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Alembic Club » Alembic Basses & Guitars » Archive through June 01, 2011 » Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups. « Previous Next »

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glocke
Senior Member
Username: glocke

Post Number: 850
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 7:20 am:   Edit Post

So lately Ive been really getting tired of the sound of my series II. No matter what I do, I cant get it to sound like a fender jazz bass, so earlier this a friend and I decided to do some surgery.

Actually my friend did all the work since he is taking some mail order luthier classes and needed the experience.

He pulled the pups and electronics from my coco-bolo series II and installed some jazz bass pups from a mexican fender jazz bass. It was a little tricky, as the JB pups were a little small for the SII pup cavities, but with a little creativity (screwing plywood shims into the cavities to support them) that issue was resolved.

Since I've been wanting a series II fretless, I also had him yank the frets out and finish the fretboard with epoxy.

We also replaced the stock alembic bridge with a badass bass bridge so it really looks cool and old school now! Unfortunately since my friend is just learning how to be a luthier the bridge wasnt aligned correctly at first so he had to drill a couple of different holes until he got the alignment just exactly perfect. Fortunately, we had some wood putty and some dark walnut stain laying around to patch the holes up. You can barely tell that they are there!

Pics here:

http://gallery.me.com/glocke12#100494/seriesii&bgcolor=black
mario_farufyno
Senior Member
Username: mario_farufyno

Post Number: 626
Registered: 9-2008
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 10:01 am:   Edit Post

I knew it! (But couldnt help clicking, ha ha ha)
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 10119
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 10:02 am:   Edit Post

I tried that mod, but couldn't get rid of the buzz that's build into the Fender pickups, so I switched back to the stock pickups, and that irritating buzz is gone.
sonicus
Senior Member
Username: sonicus

Post Number: 1744
Registered: 5-2009
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 10:12 am:   Edit Post

YES ____ It's a fine day for a joke _____
hieronymous
Senior Member
Username: hieronymous

Post Number: 904
Registered: 1-2005
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 10:16 am:   Edit Post

Good one!
jazzyvee
Senior Member
Username: jazzyvee

Post Number: 2374
Registered: 6-2002
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 10:30 am:   Edit Post

Nice one, just a question. In the USA do you call the 1st of April, April Fools day like we do in the UK?


Jazzyvee
terryc
Senior Member
Username: terryc

Post Number: 1539
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 11:35 am:   Edit Post

Of course we really believe you glocke..just as bad as the 'Months Custom'!!!
pacificshine
Junior
Username: pacificshine

Post Number: 46
Registered: 7-2008
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 4:23 pm:   Edit Post

At first reading it sounded believable enough that I was going to add something like:
“Another significant mod would be to chop off the neck at the 20th fret and reattach it to the body with four properly sized bolts to give the instrument more of the bolt-on sound, so typified by the JB. Just make sure you are committed to this mod because I believe it is non reversible.”
nnek
Member
Username: nnek

Post Number: 51
Registered: 8-2009
Posted on Friday, April 01, 2011 - 8:04 pm:   Edit Post

I believe the neck modification to "bolt on" pacificshine suggests, would work nicely for those who might want to try that coveted short scale feel!

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