You could pop in a set of Gotoh Res-o-lites. Not as light as the hipshots, but much lighter than steel tuners, and they'll cover the holes. The ones I have on my Frankenjazz are the most precise tuners I have ever had. You'd have to think of something to do with the Hipshots.. bit I am sure you will ;-)
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I have a set of Hipshot Lites and one set of 2+2 Hipshot standards that I have no basses to put on (both sets have an Xtender), so I'm certainly not going to buy another set of bass tuners! Buying the other two standard Hipshots would be much cheaper as well.
Well, I suppose you may as well try things in ascending order of rollback. Start with just filling holes with as good a colour match as you can, if that isn't good enough then perhaps inlaid maple veneer and so on. You're much more a painted headstock person than me, can you think of a way painted back as well as face could look right?
Build #1, failed solid body 6 string using neck from a scrapped acoustic (45+ odd years ago as a teenager!)
Build #2, ugly parlour semi with scratch built body and ex Peavey neck
Build #3, Appalachian Dulcimer from EMS kit
Build #4, pre-owned PB ESB-4
Build #5, Lockdown Mandolin
Build #6, Sixty six body for Squier
Build #7, Mini Midi Bass
No.
Don't want a painted face, so don't want a painted back. Just want to use a dimple black decal and keep the neck all clear coat. I'll check the holes against the large Hipshots just to make sure they get covered up (they probably won't align perfectly) and order two more large tuners and a Hipshot bridge from the same source.
Now, do I stick with top loading or go string-through?
You know you want the challenge!Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Yes. I'm feeling the string-through pull. My Lakland PB is string-through and that's really nice.
I really feel it's worth the effort .. it pays off in spades. I wouldn't go back to top loading if I had the option. Might even push the resonance factor with the basswood etc.?.!
It may do. As most high-mass bridges have both top and through-loading options, it should be easy to try both and compare.
I am curious about the string spacing. It looks like you may be going with the Hipshot, which could make the point moot if it has adjustable string spacing...
Curious what makes you interested it 20mm? I have three basses with J necks. Two have 19mm and the third has 18. If pressed I would probably say my hand likes the 18 best, but it's not really something I notice. I don't see much of an advantage to having the outer strings closer to the edge of the fingerboard. Of course that could be my ham-handed tendency to push or pull outer strings off the fingerboard with my left hand when not paying attention.
Fender American Standards seem to use the same high mass bridge, and I thought that was true for other years as well. My 70s Fender P uses 19mm spacing. Did Fender use wider spacing on J basses at some point?
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Last edited by fender3x; 08-09-2020 at 12:13 AM.
It's just that the kit bridge is 20mm, which means that in theory it should match the neck. I know 19mm/0.75" is pretty much the norm here, but there's a reasonable difference between 57mm and 60mm overall spacing.
But I can see a Hipshot A-style bridge being fitted, so it's fully adjustable to suit.
Now, aluminium or brass?
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