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EVH Frankenbass
A few years ago I built a frankenstein strat, as close as I could get it to be without throwing big cash at it, as I'm not really a great guitarist! It came out really nicely, and is fun to play, I have even dragged it out for the odd gig, but am a bit shy to strut around on stage with it much, as mangled versions of 'ain't talkin' 'panama' and 'hot for teacher' is about as good as I'll ever get, but as a guitar it's great. I made some mods for the electrics and the front pickup works and the humbucker can be coil tapped too.
During the last lockdown I bought a ratty Sportster that had been standing in a shed on a farm for 12 years, and chopped it into a Cafe racer. That was lots of fun, and it got the same EVH paint scheme:
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So, as a bass player, I thought I'd have a go at a Frankenbass. Not really sure what that means yet, but it will have a dummy pickup, mix of parts, red/white/black paint and be generally chopped from strat/precision parts.
I was going to put a MM style pickup in it to mimic the guitar, but I much prefer the sound of the Precision bass so I'm going with that. I have a MM style bridge with through body holes I'll use, as well as a dummy front JB pickup and strat scratch plate and jack socket.
Here's a pic of the new PB kit with my frankenstein:
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The kit arrived and looks great, except for a badly mismatched ash body. Doesn't matter for this project at all.
I'm still not sure what it will look like, but we have a couple of potential gigs at bike shows where I'll enter the cafe racer, so I'll have the matching bass!
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Ooh nice. Looking forward to this one.
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I wonder why m0j0 likes this one????
Cool idea, and I like the sporty/cafe racer thing too. I'm not into bikes, but many years ago I was a "hang-around".
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Great idea for a project. All the best!
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Nice work on the strat and the bike. Looking forward to watching this one's progress.
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Thanks guys! I'm still developing the idea, for the last 30 years I have been playing the bass I built with my dad, it's an Aria Pro II neck on a body from a 17th century fireplace! My dad is a carpenter so it came from a damaged fireplace he was repairing and he cut a body from it. I love this guitar, and I want to make something with a similar 'used' feel. I call this one the 'Imprecision Bass', in honour of my playing.
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It's funny how 'right' the Frankenstein just feels, it's much nicer to handle and play than a standard strat, and I have no idea why. Let's see if I can transfer a bit of that magic to this project!
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Question for those in the know -
My jazz special and the imprecision both have D'Marzio model P pickups in them. In the Frankenbass I'm keen to try out something different, the options are:
- Stock kit pickups (i'm no snob, if they are OK I'll use them!)
- Wilkinson P bass
- Tonerider
- Entwhistle
- something I haven't thought of
.....or another set of D'Marzio. I play through an Ampeg solid-state 500W head, usually with my fingers, and am a fan of that rich P Bass rock sound from the '70's...
Any thoughts most welcome!
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I'm no help to you for bass pickups Andy.
My one and only bass is an SX short scale P-style with the stock pickups in it. With my bass playing "skills", I'm sure they would all sound the same :o.
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OK, now I'm convinced this is going to work. I bought another set of red/white/black paint the same as I used on the Frankenstrat, and cut the black strat scratch-plate down the same way as the other one. It is awesome having the strat there as a reference, it will make it much easier than scouring the internet for photos and zooming in!
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Went for a set of Tonerider PB pickups, on their way from Pitbull HQ!
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Used some scrap timber, builder's bog and filler to fill the stock holes for the PB scratchplate. This is the same way I did the EVH guitar. It will have the strat jack plate and part scratchplate meeting up with the PB pickups.
Also took a sander to the end of the neck so it has the correct 'incorrect' tele neck/strat body fitment like the original guitar
Next I'll dig out the router...
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