The Electra Forums

Project Update Time!

Project #1. Rickenfaker.

How it was sold at auction to a friend of mine... he had it for nearly a year, and gathered a few parts, but nothing else...

seen here as I got it...
http://www.indysworld.com/guitars/Projects/Faker1/

Updates:
The black inlays had been put in by a previous owner by chipping away the poly, and popping out the original inlays, and then putting in wood inlays painted black. then they coated the entire fretboard with a coat or 2 of new poly. unfortunately, the left the partially chipped away mess of poly underneath, and it was about 20 coats thick, so the feel was less than optimal, and looked shoddy...

so I carefully removed all the old poly on the fretboard with a slow hand and a good wood chisel to pop up the old stuff... (I would rather not ever do that again...) and I put about 12 new coats of poly over the fretboard, and it's all uniform now... not ideal in a few places, but 1000x better than it was....



I also repaired where the fretboard had started to seperate from the neck, and proceeded to fill all the holes with wood, and repair some damage at the jack mounting... (reminded me of the movie Hellraiser...)







the last 2 are how it sits today, waiting for new black paint before I continue...

Project #2. Westone Quantum Bass (x2)

I picked up another Quantum black body (gutted mostly) but had the original case... guy had it hanging on his wall as art, and was gonna make a table lamp out of it... well, I couldn't let that happen...
so since I already had the other one that had been painted orange, I now have 2 to rebuild...

I put all new pots and jack in the black one, and new black knobs. I put some of the stuff from the now orange one onto the black one. just have the bridge left to mount before stringing it up, but I'm leaving it off until I figure out what to do for the orange one... I need to make a string clamp for the top of the orange one, and I got pickups on the way for it, along with all new pots, etc... just like the black one.

no pics of the black one in it;s current state, but here's the orange one with the gloss poly finished on it....



Project #3. Electra semi-hollow bass (uncatalogued EB-2 Copy)

Here's the auction pics....






and the start of the work...






had to glue in the top inlay in the fretboard...



I have all new pots to go in it, and found a pickup that will work. the bridge was missing too.
I found this bridge that I need to shorten, and convert to a 4-string bridge...
I originally was gonna try and build a bridge myself, and bought some double bass bridge adjusters...
I didn't realize how big they were!!!!



The pickup and ring are an oddity too. they are longer than normal humbuckers, so I can't find any ring that will work, so I had to go about making my own...

got out a piece of cherry I had laying around for several years, and used the one original ring to make a couple of new ones. These will get a stain and finish, and I'll use the wood ones for the completed project.... I was gonna make one and paint it black, but I'd rather leave it "wood", so 2 needed to be made...





so that's where I stopped tonight. hopefully stain and finish this week...

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"so I carefully removed all the old poly on the fretboard with a slow hand and a good wood chisel to pop up the old stuff... "

I went a little insane just reading that. I'm sorry to say that I believe you have a very advanced case of OCD. At least as bad as mine.

Your projects are looking really good though.

Amen brother;

I applaud your patience and workmanship.

Those wooden pickup mounting rings are a work of art.

RCSBlues

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RCSBlues

Very nice work. It seems you have a bench full to keep you busy for a little while. It is always nice to see your projects and you are indeed good at it s these pics show.Thanks for the updates and will be waiting to see the finished products.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

+1 on the pickup rings! Those look amazing, and I'd bet they will look even better stained, installed and....ringing

Love a nice project guitar....

Good on ya!

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magemusiconline.com

thanks....!

I should clarify, that there were a few segments of the faker fretboard that were perfect, and I didn't remove, but if there were any flaws in the non-inlay ones, I chipped 'em away too...

the wood pickup rings got a coat of American Cherry stain, and have 2 coats of clear so far....

the floating bridge has been shortened and modified a bit. I still need to file new grooves for the string spacing, and it's getting lemon oiled... as I type....

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

and the completed bridge... did some math to determine original string spacing was 16mm...

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

Quantum Update:

wiring complete on both. identical pots, cap, knobs...
new Quantum decal in as close a font as I had... I also made a new Westone logo/name for the tail pice cover as original...

you will notice no bridge/tail/tuners installed yet... I'm still on the fence as to which one to put totally together first...
after a bit of research, it appears the Quantum/Rail bridge/tail was modeled after the 1st Version of the Steinberger bridge, in that it was a 2 piece design, and had the removeable cover over the tail...

well, it appears the v1 Steinberger bridge is as rare as hens teeth, and quite pricey... $750 if you can find one... so I'm wondering if the black quantum was striped of the bridge as a substitute?

and there are a few makers of headless bass bridges out there... the Steinberger v2 and up bridges are flat mount one piece, and a few others I've found are one piece, with a stepped mount, but won't work directly on the quantum without some body mods....

there is one maker that does a 2 piece design and it's ABM, a high quality German maker... which unfortunately carries a high price tag of $275 (eBay) or $410 (allparts.com) for the "headless system"...

and it would appear that my Flourescent Orange and clearcoat finish is a bit fragile. it's gotten a few small chips already while I was working on it carefully... the clearcoat is a polycryllic (sp) finish which it totally clear and not yellow like standary polyurethane. I wanted the orange to pop
it could be too that the Flourescent orange was not ever really meant to be used in this application too

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

I like it looks great. Would be great for a Halloween gig or just a good ole 80's rockin stage gig. Great job bringing another back from the grave.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

okay. Hollowbody Electra Bass is done... I think I need to find a different bridge though. I have this one adjusted all the way down, and it's still a tad high....

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

the hollowbody got a new jack, new pots, new switch. replaced the missing pickup... it's a little smaller as seen, but it'll do...

this was my first time wiring a hollowbody... I reused the shielded wire since it was all the correct length (long)

used the fishing line method... worked pretty slick. Even on the tail piece/string ground wire....

it still has the flatwounds that were on it when I got it... they are obviously a little short... I need to replace those yet, but trying to determine if I keep it flat wound or not...

this one is my keeper....

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

This one turned out very nice. Great work. I am not certain about the Bass side but since this is a bolt on neck would an additional spacer under the neck joint help with the high action?

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

Looking very nice. The bridge looks like you might be able to sand down the bottom a bit more. Nothing to lose really, if you're considering a different bridge anyway.

it would help, but the pups are still further away. the problem though is just that the bridge is still too high. Since it's a reworked bridge from something else, this was my first guess as to a decent height. it's not awful, but not where I'd like it to be...

I'll find a proper one, but this one works for now...

I could also shorten this one up some more too...

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

Really digging that orange, and the font is close enough. The hollow body is gorgeous as well. Good work! Hope you can find a replacement for that headless tailpiece.

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Who needs a Fender Jazz when you can get a perfectly good Spectrum bass for $50?