Blue Boy now has a new, heavier ash body; time to assembled it with the "old" parts. First, the pickups and control plate are put in, including wiring all the grounds together. Once the plate and bridge pickup are screwed in, the pickguard is lined up and fitted with a couple of screws (none of the old holes lining up, of course) in order to then screw down the neck pickup. I've decided I don't care for the brown control knobs on this bass - just not traditional enough - so I've ordered a set of standard black ones to replace them.
Now that the pickups are in a row, I can check the exact alignment of the bridge and - wow, off by almost a half centimeter. I'll mark where I want it with tape, unscrew it and re-drill the holes.
Now that that's cleaned up, I restring with the stainless La Bella strings, adjust the neck tension, string and pickup heights a bit, put the plates back on and let it sit overnight to settle (the strings and neck have to get used to each other).
Here's my first reactions the next morning: Blue Boy video 4
Conclusion - this body is fuller sounding on the low end, but still not as resonant with the neck as I would like. I also dislike the clangy-ness of the stainless strings on this neck, the frets are pretty noisy. I will try changing up the strings, first with flats, then maybe nickle half rounds or...
Of course, playing it on my full rig - with lots of volume - live with other musicians will be the real test. I'll avoid any additional major changes until I've had that opportunity. Who knows?