Home-made P-bass modification

This is a home-made p-bass project of mine. It started out about 9 years ago as a Washburn Lyon p-bass. I bought this Lyon bass used really cheap and it had a black body and a maple fretboard. The action was too high though.

 After playing with it for some time, I decided it was time to have it serviced. Unfortunately the truss rod did not work and the neck had tons of relief.
 The old neck could not be repaired for cheap so I left this project hanging for a while. Then, I spotted a brand new replacement Jazz-bass neck with rosewood fretboard for cheap from a company called Dr.Parts (the same factory that produced "Rondo music" and "SX"- branded gear). The new neck was affordable, really thin and playable so I bought it right away.
 The Lyon maple neck was removed from the body. The body was made out of plywood (freaking 90's-00's builders...) but that was one of my first bass projects and I didn't want to throw it away.


The new neck felt right in place. Yes, you can place a Jazz bass neck on a P-bass body and vice versa. The old tuners were installed on the DrParts neck.


 The old banged up white pickguard was replaced with a tortoise red pickguard. I didn't like it that much so a few years after,  it was replaced with a brand new purple pearl one. The vol/tone pots were replaced as well.

 The result is really playable and the jazz neck is smooth, fast and way more comfortable. This Lyon bass was a lost case but a new neck brought it back to life. The neck is the A and Ω(Omega) of every diy guitar or bass project/build. You should really pay attention to the neck rather than the body materials etc.  The plywood body does not sound that good unplugged but when plugged in, the sound is clean and natural. The tone is a bit punchy with plenty of bottom and high end. It sounds pretty much like my alder bodied p-bass and it weighs about the same.

Cheers,
Thanos