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Yamaha BB300 "Rubbermaid" Restoration and Customization for James A.
This is an original Yamaha BB300 bass that was found in a flea market for $20. It had been defretted, and the original fret slots had been
filled in with wood putty to make it a fretless bass. The person who originally bought it at the flea market
had to do just a little bit of fixing up to get it working, including making a new pickguard out of a piece of a rubbermaid storage tub,
hence the bass was then dubbed "Rubbermaid". It was eventually sold to James, and he asked me about doing the following customizations and
upgrades to the bass. Originally he had inquired about removing the original rosewood fingerboard and replacing with a new ebony one, but
this wasn't feasible from a financial standpoint for this bass. So we agreed upon the following:
Neck:
Remove wood putty from fret slots, remove original dot inlays, and fill with black epoxy or matching wood
Repair existing cracks in the headstock
Dye fingerboard black to give the appearance of a solid black ebony fretless fingerboard
Remove original white side dots, replace or fill with black, then put new side dots where the fret lines should be, at
the normal dot locations (3rd, 5th, 7th, etc...)
Body:
Shave 1/4" off of top of body
Install new figured Myrtle bookmatched topset
Rear rout all controls so no pickguard needed
Move the output jack to the side of the body
Hand rubbed Oil and Wax finish
Hardware and Electronics:
New Hipshot ultralight tuners and "A" style bridge, Satin Gold with string through body option
Gold dome knobs
One Bartolini BC4T 4 string soapbar pickup, new passive wiring (volume & tone)
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Status and Updates
08 November 2006 - Just about done and ready for finishing
(click on image to view larger version)
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Body before, front |
Body before, rear |
Body after shaving 1/4" from the top |
Gluing and clamping down the new figured myrtle topset |
The new figured myrtle topset all glued and edges rounded over |
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Neck before, starting to remove the wood putty from the fret slots |
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Crack in headstock at the first tuner |
Crack in the headstock through the string tree screw hole |
Second application of black epoxy to the dots and fret slots |
Fingerboard sanded level |
First coat of black dye on the fingerboard |
Here's some pics of the finish going on, and then starting to build it up....
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Wenge overlay on headstock drying.... |
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26 January - All done and built up, will ship it out Monday!
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