westone super headless bass rebuild

Hi All
My poorly super headless is now in bits and I stuck a meter across the pups: All coils return 4.5 ohms ±0.2 ohms with no leaks to ground.

I was expecting a little more but I think that if all the coils are similar then the pups are fine. What do you think?
http://forum.westoneguitars.net/members-westones-f6/diddy-daves-duo-plus-a-poorly-one-original-post-in-introductions-forum-t700.htm
I'm expecting the parts soon to completely rebuild the control cavity. more info to follow

Great stuff. The PUps work and I presume that as they are humbuckers, that is a joint coil output of 9 ohms per humbucker. Thats pretty good and better than most fenders. With the boost circuit Mmmm .... 1 hope the neighbours are forgiving !

Are you going re-finish them back to black?

that's cool i haven't tried them yet but it all looks good (tempted to hard wire them across a jack socket to see but waiting on strings as well) and yes all the hardware is off ready for a coat of the black stuff but i do have a soft spot for polished brass and wood, no black i think

The other thing I noticed was that the Westone bird logo had been removed from the plate that covers the tuners. If you wanted to go down that route, Polly has a contact that can provide waterslide transfers. Wack it on, lacquer over the top for protection, and you'll be flying the flag ( well bird ) again.

excellent, i was wondering about the one.

first coat on the hardware


I came up with this idea after burning my fingers many times trying to solder in the cavity (and on one occasion burning the guitar )
i just traced through from the control cavity on to a bit of old pizza box, punched holes through and then easy soldering (easier maybe)




i also strung it up to check the neck relief and all is tidy action wise.

Yeah, the pizza box idea is a good 'un; I use an upturned plastic 2l ice cream container - great minds, eh!!

Ah-h-h, you are very wise Grasshopper!
But the Master spoke not of pizza box holders in Ninja soldering class.

Barry wrote:Ah-h-h, you are very wise Grasshopper!
But the Master spoke not of pizza box holders in Ninja soldering class.

But surely Master spoke of improvising and using ones environment to ones advantage like the chimpanzee who uses a stick to fish for termites. Ooh were you away on that day

Nearly there


I don't think this could be done in the cavity


Just before setup of action and intonation


Stage 1 complete with temporary knobs robbed from my other bass until i can source something closer to original ones


i was following the thunder ii diagram only to realise the the thunder has an extra phase switch so a decision need to be made: 1) modify the diagram and figure out how to remove the switch or 2) drill a hole and wire in the switch.

I am slightly more confident with a drill than redesigning a circuit diagram so new phase switch has been added.

I still need to source a battery cover and machine screws for it (anyone know what size the machine screws are?) and rub down the pup covers when the paint has hardened off a bit

its all working great, what a range of tones

Next job the refinish (i think i will enjoy playing it for a while before i take it to bits again )

looking good, bro!! The knobs are problematic; they're the Westone tapered ones are are about as common as rockinghorse poo; good luck with that!

The battery cover could be easily made out of plastic - see what others in here have done with DVD cases!! - or light alloy; are the screws mounted in steel pillars in the wood?

You need an Genesis I or II now to have a wee set, eh!!

Mmmm, termites on a shtick.

Real nice job! She's a beauty!

corsair wrote:...The knobs are problematic; they're the Westone tapered ones are are about as common as rockinghorse poo; good luck with that!...

Feel yer pain on that! My Spectrum GT is also knob-less!
I'm gonna use ribbed speed knobs as replacements.

the parts guy says on the site that there are some brass knobs for a thunder bass due in this month, i am thinking they might do (even paint em black or leave them as brass)

diddydave wrote:...even paint em black ...

corsair wrote: light alloy; are the screws mounted in steel pillars in the wood?

yep not wood screws but machine screws to screw into steel inserts, any ideas?