mellowgerman
Senior Member
A few years back, I acquired a 1976 Hagstrom Swede bass through another forum's classifieds section. The main reason I went for it was that it had been fitted with dual DarkStar pickups. Since Day 1 I was floored by the neck. The playability, set-up, stability, fretwork, neck carve/depth, etc. Unfortunately, by design, the fretboard on these essentially sits right on-top of the body, with no neck-meat in-between. That means the strings are also very close to the top, making a DarkStar a poor choice in terms of physical fit, since the pickup shell sits above the top of the bass. That being the case, the face of the pickup was basically flush with the fretboard and resulted in the unavoidable issue of the strings bouncing off the face of the pickup -- a.k.a. CLACK! CLACK! So the DarkStars went and a new tone-quest began with multiple pickup swaps, ultimately landing on some Bartolinis that sounded good, but not good enough to make the bass a stand-out in my stable.
Another issue was that whenever this bass took it's near-fatal fall years ago, resulting in the headstock break that was solidly repaired (at least a few decades ago), another crack formed along the center-seam of the body, inside the neck pocket, extending outward from one of the neck bolts and ultimately opening up on the front/outside of the neck pocket and back of the bass. That crack, in combination with the epic boat-anchor weight of the thick, solid body, got me thinking about having a new, lighter body made, to go with this amazing neck. It has a very unconventional neck heel though, kind of a long, deep rectangular center block, with the fretboard overhanging about 0.5" on 3 sides, so there really wasn't a good way of making this fit any bolt-on body with a fender-style neck pocket.
Recently I got lucky though, while browsing the factory-buyout clearance section of the Guitar Fetish website. I came across an unfinished, solid alder guitar body, that didn't have any routing done to the top, nor did it have a neck pocket! Seemed like the perfect candidate for my project and only cost $30, so I figured there wasn't much to lose.
Once received, I went to work. There was already a rear-mount control cavity in this body, so I only had to drill the holes for the potentiometers and output jack. Next was routing the neck pocket and drilling the bolt-holes.
When it came to the finish, my first thought was to do a solid aged-white finish with Krylon rattlecan (like Gilded's old SFB-I!), but after attempting to apply the first coat, I quickly noticed that my very amateur finishing capabilities probably weren't up to the task and the very-humid, 90 degree F conditions outside were surely short-of-ideal to be applying a finish in... my house unfortunately doesn't have any air-conditioned and ventilated spaces appropriate for finishing a guitar body. So I had the idea to go with the worn driftwood aesthetic! Just roughed up that first coat of Krylon and applied some clear varnish over top. Very pleased with how it turned out!
For the electronics, I decided to go the Rick Turner route and attempt a piezo bridge pickup, paired with an active preamp. I've never been much of a fan of piezo pickups (for guitar or bass) but the Turner demos I've heard sound great and I find a number of likable qualities in the amplified sound of my B30e, so there it is! A new challenge. The controls on the bass are volume, tone, and active boost. The active boost knob has a center detent and is essentially a level control for whatever gets dialed in on the internal trim pots for Bass, Mid, and Treble. It's all in there and mounted, but it got too late last night to make the final connections, because I also knew that once everything was connected, I would most certainly go down the rabbit hole of tweaking the EQ's and/or troubleshooting any unforeseen issues. So stay tuned for another update tonight or tomorrow regarding the sound and whether or not the piezo aspect will last or be scrapped in favor of a traditional pickup.
For now though, I can say that it plays great with some very special Thomastik Infeld Acousticore strings (nylon core just like classical guitar strings, super low-tension, and supposedly optimized for under-saddle piezo pickups). As is, the bass set up perfectly and the strings ring out beautifully, openly, with tons of sustain. Overall the bass is very light and hangs comfortable with a tiny bit of neck-dive that becomes unnoticeable with a wide strap.
The "Dairybath" name originates from my college days, when one of my Frankenstein basses had an aged white finish, which made me think of butter and milk. Just carrying on the legacy with this one.
Another issue was that whenever this bass took it's near-fatal fall years ago, resulting in the headstock break that was solidly repaired (at least a few decades ago), another crack formed along the center-seam of the body, inside the neck pocket, extending outward from one of the neck bolts and ultimately opening up on the front/outside of the neck pocket and back of the bass. That crack, in combination with the epic boat-anchor weight of the thick, solid body, got me thinking about having a new, lighter body made, to go with this amazing neck. It has a very unconventional neck heel though, kind of a long, deep rectangular center block, with the fretboard overhanging about 0.5" on 3 sides, so there really wasn't a good way of making this fit any bolt-on body with a fender-style neck pocket.
Recently I got lucky though, while browsing the factory-buyout clearance section of the Guitar Fetish website. I came across an unfinished, solid alder guitar body, that didn't have any routing done to the top, nor did it have a neck pocket! Seemed like the perfect candidate for my project and only cost $30, so I figured there wasn't much to lose.
Once received, I went to work. There was already a rear-mount control cavity in this body, so I only had to drill the holes for the potentiometers and output jack. Next was routing the neck pocket and drilling the bolt-holes.
When it came to the finish, my first thought was to do a solid aged-white finish with Krylon rattlecan (like Gilded's old SFB-I!), but after attempting to apply the first coat, I quickly noticed that my very amateur finishing capabilities probably weren't up to the task and the very-humid, 90 degree F conditions outside were surely short-of-ideal to be applying a finish in... my house unfortunately doesn't have any air-conditioned and ventilated spaces appropriate for finishing a guitar body. So I had the idea to go with the worn driftwood aesthetic! Just roughed up that first coat of Krylon and applied some clear varnish over top. Very pleased with how it turned out!
For the electronics, I decided to go the Rick Turner route and attempt a piezo bridge pickup, paired with an active preamp. I've never been much of a fan of piezo pickups (for guitar or bass) but the Turner demos I've heard sound great and I find a number of likable qualities in the amplified sound of my B30e, so there it is! A new challenge. The controls on the bass are volume, tone, and active boost. The active boost knob has a center detent and is essentially a level control for whatever gets dialed in on the internal trim pots for Bass, Mid, and Treble. It's all in there and mounted, but it got too late last night to make the final connections, because I also knew that once everything was connected, I would most certainly go down the rabbit hole of tweaking the EQ's and/or troubleshooting any unforeseen issues. So stay tuned for another update tonight or tomorrow regarding the sound and whether or not the piezo aspect will last or be scrapped in favor of a traditional pickup.
For now though, I can say that it plays great with some very special Thomastik Infeld Acousticore strings (nylon core just like classical guitar strings, super low-tension, and supposedly optimized for under-saddle piezo pickups). As is, the bass set up perfectly and the strings ring out beautifully, openly, with tons of sustain. Overall the bass is very light and hangs comfortable with a tiny bit of neck-dive that becomes unnoticeable with a wide strap.
The "Dairybath" name originates from my college days, when one of my Frankenstein basses had an aged white finish, which made me think of butter and milk. Just carrying on the legacy with this one.
