SX Standard Series Bass Mod

Audio

Specs

• Neck
  • Rock maple
  • Indian rosewood fingerboard
• Body
  • Truss rod access channel
• Electronics
  • MK Custom Precision Bass pickups
  • CTS 250K pots
  • 4.7uF cap
  • Shielding
• Hardware
  • Badass II bridge
  • SX machine heads
  • Wide, high frets
  • All Parts chrome knobs
  • SX strap locks
• Finish
  • Neck: Epoxy (applied 20 years ago)
  • Body: Polyurethane

Requirements

The bass before the modifications. Well, not really. I already drilled and installed a Badass II bridge. The original SX bridge is solid and usable, but not for this project.

• Neck: Replace neck with an old fretless converted neck, to be refretted
• Body: Tighten neck pocket, shielding
• Nut: New bone nut
• Electronics: New MK Precision Bass pickups, new components and fully shielded
• Setup and intonation

Neck

The original SX neck (not made from rock maple, may be soft maple, has a rosewood fingerboard) sounds extremely dull, which is the main contributer to the aweful sound of the bass with passive electronics. Not even the very tight fit into the neck pocket or two good sets of Precision Bass pickups I made can make this thing sound decent with the original neck. I also installed a booster circuit I made into this thing, which just boosted the crap sound ofcourse. So much for the glorified luthier talk in some circles about "tight fitting neck pockets" and "wood makes no difference" arguments.

SX Neck

Before I start work on the replacement neck, here are some shots of the SX neck.

This neck has a dodgy two way adjustable truss rod.

The neck also has a defect in the wood close the start of the neck heel, so this board should never have been used for the neck.

Replacement Neck

So, the SX neck will be replaced with a fretted neck I bought and converted to fretless in the early 80's, which is made from rock maple with an Indian rosewood fingerboard. This replacement neck, needs quite a bit of work done to it:

• Sand epoxy off fingerboard
• Remove rosewood veneer filler strips in fret slots
• Radius to 12" as the fingerboard has compound radius from 9.5" to around 11"
• Plug the neck screw holes as they line up too far to the outer edge of the neck pocket
• Sand down the thick epoxy finish (my 2nd fret convesion neck in the early 80s)
• Make and glue a maple veneer piece to the bottom of the neck base joining the body to build up the neck thickness in that area, which was removed by sanding the fingerboard over the years. You'll notice that the fingerboard marker on the edge of the neck protrudes through the board slightly at the 19th fret. This does not impact playability so will remain as is

Fingerboard (the neck at the top of the picture) sanded and ready to remove rosewood veneer from fret slots.

I just refretted the neck, but it still needs a fret dress. This neck is a very loose fit into the SX neck pocket, so further work there to make a snug fit in the body section.

I built the neck heel thickness with a piece of veneer I made from a rock maple fingerboard offcut.

Now to shape the heel...

Still a little more shaping and it's done.

Body

The only mod I will make at this stage is to route a truss rod nut access channel and make to veneer strips for the neck pockets sides to tighten it up. The strips will not be glued. Whether further mods are warranted depends on the sound of the bass once I assemble it for the first phase of testing after the neck is complete. If any body wood mods are made, I'll use scrap wood off cuts. There is no shielding in the electronics cavities, so these will be shielded with tape.

Before...

After...I made two maple veneer strips for the both sides of the neck pocket for a snug neck fit which worked really well. I won't glue these in till the neck testing is complete after the neck is finished.

I had a small piece of pickguard material left (it was short by around 4mm but it'll do), so I made a cavity cover which is more practical than a pbass pickguard.

and with the stock SX pickguard.

Nut

I'll making a new nut for this neck.

Electronics

The original SX electronics will be replaced with a used set of 250K CTS pots and 4.7uF cap. The amusing strip of shielding around the controls on the pickguard will also be replaced with full shielding. I'll be making a new set of MK Precision Bass pickups for this.

DCR Readings: 10KΩ

The original pickups and electronics.

New electronics components in the original pickguard with the skimpy shielding. The electronics will be reused after the shielding tape is applied to the pickguard.

Setup and Intonation