Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: glocke on April 01, 2011, 08:20:39 AM

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: glocke on April 01, 2011, 08:20:39 AM

So lately Ive been really getting tired of the sound of my series II.     No matter what I do, I cant get it to sound like a fender jazz bass, so earlier this  a friend and I decided to do some surgery.
 
Actually my friend did all the work since he is taking some mail order luthier classes and needed the experience.
 
He pulled the pups and electronics from my coco-bolo series II and installed some  jazz bass pups from a mexican fender jazz bass.  It was a little tricky, as the JB pups were a little small for the SII pup cavities, but with a little creativity (screwing plywood shims into the cavities to support them) that issue was resolved.  
 
Since I've been wanting a series II fretless, I also had him yank the frets out and finish the fretboard with epoxy.
 
We also replaced the stock alembic bridge with a badass bass bridge so it really looks cool and old school now!  Unfortunately  since my friend is just learning how to be a luthier the bridge wasnt aligned correctly at first so he had to drill a couple of different holes until he got the alignment just exactly perfect.  Fortunately, we had some wood putty and some dark walnut stain laying around to patch the holes up.  You can barely tell that they are there!
 
Pics here:
 
http://gallery.me.com/glocke12#100494/seriesii&bgcolor=black (http://gallery.me.com/glocke12#100494/seriesii&bgcolor=black)

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: mario_farufyno on April 01, 2011, 11:01:36 AM

I knew it! (But couldnt help clicking, ha ha ha)

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: David Houck on April 01, 2011, 11:02:41 AM

I tried that mod, but couldn't get rid of the buzz that's build into the Fender pickups, so I switched back to the stock pickups, and that irritating buzz is gone.

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: sonicus on April 01, 2011, 11:12:50 AM

YES  ____ It's a fine day for a joke _____

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: hieronymous on April 01, 2011, 11:16:45 AM

Good one!

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: jazzyvee on April 01, 2011, 11:30:16 AM

Nice one, just a question. In the USA do  you call the 1st of April, April Fools day like we do in the UK?
 
 
Jazzyvee

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: terryc on April 01, 2011, 12:35:22 PM

Of course we really believe you glocke..just as bad as the 'Months Custom'!!!

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: pacificshine on April 01, 2011, 05:23:25 PM

At first reading it sounded believable enough that I was going to add something like:
?Another significant mod would be to chop off the neck at the 20th fret and reattach it to the body with four properly sized bolts to give the instrument more of the bolt-on sound, so typified by the JB.  Just make sure you are committed to this mod because I believe it is non reversible.?

Title: Experimenting, swapping series pups with JB pups.
Post by: nnek on April 01, 2011, 09:04:18 PM

I believe the neck modification to bolt on pacificshine suggests, would work nicely for those who might want to try that coveted short scale feel!