06 April, 2015

The work on the Saturn continues! Starting a fun project. Hot rodding a cheap bass guitar!

I haven't posted up much about it because, well let's be honest, the rate of progress has been embarrassingly slow. The air conditioning compressor clutch needs a pulley puller to remove, that I KNEW I owned at one time, but appears in the intervening years to have sprouted legs and walked off. And that power steering pump. I got the pulley pressed off, and on the new one, swapped the tank, put a new O ring in, swapped the lines over, went to bolt the new pump assembly in place, and not all of the bolts line up quite right. I mean the holes are where they are supposed to be, I can feel them out with a screwdriver and it all seems to line up, but for some reason, the bottom and rear bolts just don't want to start... So progress continues, in fits and starts...

My wife and I have made great strides in getting the shop clean, including getting her nearly a dozen large flower pots, 3 huge bags of potting soil, and a wide assortment of various chairs, coolers, and other riffraff out of the shop. Sadly in the process, one of the rungs in the attic staircase gave up the ghost under my not inconsiderable weight. I removed it entirely and am going to use it as a template for a new, and much better model, including MUCH greater reinforcement to resist the downward force of my heft and the stuff going up and down the stairs! If you follow my progress on BT3Central / Sawdustzone you know I have been losing a considerable amount of weight following Dr. ordered weight loss plan.... So far so good, but so far to go!

In what free time I have outside of my studies, blogging here, working in the shop, etc... I also play the electric bass guitar. I have my heart set of getting good enough, and getting into a Praise and Worship team at my church. I am also a big Rush enthusiast, and deeply enjoy the work and sound of Geddy Lee. To that end, I have found that my older Ibanez PJ active basses just weren't up to the task, and my budget wasn't up to a Geddy Lee Signature Fender Jazz bass, not to mention I don't care for the look of black body / walnut neck. So a bit of reasearch into what I like, and a project is born....

I wanted something unique to me, which wasn't going to be easy, since I also wanted a Fender Jazz style bass. My budget dictated something dirt cheap, yet decent enough to mod properly...

That to my knowledge left 2 options. Squier by Fender, and SX basses. Being that Squier is a Fender product, and is pretty much just the bottom line of their product offerings, I opted to start there, with the low end of the totem pole model, the Affinity Series Jazz Bass, for several reasons. Budget would have allowed for a James Johnston Signature bass, but that instrument is based around an Agathis body, which tends to be too light, and neck dives, making the instrument harder for me to play, and it uses the Classic Vibe pickups which sound different from the Seymour Duncan provided "Duncan Designed" pickups from the Vintage Modified series. AND I wanted a unique color, specifically  Burgundy Mist, a color Fender sourced from I believe it was either Buick or Oldsmobile in 1959. I have seen several Burgundy Mist Stratocasters in live performances, but never a bass... Although several can be seen online...

I know, it's sort of a pinkish, purplish color but it just looks so awesome in person, and honestly I have no problems with how I roll so to heck with people that are going to say it's a girly color... Hey if the girlies like it, then fine....


Now being that this is an Affinity series instrument it lacks the glossy neck finish which others like, but I prefer the silky satin finish of this neck, it features an Alder body, with just the right weight balance, and decent although not great pickups, they are serviceable...

I wanted to do some cosmetic modifications when I stumbled across a classified ad, and a problem... The problem, inherent in many Fender instruments, as well as many other brands, is that I was getting BAD, and I mean REALLY bad RF interference within the electronics, specifically the pickups and wiring, that I was getting a terrible buzzing only at certain times of day, when I played with my hands off of the strings and not touching metal such as when letting an open string ring out. I researched the problem and found a good number of Howto articles on shielding the cavities, and pickups that, well I had to do it.... At the same time, I found a set of the Duncan Designed Vintage Modified Jazz pickups in the classifieds for dirt cheap money... Well, like they say, combine need, with a desire to improve looks, and a project is born!

This bass, will be upgraded with...
#1. Full pickup cavity, and control cavity shielding. I haven't had the pick guard off yet, I know the bore for the wire between the bridge pickup and control cavity, and the bore for the bridge ground strap can't effectively be shielded, but pretty much everything else can. I will be using Corry's Slug And Snail repellent copper foil tape. I don't know for sure if the adhesive is conductive, reports conflict on that, I will test and post my results here on that...
#2. Swap pickups for the Duncan Designed pickups. They are in my possession and appear to have survived shipping okay... Will be shielding the pickups as well. The idea is NONE of the copper foil tape shielding should be visible...
#3. Swap out the pick guard. I selected a special pick guard that sadly has to ship from China, the measurements are spot on right, and if the photos are correct, the look is exactly what I am going for, very classy, and vintage looking.
#4. I despise standard Fender / Squier L metal bridge plates. They scream cheap, cheaper, cheapest. I sourced up a Squier Classic Vibe 60s 4 string High Mass cast bridge with brass saddles for dirt cheap money. Reports on these fitting properly conflict as well. They LOOK right, and SOME folks say they are a direct replacement bolt on piece, some say you need to fill and drill. I hae a small piece of 4/4 Alder a set of General Plug Cutters, and a bottle of Titebond III at the ready if I need to fill & drill... I mean lots of guys go with a string through type bridge so what's my little High Mass project compared to that?
#5. I will be color matching the headstock in the Burgundy Mist, adding an OEM type copy decal to keep the branding right, except I am going to have a minor change made, My current one says Squier by Fender J-Bass. I want the new one to say Squier by Fender Jazz Bass.The truncated print on the decal is a cost shaving measure, and a hokey as snot one... Once the paint and slide decal are "just so" I will be treating it to at least 3 coats of clear coat for the perfect finish!
#6. Lastly, I will be kicking the Fender OEM strings to the curb. Factory strings, particularly Factory Fender strings, are somewhat like factory table saw blades, good enough at first, but seriously lacking in performance or accuracy... I have a set of D'Addario XLNickel rounds in 45-100 that are spares for my Ibanezes, I plan on keeping the same strings on them all, so off with the Fenders, on with the D'Addarios...

All supplies for this project are either in my inventory, or on order being shipped in except for the paint and decals, I am trying to find the best sources for them...

Today, the Duncan Designed pickups arrived in the mail, used pull outs bought on the cheap, I wasn't expecting foam blocked and anti static everything, but I also wasn't expecting this sort of packaging either....


I somewhat concerned unpacked them and inspected the contents, it appears at least at this time, that the packaging was sufficient...


There was also included a bag of the hold down screws, and the foam blocks that bgo between the body and the pickups.
With any luck and a break in the other projects, you will be seeing some more photo posts of progress there, and with the growth in my skills there, maybe, just maybe, you'l hear some funky new theme music!

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