The PBG B46.....Behemoth bass and guitar kit.

[wazkelly]

If only there was a better bridge solution for that hollow body......

You could always to the jam sandwich effect on the behemoth?

[Dedman]

I saw this and thought of those acoustic basses

[wazkelly]

Hi Dedman, looks like that could work.



Out of production model so not sure if that bridge can be sourced from any where?

[ozzbike]

Fingers still have an itch....so was thinking about being greedy and planning to get both the Big Girl and this one...

https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...ss-guitar-kit/

Perhaps with a double bound body she could be a jam sandwich. mmmmmmm decisions.

[wazkelly]

Floating bridge is a better design but now on a thicker bodied instrument.

You know you want the behemoth and you will end up doing it one day, so why not sooner rather than later?

[ozzbike]

Waz,

Official orders for you....no more making sense and applying logic. You must encourage all aspects of G.A.S. and acquisition of many Bass guitars.😀

Humour aside, I think I might just buy some upgrade parts in the interim....pickups..electrics...bridges...nuts etc.

I think the big one will be Aussie and TRUE BLUE. 😀

[wazkelly]

Ooops, me and my analytical mind getting me into trouble again.

All good Ozzie and happy to throw some encouragement your way.

[FrankenWashie]

Wow, behemoth really is appropriate for that combo. I think we saw one back in November or so? Gutsy build wish Ozzbike, look forward to seeing you tackle it!

[WeirdBits]

Ok Ozz, as promised, I've got some wiring diagrams for you for when you eventually pull the trigger on the Big Girl.

I'm not sure of the exact parts supplied with the BG-46, but from the store images it looks like both switches are just the standard 3-ways. This means we need to get creative if you want true Bass/Off/Guitar style double-neck switching without spending cash on special switches. For the pot and cap values I'm going with what you find in most of the kits and the preferred values for bass/guitar etc. And, following your brief, the diagrams are set up so there's no extra holes, routing or cavity changes required (maybe some minor tweaks to squeeze in a larger switch).

Ok, so this first diagram is the cheap and cheerful version using what should be pretty much the stock parts (I've used an orange drop for the cap just because it's easier on the diagrams).



The bass circuit has Jazz Bass-style volume controls for each pickup, no pickup switch, the guitar circuit has a single master volume control and a pickup selector. And, there is a master tone that applies to both the guitar and bass circuits. The compromises with this layout is you can't adjust the volume of the guitar pickups individually (with just the master guitar volume), and the master tone would better match the guitar with a 0.022uF cap and better match the bass with a 250KA pot. Minor compromises, but fully functional.

The trick to this circuit is how the stock 3-way is used for the neck selector. Essentially, the guitar circuit and bass circuit are linked in series across the switch. Selecting the bass shorts across the guitar circuit, selecting the guitar shorts across the bass circuit. In the middle position the switch shorts both circuits to mute the beast. In may not look like it in the above diagram, but the switch is connected like this:


This is accomplished by separating the bass circuit's 'signal' ground/negative from the fixed ground on the hardware (pot casings, bridge etc) and guitar circuit. If you look carefully at the wiring diagram you can see that the bass's volume controls do not have a lug grounded to the back of the pot. This allows me to keep the bass signal ground separate which can then be switched with the neck selector.

[WeirdBits]

Right, the above was with the stock switches, time for something a little more special. I prefer the right-angle double-neck switch but that won't work on this build without major mods to the switch cavities, so that leaves the box style 12 terminal 4-Pole 3-way Double-Neck On/On/On switch. It's expensive, but it gives options you can't get with just the stock 3-way.



An important note with this switch is the contact layout. With the toggle up or down the contacts are all on one side or the other, but in the middle position the contacts are staggered which makes the switch's orientation important. For the following diagrams to function correctly the switch must be orientated so that when in the middle position its contacts are linked like so:


This diagram uses the 4-pole switch as the pickup selector. It switches between the bridge/both/neck pickups for both necks, with a stock 3-way again being used to select between necks.



This layout has a Volume & Tone for the guitar and a Volume & Tone for the bass (the strange position of the bass tone cap is because of the way the neck switching works). The main compromise of the configuration is the lack of individual volumes for each pickup. The stubby toggle on the double-neck switch could make it a little awkward as a pickup switch.


The last diagram uses the 4-pole switch as it was intended, as a neck selector. This means that all the controls (pickup selector, volumes and tones) work for the currently selected neck. That is, select 'guitar' and you have a pickup selector, neck pickup volume/tone and bridge pickup volume/tone. Switch over to 'bass' and all the controls change over the the bass pickups.



The downside for this layout is the slight compromise on the component values. The 0.047uF caps are better suited to the bass than the guitar (0.022uF ideally) and the 500K pots are more suited to the guitar than the bass (closer to 250K ideally). Minor compromises, but the most complete functionality of the three diagrams. Then again, values aren't set in stone and sometimes non-standard component values sound better in a particular build.

Hopefully these will give you somewhere to start. Let me know if you need anything more.