114
by TomWanderer_Archive
Just finished this up. This started as an Electra Long Necker jazz bass circa late 60's-early 70's. I picked it up from a Goodwill auction a few years ago and I was very excited to get it. Once it arrived, I felt that I had paid too much (about $250 I think). The neck was weird, it had a little dip in it and it was impossible to set up. I tweaked the truss rod, but it didn't really help. My re-entry to full sized basses was a painful reminder of all the other cool 34 scale basses I had over the years that had neck issues. I didn't touch this Electra for a few years. I was feeling emboldened after working on that Musicmaster/Duo Sonic project and I decided to see if I could salvage this bass. I got the Bronco neck (and bridge, wiring harness and pickup) from Dr. Balls and routed the neck pocket 3/4 closer to the bridge to accommodate the 30 scale. I reshaped the pickguard appropriately and used the Bronco pickup to replace the original neck pickup, which was dead. While setting it up with new strings, two of the tuning gears stripped and broke, so I bought a set of Gotoh GB-10 tuners. After enlarging the bore hole and installing the new tuners the spacing was so tight that the plates overlapped a little. I filed them down till they fit. The last thing I had to install was the strap button on the upper horn. The hole was there, but button and screw were gone. I actually had a Fender brand replacement and didn't even think to double check the hole was drilled for the correct size. While screwing in the strap button I cracked the upper horn (that happened after the pic was taken). I was super bummed, but then I drilled it out and glued in an oak dowel, 1/2 by about 4 long, and drilled that for the strap button. I played this at practice on Saturday and then put a shim in the neck and set it up again yesterday, action was a bit high way up on the neck and the E side of the saddle was almost all the way down. The shim worked great, I used a playing card. This thing now plays great and a lot of this work was new for me; redrilling and fitting a neck, routing the body, the dowel plug. It was a great learning experience and now I have a 30 bass with a full sized jazz body. The whole thing weighs less than my Memphis 30 P bass.Thanks Dr. Balls!