The Great Rockbass Renovation project

mart

mart

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Once upon time, a long long time ago, (well, only about 6 months ago, actually, but never mind...) I got a Rockbass Corvette as part exchange against a bass I was selling. I didn't really want the Corvette but figured it would be useful to have a less valuable bass for those times when I didn't want to take an expensive bass along.

Then, an attack of GAS took me, and I developed a craving for one of these:
load.php

A shop in the UK was selling one at a good price, and I was really tempted. But I didn't act fast enough, and the bass was sold. Although a few German shops still have that SE, the prices are a little too high for me at the moment.

And from there the idea slowly formed: why don't I turn my RB into that SE? The RB has its bridge in slightly the wrong place and if I re-finish the RB in white then I can move the bridge and the re-finish will cover the old screw holes. So that is my project:

1) Sort out the bridge/pickup/neck alignment problems

2) Re-finish the bass in high gloss white

3) Change the hardware to black

4) Change the electrics to all passive (from all active - I really am starting with the wrong RB for this project ;-))

I don't actually want a lined fingerboard, and I'm happy to stick with a 1-piece bridge, so the result won't look exactly the same, but that's fine with me. And if the body re-spray goes ok, I might try spraying the headstock white to match!

Firstly, then, the before photo. This is what the bass looked like when I got it:

P1020455.jpg


Now I've starting buying the bits and pieces I need for the job. The first to arrive were the straplocks and control knobs, so this is what the bass looks like at the moment:

P1020754.jpg


Next I'm waiting for the bridge to arrive, then I'll fit that in the correct place, and see how badly out the pickups are. Watch this space ...
 
Looks like a cool project Mart. Just some info on the bridge, it doesn't sit on top of the bass an is in fact inset (you may already know that) so you will need to either route out some cavities for them or chisel them out depending on your means. As you are going for a solid paint moving the pick-ups (if needed) shouldn't be much of an issue, as simple as filling in the old holes and routing/chiselling new ones.

Anyway, Good luck can't wait to see how it turns out =D
 
the wood on your bass looks nice,get rid of the high gloss and go with a oil and wax with black hdw that wood ollk good to.
 
This sound like a very cool project :-) My personal opinion is that you will invest a little bit too much money for a Rockbass, but I know how it feels to to something like this with your own hands!

PLease make a lot of pics!
 
TravisMoore said:
Looks like a cool project Mart. Just some info on the bridge, it doesn't sit on top of the bass an is in fact inset (you may already know that) so you will need to either route out some cavities for them or chisel them out depending on your means. As you are going for a solid paint moving the pick-ups (if needed) shouldn't be much of an issue, as simple as filling in the old holes and routing/chiselling new ones.

Anyway, Good luck can't wait to see how it turns out =D
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Thanks Travis. I'm actually going to use the Warwick 1-piece bridge (but in black instead of chrome) because routing for the 2-piece bridge would be too difficult for me. And the 1-piece bridge seems to work well enough.

james brunnning said:
the wood on your bass looks nice,get rid of the high gloss and go with a oil and wax with black hdw that wood ollk good to.
Click to expand...

Nice suggestion! I agree that black hardware on that wood will look better, but I don't actually like the wood that much. (When I compare it with my German Warwicks it looks very plain indeed!) And the white will cover up the bridge problems.

Florin said:
This sound like a very cool project :-) My personal opinion is that you will invest a little bit too much money for a Rockbass, but I know how it feels to to something like this with your own hands!

PLease make a lot of pics!
Click to expand...

Yep, those were exactly my thoughts - I could buy a new passive white RB for almost the same amount I'm spending - but I want to have some fun with this, and I think the project will make me enjoy the bass more.

And yes, I was planning to take pics every step of the way - especially since I've been finding Travis's Stage 1 renovation pics so inspiring!
 
Cool beans dude, hope everything goes well. White basses rock ;)
 
Ahh, Fair enough man. The one piece bridge will be a lot easier. I look forward to seeing your progress =D
 
Thanks for all the comments guys - I really appreciate your feedback! :d

Shoewreck said:
Do you really need to move pickups?
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I don't know! When I first had a proper look at the bridge/neck alignment, I unscrewed the bridge and worked out roughly where it should go (so that the strings sit nicely on the neck). And it looked like the pickups would then be out of line with the strings.

When I've got the new bridge I'll work out exactly where it should go, and how far out the pickups are. Obviously I don't want to move them if I can avoid it. So I'll probably put some pics up(!) here and ask you guys for an opinion!

james brunnning said:
a schaller bridge would be cool like the older wicks had on them.
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Yeah, a Schaller bridge would be nice, but it's about £40 ($70) more expensive! And the Warwick 1-piece bridge works just fine, so I'm saving a bit of money and going for that option. In fact, with the new Rockbasses having the 2-piece bridge, I'm going for the "vintage Rockbass" look ;)
 
cool i have used the schaller bridge before and its a nice bridge i like that the string spacing can be adjusted.but the rb bridge is good to.i left them alone on my bass,s
 
Now I see, the bridge is misaligned, but the pickups still look like they're in the right place. I'll wait for further pics.
 
james brunnning said:
cool i have used the schaller bridge before and its a nice bridge i like that the string spacing can be adjusted.but the rb bridge is good to.i left them alone on my bass,s
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Hmm, maybe I will be needing the adjustable string spacing after all - I bought some J pickups and the poles don't look like they match the current string spacing exactly. Still, I'll get the bridge in the right place, drop the pickups in and see how they look.

Shoewreck said:
Now I see, the bridge is misaligned, but the pickups still look like they're in the right place. I'll wait for further pics.
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Looking over the bass again I'm sure the pickups are out of line, but maybe only by a tiny amount. But it should all be a lot clearer when I've got the bridge fitted in the right place. And yeah, I'll put up some pics as soon as I've got that done. But the bridge hasn't actually arrived yet, so it'll be a few more days probably.
 
Wow, you'd think whoever put it together would have seen the bridge was off...or maybe not. Jeesh.
I think you'll have a fun project, go for it. Don't worry about the $, whatever you do with it I'm sure will improve it.
Post pix often!
 
Bassist Buslady said:
Wow, you'd think whoever put it together would have seen the bridge was off...or maybe not. Jeesh.
I think you'll have a fun project, go for it. Don't worry about the $, whatever you do with it I'm sure will improve it.
Post pix often!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it shows the QC wasn't so great back then. By all accounts with the new 2010 RBs the QC is a lot better.

You want pix often? Ok ...
 
Ok, so the next stage happened sooner than expected because I came home from work today to a parcel from Warwick, containing all the other bits I need! :d

First up, the new tuning pegs:
CorvetteHead.jpg


Next the bridge. Now, how do you decide where exactly to put the bridge? Obviously it's got to be the right distance from the nut - and the intonation was ok before, so if I put it the same distance from the nut as the previous bridge then that should be ok. But what about the left-right positioning? I figured I want the strings centred on the fingerboard. Being unsure, I just held it in place for these photos, with the strings taut enough to show me where they would lie if the bridge were there.
CorvettePUs1.jpg


I tried to get the camera as close as possible to vertically above the bass, so you can judge how correctly aligned the PUs up. I think the bridge PU is out a little bit (it's too far down in this picture), but the neck PU is ok.

For the passive PUs I bought local: Wizard Pickups are just a few miles from me, and get glowing reviews on Basschat, so I bought some of their 64s. (I would have liked MEC PUs, but the new price is very high and nobody was selling any 2nd hand when I looked). These are real Jazz style, with the 8 pole pieces, which makes the string alignment more obvious:
CorvettePUs2.jpg


Now the bridge PU is noticeably out of alignment - the G string makes this obvious. I'm guessing that the distance is small enough to make no difference to the sound. So I don't think it's worth re-routing the PU position.

But I could compromise on the bridge position - moving it a tiny distance towards the control knobs - so that the strings are nearly centred on the neck and nearly centred on the PU. Do you think that's worth it? Or should I place the bridge exactly in the right spot for the neck and not worry about the PU?

By the way, in fiddling with the body so much I noticed that the wood is bookmatched. For a second that almost made me want to leave the wood as it is. But I still don't think the wood is very pretty, and bookmatching it doesn't change that. (Especially since it took me so long to notice!)
 
The last pictures shows a good bridge alignment. Hide the poles and forget.
 
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