Franken Tele Bass Build

[Tacovan]

It's time to document my first (partial) Warmoth build. This project is gonna get weird. It's a 1975 Telecaster bass body that someone abused with a router at some point. 

I ordered a lined fretless J neck from Warmoth... rosewood on maple.  As for pickups, I have the original neck PU:

And I ordered Jazz PU's from Fender:

Here's a closer shot of the J routes:

Looks like the previous guy put a pickup ring on the bridge PU... to hide the bad woodwork?  Who knows. Anyway, another problem I might come across will be mounting the neck. 

That microtilt screwhole is blocked by some kind of wood filler that I'll have to drill out. Hopefully the screw turns out because it will definitely affect the neck tilt the way it is now.

I ordered a pickguard from Chandler that should be here any day now, so tonight I'm going to start to prep the body for wiring.  I'll be using the conductive shielding paint from StewMac...

One of these two items will be consumed tonight.

The spongy poly  brush was used for the larger areas and the smaller art brushes were perfect for the tight spots.  The paint goes on pretty easy and cleanup was a cinch.

Here's the first coat...I'll be doing 2 more coats with a day in between for drying. 

Love these strings.

Here's another shot of the back. You can see where he drilled holes to convert the neck plate to a standard 4-bolt and filled in the microtilt access hole.  One other thing- these Tele basses were a seriously heavy slab of wood!  I can't wait to get this one up and running again... stay tuned for updates and thanks for reading.

 

[Tacovan]

Here's a super rough mockup I did in Photoshop:

There's no turning back now!

 

[Cagey]

Curious - why is it called a "Tele Bass"? Thing bears about as much resemblance to a Tele as a Flying V.

As for that "micro-tilt" adjuster, just get rid of it. How that stupid idea ever made it to production is a mystery for the ages. I suspect it's just another of Leo's solutions for production inconsistencies that some good ol'-fashioned quality control could have handled more effectively. If, after installing the neck you find the tilt to be wrong, bite the bullet and re-route the neck pocket floor so the neck sits properly. Or, worst case, use a shim. I'm not a bass player, but I gotta think that sustain is pretty high on the list of desirable properties for that instrument. Separating the neck from the body works against that.

 

[stratamania]

Given that Leo, sold Fender to CBS in the mid 60s, and the first microtilt was introduced in the 70s, I doubt he had anything to do with it.

Back to the bass, it should look quite good when it's done with character.

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, you're right. But, CBS was not without sin when it came to stupid ideas.

And I agree that's gonna be a nice bass when he's done.

 

[Tacovan]

Thanks guys! I can't wait for the rest of my parts to arrive. 

Yeah, I plan on ripping that micro tilt adjustment out ASAP.  I'll shim the neck if I have to.
Someone chime in if my history is off here: The original tele basses from the late 60's were basically reissues of the first P basses from the 50's (which were originally modeled after the 6 string telecaster guitar.)  The connection to the telecaster guitar was more apparent then when the bass featured a tele-shaped headstock, chrome control plate, and smaller pickguard.  Why they started putting that humongous humbucker in the neck position is anyone's guess!  Trying to compete with Gibson? 

 

[stratamania]

Yeah, you're right. But, CBS was not without sin when it came to stupid ideas.

And I agree that's gonna be a nice bass when he's done.

Indeed, on both counts.

I've had a couple of guitars with microtilts and they aren't all bad, certainly better than bits of all-sorts of stuff I've found as shims in neck pockets over the years. The more modern four bolt variety seems more stable than the original 70s three bolts were.

 

[stratamania]

Seems to be a reasonable write up here on the T bass.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Telecaster_Bass

I think it was probably just using an already familiar name for marketing.

The ZZ Top Fandango, album cover has Dusty Hill playing one. Which is cool in my book.

 

[Tacovan]

Dusty Hill= good enough for me!  Love that guy.

Also, Mike Watt used a 60's T bass on the Minutemen records as well as the first two fIREHOSE albums.  According to Watt, he recorded direct back then- no cab mics at all!

 

[Day-mun]

You're gonna love that fretless J-bass neck! I got one from W to try... now I have 3 and counting.  :help:

If the original pickup sounds anything like Gibby's "mudbucker", you're gonna love it fretless! -Think Jack Bruce's sound on Sunshine of Your Love!  :icon_thumright:

:icon_scratch: ...So, I'm curious, how ya gonna wire and control pickup selection? Also, are my eyes deceiving me, or is that "middle" pickup route noticeably positioned a bit too far toward the bass-side of the string path?

 

[Tacovan]

Man, I can't wait for that neck to arrive!  I'm going really simple with the wiring- three volumes and a master tone.  I believe the original Tele-buckers were wired with a 1meg vol pot so I'm going to start with that/ I'll use 250k pots for the rest. 

 

[stratamania]

I'd never heard of the Minutemen before, just checked out some of their videos on Youutube, quite an energetic frontman.

 

[bagman67]

THe Minutemen were a seminal band in the L.A. post-punk scene.  Definitely worth checking out.  Mike Watt, D. Boon, and George Hurley definitely put the lie to the old saw that punks didn't know how to play their instruments.  And the political content of much of their work was really advanced compared to the run-of-the-mill middle-finger-to-the-middle-class crap some of their contemporaries were spewing. 


The follow-on band Firehose is pretty good too. When D. Boon died, apparently a huge, huge fan of the Minutemen moved from Ohio to L.A. to convince the other two guys to keep playing (under the mistaken impression he was auditioning for D.Boon's old slot in the Minutemen), and got them to form a band with him.  Lyrics a little more abstract and beat-poet-ish, but still very fun, high-energy music. 


Good times.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

THe Minutemen were a seminal band in the L.A. post-punk scene.  Definitely worth checking out.  Mike Watt, D. Boon, and George Hurley definitely put the lie to the old saw that punks didn't know how to play their instruments.  And the political content of much of their work was really advanced compared to the run-of-the-mill middle-finger-to-the-middle-class crap some of their contemporaries were spewing. 


The follow-on band Firehose is pretty good too. When D. Boon died, apparently a huge, huge fan of the Minutemen moved from Ohio to L.A. to convince the other two guys to keep playing (under the mistaken impression he was auditioning for D.Boon's old slot in the Minutemen), and got them to form a band with him.  Lyrics a little more abstract and beat-poet-ish, but still very fun, high-energy music. 


Good times.

Ed fROMOHIO... :icon_thumright:
He drove out to San Pedro, looked Watt up in the whitepages when he got out there.
Back in the days when you had to pay to be unlisted.

 

[Tacovan]

I love that this turned into a Watt/fIREHOSE thread!
This update was typed while listening to Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat...

So,  I finished 2 more coats of the conductive paint over the last couple of days.  This stuff dries pretty quickly and I'm sure if I was pressed for time I could've finished the shielding faster. The next step was copper tape...

Here I am part of the way through taping the cavity.  Probably would skip this step next time... Probably overkill but it's my first build.  I bought the copper tape from stewmac that comes in a pack of three different sizes- if I was gonna do it again I would just buy 1 roll of the widest tape and cut the pieces to size.
Also, my pickguard came from Chandler.  Nice people to deal with and they do nice work.  The guard came with just 2 control knob holes- the stock Tele configuration. Since I'm doing VVV with a master tone, I needed to add 2 holes.

Here's a pickguard template I made from cardboard. I wanted to make sure that all the wiring would fit in the control route.  After I was sure, it was time to drill...

Step drill bit made it easy.

Made sure it fit and then soldered it up...

It's starting to look like a bass! You know, I also posted about this build on the talkbass forum and those guys were seriously freaked out by the fact that those ugly J routes don't line up.  It's a concern for sure, but before I go through the trouble of plugging those holes I'm going to just keep going with this project and see how it turns out. Thanks for reading! I'll post an update when the neck arrives...