In reply to Antihero :
Score!
I’m casually looking for a lefty short-scale vintage Rogue jazz bass. They still had the Fender style headstock back then & my Rogue p-bass is wonderful(even though I don’t play it much).
In reply to Antihero :
Score!
I’m casually looking for a lefty short-scale vintage Rogue jazz bass. They still had the Fender style headstock back then & my Rogue p-bass is wonderful(even though I don’t play it much).
In reply to Antihero :
Ha, I saw the post in the "Awesome Cheap Guitars" group for these! Nice score. That weird Jazz bass is really cool!
My new tuners showed up a couple nights ago, and I tossed them in real quick last night.
Since I didn't have a million dollars to spend on some expensive ones, I settled for some Korean-made ones I found on Amazon for about $35. They had good reviews, so I figured I'd give them a shot. They are made well and fit the headstock perfectly and I didn't have to re-drill anything. Nice.
I then spent some time cleaning the fretboard. It was gross from years of letting the guitar sit around, and I did the best I could with it. The wood is very soft and easily scratched, and some of the frets are worn pretty bad, but it will have to do for now. After assaulting it with all the cleaners/oils I have and refreshing the frets, this was as good as it got.
It's still nasty, and I'm not really happy with it, but I think the only solution is another neck. Not ready for that yet, as it still plays and feels ok.
I still need to do a final setup, but I restrung it late last night with 10's and got a quick and dirty initial setup. The dead fret that it seemed to have before is now gone, and with the new tuners, it feels like a new guitar. I'll be finishing it up over the weekend. 10's are a bit heavy for something with a Floyd Rose, but this will likely be tuned down to C at some point, and the heavier strings seem to help. I'll likely use 9's next time around.
The best fretboard cleaner I’ve ever used is cheap lighter fluid. Give that a shot if you haven’t already.
Pete Gossett said:In reply to Antihero :
Score!
I’m casually looking for a lefty short-scale vintage Rogue jazz bass. They still had the Fender style headstock back then & my Rogue p-bass is wonderful(even though I don’t play it much).
Our bassist has 4 separate rogues, all are pretty nice really.
The cheap as hell tiny bodied one actually sounds pretty good and I was able to slam the action way lower than expected. The 8 string just sounds awesome all around. Violin bass has a super warm sound and plays nice. The 5 string is the worst of the bunch and still is better than anything you'd get for under $100.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to Antihero :
Ha, I saw the post in the "Awesome Cheap Guitars" group for these! Nice score. That weird Jazz bass is really cool!
It's a great group!
It sounds fantastic too, very small frets and a low action is not usually where I set up but this is staying that way it's super easy to play
Tony Sestito said:After getting the G.A.S. itch real bad recently, and my wife effectively blocking that itch with the threat of tossing all my guitars on the front lawn, I decided that I should probably fix one of the ones I already have so it plays better. I started tearing into my very first guitar this morning: a 1997ish Japanese-built Jackson Performer PS4.
are a deal-breaker for me.
I've had this since around 1999. I bought it from a friend who didn't like the Floyd Rose on it for $75. It had some dings and dents, and some other annoying issues, but the neck rules and it sounds awesome. The two biggest issues it's had are that the tuners were "bent" and that one of the humbuckers was loose in the cavity for some reason.
Like I do with all my guitars, I applied copper shielding tape to the cavity and the back of the electronics cover. It typically works great at cutting down unwanted noise.
Remember when I said it had "bent tuners"? Well, they are less bent and more broken into bits.
Most of them are like this, and I have idea why. I ordered up some locking tuners on Amazon, so I'll have to continue this later this week once those show up. At least now this thing will NEVER go out of tune between locking tuners, a locking nut, and a double locking tremolo!
Wicked, dude. I’ve always loved that style/placement on the inlays. I love Charvels/Jacksons but Sharkfins are a deal-breaker for me.
I'm fast becoming a fan of the old japanese weird basses, both of these are great
In reply to Antihero :
That bass on the right... I had one of those! Mine was beat to hell and not salvageable, though. I actually just tossed it out. When it worked, it was a fun to play little bass, and the pickup sounded raw and trashy. Yours is in much better shape!
Tony Sestito said:In reply to Antihero :
That bass on the right... I had one of those! Mine was beat to hell and not salvageable, though. I actually just tossed it out. When it worked, it was a fun to play little bass, and the pickup sounded raw and trashy. Yours is in much better shape!
Its a great bass, ginormous neck on mine, did yours have the same?
Definitely a raw sound too, i like it
I finished up the Jackson PS4 yesterday, and man, it's like having a brand new guitar! After setting it up properly and fixing the wiggly pickups, it sounds incredible and absolutely SHREDS. It's never played this well!
While I was on a roll, I decided to dig into another guitar: my Epiphone Les Paul. It's a Korean-built example from 1993, and it plays better than some new Gibsons I've played recently. It's a keeper that I've had for 20 years now.
This one just needed new strings, and while I was in there, I wanted to clean the fretboard, clean the pots, and shield the pickup and electronics cavities, because the pickups have always been extremely noisy and they haven't sounded good in a long time.
This is the first time the pickups have been out of their cavities. I cleaned them out, cleaned the surrounds, and applied the copper shielding tape.
I also shielded the electronics cavities. This stuff works wonders, BTW.
After not being happy with how the fretboard on the Jackson came out, I went out yesterday and picked up this stuff on suggestion from the tech at a local guitar shop. He said it works great and that's what he uses on all the guitars that come into the shop for setups, so that's good enough for me!
Before applying the oil, I hit the frets with a scotch brite pad to clean the frets. They haven't been cleaned in a long time, but they were in good shape with little wear.
Holy crap, what a difference. Yeah, this stuff works! The board was extremely dry, so I had to apply it 3-4 times, but it came out great.
...And done.
Only thing that went sideways was cleaning the pots. No matter how much cleaner I sprayed in there, they are still scratchy. Other than that, it's never sounded better. The hum/interference is gone now, and it has a great crunchy tone when cranked like an old Les Paul should. I will likely upgrade the pots sooner than later. I was looking into upgrading the pickups too, but they sound so good now that I may just leave them in there.
I think the next guitar to go under the knife is going to be my Jackson Performer PS7 HSS "strat". It's really beat up, so I am thinking that I'm going to re-do the body and change the color from black to white. We'll see how that goes.
Tony Sestito said:I finished up the Jackson PS4 yesterday, and man, it's like having a brand new guitar! After setting it up properly and fixing the wiggly pickups, it sounds incredible and absolutely SHREDS. It's never played this well!
While I was on a roll, I decided to dig into another guitar: my Epiphone Les Paul. It's a Korean-built example from 1993, and it plays better than some new Gibsons I've played recently. It's a keeper that I've had for 20 years now.
This one just needed new strings, and while I was in there, I wanted to clean the fretboard, clean the pots, and shield the pickup and electronics cavities, because the pickups have always been extremely noisy and they haven't sounded good in a long time.
This is the first time the pickups have been out of their cavities. I cleaned them out, cleaned the surrounds, and applied the copper shielding tape.
I also shielded the electronics cavities. This stuff works wonders, BTW.
After not being happy with how the fretboard on the Jackson came out, I went out yesterday and picked up this stuff on suggestion from the tech at a local guitar shop. He said it works great and that's what he uses on all the guitars that come into the shop for setups, so that's good enough for me!
Before applying the oil, I hit the frets with a scotch brite pad to clean the frets. They haven't been cleaned in a long time, but they were in good shape with little wear.
Holy crap, what a difference. Yeah, this stuff works! The board was extremely dry, so I had to apply it 3-4 times, but it came out great.
...And done.
Only thing that went sideways was cleaning the pots. No matter how much cleaner I sprayed in there, they are still scratchy. Other than that, it's never sounded better. The hum/interference is gone now, and it has a great crunchy tone when cranked like an old Les Paul should. I will likely upgrade the pots sooner than later. I was looking into upgrading the pickups too, but they sound so good now that I may just leave them in there.
I think the next guitar to go under the knife is going to be my Jackson Performer PS7 HSS "strat". It's really beat up, so I am thinking that I'm going to re-do the body and change the color from black to white. We'll see how that goes.
Looks nice!
Doing some maintenance on the guitar fleet, here's the 2 c# guitars I use in the band, both are stupendous guitars and you should pickup any you find
In reply to Antihero :
Looks like I started a trend. 
Lately, I've been having more fun tweaking my guitars than playing them! I'm looking at all the other stuff in my fleet, wondering what I can do next.
Welp, looks like some new gear is in my future. Fortunately it's likely to just be a straight trade. :)
A friend i’ve Done some studio work for asked if I’d been practicing bass and I told him I sold my rig to help pay bills after my daughter was born. So he gave me this:
I don’t know much about it other than the neck an fretboard are maple, the body is solid mahogany (as witnessed through dings, scratches, and a healthy case of buckle-rash). The tuners are heavy and solid and someone installed a Badass II bridge. Headstock says Gilbert Bassline and the neck plate says made in Japan. Needs strings but it is very playable, feels great, has sustain for days and oozes mojo. I’m pretty floored by the gift. People are awesome.
barefootskater said:A friend i’ve Done some studio work for asked if I’d been practicing bass and I told him I sold my rig to help pay bills after my daughter was born. So he gave me this:
I don’t know much about it other than the neck an fretboard are maple, the body is solid mahogany (as witnessed through dings, scratches, and a healthy case of buckle-rash). The tuners are heavy and solid and someone installed a Badass II bridge. Headstock says Gilbert Bassline and the neck plate says made in Japan. Needs strings but it is very playable, feels great, has sustain for days and oozes mojo. I’m pretty floored by the gift. People are awesome.
Nice! Maple boards always look better IMO
That bass is SWEET! Looks like a mid-70's "lawsuit era" Japanese bass, which is a good thing. Those are great instruments.
I've been playing a lot this week, especially since I just rehabbed my Jackson PS4 and Epi Les Paul as detailed earlier in the thread. Today, I went to plug into my little Blackstar ID Core 10 modeling amp, and... nothing.
Wait, what? I was just using this thing two days ago. I've had it for about a year, and it's only 3 years old. That can't be right!
Power supply works, fuse inside is good, and I even jumped the power so it's always on just in case the switch is bad. Nothing. Dead as a doornail. It makes me really angry, because I love this little amp. Looking into it further, I'm not the only one to have issues. It sucks, because it sounds incredible, and there's no other stereo modeling amp out there that sounds remotely this good for the price. Not sure if I will replace it with another one.
I had to take my old Peavey Studio Pro 112 out of mothballs and set that up so I can still play. It still works, but sometimes the channels cut out and I have to mess around with the pedal-out jack to get them to come back. Not sure if I will get a multi-effects processor or another Blackstar, but I'm bummed.
Tony Sestito said:I've been playing a lot this week, especially since I just rehabbed my Jackson PS4 and Epi Les Paul as detailed earlier in the thread. Today, I went to plug into my little Blackstar ID Core 10 modeling amp, and... nothing.
Wait, what? I was just using this thing two days ago. I've had it for about a year, and it's only 3 years old. That can't be right!
Power supply works, fuse inside is good, and I even jumped the power so it's always on just in case the switch is bad. Nothing. Dead as a doornail. It makes me really angry, because I love this little amp. Looking into it further, I'm not the only one to have issues. It sucks, because it sounds incredible, and there's no other stereo modeling amp out there that sounds remotely this good for the price. Not sure if I will replace it with another one.
I had to take my old Peavey Studio Pro 112 out of mothballs and set that up so I can still play. It still works, but sometimes the channels cut out and I have to mess around with the pedal-out jack to get them to come back. Not sure if I will get a multi-effects processor or another Blackstar, but I'm bummed.
It's not modeling but my favorite stereo amp I've played is a crate rfx200s. Because of the name you can get a 3 channel 100w a side with onboard effects for $125ish if you look.
They sound spectacular, from heavy as hell gain to super cleans
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Last summer I put new pots in my MIK Epi Les Paul, as one had a dead spot in it when I bought it. The Epi's pots have a slightly smaller hole through the body than the Gibsons do, so you can either order the smaller pots and they fit right in, or you have to drill the body to fit the standard Gibson ones. If you want I can dig up the info on what I ordered so you can be sure they will fit.
At the same time I was doing all that I ended up removing the covers from my stock pick ups since they sounded muddy to me. But then I could not quite get the pickups back to the right height to make them sound right again. Is there a method to do this (pick up height setting) that I missed before?
New bass amp: Univox 1235 aka E-3 plus cabinet. Tubes. Not sure the exact vintage, but pretty sure the last year for this logo was 1967. I traded my GK and a pedal for it. The amp had just been serviced. I admit, I have a thing for Univoxes.
Tore into it tonight for a deep cleaning and found some interesting stuff. 
Cavities were already lined and the electronics were very tidy.
But everything was filthy. I pulled the bridge apart and cleaned it, polished the control plate, and just gave everything a good bath. Found something interesting on the back of the control plate too:
Not sure what that’s about but it stays.
I’d be very interested to know the history of this bass. It has been under the knife more than once I think. Some of the screws were mismatched and the pick guard is definitely not the original. The bridge is also an addition. Faded and aged paint can tell quite a story. But someone played the crap out of it judging be the wear on every single fret and every position. The new slinky’s are heavier than the strings they replaced and I had to adjust the truss rod a little. But the action is super low with no buzzing and I’m happy.
I know it’s just a no name old junk bass that nobody wanted but I still can’t get over the gift. Winter sucks, hard, but sometimes really good things can surprise you and brighten things up.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
That’s Nice! I’ve been eyeing a tuck-n-roll era Kustom on FB Marketplace that I have no use for(or room tbh), but yet I’m still tempted.
I did a pedal-swap yesterday & got a free bass out of the deal too. Or at least most of one. It’s right handed, so I won’t be keeping it though. I’ll grab some pics later today.
After playing with the Peavey Studio Pro 112 some last night, I remembered why I kept it around. They made a few different versions of them, and mine is the "red stripe version":
It really sounds good for what it is, and apparently, people like these things. The tube emulation works pretty well, it has real spring reverb, and it can handle de-tuned stuff well thanks to its 12" speaker. It sounds great both loud and quiet, and it fits in my tiny game/guitar room, so I'm leaning toward just keeping that and getting some sort of effects processor, like a POD XT or something like that.
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