Beatle bass build

Hello to all on here. Received my Beatle bass a week or so ago (it only took a week to arrive to the White Mountains of New Hampshire!). There were a few QC quirks, as i unfortunately expected, but overall, the body and neck are in good condition. There was some tear out inside the body of the bass from a router, splitting a couple pieces in the plywood. Also, one of the threaded nuts for the tailpiece slid right off the threaded rod, so that whole piece went to the scrap yard.

The neck pocket fit perfect and the neck looks straight. Frets also look good with no overbite.

I had a pretty solid idea that I’d be ordering some replacement parts…i wonder if this has been brought up before…it would be great to be able to only order the body and the neck of a particular kit and outfit the hardware as we see fit, as most of the rest of the components are pretty much junk, in my opinion. Found a set of Hofner tuners, which required smaller holes, accomplished by fitting some hardwood dowels into the existing holes. I also ordered a new tailpiece from AllParts, which is much more solid than the kit version. Curtis Novak is building me some replacement pickups, but for now, I’m planning on using the existing control plate. From StewMac, i ordered some new tools and a bone nut, which i may or may not change out yet. And from BYO guitar, i purchased some Wudtone Saffron and Colombian Gold stains.

For the moment, I’m going to leave the headstock faceplate stained and see how dark i can get it to hide the dowels, but it’s not super important to me, I’d just rather have tuners that fit the vibe and will stay in tune better than the stock ones.

I’ve already begun staining and will include a few pics. The spalted top will be Saffron and the back and sides will be a mix of the Colombian Gold and Saffron in a bit of a sunburst. My goal for this build is to just savor the experience and have a fun little bass to have next to me and not be concerned about a serious investment getting dinged up. The sound is much more important.

Adding some more photos of the staining process.

Putting the first clear coat on.
The new Curtis Novak Staple pickups will be arriving this week.

Looks awesome!