Toshi's first build: PBA-4

Hi Toshi,
I used this pre-amp in my JBA-4 build and it sounds great
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400368322849

You have room for 4 pots so they are master volume, balance, treble and bass. The circuit board box might be a bit deeper than the control cavity but you should be able to carefully chisel out a small channel. You will need a battery box so you may need help for that. I paired the pre-amp up with Tonerider jazz bass pickups and it sounds so bright and clear. At only $20 for the pre-amp will be cheaper to put the active system in rather than EMG pickups.

Hi Wok, this is nice and new to me. it's pre-wired and not expensive. thank you for the information. i was wondering your J Bass has 4 knobs. now it makes sense. Although i have never chiseled the cavity, it can be another learning point.

no worries Toshi, I put a pre-amp in my IB-6S and used stock pups and it sounds pretty good. That model has 5 pots and one pot is stacked so have 6 settings. Wait till you get the kit but I think the circuit board box will be too deep for the existing control cavity. To do it safely you really need a router and to route the battery box cavity. We'll cross that bridge when we get there mate !

With your pre-amp all you have to do is solder both pup hot wires to the blend pot, earth both pups and connect the earth wire - pretty easy job

Over a month, I'd been applying water-based urethane vanish on body. It was not easy to build up thickness by varnish, so i just kept coating, drying and sanding once per 2-3 coat till around 10 coats. since by brush, surface is very lumpy. so I tried to flat surface by wet sanding with 500 grits before i go for final coat by poly urethane spray.

maybe I was too hurry and rough... and happened this.

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again carefulness&patience

maybe the surface was not flat enough, clear coat on the part seemed thinner. should i stain partially, should i remove all varnish coat?? Now i know the importance of sanding... This time, just I have decided to move forward to final spray clear coat at backyard.

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Hi Wok, thank you for another instruction. IB-6, 5 pots, 1 pot stuck then 6 settings,,,wow,now really complicated! hahaha. I am interested in router, it is very useful to make our own configuration. i like soldering, just had it on passive pups for modification though. like you said, since this is pre-wired, hope its still manageable for me. so now I seriously want start planing for IB-5. :)

no worries Toshi sounds good. The body looks great love the colour. Don't have time to read too keen to finish my drawings and leave work !

hahaha, thanks, Wok!

You normally only need to level the frets if you have some frets sitting higher than the others, and even then, it's only one or two frets that you need to worry about. But sometimes, if the neck twists or the fretboard wasn't levelled correctly before the frets went in, then you have to level all the frets to get the guitar to a playable condition. I levelled the frets on my Tele partly because it was fitted with tall, wide frets (I prefer less tall frets) and partly because the truss rod was at its maximum adjustment and there was still too much bow in the neck for a good action. So I used the fret level to both lower the overall fret height and also lower the fret height even more at the bridge end, so that I could lower the action without the strings buzzing on the upper frets.

All metal polishes are very similar, so don't worry too much about the brand name. They are all a very fine abrasive powder held in a liquid (though some liquids contain a small amount of ammonia to help loosen any oxidation). The ones designed for brass and copper have finer particles than those designed for stainless steel or chrome (which are much harder metals) - in the same way that dedicated polishing compounds come in coarse, medium and fine grades.

That finish is probably thick enough so that you can simply sand it flat. I'd be using something coarser than 500 grit for flattening, as that's pretty fine. 240 or 320 would be better to start with, then move up to the finer grades. If you look in your pictures you can still see some shiny patches - which are dips in the finish where the sandpaper hasn't reached yet. For a really smooth finish you need to sand those areas more so that there are no shiny patches left at all.

I'd be wet sanding all this as it stops the paper clogging with paint and the hardened paint on the paper making its own marks. Look at the finish at a low angle against a bright light, as it shows up the dips more clearly.

Hi Simon, thank you for instruction. I will check the fret height whether they are equal. in case of some differences, I will try leveling. so far I dont see any twist on the neck, but i think that tech must be useful at many cases in future.

And also thank you for the polishing instructions. Last Sat and Sun, I tried your instruction and it really worked well. I did wet sand with 500, 800, 1000, 1500. As you taught, it could have been easier to start with 240 to remove dimples, but I felt not enough thickness was fully built, so I was bit scared. however, so far it is getting glossy. here is photos in progress. still fine scratch lines being seen.

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