Black Dog P Bass - First build

[chrissyinbkk]

Thanks Wokka. Don't recall seeing a truss nut key in the kit (but I wasn't particularly looking). The 4m/m feels right but I though it best to ask first. I do remember reading Gavin1393's comment that a broken truss rod is not an afternoon's repair job!

Normally in with the lead I seem to remember.....

[VoxMechanica]

Thanks Chrissy. I was never going to use the kit supplied lead (prefer a 'real' one) so I never got to open the plastic bag.

[stan]

4mm is a standard size, so most likely correct

[VoxMechanica]

Greetings Fellow Kitters.
The Black Dog Exactitude Bass was given a voice a couple of weeks ago, thanks to the soldering skills of my PhD Electronics Engineer friend. (He still has difficulty understanding why it has a relatively enormous 47pF paper-in-oil capacitor! ).
The end result is a P-Bass of Doom! The sustain is amazing! Ash body with Maple fretboard, I had originally fitted a Fender High Mass bridge but had to replace it a Fender bridge (circa '58, with threaded saddles) because a 50+ second sustain was too much and the D & G strings were vibrating in sympathy.

I now have something a bit more manageable but pluck a string with a volume turned of and the body vibrates through my ribcage. Is this normal for a P-Bass?

I feel like Homer Simpson at the 0:31'' point in the Homer Plays Bass episode.

BTW, I had to shim the neck pocket up to get within the adjustment range of the saddles and get the string heights right. Brass shimstock has more than an engineering use!

[VoxMechanica]

Can anyone tell me why the 1950s-60s P-Bass had a cover over the pickups? I can understand the ashtray over the bridge - to improve the looks, but the pickup cover is a mystery.

[Bass Guy]

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&s...7P_k83oeieRvJI

[WeirdBits]

Definitely worth 2 minutes 20.

And, clearly the cover has now come into its own... it just had to wait for technology to catch up.