ShortScale.org

I picked this up for a tenner at the weekend:



It's an Encore Shortscale P-Bass with a somewhat Mustangy vibe to it. I think it oozes potential.

It's in pretty poor condition, but should be really easy to fix up:

• One of the neck screws needs replaced as the thread is gone - easy!
• I need to find either a replacement machine head or just a post for the one that was on it, which has sheared off - moderate-easy.
• There's a stray wire hanging off the tone pot. I need to figure out what to solder it back onto - should be easy if someone here can tell me where it should go.

These old blacktop Encores are seriously nice in a bargain-basement kinda way. I've turned up a few 6-string single pickup equivalents and they always come up good with a bit of TLC. The older ones were made in Korea and finished well. This has nice smooth fret-ends, full-size CTS pots, okay machine heads and the tell-tale quality control sticker that says "I'm Korean, me".

If anyone has a spare machine head (or even just the post off of one) that's the same type I'd love to hear from them. Likewise if you know what to do with the rogue red wire.

The broken contact has a covered and a bare wire. The covered part is soldered to the middle lug on the tone pot and the bare wire to the body of the pot.

I may have a bass machine head with a post and no butterfly button.

NickS wrote:I may have a bass machine head with a post and no butterfly button.

I think that'd do the trick. Is it a Kluson type? Want to sell/swap/donate it to me?

UlricvonCatalyst wrote:

NickS wrote:I may have a bass machine head with a post and no butterfly button.

I think that'd do the trick. Is it a Kluson type? Want to sell/swap/donate it to me?

I'll try and dig it out tonight, but I don't know when I'll get to a post office. Pretty sure its closed back Kluson style.

This made me smile, our old bass player has used one of these Encores for nearly 20 years. He's a great player but has no interest in gear. It never went out of tune and always sounded great though.

PM'd!

Okay, it looks like I have a machine head on the way - just need someone to talk me through the wiring question now. Anyone?

The broken contact has a covered and a bare wire. The covered part is soldered to the middle lug on the tone pot and the bare wire to the body of the pot.

I suspect the covered wire should be connected to the centre tag on the volume pot, but I can't see whether that tag is still there. The uncovered wire (the "screen") would be connected to the case of the volume pot.

NickS wrote:I suspect the covered wire should be connected to the centre tag on the volume pot, but I can't see whether that tag is still there. The uncovered wire (the "screen") would be connected to the case of the volume pot.

There's already a covered wire and screen attached to the lugs on the output jack (coming from the volume pot). Should I try to double them up or what?

No, now I'm baffled. Can you take the controls and jack out so we can get a better view of how it's all connected?

Will do when I have more time.

OK, I think I've worked out what's connected where at the moment. I suspect the cap is soldered between the lower/right-hand lug of the tone pot (as seen in the picture) and the case, and there's nothing soldered to the top/left-hand lug, making it a variant of a standard P-bass circuit. The cable should connect the tone pot and cap as a shunt across the pickup, but currently the tone pot is disconnected. It needs the core (covered) wire connected to the same lug on the volume pot as the red wire from the pickup (top/left in the pic), and the screen (uncovered wire) soldered to the volume pot case.