I recently obtained a Jackson bass - or, rather a bag full of parts. I'm into restoring basses, so I'm psyched to have one to play with.
What I've got: Body, stripped and sanded. Standard P-Bass shape, not "pointy", and any right-angle edge it might have had along the "outline" is sanded smooth, if there ever was one. Wood is a sandwich, with several light and dark woods included. Pickup config is P/J, and three control knob holes.
Neck, stripped and sanded. The fingerboard is missing from this piece, and the headstock is separated from the rest of the neck.
Pickups. The pickups appear to have taken a coat of some completely inappropriate paint at some point. The "J" p/u is a "double" - like two J-style pickups back-to-back. The pole pieces on all of them are exposed, and are two-to-a-string, if that makes any sense.
Tuners, Gotoh.
And that's it. Not much to work with, maybe, but that's the challenge. My plan is to replace the neck, rather than play around trying to track down and attach a fingerboard. The tuners are in fine shape, they'll do if I need them. The pickups I'll keep, at least until I see how this thing plays, although I'll need to cobble together some controls and a jack first. If I like it, they'll be replaced with EMGs.
The finish I'm still undecided on - I already have one black bass (a Dean Hollywood Z), so that might be a bit redundant. If it was solid wood, I'd put a sunburst finish on it, but as it is I might experiment with something funky, maybe a crackle.
I'll need plenty of additional hardware for this thing, bolt-on plate, bridge, jackplate, etc., but those can be tracked down. All in all, a worthy project, I think.
My first question for you guys is, will a Charvel neck fit on most Jackson basses? I'm specifically talking about this one: eBay LINK
Any feedback or suggestions are more than welcome.
Steve Smith
What I've got: Body, stripped and sanded. Standard P-Bass shape, not "pointy", and any right-angle edge it might have had along the "outline" is sanded smooth, if there ever was one. Wood is a sandwich, with several light and dark woods included. Pickup config is P/J, and three control knob holes.
Neck, stripped and sanded. The fingerboard is missing from this piece, and the headstock is separated from the rest of the neck.
Pickups. The pickups appear to have taken a coat of some completely inappropriate paint at some point. The "J" p/u is a "double" - like two J-style pickups back-to-back. The pole pieces on all of them are exposed, and are two-to-a-string, if that makes any sense.
Tuners, Gotoh.
And that's it. Not much to work with, maybe, but that's the challenge. My plan is to replace the neck, rather than play around trying to track down and attach a fingerboard. The tuners are in fine shape, they'll do if I need them. The pickups I'll keep, at least until I see how this thing plays, although I'll need to cobble together some controls and a jack first. If I like it, they'll be replaced with EMGs.
The finish I'm still undecided on - I already have one black bass (a Dean Hollywood Z), so that might be a bit redundant. If it was solid wood, I'd put a sunburst finish on it, but as it is I might experiment with something funky, maybe a crackle.
I'll need plenty of additional hardware for this thing, bolt-on plate, bridge, jackplate, etc., but those can be tracked down. All in all, a worthy project, I think.
My first question for you guys is, will a Charvel neck fit on most Jackson basses? I'm specifically talking about this one: eBay LINK
Any feedback or suggestions are more than welcome.
Steve Smith
Comment