How to ruin a perfectly functional bass with panache and thoughtful abandon.

When I built the Flattop bass two years ago I had every intention of using it as a stepping stone towards playing upright. Although I'm still threatening to make the switch, there's something I really enjoy about the acoustic bass guitar. For one thing it's nice and flexible when blurring genre lines like we do in Curio, it's also a bit unusual as a main instrument. After shows people are really interested in learning more about the Flattop—what is it? did I build it? how does it work? As a result I've gotten into some great conversations with other players, chefs, mechanics… finding common ground and talking about doing your own thing—I really enjoy that.

This year Curio has played more shows than we have in the previous three. Which means my building abilities are being put to the test (along with my sleep schedule). I've run into pickup problems, bridge issues and tailpiece malfunctions this summer. For all the bass guitar building I do, most of it amounts to tinkering and experiments—scale lengths, coupled strings, number of strings, etc. and sometimes they break due to amateur woodworking—meaning, the Flattop is my only functional fretless bass and fixing a tailpiece the morning of a show is not a place I like to be.

To make a long setup longer, I've been looking for an electro-acoustic fretless backup. Problem being—they're hard to find! When I do find them I either don't like the styling or they're completely out of my price range. I set out looking for a kustomizable kandidate (that's hot rod spelling). The Fender T-Bucket acoustic was a front runner for a while, but it didn't feel like a $400 instrument when I played it. Very recently I came across the Ibanez PCBE12MH—hard to find in a shop, but a really nice simple bass guitar—all mahogany, naturally finish and half the price of the Fender. I stopped by a shop on my way down to our Lasalle show this weekend and picked it up for less than 200 due to a factory flaw. Now it's time to sprucemoose it up!

The plan: 1, polish down the chrome tuners to a pleasing copper satin finish; 2, sand the gloss finish off the neck; 3, de-fret; 4, add 1-3 feedback-busting soundposts.

The deadline: Curio's show on September 10th.

The project begins with an epitaph to the PCBE12MH…



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