Wazkelly's EX-5

[wazkelly]

Thanks Robin, may convert a few people yet. Once you get over the big angular look the shape fits like a glove and is easy to play sitting down or standing up plus the shape provides more balance when standing. Mind you this one is super long and therefore headstock heavy and being only 172cm tall it is a full stretch for me to reach the farthest tuning peg from a normal playing position.

Hey General, don't leave me hangin all by myself. I know everyone would love to see more EX-5 goodness particularly in that bright yellow finish on yours.

Thanks Fretty. It feels good to finally complete a kit.

[wazkelly]

Mods & upgrades for the EX-5

Being my first build I was more concerned about getting the job done as soon as possible and now I have had plenty of time playing with it I decided it needed a few Mods & upgrades.

Had DB do the neck setup on the EX-1 and highly recommend that service to everyone as that axe's neck & action are perfect. On this one there were a couple of frets sitting a bit proud higher up the neck and have given them a whack with a rubber mallet on many occasions that barely made any difference. The most annoying fret was around 15th where a note fretted at 13th or 14th on the D & G would buzz and ended up having to attack it with a file and sand paper to remove the high spot.

Next job was to do something about the action as it has been a bit higher than my usual preference however truss rod had been tightened up as far as I felt it would go with breaking something. Time to loosen it off and let it sit for a few days then gently bend it back whilst slightly tightening the truss rod to bring things back to a dead flat deck.

[wazkelly]

Next Mod was to replace the stock plastic nut with one of those adjustable ones that I bought on eBay from an Aussie supplier. They are actually designed for a Warwick Corvette Streamer 5 string model and had change out of $40, bargain.

Next will be upgrading the PUP's as the stock Chinese ones are low on output volume and whilst listening to them through headphones the traditional Volume, Volume, Tone wiring does not help either as when both on full it drops levels a tad further. In fact, the only good sound seems to be coming out of the front PUP with the Bridge wound off about a quarter to half on it's volume control. Doing the reverse and having mostly the Bridge PUP doesn't sound as nice which has led me to reconsider the whole wiring and PUP configuration.

A couple of months ago I ordered some John Benson Custom Hand Wired 5 String PUP's that are due to arrive middle of this week. I have also decided to wire this up exactly the same as the EX-1 with a Gotoh style 3 way switch, just a Master Volume & Master Tone, and using Bourns 500k audio taper push/pull pots to allow me to coil split the new PUP's which come with 4 wires.

I will post more shots when the Overseas package arrives.

[UpperCaseH]

EX-5 is on my "one day" list along with a rick bass and a semihollow 6 string, but it might move to the top after seeing this one. The colour's come out great and the the black harware really sets it off well.

[wazkelly]

Thanks H.

It is a beast of a thing and longer than any other Bass around as I could not find a hard case that it would fit into. Experimental colour and happy how it turned out however the EX-1 was more the colour I originally had in mind but glad they are both 2 distinctively separate colours.

Aust Post Tracking suggests the hand wired PUP's are due to arrive tomorrow and can't wait to unwrap them.

[wazkelly]

Special delivery arrived from USA via PBG HQ in Perth today.....

Got Thursday off work and hope to get a 'before' sound demo of the stock Chinese PUP's then start the installation and re-wiring process.

Just put a new set of strings on tonight after doing the adjustable nut and flattening the Fret Board. Wow, what a difference a decent set of strings makes to the sound compared to cheap Chinese ones that came with the kit that probably contributed more to the crap sound than the PUP's. The demo videos should still highlight the difference between stockers and upgrades and can't wait. Just gotta finish sorting the action and then fine tune the intonation.

[andrewdosborne]

Sounds like a dream day off work looking forward to sound demo

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[wazkelly]

Didn't get a lot done on Thursday other than playing around with setup and intonation. Installed the 'Just-A-Nut' and that is a great invention as it allows for the finest of adjustment with having to attack it with files and thus cause irreversible damage. Here is a shot of it installed...

After work this afternoon got myself all set up to do a demo video with the stock Chinese PUP's before performing the pickup heart transplant surgery tomorrow morning. I am confident this patient won't reject the new organs, err, transplanted PUP's.

As you can see from the amp settings Graphic EQ was flat and others at 12 o'clock with just enough volume to be heard and shall leave these in place for the next post operative demo video.

[wazkelly]

PBG EX-5 Demo Video with Stock Chinese Humbuckers

Finally got around to doing this demo and apologise for fluffing a few notes here and there. As always, no probs rehearsing, just crumbled under pressure with vid rolling. Promise to put in a better effort once new PUP's have been installed.

[ThreeBbass]

looking and sounding great Waz ... I'll be interested to hear how different it sounds with the new pickups installed.
:-)