This is Larry’s Cherry Custom J Bass.  It was a custom order, 30” scale, fretted bass.

The bass has Cherry wings, with a maple, walnut and purpleheat neck with an maple fretboard.  As part of the refin’ I’ll be re-shaping the bass a little to give better access to the upper frets, slimming down the neck, adding new pick-ups, CTS pots, Orange Drop capacitor, inlays and side dots.

Work to be done:

Work Completed:

Strip bass of hardware

Remove lacquer, Sand at 60 grit.

Reshape to improve access to upper frets

Shape/thin neck

Re-shape neck to body join

Re-contour and carve edges

Recess aluminum fret markers

Defret and sand board to 1000 grit

Shape/sand body to 80-150 grit

Shape/sand neck to 220 grit

Clean up pick-up routs

Filled holes/gaps as required.

Sand body to 400 grit   

Sand/shape neck to 400 grit

Rout for fingerboard inlays

Add new side markers

Shield cavities

Powder coat cavity cover

Seal wood

Re-fret

Apply Tru-Oil

Sand-back and polish

Redo wiring harness add orange drop capacitor and new pick-ups

Fabricate nut and bridge

Refit hardware

Final set up

Notes:

Larry wanted better access to the upper frets so I’ve cut away the upper and lower wings to allow for that.

Larry expressed a desire for block inlays, so I’ll go ahead with some pearl inlays.  As well as pearl side markers having recessed the aluminum dowels.  Ahead of that I’ve defretted the bass to allow me sand and mark out for the inlays.

We’re going to fit a matched pair of Aguilar AG 4J-60.  I’ve sourced undrilled p-up covers so that I don’t need to worry about the cosmetic look of mismatched poles.  The spacing of this bass is such that a 4 string p-up has the necessary width to cover the strings.  I will need to re-rout the pick-up cavities to tidy them up a little.

That’s the neck and body sanding complete, with pick-up routs deepened and cleaned up as best they can.

I’ve added Fender V/V/T knobs as an homage to the original inspiration.

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