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Outbid on ebay, guess I'll have to build my own.

Yeah I tried to shortcut my way into CBGs. But the world had other ideas and I missed out on both the CBGs on ebay I considered getting. I used to have an old kids bass guitar I got given maybe 20 years ago and the last time I saw it was on the basement wall. Hmmm. There's a bookcase there now.

I removed top few shelves of books and tilted the bookshelf and sure enough the guitar was still there on the wall. A bit of gymnastics stood on a stool, tilting a bookshelf and I managed to grab the top tuner and lift it out over the bookshelf.

Not too bad considering I hadn't seen it for at least 10 years. I cleaned it up and plugged it into an amp. It worked, well sorta. I removed the strings, cranked the bridge up as high as it would go and stuck on 2nd to 5th strings from an Adagio light gauge set. I tuned to open G (GDGB) and spent the next couple of hours having fun playing. Only one pickup was working, and the sound would cut out and crackle - fixable for a bit with a thump. The pots are noisy but work. All that aside, it sounded surprising good - far better than it did with bass strings.

So all in all, I think I have the perfect donor for parts for my first CBG build. The scale is 23 3/4" and with the tail and bridge both being surface mounted, the major work will be mounting the neck (with a new higher nut) and fixing the electronics. I can't wait for my boxes (I'm getting 3 random ones) to arrive so I can pick one and get cracking.

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Comment by Domino on June 14, 2012 at 10:39am: I must admit I'm a little surprised at the interest in the original bass. These basses do crop up on ebay and good condition ones seem to go for about £40 ($60) - "satellite bass" is the search term to use, though I don't know if they are mostly in the UK or not.

I'm am having fun though the neck is turning out to be more work than I expected. It could really do with refretting as well, but I'm not going to do that initially. There were a lot of dints and dinges in the back of the neck which I'm busy sanding away at. It was done in a tinted varnish, so it's getting lighter and lighter as I go. I'm going to take it all back to the wood as otherwise I won't be able to get an even color. There's also a crack in the fretboard I'm going to have to fill.

I spent a couple of hours last night polishing all the metalwork I'm reusing on my build. Even that rusty string retainer above the nut now shines again. Though polishing the pickup screws individually with a toothbrush nearly drove me insane.

Comment by Scott Meredith on June 14, 2012 at 9:57am: Dude I would have made and sent you one or my cbgs for that cool little bass but have fun with the build its addicting

Comment by Domino on June 13, 2012 at 2:56am: It's already stripped and halfway to becoming a CBG :-)

The body is plywood and the electronics problems are corrosion related so there's not really any leftovers worth having.

Comment by Hip Bone Bellaire on June 13, 2012 at 2:29am: Dude I'd keep it, change out all the electronics and have fun... I've been wanting to do that forever.... PS: I'll take the left overs...

Comment by Don Barnhill on June 10, 2012 at 8:01pm: Fantastic! That's a great donor with every part!

Good luck with your project..

Comment by Domino on June 10, 2012 at 11:36am: If anyone's wondering if I'm camera shy, I was caught out by the forum demanding a picture to let me finish registration. The only one I had handy was from a post on a shaving forum showing my progress in learning to shave with a straight razor. I'll do a new picture when I actually have a CBG to pose with :)

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