New Tokai to the family

[hawkeye2u]

Just bought this lovely bass
SGB-43 2005 (no ser no!) MIK
Lovely but I can definately see the diff in MIK & MIJ
I can adj the pup height on the bridge pup, but not on the neck pup
Is this normal for EB-3 copies or just a MIK mistake?

Greatful for any input or exp with this instrument
This is my second Tokai, also have a LS70-F

Cheers

 

[stratmoto]

Goodonya, straight to the workbench

The polepieces are adjustable on the neck pup. You can balance the sound to suit you with the height of the bridge pup.

Nice piece 8)

 

[hawkeye2u]

Well it was a bit dirty and a few minor scratches,. Thats why it was on the bench
A bit of Meguiars SCRATCH X took care of that, then a clean with VIRTUOSO cleaner and a final polish with VIRTUOSO polish>
Best stuff ever to clean & polish your guitars

I'll try the pole piece adj as they are screwed down flat with the pup cover
Thanks!

 

[marcusnieman]

Very nice.....noticed it has a bolt on neck. Is this typical on the SG basses?

 

[leadguitar_323]

Hi Hawkeye, mate i would lower the bridge pickup and then lower the action , that is quite a high action, that will also get your neck pickup closer as well ... :wink:

Mick

 

[hawkeye2u]

Bridge is all the way down so that means I have to put shims in the neck pocket, yes?
What is the string relive for a bass?
I'm only new at basses, played guitar & mandolin for years never bass
Thanks!

 

[hawkeye2u]

Put some shims in the neck pocket, to alter the neck angle, as I had run out of adj, discarded the flimsy shims that where in there from the manufacturer.Only about 30% of the neck width!!
Made some new ones to the full width, also a few to taper the support for the neck, next I'll make a full, wooden
tapered wedge so the neck is supported all the way!

Set the string height relief to 2 mm at the 9:th fret, all good if you play soft, might have to raise the bass side to 2.2mm to get rid of a few minor buzzes on the E string

Next I adj the pole pieces of the neck pup, so they align with the neck radius = 12" and also a fair bit higher than originally screwed down flush with the cover.
You can now just see the bottom edge of the head of the pole piece screw ,set the balance of the two pickups so they are even (as in adj the height of the bridge pup)
Lovely ,easy playing bass with lots of diff tones depending how you set your pup sel switch

Sorry for rambling on, but hope it helps some people out when they they buy a low budget guitar , reasonable setup, into a great player with tonnes of tones!

Cheers!