Tiesco Bass Rebuild (completed)

[threewordname]

So i pulled this bass (literally) out of the garbage in Boston. I've been playing it off and on since, and while i love the way it sounds, i hate the way it plays.

luckily i also acquired a knock off left handed stingray neck, which i really like, and is a pretty standard size. Unfortunately nothing on a tiesco is standard, so a straight swap is out of the question. Although i have to admit it looks pretty rad.

time to get weird. I found a hunk of wood at work that was previously the base of a sculpture stand. Here is the plan.

still pretty open as far as color scheme. more to come

[Horsefeather]

I'd like to see the tips of the horns matched to the end of the Stingray head stock. Like an Ibanez Roadstar's horns. I think that would yield a factory looking design. That neck and body do work quite well together but the square horns with the curved head stock just throw it off a little to my eye.

Have to say, though, that it seems like a shame to sacrifice a complete Teisco bass just for the pickups and whatnot. What if you just duplicated the pickguard and got some new GFS pickups or something and saved the Teisco or even sold it to fund the other stuff?

[Squirrel]

Have to say, though, that it seems like a shame to sacrifice a complete Teisco bass just for the pickups and whatnot. What if you just duplicated the pickguard and got some new GFS pickups or something and saved the Teisco or even sold it to fund the other stuff?

+1. Buying/making a loaded pickguard makes waaay more sense than ruining a perfectly good Teisco.

[threewordname]

I'm keeping the teisco pretty much intact. I'm just using the pickups, and the whole project is going to cost around $60, so no need to offset any costs.

If I ever want to sell the tiesco, I can always buy new pickups off eBay. I'm not too worried about maintaining the "vintage solder" on a bass I pulled out of the trash.

[threewordname]

I routed the neck pocket last night, which came out awesome. Super tight. Just one problem... In my excitement I routed the pocket to 3/4" instead of 5/8"!





This leaves me a couple options. I can either plane the front of the body down an 1/8" or I can build a shim to raise the neck up. Does anyone have advise on which is more feasible?

[epizootics]

They are both feasible, but a third option would be to glue a piece of wood in the neck pocket and re-route it to the correct depth rather than using a shim. You can use the neck heel as a template to make the piece of wood in question a perfect fit. Just make sure your neck doesn't wiggle around while you're copying its shape. Guess how I know?

It should be less dangerous an option than planing the whole top again. Once you've shaped the body, you risk tearout around the edges when you re-plane it...Plus making the body lighter increases the chances of neck diving.

[Ceylon]

A word of advice. If you like the sound you might want to stick with the original body. Old plywood has a certain kind of sound to it that's hard to replicate.

[threewordname]

I decided that I'm gonna go with the 1/8" shim in the neck pocket. I don't really have access to a 14" planer right now, and the just the thought of doing it by hand is giving me carpel tunnel. I'll have to pick up a thin slice of hardwood next time I'm at the hardware store.

I got impatient last night and rough cut the shape of the body. It's starting to look like a guitar shaped object now



I was worried about how heavy my blank was (11 pounds), so I weighed the remaining hunk of wood, which is 6.2 pounds. It doesn't feel like i chopped off more than 40% of the original blank, but I guess I did!

The big question now is tort or black pick guard. I'm not looking to spend $50+ on a blank, which might limit me on the quality of tort i can afford.

[threewordname]

Opened up the old bass and noticed that both volume pots are 100k, while the tone is 250k. I'm used to building guitars, is this normal for basses?

[Schwarg]

I think it's amazing you got this out of a dumpster

[threewordname]

I cut the pick guard a few weeks ago, and fashioned a shim for the neck pocket out of a piece of 1/8" birch ply.

black on black was an interesting line choice...

tried out a couple techniques for the series/parallel switch before settling on a combonation of dremel, coping saw and jewelers file

nailed it

While I was in Boston over the weekend for a wedding I cut the outside to shape with a router. I cut the top with a straight bit, getting as close to my line as i could, then flipped it over and used a flush trim bit to cut the bottom half to match.

in progress

i believe in adult films they refer to this as the "piston shot"

gratuitous mock up shot

Now it's time to sand everything nice and smooth before I start working on round overs. I'm trying to decide if I want to do the 5/8" chamfer that's on the original or if I want to go with a 1/4" roundover the whole way around.

[countertext]

Have you considered putting a flat spot on the end of the headstock? Could echo the cutaways on the guitar.

[DrQuasar]

Is that a "The Sound and the Fury" pedal there in that last pic?

[threewordname]

Indeed. The build thread for that pedal is below.

http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... hp?t=96277

I built a second one with a bazz fuss circut in it. That one came out much better, but ended up being a groomsman gift for my wedding.

I'm going to use this rainy long weekend to hopefully get the bass ready for paint. I'm headed to harbor freight to pick up a small router, so I don't have to drive 2 hours to Boston every time I want to route things.

[threewordname]

over memorial day weekend i soldered up the pickguard and routed out underneath

big plate of spaghetti

round over is done on the back too, neck holes are drilled, bridge is mounted

next to its older sibling.

The A string that I had was too short to reach all the way to the tuner, so I had to use a D from the old bass. New strings are on the way

everything is lined up perfectly. The pick ups sound just as good in the new body. The new series option is my favorite right now. It sounds mean as hell. I still need to cut the chamfer on the front, but the bit is too big for the opening on my router, so I'm gonna wait until my brother comes out to visit. Once thats done, its sanding time, then paint and clear!