Build Diary of an MMB-5

[RalphH]

Day one:
I was under no illusions that everything would fit together perfectly, and set about comparing the dimensions of the major parts with a real SR-5. My goal is to build the bass as close to the real thing as possible, so apart from lighter weight, it feels very similar.
Upgrades from the standard kit include a 6 bolt neckplate, perloid or tortiose shell scratchplate (dependant on body colour), 2 band Belcat preamp/EQ and thru body stringing. I’ll be relocating the jack plug to the edge of the body as I’m going to use the existing hole for the treble pot. I’m retaining the individual volume controls for each coil of the pickup rather than using a balance pot, so there will be 4 knobs: V-V-B-T. I may also add a series/parallel switch later on.

First thing I noticed (even before I purchased the kit) was that the tuner hole on the headstock for the G string was in the wrong place to be aesthetically the same as a real SR-5. It appears to be in the position for the 3+1 configuration, with the 4+1 G tuner position 25mm further toward the end of the headstock.
My solution was to turn up a 17.5mm “plug” from a scrap of maple left over from cutting the headstock shape and gluing it in to place. It should look virtually invisible when sanded properly. See the sequence of photos below.

Second issue is that the routed hole for the pickup (and consequently pickup placement) is incorrect (too close to the neck) for the signature MM tone. The current distance is 22mm closer to the 12th fret than on a real SR-5. No big deal however- nothing the router can’t fix.

More to come.. stay tuned.

[Dedman]

* gets popcorn. Great plans!

[Simon Barden]

All good stuff, Ralph. Pickup positioning is very important in getting the sound right. Luckily the pickguard will cover up any extra pickup area routing.

I had an OLP MM style bass and fitted a MM pickguard to it which entailed moved the pickup by around 10mm and I'm sure it sounded a lot better afterwards.

[wazkelly]

Hi Ralph, welcome to the forum and like what I am seeing already.

Currently doing a MMB-4 that I bought late March before the fiver came out and wished I had known as I would have willingly paid the extra $20 bucks. That said I am happy with standard 4 banger and also fitting a Belcat pre amp.

Keen to see how yours comes along.

Cheers, Waz

[RalphH]

Hi Ralph, welcome to the forum and like what I am seeing already.

Currently doing a MMB-4 that I bought late March before the fiver came out and wished I had known as I would have willingly paid the extra $20 bucks. That said I am happy with standard 4 banger and also fitting a Belcat pre amp.

Keen to see how yours comes along.

Cheers, Waz

Hi Waz

Thanks for the support. Love your approach to the battery box cutout without the router. ;-)
Takes me back to my high school woodwork classes in Adelaide...

I'll probably swap out the tuners as you have, but will see how the stock ones go first.

Cheers, Ralph

[RalphH]

All good stuff, Ralph. Pickup positioning is very important in getting the sound right. Luckily the pickguard will cover up any extra pickup area routing.

I had an OLP MM style bass and fitted a MM pickguard to it which entailed moved the pickup by around 10mm and I'm sure it sounded a lot better afterwards.

Thanks Simon.
Yes, it's amazing how much difference in tone you get be moving the pickup around. I have a colleague who has a vintage Gibson Grabber with a sliding pickup with around 60mm of travel. I was surprised on how much difference a move of just 20mm made!

[wazkelly]

I'll probably swap out the tuners as you have, but will see how the stock ones go first.
Cheers, Ralph

May need to buy an inline set of 4 and then just one left hand tuner. The stock ones are rubbish and slip under very little tension.

[RalphH]

May need to buy an inline set of 4 and then just one left hand tuner. The stock ones are rubbish and slip under very little tension.

Thanks for the heads-up. The Realtone's look good, but I'm wondering if should I go straight for a set of Schaller BM's for another $90..
The total build would still be in budget.

[wazkelly]

All comes down to how much coin you want to spend.

[RalphH]

Day two:
Measuring-checking-measuring….
Fitting the neck today, and hopefully positioning the bridge. A few measurements seem a bit off however. First of all the distance between the 21st fret and the bridge position seems to be about 7mm too long. Checking with a Real SR5 reveals the generic curve at the foot of the neck/fretboard is the culprit. The neck in the kit is highly likely to be used on other 5 string basses, so this is not unexpected. No problem however, as I just radiused the foot of the neck to match that of the real SR5 and used the trusty router to match the neck pocket to suit. Everything aligns beautifully now. Great fun making the jig to do this too…

The next issue was that the existing holes for the neck plate appear to be incorrectly positioned.
After a few measurements I came to the conclusion (I could be wrong however) that these holes are probably correct for the four string version of the bass.
As I was only going to use the first two holes (closest to the neck) as the alignment point for the 6 bolt neckplate I was not too concerned, however laying out the drilling template for the other 4 holes showed just how far out the original holes were from square…. (circled in red below)

Test fitting of the control plate shows that the routing is a bit out in places, with one mounting hole hanging over thin air. Will deal with that one in due course.
Overall, I’m really pleased with the experience so far; it’s making me think about engineering solutions I thought I’d forgotten many years ago.