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[Bass of the Week] Modified Fender “Stu Hamm” Urge

This week’s feature bass is a modified Stu Hamm Fender model.

Owner of the bass, Duke, writes:

First of all I’m not a luthier and don’t pretend to be. I’m just a guy who loves working on, rebuilding and modifying basses.

I purchased a 93 Fender “Stu Hamm” Urge MIM (Mexican version) with the idea of simply converting it to the resemble the MIA (American version). The original MIAs have been selling for between $1500 and $2000. I purchased this bass for about $450 thinking I could do what was needed with a total investment of about $700. I was dead wrong.

Once I received the bass I realized the investment amount would be a bit more than expected. The neck seemed pretty good but the body and electronics needed some work. The MIM version had only two Jazz pickups while the MIA version had a p-bass pickup sandwiched between the two.

I discovered that the bass body had been painted 4 times and the total thickness of the paint was about 1/16″. There were some significant chips and cracks under the pick guard so the paint needed to be removed. Stripper wouldn’t cut it so I used a heat gun and a putty knife. It took nearly 3 days to remove it all and another day to finish sand it. The paint came off in pieces like pick guard material. The body was rough under the paint and contained a lot of body filler so repainting was the only option.

I wanted this one to look nearly identical to the MIA so I routed for the p-bass pickup and added some extra holes for a mini toggle and a blend control. I then bored for through-the-body strings and drilled some new mounting holes for a heavy duty brass bridge.

The original bass was active but I wanted a completely passive bass so all of the electronics were replaced including pickups. Bartolini was the choice for the pickups.

I replaced all the chrome hardware with black.

The wiring set-up is a master volume, a 3-way mini toggle (jazz pickups/p-bass pickups/all pickups), a Stellartone Bass Eleven tone control, and a pan pot for the jazz pickups. This combination allows me to select any pickup or any combination I wish.

I didn’t care for the stock tuners so I purchase a set of Gotohs. I realized I had a problem because the bored holes in the headstock were too large so I designed a press-fit sleeve and a washer that would adapt the Gotohs to the headstock.

I had a local machine shop fabricate these parts to my specs. Since the press-fit sleeves weren’t going to be visible they were mad out of aluminum. The washers however needed to be something that would look nice. I chose brass and after completing the project I realize it was the perfect choice.

I’ve painted basses before but I really wanted this paint job to be durable and look deep, plus the color I chose was a multi-step processes, so I contacted a friend to paint it a Dark Teal and clear-coat it.

While this was being done I had a costly brainstorm. The MIA versions had a headstock that was painted to match the body. If I decided to do this it would require new decals with serial numbers that matched. It’s easy to find someone to make decals, but when you add in the serial number I found that many wouldn’t do it. After an extensive search I finally found someone to do it. (Allow me to clarify that I have no intentions of selling the bass but, if I did I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to rip them off with a clone of an MIA. The decal has the original MIM serial number and says Made in Mexico.)

I had them do the main Fender logo in black, outlined in brass with all other text in brass as well. It turned out to be a very wise choice.

My painter painted the headstock with one coat of clear. I applied the decals and waited for them to completely dry. He then clear-coated it.

After all of this was done I waited several days for the clear to harden. While this was going on I did the wiring and checked it for accuracy. I was finally able to get it together and dialed in.

I had no idea that I would be spending so much on this bass. I’m in at just over $1500, but I have one of a kind, and a great bass. The action is low and quick, and the bass is light.

It’s definitely a keeper.

16 thoughts on “[Bass of the Week] Modified Fender “Stu Hamm” Urge”

  1. Great effort!! No way I could do this.

    The USA Urges do have a passive option. There’s a 4 way rotary selecting standby/passive/active/active + mid boost.

    Reply
  2. No attempt to deceive with the MIM credentials, cool, but you have remanufactured this bass (exceptionally well done BTW) and it deserves every bit of a Made in USA decal.

    Reply
  3. I have Stu hamm Urge MIM 1992.
    Absolutely great bass, light, great handling and of course 24 frets…. and its very rare in my country (Indonesia)
    Fender with 24 frets !!! what a dream comes true.

    Reply
  4. Just a beautiful mod. If justifies the opinion of those who feel mods of lesser cost and manufactured basses can be a valid endeavour if that is what the builder wishes. That bass would cost far more than the initial cost + mod if purchased in a normal retail bass outlet. The headstock is perfect. Kudos !

    Reply

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