Makeover time! take a photo journey with me

[smallequestrian]

This is how I originally found her.

Upon closer inspection I encountered two frightful things...
First the Bridge:

Egads!
Then the Fretboard...

Zoinks Scoob!
A little elbow grease and problems were mostly alleviated. One small problem, I don't like that pickguard with a maple neck and that body color. It kinda gives the effect of
"Hey man is that your pickguard or did your (maple) neck throw up." So off to Pickguard Heaven I go. Two weeks later (today) it arrives...Lets take a peek under the covers shall we.

I may like my woman naked and dirty, but not my bass...

Ahhhhh...much better. I could now eat off it, but I think that would get in the way of me rockin' out on "Smoke on the Water" and "Higher Ground"

And now...the PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE...

Yes, its a cream/black/cream guard, and now much mo betta.
And lastly, back with the fam

See how close the Rev and the Stingray are. The SR5 knows her days are numbered.

Also just found out today that my Bongo will ship to the dealer in the next two weeks. My ebongolation is emminent!

 

[phatduckk]

very nice ... the PG color is sweet!!!

 

[bovinehost]

Man, that bass was nasty, but at least you know someone played the living daylights out of it - so it's a good one.

I worry about older basses that have no signs of wear.

I liked that first pickguard, but it does look better now.

Nice!

 

[NorM]

I thought that was cool.
Thank you for sharing. The fact that it was dirty means it was loved. Now go put some of your own dirty love on it.

 

[Psychicpet]

Very nice indeed. that green is a great shade, I believe the bass they used in the "Tony on a motorcycle" print ad had that same colour combo w/the black pearloid p/g

 

[kn38ms]

Wow, she cleaned up real nice. Did you fine sand or lemon oil that fingerboard

 

[smallequestrian]

Wow, she cleaned up real nice. Did you fine sand or lemon oil that fingerboard

Both!

 

[pattiejay]

Wow, she cleaned up real nice. Did you fine sand or lemon oil that fingerboard

yeah - very impressed by your cleaning job!
i too wanna know how you got the maple 'board SOO nice? don't think you're supposed to use lemon oil on maple...

 

[pattiejay]

just got answered...cool

 

[kn38ms]

Both!

Of course you 0000 steelwooled the back of the neck.

Topped off with Birchwood Casey oil & wax...mmmm smooth

 

[bovinehost]

Lemon oil on maple is fine when used sparingly and infrequently.

 

[jongitarz]

You should check the intonation...It looks off.

 

[Psychicpet]

good catch.

 

[kn38ms]

Old, nappy maple fingerboards are cool cuz' you can see what notes
are used the most. I would love to see some of Jamerson's would have looked like

 

[Bill]

Nice work! I love the body color & new pickguard. Looks great!

 

[smallequestrian]

You should check the intonation...It looks off.

Please explain, are you refering to how the bridge is set?

 

[Psychicpet]

I do think so, the E saddle is back then the A and D saddles are forward and the G saddle is back.... not normally condusive to being an in tune stringed instrument

it almost seems like the original owner didn't want to adjust the height of the saddles but to get a radius on the strings to follow the fingerboard he just put the saddles where he did.

 

[Psychicpet]

just to confuse before the big dog gets here...
if you look at a Dingwall bass' bridge that's the best visual representation in my mind. the E saddle should be the furthest back and then the other saddles should be a little closer to the nut as the string gets higher in pitch. not sure of the exact mathematical equations but that's usually the best way to start.

with your tuner play an open E then hit the harmonic at the 12th fret then fret the 12th to see if they're all "E" then follow suit for the other strings

 

[smallequestrian]

Thanks for pointing this out. Well, I just spent some quality time with my tuner. I lowered the E string a bit since the action was too high for my liking anyways. The bridge now looks like this.

The G string was perfectly intonated where it was. The others, not so much. I started moving everything back while testing areas around the fretboard. The 'A' string was about 20% sharp at the octave, it was the worst off. Intonation is much improved now, although I will do more tweaking later. String response is pretty even, so I am not sure how much I need to mess with the string height, although I do tend to like lower action. Not sure why I never checked this before. I think I was wowed by the sound so much I had been ignoring the intonation.

This gives me great hope for my fretless playing

 

[Psycho Ward]

I've been messing with my SR4, I lowered the strings, bent the neck and adjusted the pup. Thanks to the members and staff here I had the confidence to do my own setup. It smokes now, but will have some ongoing fine tuning afterward.

I've got a friend that professes to be a guitar tech and he has a lot of tools and gauges but somehow adjusting the bass myself with a screwdriver, allen wrench and a beer untill it feels and sounds right is far more accerate and gives me options.

Anyway, Thanks Guys.

The SR4 is all I'm going to take to my gig this weekend!