Re: Restoring a Lake Placid Blue '63 Bass VI
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2023 9:29 pm
From this point, I wasted no time in reassembling. Spent most of this weekend cleaning old parts and doing setup work. Here you can see how nice the color match was for the original headstock. This is a really difficult color to photograph under florescent lighting, you can see it changes a lot from photo-to-photo.
Everything went back on pretty easily, I cleaned up a number of solder joints. Unfortunately, I discovered that at least one (if not two) of the pickups is dead and will likely need rewinding. The middle one works but has very low output compared to the healthy neck pickup. I'll unplug these after Christmas and send them in to get checked out or even rewound. Pretty common on old Fender pickups, no big deal.
Gotta admit, I had some anxiety about the already tight guard not fitting back on the guitar, despite taking immense caution mounting it to poly carbonate WITH the thimbles, pickups and switch plate in-place. There is more going on with a Bass VI pickguard than probably any other Offset model, and that's more opportunities for shrinkage. It took a bit of coaxing but everything fit back on, and the pickups adjust fine.
I spent the most amount of time this weekend messing around with the bridge. It was missing three saddles (and came to me as a four-string with one replaced saddle). Of course, everything on a Bass VI bridge is unique to this model, even the length of the 4-40 saddle screws and taller adjustor screws. And the longer springs, compared to a JM/Jag bridge.
My local hardware store barely had anything, so there was plenty of fudgery to get it functional for now (while I find correct hardware for it). I did have some original 60s saddles though. The taller adjustors are allen key thumbscrews from a Rickenbacker bridge mounted upside down and trimmed to size. It actually works great, though it's a pain to set up the height of course. Ironically all of this is just for "finished" photos and posterity because I'll be putting a Mastery bridge on this thing right away.
Speaking of "leave no trace," scroll back a few pages and check out this area that was hogged out for lazy truss rod access. The repair is totally invisible, quite proud of that.
Everything went back on pretty easily, I cleaned up a number of solder joints. Unfortunately, I discovered that at least one (if not two) of the pickups is dead and will likely need rewinding. The middle one works but has very low output compared to the healthy neck pickup. I'll unplug these after Christmas and send them in to get checked out or even rewound. Pretty common on old Fender pickups, no big deal.
Gotta admit, I had some anxiety about the already tight guard not fitting back on the guitar, despite taking immense caution mounting it to poly carbonate WITH the thimbles, pickups and switch plate in-place. There is more going on with a Bass VI pickguard than probably any other Offset model, and that's more opportunities for shrinkage. It took a bit of coaxing but everything fit back on, and the pickups adjust fine.
I spent the most amount of time this weekend messing around with the bridge. It was missing three saddles (and came to me as a four-string with one replaced saddle). Of course, everything on a Bass VI bridge is unique to this model, even the length of the 4-40 saddle screws and taller adjustor screws. And the longer springs, compared to a JM/Jag bridge.
My local hardware store barely had anything, so there was plenty of fudgery to get it functional for now (while I find correct hardware for it). I did have some original 60s saddles though. The taller adjustors are allen key thumbscrews from a Rickenbacker bridge mounted upside down and trimmed to size. It actually works great, though it's a pain to set up the height of course. Ironically all of this is just for "finished" photos and posterity because I'll be putting a Mastery bridge on this thing right away.
Speaking of "leave no trace," scroll back a few pages and check out this area that was hogged out for lazy truss rod access. The repair is totally invisible, quite proud of that.