£30 Old School Matsumoku Bass Resto

Bridgehouse

I decided to give @Vibetronic 's Epiphone ET-280 a whirl at £30 - through it would make a fun project. 

It has appeared! Although annoyingly I've been called away with work so won't get much chance to do any serious work till the weekend. However, I have made a start..

As delivered:






Things to note:

- It was cheap!
- It's short scale
- One of the pickup covers is missing and the pickup replaced with an old Jazz bass neck pickup (more on this later)
- The electronics will need replacing
- Truss Rod appears functional
- Frets are low but serviceable
- All the other bits are there (save for some pick guard screws)

Bridgehouse

Disassembly commenced. 

Firstly, here's the current electronics loom:



Ignore the Jazz pickup - that will have to go. 

The original bridge pickup is in a sorry state. The two magnets on the bottom are supposed to be glued and slightly apart but the glue has failed and they have been dragged together. Methinks this might be an @Alegree question - I think it will need a rewind and a reset of the magnets, and I want another one for the neck.. maybe something similar but not exactly the same? Also - I need to source a cover for the neck one.. hmmm. 

Pots look ok, but the wiring is shot, so I need to make a new loom for it. The output socket is rusted to oblivion inside. 

Bridgehouse

Body and neck were grubby, but it's honest dirt - I'd say a good 40 year build up on it. 

Disassembled:



First up was the body. First thought was "strip and oil" but I soon decided not to. Got the Virtuoso cleaner out and lathered liberally over it. It's mostly just built up grime and after some polish and a quick rub it's looking more than acceptable:





So it's staying as is - but will get further buffing and cleaning to get it a bit more sparkly.

Neck was an easy clean - and it's in great condition. Nut is a bit suspect but I'll give it a go. If it needs doing, then it may well be a nut replacement and defret to make it a short scale fretless....

Bridgehouse

Pickguard next. It was rather grubby and had old tape residue on it. It's also cracked, but it's an easy glue. Virtuoso to the rescue.



It's a clear guard painted black at the bottom with the logo applied as a sticker. It's serviceable and not too bad so I'll leave as is. The extra notches in the neck rout would be covered by a neck pickup cover so I'm not fussed if I can find a replacement cover.

Bridgehouse

Broadly, having stripped and cleaned, I'd say the essentials are present for a decent build..

Bridgehouse

Rustic pickup cover with a bit of cleaning to get rid of the loose grime:



If anyone has one down the back of the sofa or in the shed.. do let me know

Bridgehouse

I was a bit concerned that the truss rod cover was mangled, but no, it just needed some virtuoso. treatment:

Bridgehouse

The ET-280's are a bit of an oddball.





They fit into that odd period in the 70's/early 80's when Epiphones were mostly Japanese made following the move away from Kalamazoo. Some good, some bad (well, mostly bad). It's a Matsumoku build, late 70's, and funnily enough it's really really light weight (unlike a lot of 70's stuff) Build quality is OK, but nothing special - it was built to a price, but you can tell that with some care and attention it can be made to play perfectly well. 

The main thing I need to do is source a pickup cover and then work out what to do with the pickups - ideally I'd like to stick to the original formula if possible, but open to suggestions for a pair of pickups that would fit under the existing covers reasonably well..

paulnb57

Nice project!

Alegree

Looks like an old vox panther pickup I worked on a while ago. Can't see any poles on your photos though. Is it a blade or something?

Bridgehouse

Alegree said:

Looks like an old vox panther pickup I worked on a while ago. Can't see any poles on your photos though. Is it a blade or something?

View of the underside with the magnets taken off..



Looks like it's a bent metal frame with the poles running through it. Oddly the two magnets are just plonked on the bottom - they are supposed to be N N to repel each other but as they aren't stuck on they could flip easily and cause a weak output (apparently this is common!)

Bridgehouse

@Alegree - the pole pieces were screwed right in (presumably to compensate for weak output as the magnet flipped) -

I've screwed them back out a bit

Alegree

Bridgehouse said:

@Alegree - the pole pieces were screwed right in (presumably to compensate for weak output as the magnet flipped) -

I've screwed them back out a bit

A blade with screws running through it, fascinating. Much like the Duncan single sized humbucker pickups. 

I wonder if the holes in the magnets were supposed to accommodate screws to screw them securely onto something?

Bridgehouse

Alegree said:

Bridgehouse said:

@Alegree - the pole pieces were screwed right in (presumably to compensate for weak output as the magnet flipped) -

I've screwed them back out a bit

A blade with screws running through it, fascinating. Much like the Duncan single sized humbucker pickups. 

I wonder if the holes in the magnets were supposed to accommodate screws to screw them securely onto something?

Dunno. They seem to just be held on by the pressure of foam underneath and the cover on top.

Do you reckon you could fabricate a matching pair of similar design? I’m toying with the idea of fabricating a flat cover to go where the chrome one is now

Alegree

I've dug up the photo of those Vox bass pickups I was talking about. 

Basically a 4 poled P90.

Bridgehouse

Alegree said:

I've dug up the photo of those Vox bass pickups I was talking about. 

Basically a 4 poled P90.

I reckon these are a similar idea. I’m not sure what to do tbh - try to source an original cover and extra pickup and get them rewound or get a new pickguard made and some custom pickups for it. Thoughts?

paulnb57

Custom pickguard...

Bridgehouse

paulnb57 said:

Custom pickguard...

Yeah I’m thinking that way too

Funkfingers

I'm surprised that you have not plumped for some more R-Type pickups.