The first thing you see when you walk into Dan’s shop. Always have the right tool for the job…
…continued from April 21, 2013…
On the February long weekend in 2011, we carted a big box o’parts down to Mr. Thorpe’s to start assembly. He had already managed to scrounge up all the stuff I hadn’t been able to get; the pots, strap pins, jack, knobs and the string retainer for headstock, from his considerable resources. I had neglected to order a neck plate, so he disassembled one of his own guitars to get the necessary part!
Almost on impulse, I also bought a set of flatwound strings on my way down; it was a last-minute decision, but it ultimately served me well; those strings, on that bass, became integral to my sound.
It really is fascinating to see a parts guitar come together; all the things that Leo Fender did, way back when, to make his guitars easy to manufacture now make building an instrument using parts based on his designs relatively painless. Not having Fender’s assembly jigs, you do need to do some careful measuring and alignment (thank the deities for Dan’s expertise, here; he really does know his stuff), but once the neck is aligned and the bridge is positioned, the rest of it is pretty step-by-step.
There were small adjustments, along the way (eg: GFS’ Jazz Bass bodies are routed to
The PBJ Mk I, with my photo assistant in the shot…
Asian spec, and their pickups are American spec, so you have to Dremel out the mounting screw holes to get them to mate up) but, after two days of assembly, coffee, assembly, beer, assembly, lunch, assembly, dinner, we had a great-sounding, great-playing bass.
I actually played a couple of gigs with this setup but, somehow, I just knew we weren’t quite done…
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