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I have a B8S I'm modifying to make it the kind of player I can use on a regular basis. One thing that will strike anyone when they pick a B8S up is, this thing is heavy! Has anyone successfully lightened theirs? Short of drilling a lot of holes (which I will not do), there's not a lot that can be done. I did switch the bass from active to passive, saving the weight of one whole 9 volt battery. The only other thing I can come up with is changing the tuners for lighter weight ones. I've successfully done this on an old Fender Jazz of mine. I'm wondering if anyone as done this with a Hamer bass with worthwhile results? Any other suggestions?

Hello fellow Hamer lovers! So I just picked up a 1982 Cruise Bass for $100 on Craig's List here in L.A. (non-original hard case and all) It plays beautifully and sounds great (despite being fitted with fake - yes, fake - EMGs). However, cosmetically it's been kind stripped, so I need a pickguard (custom pickguard makers won't make one unless you can send them the original) and, ideally, a truss rod cover with that cursive "Cruisebass" logo. A long shot I know, but if anyone knows of any such parts lying around anywhere, I'd be very interested in buying them. I wouldn't mind getting the period-correct pickups too (DiMarzios, right?) Thank you for reading!

Hi, I recently purchased a used 12-string bass made in 1995 (picture attached). I can't confirm this with 100% certainty, but I'm fairly certain there were some after-market modifications made to the bass that I'd sort of like to unwind. I'm posting here because I'm hoping that somebody who has some experience with 12-string basses can review this post and offer advice, encouragement...or discouragement if I'm about to do something irretrievably stupid. In addition to the standard three pots (one volume for each pickup, then one overall tone knob), there is a 3-position pickup switch, and then a switch to kick on an onboard preamp. The switches don't match, and they're both in sort of a haphazard spot, so I'm guessing that they were added after the fact. Plus, why would you need a pickup selector if you already have individual volume controls for each pickup? Also, the onboard preamp introduced considerable static into the signal, so I had to remove the battery altogether to get a pure tone (on an unrelated note, the nut needs to be raised and the tuners adjusted, but that's another matter). The bass gets plenty of output without the preamp (more than my active-electronic Stingray), so kicking the preamp on was almost silly. The neck pickup is a P-bass style DiMarzio. The bridge pickup is a humbucker, but has no label on it, so I can't tell what kind of pickup it is. Maybe because the two pickups "look" different means one or more was replaced after the bass was initially made? And last but not least, the wiring in the electronics housing looks, to my untrained eye, as being pretty slipshod--e.g. the battery for the preamp was just floating in there, not attached with a clip. What I think I'd like to do is gut the electronics, put in an EMG P-style pickup in the neck, and an EMG DC35 humbucker at the bridge. Those should both be drop-in replacements, which means no routing needed. Then, I would get rid of the two switches entirely, and install an EMG BTC preamp, which has one volume control, one pickup pan control, and then stacked bass/treble controls. Then I have a bass that's closer to what Hamer puts in their stock models: EMG pickups and just three knobs. Does this seem like a sensible plan? Thanks in advance, Ben