Gibson RD Bass Make-over: Finally finished !!

This is a project that I started a LONG time ago and finally completed.

This started out as a natural finish Gibson RD Bass, with a headstock repair and very worn down or filed down, frets.

The early steps in this project are covered in this blog entry, but I'll summarize what was done.

-The neck was shaved down slightly to thin down the profile, though the width of the fretboard was not changed.
-The frets were removed and the entire fretboard was stripped and re-radiused, and then refretted.
-The finish on the rest of the bass was stripped, and then the bass was refinished in Ember Red lacquer, a very uncommon 60s Gibson custom color.
-The routings were modified for two Rickenbacker humbucking pickups, the wiring was modified to be similar to a Fender Jazz bass, and a new pickguard was fabricated to work with them.
-The bridge and tuners were replaced with higher quality units.
-The knobs were replaced with 60s style Gibson reflector knobs.

The end result is a pretty awesome looking and nice playing bass - though the neck is still quite chunky.

The look reminds me of John Entwistle's Fender-bird basses - which had various Thunderbird style bodies married to Fender Precision necks.