New Black Hardware

[fivebass52]

Had this bass built backin 2002, and the gold hardware on my Custom R&B Bass was getting worn, pitted, and just looking bad... So, I decided to upgrade to black hardware... tuners are from Hipshot (thanks Bill!), bridges and knobs by way of eBay, took the Flats off I've had on for the past 18 years, and I put on a fresh set of extra long strings from Stringjoy (my neck is 36 inches...), Nickle wound, 125/100/80/60/50, instead of the regular 40. They sound very alive, and I've raised the pickups to get more tone and volume. It's all worth it, as it looks and sounds great! I like the look of the abalone knobs... here are pics...

Just noticed the Abalone knobs match the Abalone dots in the neck... the fret markers were my custom design... you'll notice the bridges are a little "wonky'... my old bridges didn't sit uneven like these do, so I attribute this to cheap manufacturing of these... still, it doesn't effect playability, and as you can see, the B-string is a little wider apart. I had the pick-ups custom made by Larry at Aero Instruments to line up with the string spacing, which is 19-18-18-18-17... plays just fine though...


Tuners recommended by our resident Hipshot expert, Bill... Control switch is for my FretFX neck lights...


This is the FtreFX lights turned on... Cool!

[paulo]

Nice!
I agree that the black hardware looks nicer than gold IMO.
Congrats!!

[ezstep]

I have purchased only two NEW basses in quite a while. Both had black hardware.

Looks good!!!

[ch willie]

Hardware can make an instrument look cheap, but not here.

That black hardware fits your bass. It's already got a kind of smoldering darkness about it, and that black sets it off. Love it.