Simon B's Custom ESB-4 Build.

[dave.king1]

Everything to be unhappy with there Simon, but having said that it's good to see the customer service seems to be working

[JohnH]

What a bugger. At least you have the dimensions now, and a replacement had been organised. It’s always frustrating, but especially so when the product is so expensive

[fender3x]

This is the bit I'm dreading, especially as it's not a flat top. Some jig required. I will have to practice a lot before doing it in anger.

I have the same respect for my router as I do for alligators, and other powerful things that bite. I use a jig with everything, and try to get some practice before using it with anything I care about. This is a jig I built for routing a battery box on the back of my G&L:



It's one of the more successful jigs I have made. My router has a circular base, so the guide is actually the outside edges of the jig. It is easy to line up, since it makes a hole exactly the size and shape the one in the middle of the jig. It's about as idiot proof a way of making a rectangular hole of anything I have found. It works great on flat surfaces... Since the holes you need are rectangular, I think you could use something like this.

You would need to use shims and about a million pieces of low tack tape. You'd need to get it totally immobilized. I'd probably be inclined to build it in such a way that in addition to the shims and tape, I could drive a few screws--maybe a couple in the holes where the tailpiece goes and another in the neck pocket.

The trickiest bit will be securing things so that the jig and guitar body are totally immobile without marring the finish. Of course this is just an idea. I know it works well on flat surfaces as I have done it a bunch of times... Of course, the sexier the curves the more problems one encounters. (I wonder what else I could apply *that* lesson to...).

Will be curious if you or someone else comes up with a better idea. This is just the best that occurs to me at the moment ;-)

[Simon Barden]

Procrastination works well for me on the routing!

I'm working on the neck at the moment. The fret ends were poking out a bit and were very sharp, so have been filing and smoothing those so they are nicely rounded and user friendly. The fretboard also felt a bit rough, so have been sanding that smooth.

I'm still awaiting the bass notched-straight edge that I ordered from Crimson guitars three weeks ago (that was supposed to be in stock but wasn't, so it has to be made), so can't check the frets to see if they need levelling or not.

[Simon Barden]

More bass guitar hardware arrived today, and more grief. These are lovely Hipshot tuners plus an Xtender tuner for the E string. Three of them work faultlessly and have a lovely 27:1 gear ratio and turn as smooth as silk/butter/any other smooth metaphor. The fourth is as stiff and graunchy as anything and turning the key is as hard as making a teenage boy wash.



The three plain tuners also came without the headstock bushings which I believe they should have come with.

But to be fair to the store, Bass Direct in Warwick UK, I got an email back within 15 minutes of my complaint saying a replacement tuner and the bushings were in the post and to throw the duff tuner away.

Now got to do a jigsaw puzzle with them to fit on the headstock. It's a good thing I didn't get it pre-drilled. The standard tuners fit OK but the extra real estate that comes with the bass Xtender makes fitting the E and G tuner very tight indeed as the headstock isn't that wide at all. I'm going to have to take the tuning posts off so I can play with the backplates and mark up the post hole positions from the back.

[fender3x]

I am constantly amazed at the how good some of the crappy stuff is and how crappy some of the good stuff is. You would think that, pricy as they are, Hipshot and SD would have fantastic quality control...and yet.

I have been thinking about this in regards to my Frankenbass, which has recently gotten some upgrades. It began life as a cheap, Chinese Jazz clone (Essex or SX). I decided I really wanted it to e a P-J, and I bought a new pickguard (scratchplate ;-) from #$@%^! Warmoth. Warmoth Jazz pickguards, as it turns out, do not fit any known jazz control plate. &^%#$! Warmoth, unlike your UK shop, could not care less, so I spent more time modifying the pickguard than anything else in the mod, including routing a new pickup cavity and installing the pickups. For the mod, I retired the perfectly good, but oddly shaped control plate that was original, and bought two others... A Fender American Standard, and a Kmise. Amazingly, the cheap Kmise turned out to be the higher quality control plate. Thicker, and better chromed.

Other mods I have thought about for the Frankenjazz are upgraded tuners and bridge....but...the bass stays in tune just fine and the cheap Chinese tuners are smooth as snot on a door knob (there's a new metaphor for ya ;-) The bridge is a cheap fender-stamped metal knock-off...but it's intunated, the strings are the right hight and the bass has good sustain... So actually these work just great.

The exception, BTW, to the rule has been the EMG Geezer Butler PJ set that I put in it. They came in a beautiful package--like a fine watch. They look just great. They had all the right parts, and installed super easily. First time in a long time I have gotten a name brand item that was exactly as advertised...

[Simon Barden]

This bass was always going to be a bit of a money pit especially as I'm making it for a friend. The bridge upgrade was almost mandatory, unless I went a totally different path as you did, Fender3x.

Different pickups were always going to be fitted, but there are almost no non-active humbucker sized bass pickups, so I wanted something versatile. I could have gone for something other than the SDs, but as one of his basses is an OLP MM type, and the other is a Yamaha with J bass style pups, the NYC set seemed to offer both styles of sound.

I knew I had to fit a Hipshot Xtender for him, so it made sense to go with Hipshot for the other tuners. The kit tuners have a reasonable 22:1 gear ratio, but they have a lot of backlash in them. These Hipshots are 27:1 and have almost nothing at all. I did offer up the smaller Hipshot Lite tuners for consideration, as fitting them would have been a far easier task, but as these have 'only' a 20:1 gear ratio, he wanted the larger tuners.

The rest of the expenditure will be pots and switches and knobs, but that's all minor. Still, the overall spend on the bass (without consumables like sandpaper etc.) will be in the £800 region (currently around US$1120/AUS$1400), so I can't afford to mess this up for him!

I've been doing a small bit of grain filling around the edges of the body and neck cavity today. My only bit of maple veneer that I currently have, I planned to use as a neck pocket side shim was pretty wavy, so I've soaked it and then clamped it flat to see if it will level out when dry.

I've also been trying some stain colours on loose bits of maple veneer for both this and the ES-1 build. The red I have looks like it will make a good vintage cherry, but I'll need to dilute it properly. The full-strength stain dyed some maple near a deep wine red and hid most of the grain pattern. A dilute mix produced a slightly too bright red, so I should be able to find a happy compromise between the two, probably with a two coat application. I'm trying some darker colours as well which I'll sand back to see if they'll be any good for popping the flame, which with one coat of thinned red on top, will probably end up dark enough.

[FrankenWashie]

The exception, BTW, to the rule has been the EMG Geezer Butler PJ set that I put in it. They came in a beautiful package--like a fine watch. They look just great. They had all the right parts, and installed super easily. First time in a long time I have gotten a name brand item that was exactly as advertised...

I can’t fault EMG, I ordered a set of ZW signature actives on line and had them in my sweaty little mitts in a Sydney in 2 days from San Francisco. Like you said, beautifully packaged, with everything needed to get them set up.
I totally get where you’re coming from with #$%^! Warmoth, it might work okay for US based folks but I’ve never had any joy with them. PBG on the other hand have been and continue to be fantastic!#shamelessplug.

[fender3x]

I totally get where you’re coming from with #$%^! Warmoth, it might work okay for US based folks but I’ve never had any joy with them. PBG on the other hand have been and continue to be fantastic!#shamelessplug.

Nope. I'm in the US and Warmoth sucks for us too. Funny story, I once visited their factory once many years ago. In those days I had ideas about "American craftsmanship." Not content to just look at the showroom, I asked to look at the factory floor. To my surprise, all the workers shaping bodies and necks were SE Asian immigrants. Rather than importing from Asia, Warmoth had created a little Asian factory near Seattle. These guys were working for peanuts while Warmoth was sticking it to the consumer for "American made" products.

Adam is clear about what he sells, and that's fine. Customer service has been exemplary, and he never calls a Toyota a Rolls Royce.

Warmoth is in a totally different class. They make lofty claims, have indifferent quality and service that I can't accurately describes without swearing.

EMG...by contrast...did I mention the the jazz bridge is great and the p-pup is the as good as any I have ever heard? And it was under $140 US for the set?!

Sorry about the hijack, Simon. End of rant.



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[chrissyinbkk]

Rustins grain filler Simon? I'm thinking of using that on my next build but adding a bit of diluted dye in to darken it,