IB-5

[robin]

IB-5

All Standard Parts
Walnut Stain with Tru-Oil finish
Maple neck

[adam]

Finished in Wudtone Dark Tease. Built by Dingobass. All parts standard.

[wokkaboy]

Finished in Wudtone amber. All parts standard.

[groundfloordoofus]

Body finish - Amber
Neck finish - Walnut
Satin finish.

[grogers311@yahoo.com]

IB-5
Finished in Dark Walnut

[shane.duggan]

Nothing fancy from standard.

Sealed with Feast Watson Timber Primer
A light stain with Feast Watson Prooftint 'Old Baltic'
Polished with several layers of a 50/50 mix of FW Fine Buffing oil and FW Clear Satin Varnish.

[Paul_H]

Here are two shots of my recently completed IB-5





Basic details:

Finish: Body - Feast Watson Jarrah stain + Tru Oil. Neck - Tru Oil. Applied Renaissance Wax once the Tru Oil had cured.
Pickups - Bartolini (switchable between series humbucker, parallel humbucker, single coil), wired as 2 volume pots, single tone pot. Bourns pots.
Gotoh tuners.
Schaller 2000 bass bridge
Copper shielding
Bone nut
Dunlop Strap Loks

I started this build after Christmas 2016, but numerous competing demands meant that the build stretched out over several months.
For anyone interested, I will share some build details here, in lieu of a build diary.

The Build: The build was reasonably straightforward. I had no difficulty getting things to line up, and the neck was surprisingly easy to adjust. I spent time levelling the frets as recommended, and smoothing the fret tangs at the edges of the fretboard. Once the bass was assembled, I gave the fretboard a good drink of Guitar Honey.

I encountered a few little traps along the way…

1 I had to route a rebate around the back pot cavity so that the cover would sit flush with the body. I did this carefully with a Dremel and a 3mm router bit. This was a bit of a pain.

2 I had to route more of the pot cavity in order to make the floor more level and create a bit more space for electronics.

3 The bridge I selected proved taller than stock, so I had to shim the neck to get a reasonable action. I located some nice 3mm thick maple veneer on eBay which, after careful shaping, worked perfectly.

The Bartolini pickups are marginally smaller than stock, so I lined the sides of the pickup cavity with thin foam sheeting. This was a cosmetic consideration.

I’ve wired the pickups with individual volume pots going into a single tone pot. I implemented switching options for the pickups, with a ON-ON-ON switch which selects parallel-coils humbucking, series-coil humbucking, and single coil (which Bartolini describes as similar to a Jazz Bass pickup). This arrangement does indeed yield audibly different voicings.

I’m really delighted with the sound, and there's plenty of sustain.. I haven’t played a bass for over twenty years, having long ago parted ways with my old bass and amp. I decided on a Fender Rumble 200 V3 amp, which is to my ears a very decent sounding system. Once my fingers are less clumsy, I might put up some sound bites.

[Druman Base]

Standard parts except for longer intonation bolts. Next will come the usual mods, just to make it the best it can be.