Ratajczyk's Revenge
Builder: Chris
Comments: A Fender Jaguar donated all of its parts: one pair of Precision bass pickups and one Jazz bass pickup; volume control for each plus tone and the three-position switch is wired P, J, OFF. I've never owned a bass with a Jazz bass pickup before and I must say I like it. Not as full sounding as the precision bass pickup but it doesn't get muddy at all either. It plays well and sounds great, however:
- The bridge mounting holes were drilled off center, I corrected that without much trouble.
- It's SUPER neck heavy; let go of the neck and it dives right to the floor. Haven't corrected that yet.
- It comes pre-drilled for a pick guard and I didn't want a pick guard; I hid the holes with that funky paint job.
- The frets needed to be leveled and crowned; they turned out OK though.
- The nut was glued in before I received it and whoever did it made a mess with the glue, so the area around the nut wouldn't take the green dye properly.
- I could probably have been more aggressive with wet sanding the tung oil finish on the body, maybe I'll go back some day and do that.
- I'd finish the neck differently with what I learned working on the body; more black accents, more coats of tung oil finish.
- Good price, $150.00 for the kit plus $35.00 for a set of used Fender Jaguar pickups and controls on Reverb.com.
- It's nice and light.
- It was fun to do and I learned a lot in the process. I met a local luthier and he routed the pickup cavities for me, also taught me a lot and gave me loads of advice.
- The tuners and other hardware are smooth with just a little oil.
- There are a few spots on the body where the wood catches the light really nicely and fortunately the neck blends pretty well into the body.
Link: Find the TL style bass kit here