NBD: Frankenfender (all TB Classifieds parts)

ptensioned

ptensioned

Jan 12, 2013
525
1,114
4,551
Hamilton, ON
#1
So it all started with a black Gotoh 201 bridge I picked up at a guitar show for a song...

It sat on my work bench for ages, taunting me with the possibilities. Being black, it wasn't going to go on my usual vintage-inspired stuff, but I decided it'd look great with a Dark Star. Almosy immediately, I found one in the classifieds from @Tom P , and had it shipped up. After briefly considering a Tractor build, I decided against it, mostly because I didn't want to carve up a perfectly good Jazz. P build it is.

Now I needed a body, and I saw @AndrewTaran had one off a Nate Mendel sig for sale locally, so scooped that up, too. Nitro finish, Candy Apple Red, perfect. Lastly, a neck. I looked around, considered a MIM rosewood brand new direct from Fender, but then I saw a Vintage-Style 70's Precision neck, complete with black Schaller tuners that @70spbase was selling, and it all came together.

A blank pickguard from Warmoth and a couple of black knobs later, and all the components were assembled. The only hiccup was my handheld mini-router kicked on me when I was carving up the body, and took a chunk out of the edge of the rout. Thank heavens the pickguard covers it up, but that'll always bug me. Rushing and routers are a bad combination.

Anyway, it sounds fantastic, and I understand what all the fuss about the Dark Star is about now. It's aggressive and upfront without being scooped, and has a very clear timbre to it. All in all, a fantastic advertisement for the TalkBass Classifieds, as each and every seller was super easy to deal with and quick to ship. I suspect this won't be the last time I do this...

Here she is:

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#6
That's a hot bass! I have a Candy-Apple Red Lakland P that is sometimes my favorite looking bass.
Darkstars are fantastic and unique pickups- glad yours worked out fine, as they can be quite sensitive to string clearance. The old Guild basses tended to have much more clearance between the body and strings than a typical Fender, and the pickups with that much space sound much smoother and less aggressive. They get a very aggressive attack and overtones when close to the strings, which can be hard to get used to but does sound great if you master it!
 
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#8
sunbeast said:
That's a hot bass! I have a Candy-Apple Red Lakland P that is sometimes my favorite looking bass.
Darkstars are fantastic and unique pickups- glad yours worked out fine, as they can be quite sensitive to string clearance. The old Guild basses tended to have much more clearance between the body and strings than a typical Fender, and the pickups with that much space sound much smoother and less aggressive. They get a very aggressive attack and overtones when close to the strings, which can be hard to get used to but does sound great if you master it!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll have to mess with it a bit to see what tones are there, but it's definitely in the 'aggressive attack' mode now. I find it sounds best soloed with the tone dialled back, but had a quick jam with it earlier today, and the snarl sounds great with drums and guitar. The pole pieces are basically flush now, is it possible to recess them?
 
#9
ptensioned said:
Yeah, I'll have to mess with it a bit to see what tones are there, but it's definitely in the 'aggressive attack' mode now. I find it sounds best soloed with the tone dialled back, but had a quick jam with it earlier today, and the snarl sounds great with drums and guitar. The pole pieces are basically flush now, is it possible to recess them?
Click to expand...

You can lower the polepieces relative to the face of the pickup to a degree (including lowering them below the face), but the actual magnets of the pickup are stationary so there's only so much adjustment you can do there. The bridge and neck height of the Guild Starfire basses (where these pickup's ancestors became famous) were higher relative to the body than a typical Fender so the magnetic field from the pickups around the strings was toned down a bit. I actually shimmed the neck (and subsequently raised the bridge saddles) on my Darkstar'd Jazz to coax a bit more string height and tame the pickups a bit- a little change goes a long way I've found! I also like the way that aggressiveness fits in a band mix if you can control it (my playing technique was much sloppier and heavy-handed before I had to learn to tame my DS'ed bass)!
 
#11
sunbeast said:
You can lower the polepieces relative to the face of the pickup to a degree (including lowering them below the face), but the actual magnets of the pickup are stationary so there's only so much adjustment you can do there. The bridge and neck height of the Guild Starfire basses (where these pickup's ancestors became famous) were higher relative to the body than a typical Fender so the magnetic field from the pickups around the strings was toned down a bit. I actually shimmed the neck (and subsequently raised the bridge saddles) on my Darkstar'd Jazz to coax a bit more string height and tame the pickups a bit- a little change goes a long way I've found! I also like the way that aggressiveness fits in a band mix if you can control it (my playing technique was much sloppier and heavy-handed before I had to learn to tame my DS'ed bass)!
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean, and may throw a shim in myself to try that out. It sounds great with a light touch, but boy, the fret clank really comes through with the tone knob up. I put 500k pots and a 0.047 cap in there, might also try 250k pots to push the tone down a bit. That said, with a light touch it sounds so amazing that I don't want to mess with it...
 
#19
MovingPitchers said:
Glad it's in safe hands though despite your flubbing on routing hahaha.
Click to expand...

Ugh. Don't remind me. I didn't use a template, and so was only working off a clamped straight edge. I was using a new bit, and didn't expect it to be so grabby. One push too hard while I didn't have a firm grip, and it jumped and took a small bite out of the side. It's not huge, but definitely noticeable with the pickguard off. Classic rush job, and the product of not taking the time to make a proper template and set up an appropriate work area. Shortcuts often equal eff ups...
 
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