Brenda

"Brenda, Brenda… oh you (yea you), you speak my language!" -- Mark Sandman/Morphine

This is Brenda. She is a 32" scale acoustic bass made by Ibanez which they call PCBE12MH.


Now, for a guy that feels an unnatural impulse to customize anything and everything I exercised a tremendous amount of restraint here. Back in August I was looking for a backup bass, but found a wonderful-playing, inexpensive practice bass. After deciding to live a fret free life a couple years ago I wasted no time removing these irksome frets. Only this time I used a proper fret pulling tool instead of an old pocket knife.


The PCBE12MH was fret free within minutes and on the road to becoming Brenda. I'm a big fan of Plastic Wood—if it's good enough for Jaco it's more than adequate for me. The gaps left by the frets were filled…


Took the time to tape off the fingerboard which saved a ton of time with sanding.


I had every intention of using this at my live shows, but after several rounds of feedback testing, I began to doubt the possibilities.


After some sage advice from Curio's drummer Taylor—"you don't have to play everything out, just enjoy it"—I decided to do just that, play it around the house and enjoy it. Curio will have it's first acoustic show this fall, so perhaps Brenda will see the outside world. One thing that still bugged me however—a problem which plagues many bass guitars—was it's tendency to dip towards the headstock, which can cause shoulder/back issues after long periods of playing. I decided to install a chunk of heavy wood—Panga Panga—to offset this. Sawdust from Panga Panga "has been reported to cause central nervous system effects, irritation of the skin and eyes" so I was pretty cautious while working with it, but beware, Brenda is a dangerous little lady!


After the balance was improved I installed a jack plate. I noticed that over time the thin wood which comprises the sides of an acoustic bass guitar can get stressed through the in and out of the instrument cable. I stopped in a Guitar Center to buy this part, but as is my luck, they were out. The repairman gave me this used one and told me to come back when I need some real work (tricked him). In the parlance of Monster Garage, this was a freebie!


I've found that I prefer naturally finished necks as opposed to laminate finishes. My hand has a tendency to stick to heavy finishes in the heat and humidity which bugs me. So I removed the finish on the neck and gave it a single coat of danish oil.


That was about it… oh, I replaced the plastic bridge pins with some nicer walnut ones I had around and shifted the strap buttons to help with the balance. I set out to buy a bass because I didn't feel like building another one, but this purchase has sent me back to the garage to build a new bass as identical to Brenda as possible, with the only difference of withstanding loud volumes without feedback…


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