Love my Jack Casady. It's now my number one gigging bass. Been using it with my 60's cover band Carnaby Army here in London and the sound is perfect for what we cover. It's clear, punchy yet still gives a deep drown. My P Bass is for sale now.
But, It's certainly not the most comfortable bass to play and if it didn't sound so darn good I probably would have stuck with either my P bass or Gibson SG Bass.
So, one day while clearing out some boxes I found a Gibson headstock overlay that I purchased a while back from Crox Guitars. I was going to use it to repair a Gibson Les Paul guitar, but took another route and never used it.
So, I layed the Gibson overlay over the Epiphone Jack Casady headstock...and woaaa, I thought to myself, if I can get the headstock down to that size AND add hipshot ultralite tuners, I believe I will have cured my neck dive issues. Not sure why they made the Epiphone so big anyway?
Now, the haters are going to hate as usual with a headstock change of brand, but if they made one that size that said Epiphone, I would have used that.
So, here she is:
I used a heat gun and putty knife to strip off the (VERY thick) Casady paint and clear coat. Here's an example of how much bulk you eliminate using the Gibson headstock profile:
I used dowels to plug the original tuner holes:
Then clamped the bajayzus out of the overlay with titebond and let it sit for 24 hours (don't worry about glue oozing onto the overlay, you can sand that off without damaging the inlay) but, best to use perplex plastic to see that everything lines up when you clamp:
Now it's time for some wood butchery to shave it down to the new headstock size:
Sanded and ready for some clear coat and tuner holes:
And there she is. Purists and perfectionists will cringe as I'm not particularly worried about it looking pristine as I use my instruments to play out, have fun and make some money. This was done to make the bass more comfortable to play and that works a charm. Jack Casady should have a word with manufacturing and see if they can get the headstock size down a bit as this would help balance issues immensely.
But, It's certainly not the most comfortable bass to play and if it didn't sound so darn good I probably would have stuck with either my P bass or Gibson SG Bass.
So, one day while clearing out some boxes I found a Gibson headstock overlay that I purchased a while back from Crox Guitars. I was going to use it to repair a Gibson Les Paul guitar, but took another route and never used it.
So, I layed the Gibson overlay over the Epiphone Jack Casady headstock...and woaaa, I thought to myself, if I can get the headstock down to that size AND add hipshot ultralite tuners, I believe I will have cured my neck dive issues. Not sure why they made the Epiphone so big anyway?
Now, the haters are going to hate as usual with a headstock change of brand, but if they made one that size that said Epiphone, I would have used that.
So, here she is:
I used a heat gun and putty knife to strip off the (VERY thick) Casady paint and clear coat. Here's an example of how much bulk you eliminate using the Gibson headstock profile:
I used dowels to plug the original tuner holes:
Then clamped the bajayzus out of the overlay with titebond and let it sit for 24 hours (don't worry about glue oozing onto the overlay, you can sand that off without damaging the inlay) but, best to use perplex plastic to see that everything lines up when you clamp:
Now it's time for some wood butchery to shave it down to the new headstock size:
Sanded and ready for some clear coat and tuner holes:
And there she is. Purists and perfectionists will cringe as I'm not particularly worried about it looking pristine as I use my instruments to play out, have fun and make some money. This was done to make the bass more comfortable to play and that works a charm. Jack Casady should have a word with manufacturing and see if they can get the headstock size down a bit as this would help balance issues immensely.
