New cheapo Bass rescue on a whim day

[Col Mustard]

All right, this ought to be fun.
(My daughter has a t-shirt that says,
"Go ahead, underestimate me...
That will be fun.")

But I bought a used Yamaha RBX170 EW on impulse... intending to make it playable
and make it durable. It's already very good looking. The price was quite low, so before it
arrived on my porch I was already shopping for parts and reading reviews.
That my friends is also fun.

Here she is today, on 1022 day, at the dark of the moon.
No name yet, this is just as she came from the box.

I was immediately attracted by the natural wood finish. I believe it's a veneer of Mango wood
over some kind of Southeast Asian Mahogany. Maple neck, fretboard of "sonokeling" which I
don't know about, and neither does my spell checker, which wants me to write snorkeling.
*shrugs... Made in Indonesia in 2013.

I was also attracted by the PJ configuration of the p'ups. I played my old '66 Fender Jazz bass
for decades during my touring career and thought that instrument did everything I needed done.

But It couldn't make the sounds of a fretless bass, nor could it do the simple but effective tones
of a Precision bass played through a modern amp. So the PJ bass always intrigued me, and when
I saw this, I pounced. I'm retired now, but plan to have some smoky fun with a soldering gun
and play this instrument through my Roland Cube Bass CB-60XL.

I have a plan which will be similar to the rescue I did on a moldy auld Precision bass that I rescued
about a dozen years ago. I'll be replacing most everything, keeping the wood body and the maple
neck, and the sonokeling fretboard and the frets, which are not worn. Like, this bass hasn't been
played much.

The first imperative was to see if the neck was straight, and correct that if it wasn't.
I have now done this. The truss rod works, and I lowered the pickups and the bridge saddles
and put a shim under the neck. Played through my Roland Cube on its "Flip Top" setting,
it sounds excellent. If I couldn't get the neck straight, I would not be ordering any parts for it.
I would just hang it on the wall, as art.

Here she is next to my Roland Cube bass amp, and being given the death stare by my current love, Luretta the fretless J-bass.
Those two will get along. I might have to insist. And I might name the Yamaha "PeaJay.

 

[iblive]

All right, this ought to be fun.
(My daughter has a t-shirt that says,
"Go ahead, underestimate me...
That will be fun.")

But I bought a used Yamaha RBX170 EW on impulse... intending to make it playable
and make it durable. It's already very good looking. The price was quite low, so before it
arrived on my porch I was already shopping for parts and reading reviews.
That my friends is also fun.
View attachment 107999
Here she is today, on 1022 day, at the dark of the moon.
No name yet, this is just as she came from the box.

I was immediately attracted by the natural wood finish. I believe it's a veneer of Mango wood
over some kind of Southeast Asian Mahogany. Maple neck, fretboard of "sonokeling" which I
don't know about, and neither does my spell checker, which wants me to write snorkeling.
*shrugs... Made in Indonesia in 2013.

I was also attracted by the PJ configuration of the p'ups. I played my old '66 Fender Jazz bass
for decades during my touring career and thought that instrument did everything I needed done.

But It couldn't make the sounds of a fretless bass, nor could it do the simple but effective tones
of a Precision bass played through a modern amp. So the PJ bass always intrigued me, and when
I saw this, I pounced. I'm retired now, but plan to have some smoky fun with a soldering gun
and play this instrument through my Roland Cube Bass CB-60XL.

I have a plan which will be similar to the rescue I did on a moldy auld Precision bass that I rescued
about a dozen years ago. I'll be replacing most everything, keeping the wood body and the maple
neck, and the sonokeling fretboard and the frets, which are not worn. Like, this bass hasn't been
played much.

The first imperative was to see if the neck was straight, and correct that if it wasn't.
I have now done this. The truss rod works, and I lowered the pickups and the bridge saddles
and put a shim under the neck. Played through my Roland Cube on its "Flip Top" setting,
it sounds excellent. If I couldn't get the neck straight, I would not be ordering any parts for it.
I would just hang it on the wall, as art.
View attachment 108000
Here she is next to my Roland Cube bass amp, and being given the death stare by my current love, Luretta the fretless J-bass.
Those two will get along. I might have to insist. And I might name the Yamaha "PeaJay.

That is a nice looking bass. Have fun fixing it up.

My Ibanez is a PJ as well. Big difference between you and me. You can play bass and I sorta play bass..... just not well enough to really figure out which I like better... The "P" or The "J". Mine is bone stock except for the Pots. Did some experimenting years ago and never liked what I did, so I put it back stock with good CTS Pots.

 

[Sargeant Preston]

If I couldn't get the neck straight, I would not be ordering any parts for it.
I would just hang it on the wall, as art.

There's a wall in The Ambassador Lounge you can hang it on permanently or temporarily.

https://www.thetonerooms.com/threads/paging-all-ambassadors.19677/

 

[Col Mustard]

This Yamaha would definitely look good there.
But the neck is straight, and I've adjusted the action so that It's easy to play, and it sounds good.
So if it hangs on a wall, it will be in one of those String Swing brackets
so I can grab it easily.

I was playing them both today, trying out varying combinations of pickups and amp models on my Roland Cube Bass CB-60 XL.
This with the all stock Yamaha. But it plays better now that I've got the action adjusted. I'm going to put a black Gotoh bridge on
the Yamaha just like the one on the Warmoth. I've had great service from that one since 2009. Gotoh products seem to work very
well IMHO.

I haven't owned a fretted bass since 2019, except for an old Vox I gave my daughter long ago. She gave it back to me in 2020 because
it wasn't working, and I managed to fix it. But the scale's too short for me, so I sold it after the restoration. The two in the picture
are an excellent combination of tones.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Yamaha makes good basses. I gigged a stock TBRX504 for a couple of years with my last band. I would always play it and a backup during sound check. The Yamaha always won. It was active and passive. I could dial in a decent tone no matter what song we were playing.

 

[GrooVey]

Love it. That is a looker. And I’m thinking light weight. Diggin’ the 24 frets.

 

[Robb]

Really good looking bass !

 

[Col Mustard]

All right, it's more than a month later, and I'll fill you guys in on what I've done with this rescue bass.
Here she is, all done. I still don't have a name for her, but that will come when it's time.

She's transformed from stem to stern, from cutwater to wake, from kelson to topgallant... The only thing original left on this bass
is the body and the neck and the frets. The frets are actually all right. I don't think anybody played this one very much.

Starting at the bottom, I removed the issue pickups and wiring. The stock p'ups were all right, but I want more than just all right.
As you can see, I bought the Geezer Butler signature set, which came with push-on wiring harness, as well as pots and jack.
So it is a better deal than it looks at first. And it was very easy to install.

Once I got her all stripped down, I decided to put shielding tape in all the cavities. My feeling about Geezer Butler is that he would insist on shielded
wiring harness. But I owned a roll of aluminum tape, so it's like, why not?

Yes, there are a few gaps, but after it's all done, that made no difference. The new p'ups and wiring are dead silent.
I'm slightly OCD, but only have a mild case. *grins. I shielded the control cavity too, before installing the new wiring.

Pretty modernistic, huh? Ol Geezer prolly never had it so good, until he was successful enough to employ guitar techs to take care of the
instrument locker when the band was touring. This EMG rig was easy to install and the instructions were clear. Those instructions were written
by someone who speaks bloody English, so they were easy to understand. They even explained how to switch wires about for different
effects such as Outa Phase etc. I hooked it all up "normal."

Here's the headstock with the issue tuners removed and a set of Gotoh Black tuners installed.
The issue tuners were made of plastic I think, with a metallic skin over them. So they LOOKED ok, but
I didn't want to use them. This instrument was built to a price point, but I don't need to stick to that
because I got it cheap.

I also removed the nut, which popped out easily with one tap from a rubber mallet and a piece of scrap wood.
I bought a black tusq nut which needed a bit of sanding, but now fits tightly and is just what I wanted.
Okay, the forum says I can only attach five files, so I'll start another post and show you guys the rest.

 

[Col Mustard]

I really like the Tusq nut... I've used those on a number of projects, including my well loved
Epiphone ES-339 P-90 pro. They are made with precision that I admire, and usually require
only a bit of sanding before they fit properly.

This operation took some time and some meticulous work, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Here I am checking the fit... I sanded it carefully until it fit quite tightly, then pressed it in place.
I didn't need any glue.

Here below is the finished headstock with a set of Rotosound Round Wound strings installed. I like the tone of these
strings, and decided this new old bass would get a set for her first period of work. You'll note that I've covered
the corporate logo with a piece of driftwood from a nearby Lake Huron beach. This is no longer a Yamaha bass.
A Yamaha is a motorcycle IMHO. ...Ying ying ying ying...

With all the major work done, including the Black High Mass bridge made by Gotoh, which sounds witchy and I like it...
I rounded out my "improvements" with a set of ebony knobs to replace the issue plastic, and I made a replacement control cavity
cover out of Ebony headstock veneer from Stew Mac. I also installed an "Electro-Socket" to replace the plastic jack holder
that came with the bass. The Electro Socket is intended for Telecaster owners, and it replaces the sometimes wonky bit that dates
back to Leo Fender's early design in 1949. The electro socket resides in MY Telecaster and has given great service with no problems
since like 2009.

I also found a Rosewood "Tugbar" on site that supplies those who want to build their own Cigar Box guitar... They are inexpensive there
but nowhere else. Here's what this bass body looks like now:

So here she is, in play... I like the feel and the sound of this instrument. She balances perfectly. The neck is maple, and it feels unfinished
on the back which suits me fine. I might apply some boiled linseed oil, but I might not. It feels good under my thumb, so the grain might be sealed
with something. I'll play it for a while and think about that. I also shimmed the neck when I was setting the bass up, that gave me
a bit of screw room with the bridge saddle screws. While I was doing that, I replaced the neck plate with a black one, for totally
arbitrary reasons. The old one was fine, but I like black. Many of these mods are something only I would ever notice, but I don't care.
It increases my joy when I play this bass, and for me, that's what it's all about.

I haven't owned a fretted bass since 2019... I also retired from touring at that time, and I'm still retired although I seem to get gigs now and then
playing with my new friends and sometimes with my old. Since I sold my other basses, I've been using only my Warmoth Fretless J-bass
which is my DREAM bass and has done everything I needed done since 2020. So this one's just a whim, but I like it. I've never owned any
instrument with 24 frets, and this one's got a deep enough cutaway that I can reach way up the dusty end. I love the P-J tone, and
don't understand some bassists' public disdain for it. If it's good enough for Geezer, it's good enough for me.

 

[Col Mustard]

I've been having fun playing this ex-Yamaha bass for the last week or so...
Here she is outside in the sweet light of Indian Summer, November 2025
all mods finished.

At this time she sounds as good or better than she looks. I don't really know if a tusq nut and a
black High Mass bridge assembly have anything to do with tone and sustain, but something does.
The Gotoh bridge is easy to use, easy to adjust when setting intonation. Whether it's "better" than
the simple piece of bent steel that was issued with this instrument, I couldn't tell you. But I wanted black
and I bought good quality so I can set it and forget it. *grins

A friend asked me if I use the tugbar. Well, no... I never have. My original bass was a Fender Jazz bass
built in 1966. That instrument came with a tugbar, installed below the strings. Ol' Leo thought that bass players
would use their thumbs to pluck the strings, so the tugbar's original part name was "Finger Rest," I believe.
But very few bass players play like that, including Doghouse bass players. (upright)
So after I found one made of Rosewood for small money, I ordered two of them and gave them a few coats of
tung oil and screwed one on, above the strings where my thumb naturally falls. So we'll see.

 

[Col Mustard]

am I beating a dead horse here? *grins. I'm just having fun when it's bitter cold outside.
Here she is from the back... showing the black steel neck plate, the ebony control cavity cover
and the black Gotoh tuners and the maple neck.

I said it earlier and it shows here... some of these mods are only for my sense
of aesthetics. I don't care for plastic things, and I don't care for the look of chrome
I guess. We seem to be surrounded by it anyway.

But I really like the neck on this instrument. No gloss, no sticky feeling,
no plasticky feelings. I've oiled the fretboard (which was a bit dry) but not treated
the back of this neck with anything.

The headstock is pretty droll looking, like something outa Dr. Suess.
Here's what the Elecro-Socket looks like, for my fellow Telecaster aficionados.


I replaced the issue part, which was plastic... with the above. It screws into the sides of the output jack hole
and is solid as a rock. Players of classic Telecasters know how wonky the Telecaster output jack can be.
It's one of those things that Ol' Leo did NOT get right the first time. (like the tugbar...) The electro socket makes
so much more sense, and I liked mine as soon as I installed it on MY Tele. I thought one would fit in this space
and it does. I'll figure out some stain for the screw hole fillers some other winter day.

All in all, a really fun project. Are there any questions? *laughs
OH! "what does it sound like..." I'll see if I can make a short enough recording to upload here.
...Another day.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Nice work Col.

 

[Col Mustard]

thanks for the good word... It really sounds good now and is a pleasure to play.

 

[WavMixer]

am I beating a dead horse here? *grins. I'm just having fun when it's bitter cold outside.
Here she is from the back... showing the black steel neck plate, the ebony control cavity cover
and the black Gotoh tuners and the maple neck.
View attachment 108837
I said it earlier and it shows here... some of these mods are only for my sense
of aesthetics. I don't care for plastic things, and I don't care for the look of chrome
I guess. We seem to be surrounded by it anyway.

But I really like the neck on this instrument. No gloss, no sticky feeling,
no plasticky feelings. I've oiled the fretboard (which was a bit dry) but not treated
the back of this neck with anything.

The headstock is pretty droll looking, like something outa Dr. Suess.
Here's what the Elecro-Socket looks like, for my fellow Telecaster aficionados.

View attachment 108838
I replaced the issue part, which was plastic... with the above. It screws into the sides of the output jack hole
and is solid as a rock. Players of classic Telecasters know how wonky the Telecaster output jack can be.
It's one of those things that Ol' Leo did NOT get right the first time. (like the tugbar...) The electro socket makes
so much more sense, and I liked mine as soon as I installed it on MY Tele. I thought one would fit in this space
and it does. I'll figure out some stain for the screw hole fillers some other winter day.

All in all, a really fun project. Are there any questions? *laughs
OH! "what does it sound like..." I'll see if I can make a short enough recording to upload here.
...Another day.