ShortScale.org

It’s a Bass VI

12 years ago, I wanted a bass VI, and there were no options other than Fender’s custom shop or vintage at the time. I could afford neither. This was before the Squier and the Pawn Shop models were released. I decided to build one. I started collecting parts, had all the parts by around 2012 but then I bought a house, had kids, went back to school and basically the project went on the back burner. This year I decided to do a quickie paint job with Krylon satin Sea Glass on the unfinished body and today I assembled and wired it up.



The body (and pickguard) was made by Cooterfinger, it’s one piece alder. It deserves a better paint job than the one I gave it because it’s a really nice body. I’ll do a proper finish on it one day (retirement project?). Neck is from a Pawn Shop VI that I bought from eBay. Plates were made by Stereordinary over at Offsetguitars.com. Trem is AVRI, and the bridge is a Staytrem VI. Pickups are Fender (AVRI in the neck and middle, Classic Player Jaguar in the bridge).

I wired it up like stock, except that the strangle switch does nothing when I turn it on. I think I used the wrong capacitor. I had teeny tiny capacitors, and I think I used a 0.05 instead of a 0.0033. The numbers are so damn small that I probably misread them.

Fuck that’s a good lookin’ VI.
At least if the strangle is just a capacitor issue, it’s an easy fix. How ya finding the hotter pickup in the bridge?

Ankhanu wrote:Fuck that’s a good lookin’ VI.
At least if the strangle is just a capacitor issue, it’s an easy fix. How ya finding the hotter pickup in the bridge?

Thanks!

Bridge pickup balances nicely with the other two, to my surprise because it’s a much hotter pickup than the others.

I think I am incompetent with capacitors... I just tried the tone knob and it does almost nothing to the sound I Think I put the wrong one on the tone pot too. I think I need glasses!

Looks ace

BearBoy wrote:Looks ace

Thanks!

I opened it up and looked at the caps with a magnifying glass... I put the strangle switch cap on the tone pot and vice versa. Oops. Don’t know if I can save the caps as I cut the leads after soldering them, might be too tricky to resolder such short leads. I don’t have any spares so I will have to buy some. It sucks because I would like to crank it through my Concert II but I don’t want to blow out the speaker if I don’t have a the strangle switch to cut the bass.

It sounds killer in all 3 positions through my bass amp, toanz for dayz!

Looks sick.

Is it a Satin finish?

Noirie. wrote:Looks sick.

Is it a Satin finish?

Thanks!

Yeah, paint is satin. I was going to clear coat but then I thought that doing so would take me another 5 years, so I didn’t bother. Didn’t even sand it, satin Krylon seems pretty durable too. Paint job is actually not that bad, I got lucky and had no runs or orange peel. I’ll do a proper clear coat one day.

I managed to carefully unsolder the caps and to resolder them into their proper spots. Wasn’t easy as the leads were cut very short. But I succeeded. Strangle switch is very useful, I was worried it would cut out too much bass but it still sounds good when activated.

This thing is a blast to play! My little one is in bed now so I can’t crank it through the Concert, but I’ve been playing it through my Roland Bass Microcube using headphones with the reverb cranked, and having fun trying to sound like a spaghetti western soundtrack. I wish it hadn’t taken me 12 years to finish it, but I am glad to finally be able to play it!

Fantastic job! I especially love the epic story behind its completion.

dots wrote:Fantastic job! I especially love the epic story behind its completion.

Thanks, dots!

Looks really good. Bass VIs are very fun instruments to play.

Nice! I love when a project comes together!

That looks great - well done for finishing it!

What a beaut!

Damn, this looks great and the colour is gorgeous! Well done on finally getting it finished.