Dual builds 2020

A picture of the donor before surgery, together with the extant headstock and proposed re-shape. The large Fender bridge cover is not standard, to quote 10cc 'it hides a nasty stain that's lying there'. The neck is straight and adjustable at the body end. The frets are in good condition and seem unworn. This is quite a shallow bodied guitar at just 1"(25mm)thick and is actually plywood. I am intrigued by baritone guitars and as I don't think this old bass has any real value (please correct me if I'm wrong!) it will make an interesting project when the current ones are finished. As always, any advice, warnings, tips and guidance is most welcome. When and if I get started I will start a new thread. Best thing is, her indoors will not see an additional, "just repairs dear on an old one!"
Kay1 (1).JPG (93.5 KB)
headstock kay.jpg (68.8 KB)
SH1 (2)k.png (58.1 KB)

Body thickness is a big consideration when considering pots, pickups and controls.

If you are thinking of humbuckers, a typical humbucker rout is 1/2" deep for the main part and 1" deep for the two mounting leg locations. That isn't going to work with a 1" deep body! You can of course modify any humbucker by bending up the legs and having them flat and drilling and tapping new screw holes, but you won't be able to fit a very long spring if top mounting, so the pickup fit could be rather loose. Direct mounting to the body could work with modified pickups.

Single coils will be thinner overall, so easier to fit; so those or single-coil sized humbuckers would be an option.

You can of course just use the existing pickup. You may find that despite having four holes cut out in the cover, it doesn't have individual pole pieces or slugs, but has a solid bar instead, so will work just as well (or badly depending on how it sounds) with 6 strings instead of 4.

You won't have the depth to fit anything but standard short-shaft pots, but if you wanted extra switching options, then mini-toggle switches would be viable depth-wise if there was the physical space in the control rout for them and the pots. You could probably just squeeze a box-style selector switch in if you added another pickup, but a Switchcraft style lever switch is probably going to be too deep. I'd keep the controls as single volume and tone, even if you do use two pickups. So definitely measure and check cavity depths before ordering any parts.

Definitely measure the neck width and the existing bridge's overall string spacing distance. Those short scale bases generally had very narrow necks, often narrower than a 6-string and quite often don't get wider down the neck like guitar necks normally do. So you may find that a standard Strat hardtail-style bridge is just too wide. Some bridges for Asian-made guitars have a string spacing that's a couple of mm smaller than standard. On the other hand, if the neck turns out to be wider than a 6-string, then as long as the outer strings aren't too far from the edge and reasonably parallel (which partly depends on how you cut the new nut for use with the the zero-fret) you should be able to live with a slightly smaller spacing. Again, measure and try and source suitable parts first before commencing the project.

Worth of a short-scale Kay bass? As much as anyone is willing to pay. It's certainly not in A1 condition, but few of these old cheap instruments are, and some people do get obsessed with 'vintage' instruments, especially if they are building a collection. So it may well be worth more than you think. I'm sure someone would pay £150 for it if you found the right person.

Great advice as always Simon, many things to measure, consider and test. This will probably be a slow burner as other things are in front of it. Was initially prompted by the similarity to the excellent LesTele’s body shape. I appreciate your input and interest

Well the weather was on my side today and I managed to get all my base and clear coats on.

I tried to take advantage of the late afternoon sun to highlight the sparkle. It shows up okay in the photo, but it's much much better IRL.
It was a long day, though I managed to learn a couple more things about spraying with a gun. Seems I do each time, which is a good thing!

Time to watch the paint dry...

Attachment 37019

Looking nice and sparkly there!

Thanks Simon.
I actually like this colour better than what I had with the previous experimental paint job.
I could have been happy with the other colour had I been able to rescue it, but such was not the case.

So kind of a silver lining scenario...

Well, I'm calling this one done!

After initially starting it 11 months ago, it has been the longest period of time I have taken to complete a build.
I'm pretty happy with how it's come out though.

It plays really well and sounds great. The Fender Gen 4 Noiseless pickups sound incredible. They're not cheap, but I'm glad I took the punt.

Attachment 37511 Attachment 37512

Attachment 37513 Attachment 37514

Here's a few other specs:
2-piece Alder body, Holden "Impulse Blue" metallic
Maple/Maple neck,12"R, satin polyurethane (feels great)
Alternative 5-way position switching:
pos 5 - Neck / pos 4 - Neck & Bridge / pos 3 Bridge / pos 2 - Middle & Bridge / pos 1 - Middle
Leo Fender's PTB tone circuit (Passive Treble Bass): Master Volume; Treble Cut; Bass Cut

The sparkle of the metallic didn't photograph as well as it looks IRL and the vibrato cover is also white pearloid like the pickguard, but it kind of washed out in the sun.

I successfully cut the nut so I don't need any string trees (so far). It's got some settling in to do still, but should be fine.

This will be my last new build for a while (no, seriously :o). Got some re-building/modding to do on some previous builds... and lots of playing!

Well wikkid!

Wow, I'd love to see the sparkle in person... Great work!

Top marks from me.