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I thought I'd show you all my growing Bass collection and see if you can give me any advice. I've been a double bass player for years, but have recently gont to the darkside and gotten into electric basses, much easier to amplify and to carry around ;D Here's my first, it's a 60's Japanese Coronet, an SG knockoff with very cool scallops on the side and so much patina. $250. Unfortunately the neck is badly bowed and the truss rod appears to have had it's head snapped off so I have no idea how to fix it      Unfortunately the bent neck has made the Coronet unplayable for the time being, so I went out and got myself something modern, a near new Fender Squire J-Bass, also $250. SOO easy to play, real nice tone, but just not as sexy as the Coronet.    From the beginning I've had a love of hollow body basses, but they basically don't exist, certainly not within my budget, that is until I stumbled across this on the weekend. Its another 60's J bass and it owes me $170 after I splashed out on brand new strings. unfortunately it too has lots of work to do, the remaining pickup sounds great, so I desperately want another to match, but there's a horrible rattle somewhere, mostly when using the A string, the pickup and switch plate have been siliconed down and I'm afraid it looks like the neck has seen some gluing. This would be OK except it seems to be set at the wrong angle, after fitting the strings I've had to adjust the bridge basically to it's minimum and theres still over 10mm of action in the strings near the end of the neck. Anyone have any ideas of how to rectify this? the neck certainly looks period if not original?      |
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Remade In Australia
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Woah!
My bass is exactly as that Coronet, had no idea on the make of it.
I bought mine when I was 15 and it went through various finishes, including a John Squire/Jackson Pollock inspired splatter finish.
Funnily enough, my neck is bowed too, maybe they just weren't great quality. Always loved it though!
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would love to see some pics of yours alolympic, I've searched all over the net and not found a single one with those scallops in the body
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Remade In Australia
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awoo
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,507
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the hollow body looks suspiciously like a tiesco made J bass. they tend to be on the lesser end of build quality, the depth of the neck pocket is testament to that.
but anyway to sort the high action the best thing to do would be to try and melt the glue and shim the neck and go carefully with the truss rod if its bowed.
the pickups in those are microphonic if I'm thinking right. theres quite a following for teisco guitars and basses though. Jonnysomerset on here is into them I believe and could probably tell you more about it
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Last Edit: Feb 9, 2010 16:15:10 GMT by awoo
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I cant play for sheet, but love instruments.
If I could , I would try fix it myself, learn the skill from someone, there has to be a way.
Fix it yourself, and own it for life.
Love the hollow bass.
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the hollow body looks suspiciously like a tiesco made J bass. they tend to be on the lesser end of build quality, the depth of the neck pocket is testament to that. but anyway to sort the high action the best thing to do would be to try and melt the glue and shim the neck and go carefully with the truss rod if its bowed. the pickups in those are microphonic if I'm thinking right. theres quite a following for teisco guitars and basses though. Jonnysomerset on here is into them I believe and could probably tell you more about it thankfully the neck seems straight on the hollow body, atleast before I put the strings on, will see how it settles in a couple of days but fingers crossed. any good reference sites for resetting/shimming necks? |
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Remade In Australia
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awoo
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,507
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all you need to do is take the neck off, put a thin bit of card in the neck pocket, business card will do the job, fit the neck back in the neck pocket cleanly so it all lines up and screw it back on. make sure you get it evenly screwed down though. you can find massive gaps if your not careful when doing the screws back up. youll probably only need a single layer of card, it goes a long way. if the angle of the neck needs sorting put an extra half of card in the neck pocket to give it a slight angle. its pretty easy, I do it all the time. if you want to be pro about it you can use metal shims but it really doesnt make any difference I find card or matchboxes to be ideal. if this is anything to go by the neck is original  |
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Last Edit: Feb 10, 2010 0:16:36 GMT by awoo
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Hey, nice basses! I'll dig out a camera tomorrow and show you some of the four stringers.(I have an unhealthy number of instruments..)
My feeling on the hollowbody is that it has the wrong neck on it. Usually, fender style necks (with headstock face parallel to fretboard) go on guitars with single piece bridge/tailpiece and a flat top with almost no neck angle. Yours is an archtop with a trapeise tailpiece and a floating bridge so it should have an angled headstock (gibson style) and about 3-5 deg of neck angle at the body end. Also, the bridge looks a bit high up the body for a full scale bass... how did you set it? (I measure the distance from nut to 12th fret, then use the same measurement from 12th to bridge)
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To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
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Thanks for the advice scarey. I can't decide about the neck, it doesnt seem to fit right, but it definitely appears to be old enough to be right. As far as bridge positioning, I will try your method tonight, but for the moment it is simply placed on the bass where there wer emarks showing it had been, there's a support inside the bass in about the same position.
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Remade In Australia
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awoo
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,507
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Feb 10, 2010 12:42:15 GMT
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its defo a tiesco neck and tiesco body/ i agree tho it doesnt look right though
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Feb 11, 2010 18:40:29 GMT
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Took a few photos this afternoon ;D  This is Mrs S's little toy... early sixties Burns Sonic short scale bass.  It's really nice to play, but a bit "thuddy" at the bottom (good for early beatles/kinks stuff  ) We found this in a junk shop about 18 years ago.. no bridge, two broken machine heads, pickup cover missing, whole body and neck painted with green hammerite  Paid £40 for it. I made the machine head "ears" out of chemical metal.. took a mould of one of the surviving two.  Next is another shortie.. 1978 Fender Musicmaster   Which is a nice easy to play little thing I got Mrs S to learn on then she found the burns, and preferred that, but we kept it because it matches this...  If electric basses are the Dark side, this is Darth Vader   1973 P-bass... plays and sounds exactly like it should. I paid £200 for this (when £200 was a lot of money)  couple of pics to illustrate what I meant about necks before.. here's the head angle on the burns (floating bridge)  and here on a fender  your neck should be more like the first one here's the body ends   its sort of hard to see because I had to prop the neck on the burns, but the fender neck sits in square where the burns has a definite slant. Also, check how thick the neck is on the burns  No truss rods here, but it's still straight after 50 years! |
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To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
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chevazon
Posted a lot
1939 Chevrolet 2 door coupe, `67 `Zon estate, `87 Ragtop Cavalier, 4 x 800 Drifters,(!) 1500 Drifter
Posts: 2,259
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Feb 11, 2010 19:29:30 GMT
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Nice toys Mr SOC. The bairn plays a short scale Gretsch and we are on the look out for another shorty.
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Feb 11, 2010 20:33:40 GMT
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That P body is NICE!
I took both J basses to a local pro repairer yesterday and the diagnosis was what I'd feared. The Coronet's truss rod is snapped in the neck, so a new neck is needed as well as a new bridge as the old is junk and pulling out of the body. He has a guy who is going to give me a quote to mirror but improve on the neck.
The hollow body is no better, the neck is definitely period, but the wrong angle and no head angle as scarey was showing it should have. He's suggesting a custom neck for that too, but I have a feeling there's enough other minor issues with that one that it mightn't be worth it. Anyone got ideas where I might be able to find a neck suitable for the hollow body cheaply?
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Remade In Australia
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Feb 11, 2010 21:30:34 GMT
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Thanks! I like it a lot. short scale and odd things are nice, but you can't beat a 34" fender for growl ;D
I'd be looking on ebay for a neck, There are usually quite a few spares to choose from. Hard bit is going to be figuring out what scale it's meant to be (seeing as the neck is the wrong one, and the bridge moves...), did your repairer give you any clues?
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To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
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Feb 11, 2010 22:06:38 GMT
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I'm afraid not, but surely the floating bridge gives me a little more flexibility on neck length/scale? Scale of the current one is clase as positioning the bridge using the 12th fret got me to basically on top of the internal support. There's a fairly limited range of necks over here, I may have to eBay it up overseas, as I'm guessing the head angle will be a challenge.
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Remade In Australia
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Davenger
Club Retro Rides Member
It's only metal
Posts: 7,272
Club RR Member Number: 140
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4 Strings :)Davenger
@dminifreak
Club Retro Rides Member 140
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Feb 11, 2010 22:52:35 GMT
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Yeah, floating bridge will allow you to play with scale lengths.
As long as you can match the distance from the nut to the 12th fret with the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge, you're laughing.
SOC, have you ever thought of fitting a hotrails humbucker to the Musicmaster?
Seen it done quite a few times, fattens things up nicely and doesn't require any modifications
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Feb 11, 2010 23:29:20 GMT
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I did notice it's a regular 6 pole strat style pickup It has a seymour duncan under the black cover and (cos it's sort of a four stringer and cos I'm playing it this evening) Here's my mandolin ;D  I don't know how old it is, just that it's older than I am (it belonged to my aunt, I used to play with it as a baby!)  I ended up with it after she died because I can play it - I'm also a former light sider.. (grade 8 violin)  Lute style back - it has a lot more volume to it than newer flat backed mandolins. Slips off your knee a lot tho! |
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To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
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4 Strings :)briandamaged
@GUEST
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This is me saying goodbye to live gigging last year.  That's a 1989 Charvel 1B with oh-so 80's pointy headstock:  I've had it from new. I'll never be parted from it, even though I'm done playing. |
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To change the neck angle on that Hollow body simply unscrew the neck and insert a thin strip of veneer in the neck pocket towards the bridge side. This will tilt the neck back. It is a trial and error thing you just keep inserting more or different sized strips until the neck is at the proper angle. No need to glue anything the pressure of the bolts will hold it all together and at the proper angle. I had to use a matchstick once on an old hollowbody Tiesco guitar and that repair lasted for at least ten years that I know about, heck it might still be going strong 18 odd years later. I have replaced broken truss rods before. it is quite a bit of work. I pulled all the frets out and then used an old clothes iron to heat the fretboard enough that the glue released and I was able to carefully pry it off with a flat blade. From there the truss rod can be removed and replaced. Depending on where it is broken you might be able to save it like this www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/TrussRods/BrokenRods/TaylorRod/taylorrod.htmlI would show some pics but all mine have six strings and this isnt the thread for that |
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Thanks ditchdigger, Unforrunately there is no real angle between the neck and head on the hollow body, so spacing this neck probably wouldn't be a heat help as I'd still be stuck with string buzz due to the head/neck angle as far as I nderstand.
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)
Paid £40 for it.
No truss rods here, but it's still straight after 50 years!
