Neck strip, oil & fret level :: 1982 Yamaha BB2000 [9.9 lbs]

November 4, 2015

A neck-through early 80's Japanese Yamaha PJ (note the reverse P pickup) in for a neck strip and refinished with Tung oil. There is some nice birdseye figure in this neck that didn't really show until I stripped the thick poly and started to apply the oil. During the setup I found many uneven frets so a level, crown and polish was required to get the action super low for this player. With older guitars, often the screws are an odd assortment of non-originals. This was missing a few pickup screws that needed to be replaced with the proper metric ones. The bridge pickup even had a coarse wood screw holding it in place. Thankfully the pickup threads were not damaged (somehow) and cleanly accepted a new screw. The side-mounted output jack plate also fell victim to the random screw swapping so I replaced them all with a matching quartet.

Video of the fret level and neck strip from the vlog below.

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Bass fret level :: Yamaha BB2000

November 3, 2015

An older neck-through Yamaha bass in for a setup. Along with the setup we stripped and oiled the neck and here I am leveling the frets. This bass player uses the lowest action of any other basses that I work on so it is absolutely critical that there are no high frets. The fret level video will be posted on the vlog later today.

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Skunk Stripe Repair :: 2001 Fender Precision Bass Special [9.1 lbs]

June 11, 2015

Skunk Stripe Repair :: 2001 Fender Precision Bass Special [9.1 lbs]

The walnut "skunk stripe" had raised up and become proud of the neck. This walnut strip had settled to where it wants to be over the years due to a poor fit (and possibly dry joint when built). The strip did not move when clamped so I didn't like the idea of heating and clamping it flush (most likely introducing more stresses). I ended up cutting away the flakey finish between the walnut and maple and filling wood gap with dust and superglue, then top coating the repair with just superglue. Finally, the area was wet sanded and buffed out.

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