Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My lastest project bass

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/fender-bird.htm

Damn, dude, that's SWEET. I like it just the way it is!!

Jeff, that's gorgeous. What a neat combination of the best of all worlds--wacko FB body, Fender neck/stock, and of course 5 strings.

Love the color scheme, too. Tasteful and subtle with the cool red 'Bird logo to spice things up.

GREAT pup selection--how does it sound?

I like that alot Jeff. Congrats.

It is thunderous ... to put the neck in I had to remove some wood ... then I had to move the bridge back about an inch for proper intonation ... so the effect is the pickups are about 1" closer to the neck ... then I replaced the pickups ... the neck is a fender style p-bass pickup and the bridge is a fat schaller humbucking jazz style pickup ... I installed a single/series/parallel toggle switch ... I am still trying to figure out how to properly connect the wires ... but it plays and feels great ... and it has a good sound ... and the way it is currently wired I can get a Rickenbacker bass cut capacitor sound out of the treble pickup on one of the toggle settings ...

Also notice the bridge pickup has 22 pole pieces instead of 16 ... I added 6 more to get good coverage of all 5 strings ...

It looks like a madman got loose with an MAC-9 nailgun.

nifty!

Looks like it might be kinda neck heavy. How about it Jeff?

Also, could you build a 5 stringer in the F**der Jazz style with P-bass string spacing over 5 strings?

nope it is body heavy ...

and for a jazz do you mean a jazz bass like this ...

Jeff,

That is one cool bass. I assume that you had to refinish the body after you modified the neck pocket and moved the bridge etc. Nice Job all around.

that is the original finish ... I was going to paint it Red but with the maple neck and the black bridge it looks cool ... I just spent a good part of today messing with pickups ... it seems that the pickup that I had in there was damaged ... it was functioning at 2.5k ohms ... then I tried a soapbar too sterile ... but I have another fat jazz humbucker in there and it has balls ... it is kind of a Frankenstein bass ... it is not cosmetically perfect ... the color is similar to Rickenbacker's Blue Boy finish, except the clear coat has yellowed so it is now a light blue green ...

Well, Jeff, it sure photographs well!

Well I took the fender-bird5 to band rehearsal tonight ... first of all it won't fit in any of my cases ... and it will only fit in one of my gig bags ... barely ... but it sounds and plays awesome ... I played it for 95% of what I did tonight it has a nice fat sound with above average mid growl and a decent treble bite ...

That bass started out as a factory 2nd haging on Guitar Center's wall ... they reduced it to $200 ... then I replaced the s curve neck and went through 6 or 7 pickups and 6 or 7 different wirings and a new bridge and finally it turned out to be a real player ...

That is one kick *** bass, Rath! Must sound amazing!

P.S. I listened to some of the clips on your site.. that is one amazing Rick tone!