Kage rebuilds a bass, Long live the Frankenbass!

[thekage]

So yesterday I picked up a cheap bass, Korean made, beat to hell and back. No manufacturer name or model number, no serial number either. It has a weird bridge setup and is short scale. Body looks like a strat copy with a sunburst finish with lots of abuse, dirt, and grime. Also has two knobs and two switches.All of the chrome hardware has lots of surface rust and discoloration. Neck and frets are all in good shape.

So I took the strings off and when I did, the nut came off with them.Also the screws holding the pick guard on were so rusted and striped... I tried lemon juice/vinegar/baking soda mixture to remove some of the rust, and it did remove a lot of rust from the screws. Which only served to show me exactly how striped the heads were anyway. So I drilled them out and got pick guard off.

What is weird to me is that the body has been routed for pickups.. but the pickups are not "through" the pick guard, they just set on top of it. There is no hole through the pick guard for the pickups.. interesting.

Now I am left with the problem of how to get the screws out of the body. I actually used a finger nail file to get them as close to the body as I could without scaring the wood. I will fill around them and sand them the rest of the way.

Body is going to be black hammered finish with a black pickguard.

I bought myself a new jazz bass bridge, two jazz pickups, new wiring and pots, and tuners from a P bass.. im currently in the painting process and waiting on all this stuff to come in.

PICS!!!

[xekushnr]

Nice project you got there. Are you replacing the hardware or will you just clean the old stuff? I'm surprised the neck and frets are in decent shape based on how the rest of the guitar looks. Keep us updated!

[1unar3clipse]

yeah boi!

Ever Consider Bartolini for pickups? a little pricey but oh so worth it.

Man I've had my neck-thru 6 string sitting at home for months now, still can't decide on a bridge.

What kind of rig you got?

[thekage]

Nice project you got there. Are you replacing the hardware or will you just clean the old stuff?

I ordered a new bridge, new pickups, new tuners, and new knobs..wiring.. pots.. ect.

Ever Consider Bartolini for pickups?

What kind of rig you got?

Yes I did consider them, but I didn't want active right now as I am learning bass and very poor. Right now I have no rig.. im looking for a decent bass amp combo with 100watts+ for cheap, again because I'm poor.

[Papi Chulo]

You've inspired me to make a project out of my Fender standard strat which I've had since 2001 or so. Black body + tortoise shell pick guard= sex imo

[thekage]

I love black and tortoise shell combo.. I want to buy a jazz bass with that combo.

Might I suggest http://www.guitarpartsresource...x.htm for parts.. great guys, they also sell on ebay.