After decades of neglect this 70 Hohner Jazz Bass is in a real mess - bowed neck, dead pickups, rusting parts, and a broken tuner. Can this instrument be brought back from the dead? Fretting tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/collections/fretting?ref=csguitars Music Nomad Tool Kit - thmn.to/thoprod/543748?offid=1&affid=367 Coil Winder - www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/tools-by-job/tools-for-electronics/pickup-building/build-your-own-pickup-winder-220-volt/ This video was made possible by Patreon support - www.patreon.com/csguitars More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #restoration #jazzbass #scienceofloud More from CSGuitars: Support on Patreon: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
If you run out of adjustment, you have to made a little bushing from another bored-out cut-off truss rod nut. Got one on my desk right now, as it turns out.
As a bassist who loves your Axe From the Grave series, I think this is my new favorite video of yours! The end result looks amazing Colin, moderately playable and still retaining it's patina! What about removing all of the frets and making it fretless?
been there done that.... then I bought a fretless, I'm not going back. One of the biggest problems with "cheap" basses is that money is saved in materials used. A fretless needs a good hard fretboard (fingerboard?) or it is hard to get a clean note. This is aside from other mods aside from just pulling frets and filling the grooves. Also, a fretless is more sensitive to bend in the neck than a fretted bass.
@@ErickvdK Durable and hard are not the same thing though hard is often also durable. I would have to feel a fretboard treated with CA as a fretless before tried it again... on someone else's bass ;)
'Zackly what I was gonna say. Well clamped, with a cheapo hair dryer pointed at the problem area, and a nice long cool down time under clamp pressure.... Job's a goodun 👌👌👌
Like a few other contributors here, I love this 'Axe from the Grave' series - it shows what can be done, and should be done, with old, misused guitars. It shows, also, what shouldn't be done, i.e. throwing money at an obviously cheap guitar. Finally, it shows your restorative skills, and sideways, inventive thinking, off to great effect. Keep them coming, and 'gaunyersel'!!
This is so much fun to watch, as someone who some day aspires to build a parts-o-caster this is invaluable. Thus far I've bought the strings and a pick.
Clamp the neck into a back-bow as you mentioned, with a heat gun (start slow) with some light heat mostly in the problem area, wait till it cools off, unclamp and check it, proceed if needed. For this process, I loosen the truss rod while clamping and applying heat to the neck. I have fixed many "impossible" necks this way. Good luck!
youve got my appreciation by only restoring the playability of the guitar and leaving the personailiy of the guitar intact. seeing the old Slipknot and Vans sticker threw me back to high school and trying to start metal bands with my friends
For the pickup dipping: It is helpfull to reduce the pressure in the pot. You can find stuff for that in the automotive world for removing air from a brakesystem.
I think it's kind of refreshing what you're doing with this one. It's in such a horrid state but it has character and you keeping its character is awesome. Whenever I watch other restorers they always rob it of any character it had.
I love that you keep the mojo the bass has. Some guitar restoration channels bum me out since they make them so generic and lose the vintage vibe and personalization
Nice job! I like that you kept the stickers and the painted fretboard, sometimes it makes me kinda sad when a restorer scrapes and scrubs away all the history of the instrument. Only thing I would've ditched were those strat knobs, imo they just cheapen the look of any guitar then go on. Even strats! haha
Combine the neck clamping with a heat blanket and you could be onto a winner. Ted Woodford and Dave Raume have vids showing this in action and most times it works wonders
I clamped up a 73 Strat neck with the opposite problem (too much backbow) and left it in a hot garage all summer, worked great. Can't wait to see what you come up with?
Love these videos, so interesting, and who doesn’t like working on their guitars? can’t wait to see how the neck turns out! As for the playing… yep that’s a guitarist who’s picked up a bass lol, but I have faith!
Impressive restoration work. Normal guitar repairers probably wouldn't re-wind a pickup for you. I'm also impressed by the subtle swearing spoken like a true Scot!
My first guitar ever was Hohner Tele copy. Same design - maple neck, body all black. Actually it was a pretty decent affordable guitar. especially in that time period.
Your Axe From The Grave series inspired me to fix up an old Yamaha J bass that needed some love. Not as bad as this bass, but it had a broken pot shaft, tarnished gold hardware, old strings, it was dirty, and needed a setup. I replaced the volume pots, shined up the hardware with vinegar and a toothbrush, oiled the fretboard with lemon oil, gave it new strings, a set of Bartolini pickups, and a setup. I sold it to a music school because it wasn't the sound I was looking for, but damn, it played like a dream!
I fixed an up-bowed strat neck with heat. Loosened the truss rod, clamped it up and left it in my tin shed for a day - during an Australian summer. Pretty sure it got well over 50C in there. Took it out and let it cool in the clamps for a couple of days. It's been stable for over 5 years now.
Dave's World of Fun Stuff did the clap in extreme position idea, but he made a heater for the fretboard, and it worked perfectly, and I think took only hours.
Colin, might want to remove the truss rod nut completely and plop some washers there. That will give you a bit more thread and useful adjustment range. Can also apply _some_ heat to the neck while doing the backbow thing to coerce the wood to take on a new shape.
"Washers" really isn't right. You have to made a little bushing from another bored-out cut-off truss rod nut. Got one on my desk right now, as it turns out.
@@EversonBernardes Where would you source them? I've been wrenching on basses for 40 years and have never seen anything like that. Always looking for better solutions.
My bass (secondhand Squier Modern IV) also had a huge action and bow. I temporarily solved it by shimming the neck and raising the saddles, thinner strings, left if like that for a few days, and it got straight(er). Finally had to put it on a jig for two weeks (I am calling jig to an ensemble comprised of an oak piece, two thick cork pads and three clamps). Now I can set it to start buzzing at any fret I want, or none at all..
Alot of hard work, colin! Thanks for showing us this even though it didn't quite work out. You reminded me of a dan erlewine video where he massaged a p bass neck as he adjusted the neck relief
What a cool bridge. On basses, always manually bend the neck while taking up the slack and setting that adjustment with the truss rod nut. Never crank on the nut alone for adjustment. You can kinda get away with it on guitars but on basses it's a poor idea. If you run out of adjustment, you have to made a little bushing from another bored-out cut-off truss rod nut. Got one on my desk right now, as it turns out.
Turned out really nicely so far. I hope we get to see how you get on with the neck. Btw, something that you might find useful for dealing with rusted parts is boiling them in water. It's a very non-invasive way to convert active rust into passivated rust that won't damage the parts any further. I've found it works extremely well for dealing with old firearms.
В тему анкера: в свое время сразу после покупки подержанного Фернандеса, столкнулся с проблемой того, что анкер затянут уже на максимум, а прогиб грифа все равно ощутимый. И тогда, чисто из интереса, я максимально ослабил анкер, затем начал затягивать, и во-первых, анкер стал крутиться легче, во-вторых, я смог его натянуть до нужного мне уровня.
Got a virtually identical problem with my 90s Fenix PJ bass - thin profile maple neck with a forward bow, and a truss rod at max adjustment. Tried lighter strings, but reckon it too needs the forced back bow treatment, possibly with added heat. Never actually liked the feel of the neck as it has very sharp shoulders to the fingerboard edges, so replacement with some finessed fitting would be the next step. Cheers, Colin!
You referenced "Dave's World Of Fun Stuff" in this video. Have you checked out the heat press he uses to correct neck issues? It seems to work well. You did a lot of work on that bass. Great video.
I have a even more budget DeVille bass with a similar but even more gubbed neck. Very bent at the body end of the neck. In the end i removed the neck, took off frets 21 to 24 then sanded down that bit of the neck to get it out of the way. (Don't think the trust rod effected the high end part of the neck at all) Put a flatish bit of plastic in the body's neck pocket, at the body end of the pocket, to counter the curve on that bit of the neck by wedging it back to straightish. Surprising nice to play now
My 2009 Mexican fender jazz bass has a similar issue with the neck, I managed to get rid of some of the bow in the neck, but the action around the 7th fret and buzzing out above the 12th fret seems to get worse by the day. So I might try what you were saying about the neck and clamping it down. worth a shot i guess
If you wanted to do a much less laborious reinforcement of the neck you could always just foregoe taking the fretboard off and just take the frets out (you may as well replace them either way) and route channels directly into the fretboard. After putting in the reinforcement you can fill them with epoxy, level them off to a radius and put new frets in. It's not the most elegant solution but you could potentially dig out the truss rod in the process (using hand tools for the last couple of millimeters so you don't bugger your bits) and you could also play it off as a type of inlay by putting lines perpendicular to the channels you cut at the appropriate points and using coloured epoxy. In theory you should also be able to retain the positions for the frets without needing to measure and mark them out again.
This hits close to home, I have my very first bass back after a couple years being loaned to a friend. I'ts a very cheap P bass copy with terrible electronics, completely squared frets and an ugly headstock. I am considering to rebuild it, but I need to find the time and space (and money) to do it.
This vid series is sooo satisfying to watch. It's got me thinking about a bass of mine that's currently stuffed into a gigback and forgotten about under my bed: a 2010 MIM Fender Jazz bass which also has some annoying neck bow that won't go away. I'd be very interested to see whether your plan of clamping the neck works for you, because that might be the only thing that would work on mine...
StewMac's truss rod rescue set would probably help with the back bow issue you have here, but it costs far more than this instrument is worth, so not worth it unless you have uses for it elsewhere. Sadly, it's probably not something you can create yourself for less unless you have machine tools. The hollow end mill and the long, thin thread cutter really are unique tools.
I was briefly worried this was going to be a "factory resoroation" and I am glad it was not. For the neck, I would remove all the frets from the 11th or 12th fret up like Cronos from Venom and call it done.
It's alot of work, but I've done it. 1 remove frets 2 loosen truss rod 3 sand a BACK bow into the fret board 4 refret 5 "level" a back bow again into the frets 6 crown, polish 7 restring 8 and maybe just maybe tightening the now loose truss rod can manage the relief 9 maybe even put a spacer under the truss rod adjuster. Side note" I am a very stubborn and patient person with some idle time in my life." So your results may very. Never give up, you can always start from the very fucking beginning again.
I did something similar with a 159 dollar Guitar Center Special... from a dead company known as "The Bass Company." A beautiful, well played in five string boi that was modded to kingdom come. Refretted, installed new hipshot hardware and a new nut... still need to redo the electronics. But it's a power player now. :D EDIT UPDATE: Bass has new active electronics and has been promoted to five string A standard tuning >:D
For educational/video purposes, it would be cool to see you attempt the “proper” repair of the neck. At that point, a whole new fingerboard could go on. Something wild, but not endangered would be very interesting. Zebra wood anyone?
It is possible to remove the frets, level sand the board, then install frets with a bigger tang then do a level crown and polish to straighten the neck. Might not be enough but it is an option. you'd lose the black color of the fretboard though.
