anthonyfury
Newbie
- Messages
- 16
Pumped to get this one going!
Long story long: I had a perfect 2011 Fender American Special Precision -trimmed out as a "Jamerson" tribute- which looked, played, and sounded great. Unfortunately, as a lifelong Jazz player, the lack of offset really threw me off my game (when seated), and so I never really loved it. I sold it to a great friend looking for a Jamerson flavored P and have been looking to fill the void of a P with flats in my house.
A year or so ago, I found a bargain on a zero-use Warmoth Tele (1.5" nut) neck on talkbass for short money. Plain maple + Indian rosewood, steel rods, cream inlays, slim back contour and a clear satin finish. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it.
My friend who bought my Precision wanted to try a "Pure Vintage '63" pickup, which I thought would be a mistake, but he insisted. To my shock and amazement, he mailed the American Special pickup back to me!
I knew if I was ever going to have a "P" pickup bass again, it would have to be in a J body. After I pieced my Larry Graham tribute together, I realized it was too close to a really dedicated tribute to "hack up" with a P pickup. Back to the drawing board. I got a crazy idea: what if I can find someone to paint the headstock of my "bargain" Tele neck? If it's black, then there won't be any mismatch problems. I took the neck to Chicago Fretworks and they knocked it out of the park!! (I told them it was "too nice" when I picked it up, haha).
At this point I thought: if I pair this neck with a Warmoth J body and routed with the Warmoth "correct P position" J pickguard, then add some Res-O-Lites, I will have a 64-65 flavored "unit" instead of a bunch of random bargain parts.
I really liked the Greasebucket in the Fender, so I thought I'd add that in. But what about the extra hole I'm going to have in the control plate? HOW ABOUT A WUNKAY circuit with passive bass and treble cuts? That's in the works, along with a crazy and unexpected surprise from Sweetwater & G&L which I'll go into later. I made pals with a real electronics wizard at work who agreed to help with the schemer and soldering (mine is terrible). There are a few Wunkay circuits circulating on the web, but they're all kinda hard to read, so, hopefully I'll be able to clear that up also.
For extra "Wunkay" cred, I ordered this J body in Mahogany and killer gloss black. Check out the dummy-up pic: the neck is sitting down in the pocket WITHOUT any screws. TIGHT!
I have everything I need EXCEPT a Gotoh 203-B, which are slightly "unobtainium" at the moment. DARN!! Plan is to do .110" Labella Deep Talkin' flats...the steel rods will handle them, no problem there. Another plan is to get a Spitfire 60's speckled burgundy, but the Warmoth mint is really crushing it at the moment!
Most importantly, I think I have a solution to my neck plate / neck screw retrofit. 1/4"-20s are "too much," and Leo "pretty much had it right" with the sheetmetal screws. This is what's been holding up all my other builds.
Stay tuned!
Long story long: I had a perfect 2011 Fender American Special Precision -trimmed out as a "Jamerson" tribute- which looked, played, and sounded great. Unfortunately, as a lifelong Jazz player, the lack of offset really threw me off my game (when seated), and so I never really loved it. I sold it to a great friend looking for a Jamerson flavored P and have been looking to fill the void of a P with flats in my house.
A year or so ago, I found a bargain on a zero-use Warmoth Tele (1.5" nut) neck on talkbass for short money. Plain maple + Indian rosewood, steel rods, cream inlays, slim back contour and a clear satin finish. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it.
My friend who bought my Precision wanted to try a "Pure Vintage '63" pickup, which I thought would be a mistake, but he insisted. To my shock and amazement, he mailed the American Special pickup back to me!
I knew if I was ever going to have a "P" pickup bass again, it would have to be in a J body. After I pieced my Larry Graham tribute together, I realized it was too close to a really dedicated tribute to "hack up" with a P pickup. Back to the drawing board. I got a crazy idea: what if I can find someone to paint the headstock of my "bargain" Tele neck? If it's black, then there won't be any mismatch problems. I took the neck to Chicago Fretworks and they knocked it out of the park!! (I told them it was "too nice" when I picked it up, haha).
At this point I thought: if I pair this neck with a Warmoth J body and routed with the Warmoth "correct P position" J pickguard, then add some Res-O-Lites, I will have a 64-65 flavored "unit" instead of a bunch of random bargain parts.
I really liked the Greasebucket in the Fender, so I thought I'd add that in. But what about the extra hole I'm going to have in the control plate? HOW ABOUT A WUNKAY circuit with passive bass and treble cuts? That's in the works, along with a crazy and unexpected surprise from Sweetwater & G&L which I'll go into later. I made pals with a real electronics wizard at work who agreed to help with the schemer and soldering (mine is terrible). There are a few Wunkay circuits circulating on the web, but they're all kinda hard to read, so, hopefully I'll be able to clear that up also.
For extra "Wunkay" cred, I ordered this J body in Mahogany and killer gloss black. Check out the dummy-up pic: the neck is sitting down in the pocket WITHOUT any screws. TIGHT!
I have everything I need EXCEPT a Gotoh 203-B, which are slightly "unobtainium" at the moment. DARN!! Plan is to do .110" Labella Deep Talkin' flats...the steel rods will handle them, no problem there. Another plan is to get a Spitfire 60's speckled burgundy, but the Warmoth mint is really crushing it at the moment!
Most importantly, I think I have a solution to my neck plate / neck screw retrofit. 1/4"-20s are "too much," and Leo "pretty much had it right" with the sheetmetal screws. This is what's been holding up all my other builds.
Stay tuned!
