everything I had forgotten to ground the volume pot.  He fixed that up and the hum was mostly gone.  But we were still not getting very much signal.  Carl took out the pickup and checked it with the multimeter.  It was reading all over the place.  Turns out there was a problem with wiring inside the pickup.  So that explained the low output and remaining hum.  Brought the bass back to Luke.  We will see if the kid wants to get the pickup replaced.  If he does, this will be back on my bench soon.

6. Squier Affinity P Bass

- Rewired electronics

- Cleaned and Setup

- P Pickup broken