Printable View
I used some hollow wire braid between the pots. It worked ok, but was tricky to get through the F-hole. Simon recommended using shielded cable. I liked that idea, but I was using a bunch of colors so as not to confused..
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
It's not easy to do any shielding in hollow bodied guitars, especially where it counts most with humbuckers - in the control cavity.
You can shield the pickup cavities, but as the supplied pickups are humbuckers with covers, then it's going to do next to nothing to reduce induced noise in that area, but adds more wires to solder and conceal.
The pickup leads are shielded, so the only unshielded wiring is on the potentiometer/switch/output jack harness. These are all close together, so this does reduce the level of noise picked up. If the pickup selector was on the upper horn, then I'd certainly use screened cable to run to it, as it's quite a distance, but it's probably not worth it for a few centimetres.
well.. i just hit a snag..
went to sand the headstock logo flush.. but aparantly it wasn't completely dry yet.. so i sanded the whole front of the headstock down to bare wood and will paint and stain it all again.. the logo was cut into the wood so that'll work just fine.. just gonna take some more time.. of which i have plenty as the clear on the top has to fully harden before i can sand and polish it before i can mount the bridge which i'll need to align the neck..
as to the shielding.. i think Simon is right.. it won't make a lot of difference to shield those short bits of wire.. besides i don't see much use for it when playing at home.. can't see myself playing bass for a band and performing live anyway.. since i'm actually mainly a guitarist..
why would a guitarist build a bass? well i do have a really nice guitar but the bass i currently have is really crap it rattles and buzzes all over the place so it was a better candidate to replace with a DIY instrument.
You don't need to explain yourself. I'm a guitarist and have three basses, which is more than a lot of bass players have!
I think most of us have both regardless of how we identify. Your reason sounds good to me. I have three other basses. But I wanted one to do exactly what you say. Turns out there are not that many affordable semi-hollow 34" scale solid center bases on the market...
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
rite.. 2nd attempt at headstock logo.. 1st time around i mixed a lot of pearl powder in the silver paint i think that's the reason it wouldn't dry properly.
this time around i put down a basecoat of silver paint, then some superglue and then the pearl powder.. should be good to go after i sand it down flat..
for now it doesn't look like anythin..
Attachment 21607
Frustrating, I know. We'll, welcome to my world ;-)
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
just redid the stain on the headstock after re doing the logo and resanding it.
the result is not perfect but plenty good enough to me.. odd thing is the difference between the 2 pics.. 1 is with and the other without flash..
Attachment 21667
Attachment 21668
i also did a bit of a fade like i did on the body.. which i really like
Different colour temperatures from the flash and the standard lighting bringing out different colours. Also, if it's an LED flash on a phone camera, then it's mainly three quite narrow frequencies (red, green and blue) mixed to give the white, but it's not as broad spectrum white as a standard light bulb (or better still, the sun) will give, so some of the colours in the flash's spectrum are missing.
no way back now..i have just been installing the 1st bits of hardware
I needed the bridge and 2 tuners installed to check the alignment of the neck.. the bridge pins went in surprisingly well.. they seem to be in there pretty solidly.. i've been reading horror stories about those but mine seem fine..
turns out the sideways problem has been solved.. (i do need to fabricate me a shim though.. there's a bit of a gap between body and neck).. however there remains the non existent action unless i mount the bridge stoopidly high..
Attachment 21716
Attachment 21717
Attachment 21718
in this last pic you should be able to see what i mean.. the strings actually do not get up off the fretboard.. i do realise the bridge was mounted pretty much as low as possible.. but otherwise A: it looks silly i.m.o. and B: the space between strings and pups would be way too big.
the questions now are.. should i try to change the break angle on the neck.. or just plane it down so it sits lower.. or a combination of the 2..?
and then a couple of unrelated questions.. A: i'm unfamiliar with this type of bridge.. should it sit paralel to the body or paralel to the strings??
and B: i know the distance from the nut to the 12th fret should be half of the scale length and from the 12th to the bridge a bit bigger.. approximately how much is a bit? so i can check if the neck is in the correct position down the strings wise
First check that the neck pocket is flat. Whatever you do be subtle, you won't want to go too far.
i checked.. the neck pocket is flat.. found a possible other problem with the neck fitting though.. the scale length should be 34 inch which i can measure as 86,36 cm... meaning the 12th fret should be at 43,18 (which it is).. however when i measure from the nut to the bridge saddles i measure 86,5 to 88,5 depending on the saddle adjustment.. something tells me that's 0,14 cm too far is that normal or should i attempt a fix?
Normal. There's a small dead length at the two ends of a string that don't actually vibrate like the rest of the string does. The thicker the string, the longer that dead length is. Which is why the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge is always going to be longer than the nut to the 12th fret. Double the nut to 12th fret distance determines the scale length, but because of the two non-vibrating bits of the string, the overall distance from nut to bridge saddle is always going to be longer in order for the bass/guitar to intonate properly. And because the strings are all different thicknesses, that's why the saddles all end up in different positions when the intonation is set.
It's the diameter of the core wire of a string that mainly determines the 'dead' length of a string, the wrappings mainly add to the mass per unit length. Which is why on a guitar, the wound D string saddle is normally further forward than an unwound G string saddle - its core wire is thinner than the G string.
thnx mate.. i'll go get crackin
yesterday i fiddled around with the neck and pocket till i had it where it should be.. ending in a late night glue session..
Attachment 21810
and today i made me a hanging system for the last of the clearcoat
Attachment 21811
it's startin to look like it's gettin near the finnish line :)
just put on wht i think may be the last coat of clear.. i think there's a thick enough layer on it now for a good sanding and buffing.. and imho it's looking quite awesome already... here's some pics in daylight..
Attachment 21842
Attachment 21841
Looking good. It's very easy to over-sand on convex curves and edges, so go easy in those areas. You don't want to break through the finish and sand into the stained wood and leave some lighter marks. Keep checking the colour of the sanding dust and as long as it's clear, then you're OK. It it looks tinted at all, then stop.
The saddles should sit at the 1/2 s ale mark too, the high e should be exactly the scale length the others can be compensated by moving the saddles
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
It's a 4-string bass Andy, so doesn't have a high E. All of the saddles are going to be a bit further away from the nut than 2x nut to 12th fret crown distance would indicate. And even on a guitar, the top E will sit very slightly back; the heavier the gauge of strings fitted, the further back it will be.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Sorry Simon, you are right, heavier bass strings will put the saddles back further, I've been trying to catch up on so many threads I gots all mixeled up:eek:
It's easy to do, especially on catch-up. Even a week away from here and you can have three pages of new threads. Plus the body does look very much like an ES-1 if you don't notice the triangular bridge support hole arrangement.
and maybe i should have titled it something with BASS..
anywho.. watchin paint (or in this case laquer) dry is really boring.. but results should be here soon..
can't wait to continue the actual building
the building continues.. even though i'm not perfectly happy with the glossyness i just can't be arsed anymore at the moment.
and guess what.. the next problem rears it's head.. something wrong with the electricks.. gonna take them to a multimeter tomorrow to see what's up..
in the meantime i can actually play the thing accoustically and for an accoustic it actually sounds better than expected..
Attachment 22091 Attachment 22089 Attachment 22090
What is wrong with the wiring Peter? Hopefulle you'll figure it out.
just found out it's actually the jackplug connector which has a short in it
damm that was hard to find.. the rest seems to be ok
Always hard to find and frustrating. Glad you found it. At one point I pulled out the bridge ground trying to install the jack....
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
tore a jack connector from my ol crap guitar and fitted it all...
2.30 am now and i'm playin it for the 1st time electrickally :P
Looks good Peter, the quote "can't be arsed anymore at the moment"...you sound like an aussie in the NL?:confused:
not just aussies sayin that.. brits do too.. (that's prob where you aussies got it from)
other than that.. there are some things that need changin on the bass.. the pickups are really low output, may change them at some point and the pots are no good.. they kinda work as switches... 10 is on.. anything lower than 9 is off.. any advice on what pots to get would be welcome.
btw here's what she looks like finnished...
Attachment 22105 Attachment 22106
If you used the 'A' type log pots for the volume, you shouldn't be getting that on/off volume. It sounds a bit like like you've swapped the volume and tone pots.
I presume the pots work in the normal way, so that maximum volume is fully clockwise? If it's not and maximum volume is when the volume pot is fully anti-clockwise, then you've swapped the two outer pot connections over and the pot is working backwards so a log pot would now have an anti-log characteristic.
Did you take any pictures of your wiring harness before you fitted it?
Better pots won't hurt. No-name pots can be very inconsistent. Just because they say A may not mean they are A. Also wondering about the output from your pickups? Maybe it is very low.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
It could also possibly be a damaged potentiometer (though unlikely that two would fail in exactly the same way).
Upgrading the pots is never a bad thing, but you may need to stay with mini-pots depending on the size of the F-hole, as a full-sized pot may not fit through, especially with the wiring attached.
For sure on the minis. Normal sized pots won't fit even unwired.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
the kit came with 4 identical pots (i did check) there is a pic of my wiring on page 1 or 2 of this thread. .they all work the correct way round so no probz there.. i used the schematic i found on the pitbull site..
about the pickups.. i really need to crank up my amp to get any sound from them.. and it's not the pots.. in my search for my electrick gremlin i connected the pups directly to the amp.. no change.. i i were a gigging bass player i would deffo not be amused.. as it stands i'll only play the thing at home but i'll still be replacing them and the vol. pots. just not in a huge rush to do so
Now found the picture - I probably wasn't expecting one so far back. On the kit pots, the A500k and B500k text is normally on the other side of the pots to that in the picture. It's easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. But they may have sent you all linear pots, which still seems to me like the most likely cause of your volume control problem.
I've totally forgotten to say that otherwise the bass looks great (I'm afraid I do get so absorbed by technical issues to the detriment of other items). So once you get some new pots and maybe some new pickups, it should be a good bass.
On the pots, I'd look for either CTS, Bourns or Alpha pots. With the existing pickups, I'd look for 500k audio/log pots for the volume pots and 500k linear pots for tone.
The real problem you have is finding some replacement humbucker-sized bass pickups. It's one reason my kit order is for an un-routed bass, so I can fit any pickups I want. I did find some active ones that were the right size, but without cutting a hole in the back and fitting a battery compartment, there's nowhere to fit a battery where it can easily be accessed.
i've been lookin about for pups.. and yea they are kinda hard to find in that size..
EMG does make some that i found though both in active and passive.. dont like the look of em though for this bass..
the tone pots seem to be working just fine.. another indicator of not having swapped em
anywho.. the budget is spent for now so i will be putting in new pots and pups.. but for now i'm calling it finnished.. once i fix the truss rod cover.. i keep forgetting that one :P
other than that it needs a decent setup but for now it's playable
I understand about being tapped out. I found that with a simple mod I could get Danos in the humbucker rout. I had to make pickup covers though, and that was a ton of work.
Another thing you might consider is to use something like a DiMarzio X2N or X2N7. They are not, strictly speaking, a bass pickup, but they've been uses in basses. The "7" is a bit wider for 7 string guitars and might work well with a bass if it will fit in the rout...
Lots of cheaper bar humbuckers that should work fine for bass as long as they are wide enough.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
I finally put the truss rod cover on... and decided i really don't like it.. hadn't even looked at the thing before but it's just a piece of plastic with chromed screws.. gonna be really easy to make a new one out of a scrap bit of wood though.. just need to find me a nice piece.
This is looking dammed fine. I DO have a thing for hollowbodies. :P
Agree Deddy, a very nice hollow bass build. Now how do I go about justifying another kit.... ;)