The feature bass this week has been modded to the extreme with parts contributed by several people.
Owner/modder Tom Buckman writes:
Since buying the stock sunburst ’66 in 1969, I have modded it all along its journey. I invented the Bass Brace so in 1985 I had it majorly rebuilt to attract attention visually.
Mike Tobias made a neck to fit 5 in the space of a P neck (nut 1+3/4″), with 4 truss rods and 24 frets. There is a removable hatch in the fretboard between frets 21/22 to access nuts to adjust 2 pairs of truss rods.
John Carruthers cut down the lower horn and painted it a stock 1958 Oldsmobile color. The Starz bridge was the only 5 string Mike could find with 17mm spacing.
The pickups are Barolini P and soapbar fed into a Barto HR 4.7 AP preamp with an NTuner for convenience. There are two 9 v battery compartments in the back.
You can see about 5″ of the Bass Brace, which attaches to the 4 original screws, sticking out past the upper horn. It provides any playing angle you desire without manually holding up the neck. The hole by the bridge is a Straplock set into the hole that was for the original bridge cover. That allows the bass to face more upward for better viewing if needed.
The gears are Schaller, the input jack is a Stratocaster on the edge of the body.
The bass feels like home after 31 years in this configuration. I will probably experiment with different pickups and preamps as so many better brands and sounds are available.
Well done!
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Love it . Thanks for sharing that .
Awesome! Love these “player-ready” mods – can’t wait to see the next iteration!
Believe it or not, I have been wanting to put the Roland synth pickup on it for years. I’m just not enough into playing music that has a lot of synth bass in it.
Tom,
, Cool bass–I dig the color. Just curious, is the Bass Brace still available? I’d love to have a couple.
Aesthetically not a fan of this one…
I love Frankies.
Here it is in action ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNTfGCLtr7U
Also intrigued on the bass brace where can I get ?
I agree with Dan E., I don’t find this appealing. I recognize the effort and passion for trying something diffetent, but, the brace really kills the appearance.
In everyday use, most people in the audience don’t even see the 5″ of brace until they come up close. That’s because chrome reflects all the colors around it becoming virtually invisible. That’s just my experience.
Why on earth would you need 4 truss rods? Two is the most you would ever need, and most of the time that’s over kill.
They are in pairs on top of each other, and side by side, like 8 8. Each vertical pair is separate at the body and welded together in the headstock. The bottom rod of each pair is anchored in the neck and the top rod has a nut so it can move and fix neck bending. ie. if you move both nuts you either add or take away relief evenly. If one side needs moving, then adjust the nut on that side of the neck. The two pairs offer 4 way adjustment.
Interesting – especially considering it being done in the mid-80’s, when bass started becoming more of an up-front focus in music and technology and DIY “after-market” mods were stating to become vogue. I have designed/made a similar simpler version of the strap-peg extension for basses with small or no upper horn (T-bird/EB basses) but not sure why the brace is on this bass as the upper horn is right at the 12th fret which usually guarantees proper balance. Otherwise, it has many of the earmarks of cutting-edge innovation from that era; 24 frets, active preamp, HM bridge – and a decidedly “retro” colour. Wouldn’t touch it – it is a time capsule.
Im with David on the 4 truss rods. great color!
Just think what a gorgeous bass that would have been today if it was left alone!
The bass was sunburst originally, not coral. The coral color was used on some early or mid 50s Fenders, but way before the time of the Jazz bass, 1960.
Flea has a shell pink ’62 Jazz bass actually. It was a custom shop color and very rarely used. It also had a pair of stacked knobs for each pickup. I think this bass is great. He has been shaping it to fit his needs from the beginning. Thats admirable. If it were a stock vintage and modded now, that would be sad. Not a factory origenal, but the mods tell a unique story.. Its very interesting squeezing 5 strings in a narrow neck. Also from his comments it sounds like there is two dual acting truss rods in the neck not four single rods in pairs. Love the coral pink!