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Happy new year all.
Just got back from holidays a couple of days ago and looky what was waiting for me at the post office! I had always intended to do a 6 string fretless and when these became available I jumped at it. Now... I have only built two kits previously and this will be a significant challenge for me so I'll be asking for a lot of advice. Especially from you Wokka, seeing how you're build is quite a way in.
So, I put everything together and it fits pretty well with one minor concern. The height of the neck heel is a bit low in the pocket and There is a small gap too. I don't know whether to leave it or try and do something about it.
The spalted cap is drop-dead gorgeous but there are quite a few pits and glue marks on it. The cap is VERY thin, so do I just ignore the pits? And what about getting rid of the glue? I really can't afford to sand too much on the spalt.
As this is going to be a fretless bass I removed the frets after watching heaps of you tube videos and reading several articles. In the end they came out easily and I am happy with the result. I intend to fill the slots with a jarrah veneer.
That's it for now. The humidity is pretty high in Mackay at the moment so I will have to keep it in the air conditioning for a while.
Please, throw every bit of advice you have at me.
Cheers,
Lawry
Straight out of the box.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...egx7-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...5u61-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...4047-image.jpg
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Looks beautiful lawry. I'm no expert, but from what I've read around the place imperfections seem pretty commonplace in spalted veneer. This is of no practical use to you i know, sorry. Great job with the frets though - they seem to have come out very cleanly! Very interested to see how you fill them. Much too fiddly a job for me..
chers,
Gav.
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Hi Lawry,
nice looking cap, some nice spalt lines and grain. Well done removing the frets cleanly ! Dingobass glues pot plant labels to fill the fret slots, think Tim has done this as well on his fretless midnight YB4 bass.
As to the cracks/dips in the cap, there's not much you can do, they do fill a bit with wudtone and clear, but they do come up looking like a feature, attached below is a pic of my cap after 4 coats of amber and 3 coats of clear. It isn't an issue, almost gives the cap character.
As to the gap in the neck heel I think there's 2 options. Option 1 to shim the neck so it is level with the body but this may effect the string height and not sure if there is an angle in the heel or if its level with the body ? Option 2 is to find a small piece of spalted maple and glue it ontop of the bare wood on the heel. I know its a bummer to lose the grain of the neck but may be the best option. It's hard to tell in the photos whether this is a level gap.
In the meantime I'll remove the hanger from my body and post a close up pic of my heel/body fit.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...2-10.48.11.jpg
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Lawry, pics of my heel/body, my heel is slightly lower than top of the cap but shouldn't be an issue.
As for glue on the cap I'd try and sand some of it off with 180 grit paper or possibly a light use of a steel brush. Once you have colour coats on it will more than likely not be that obvious and will almost blend into the wild grain of the spalted cap. I had some similar glue on my cap and you can hardly see it now.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...2-11.26.49.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...2-11.27.30.jpg
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Thanks for taking the time and effort in your response, Wokka.
Looking at your neck heal fit, the heights and gap seem identical to mine in size and location. It certainly isn't an 'oh my god' discrepancy so I think I will leave it alone like you have. You only really notice it if you're pedantic (like we tend to be on our builds). As for the pits in the spalted cap, I'm happy enough to leave them too because it would just destroy it if I were to try and fill or sand them. As you say, it has character. This is a gorgeous beast of an axe and I'm really looking forward to starting it in earnest, but that's not really possible given the current summer climate. Deep breaths and patience are what is required. Thanks again mate.
Cheers.
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Thanks for taking the time and effort in your response, Wokka.
Looking at your neck heal fit, the heights and gap seem identical to mine in size and location. It certainly isn't an 'oh my god' discrepancy so I think I will leave it alone like you have. You only really notice it if you're pedantic (like we tend to be on our builds). As for the pits in the spalted cap, I'm happy enough to leave them too because it would just destroy it if I were to try and fill or sand them. As you say, it has character. This is a gorgeous beast of an axe and I'm really looking forward to starting it in earnest, but that's not really possible given the current summer climate. Deep breaths and patience are what is required. Thanks again mate.
Cheers.
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Looks amazing that cap lawry! Did you use a soldering iron or normal iron to heat up the frets before you removed them?
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Hi AJ. Just a bit of heat from a soldering iron with a blob of solder on the end for better heat transfer. However, I don't think there was any glue there anyway.
And just noticed the double post above. Dunno how that happened. Must be getting senile.
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An option for your pits is to mix a little of your stain with timber mate. There is that much colour change in beautiful cap like that i dont think the timbermate would be visible
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Thanks for your input Jarrod. I had thought the same thing but I don't know if I'm game in case I make a mess of the look. I'm still mulling it over but it's certainly an option.
Cheers.
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I have ordered a preamp to go inside this build to make it active. A five knob wonder (sounds rude when I put it that way); Bass, Mid (sweepable concentric), Treble, Balance (between pups) and Volume. And I just got an email saying it's is on it's way. Woohoo!
8-)
http://guitarfuel.com/Guitar_Bass_Preamps.php
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Thanks for the link, lawry. I was wondering how involved it would be to get an active system for my projects, and for this price I am thinking very strongly this would be the way to go.
Please let us know how it goes once it lands. Cheers.
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Geeze Lowry that is gonna be one sweet axe mate,
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@Eliot. Sure will man. In fact, I'll be telling everyone :-)
@Jarrod. I have high expectations on this build. Probably higher than my skills can handle. But I'm buzzing already.
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Hi Lawry,
Thanks for the link for the 5 knob active system. I've ordered the SBK-3. For under 50 bucks and already assembled...it's bit of a no brainer. I'll be posting some pics of my IB-6S shortly. I'm up to clear coat no.8 and now will be letting it cure for 3-4 weeks.....just in time for the active harness to arrive.
Cheers,
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Cool Dallas. Looking forward to seeing and hearing it. Can't come soon enough 8-)
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Got a bit if work done on the beast yesterday. You may recall that I'm keeping it in the air conditioned workshop at work because the humidity is pretty high at home during the wet season.
Anyway, I sanded the body and neck with 180 and 240 (which took about 3 hours) and today I hope to finish the sanding to the point of readiness for the Wudtone (which is on it's way). The cap is really thin so I can't 'sand, sand, and then sand some more' (sorry DB). There are some machining and glue marks on the cap that will just have to stay there and some little pits too, but they don't look too bad in reality. There was also a circular ding mark on the back of the neck that I had to seriously sand. Then I had to sand the rest of the neck so that you couldn't feel the flat spot. There's still a very small circle left but It now looks like a swirl in the timber. And even though the body is just basswood, there is some really nice grain in it. I have decided on Burning Sun for the spalted parts and Hot Auburn for the body. Still haven't decided if I'll put the Hot Auburn on the back of the neck or just clear coat it. I'm open to suggestions on this.
These are the glue and machine marks. They become obvious when wetted.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...y716-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...b76b-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...l1lt-image.jpg
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And here's some of the body grain.
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Marks don't look to bad Lowry. There either gonna be enhanced the stain or there gonna disappear
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Yeah, I agree Jarrod. And I think I'm actually not too concerned by them anymore. As long as I do a reasonable job with the Wudtone I think it'll look awesome.
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The Grain on that thing looks amazing Lawry! Looking forward to seeing the results after you apply Wudtone. I checked out your build diary for your first build in Dark Tease, the finished product looks fantastic :)
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Looking great Lawry! The grain is fantastic. Not sure about the blems you noted - I can't find them. Should be a spectacular build when complete! Watching with interest man!
cheers,
Gav.
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@Tim - thanks for your words on the Viking. The Dark Tease turned out well and I learnt so much during that build (with lots of forum advice) that the second build was noticeably better. I'm hoping for the same quantum leap with this one.
@Gav - you're probably right. I'm starting to think I might be a bit paranoid. There are so many excellent builds on this forum setting the bar pretty high. That's not a bad thing, but it does keep the pressure on. And that includes you!
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Managed to find a supplier of veneer so I ordered some maple for the fret fill. That way I can pretty much stain it to whatever shade I want. If you are interested, I got it here...
http://www.topveneer.com.au/
Also cleaned out the slots ready to go.
But the most exciting thing is that the active electronics arrived today. Turns out there is plenty of room in the cavity and the only modification needed to make the PCB fit is a bit of dremeling (is that a verb?). The picture tells the story.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...k-and-dust.JPG
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...g4z-Preamp.JPG
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That's heaps of room Lowry, man this things gonna be special I can sense it already
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Lawry, looks good, are you saying the PCB will hit the cavity cover? How proud is it, I'm a bit worried there isn't much more depth left in the pot recesses
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Hey Wokka.
The PCB is a little wider than the pot recess, so I'll need to make the pot recess more 'square' with a dremel router bit for the PCB to sit in. If I get time I'll do that tomorrow and post a pic for clarity.
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ok thanks Lawry thats an easy mod. I was more concerned about the height of the PCB with wires attached at the top touching the cavity cover. Have you worked out where each of the 5 pots will go ?
Also interested where you plan to mount the battery and what method. My build has gone too far to start routing new cavities for a battery
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Reckon I'll put Volume and Balance in the top two holes, and Bass, Mid, Treble in the bottom three.
As for the battery, I'm hoping it will fit in the cavity as well using one of these clips from Jaycar (crappy screenshot pic).
But I won't know until I've fitted the electronics.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...wiu7-image.jpg
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ok thanks Lawry that sounds like a good idea, look forward to seeing how you go. I got the painful wait of the pre-amp arriving in the mail
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Found a bit of time to do some work at lunchtime.
First pic shows the pot recesses as came with the body.
Second pic is after a bit of routing to make the PCB fit.
Third pic shows the preamp assembly and battery installed into the cavity on its edge.
Fourth pic shows the battery on it's back.
There is enough room to have the battery lying down or on its side. There is tons (or is that tones) of space for the whole thing.
No extra battery cavity required.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...wi2t-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...x833-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...11vf-image.jpg
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looks good Lawry, so your master volume with the main PCB will be centre of the bottom 3 holes by the looks. I didn't realise there's a 2nd smaller PCB.
Any idea where the 2 humbucker earth and active wires go, presume to the main PCB ? There is enough space behind the battery for these to come through the cavity hole near the battery.
One other query can't remember if the pre-amp comes with a output jack, I noticed there are 3 wires going to the jack, do we need to solder all 3 wires to a stereo jack ?
sorry mate electronics is not my strong point, you seem to know alot about it !
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Hey Wokka.
Ask as many questions as you like about electronics. It's my job.
The main PCB is soldered to the MID/SWEEP pot not the volume.
The pups connect to the smaller PCB which is mounted on the Balance pot.
There is an output socket included and connected but I had stuffed it into the jack hole (musta hurt!).
So... this is how I'm going to set out the controls (looking at the front - neck to the right)
BALANCE - VOLUME
BASS - MID/SWEEP - TREBLE
Cheers
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thanks Lawry (can I please call you Lozza ? I worked with a Lawry and that was his nickname)
Ok well that is making more sense the way you installed each pot. So is that why you have routed a small channel for the output jack to fit to the outside, looks like there's some wood removed inside the jack hole.
My pre-amp kit was posted yesterday, so hopefully it will be here in a week or so. Be good to enter our IB-6S for GOTM in a different month !
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Call me whatever you like (most people do 8O ). With your building skills you will have no problems making this fit. Really keen to see one of these finished and you're at the head of the pack. You get to set the benchmark!
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cheers Lozza, can you remember how long it took to come from US once it was posted ?
I'm pretty well finished the body/neck, maybe one or 2 more clear coats
