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Hey Ozzy, nearly the same age but lose out on the axe count.
Big Yammy fan too as all up I have had a late 70's 12 string acoustic, looked and sounded great but mostly on root chords only, the 1980's BB1000 that prior owner converted to fretless, early 2000's RBX style with only P style PUP's which my eldest son owns, plus now own a Vintage White Pacifica but not sure how old it is. Simply amazing value for money and no need to replace or upgrade anything.
Presume the Hooter you refer to might be an owl? Would prefer that to the helicopters we get down here.
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Been doing the budget and it appears this kit may be a goer earlier than expected.
Sadly my electronics experience is limited. However, it became apparent to me that as in my PBG PBH bass....why can I not control this just with the use of volume pots. The wiring diagram suggests using the two pots closest to the neck for the bass and the two nearest the bridge for the guitar.
This would allow the two switches to control pick up selection for each body......and then with wiring to assist....the volume and tone pots would control the output of each body to the jack socket.
Maybe I am being to simplistic but....can it work? If so it would remove the need for a third switch.....and I could use the full sized gotoh pots I like.
Plan:-
1. Tusq nuts.
2. Gotoh pots
3. Sprague caps
4. Switchcraft jack socket
5. DT colourless finishing kit for both the body and neck....hence the name Nude Dude.
6. As money and the build reaches acceptable limits look at pickup upgrade. I like Tone Rider.....so maybe Rocksong humbuckers and a Jazz bass set.
Has anybody got any suggestions and ideas?
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Oh one other request....
The current suggested method for DT application. I note through reading people's build diaries that the suggested method has changed.
Is there a thread somewhere with the best sanding and application guide for the current blend of DT colourless finish?
E.g. Sand to 240 and the start the base coat....leave for one week....steel wool....then second coat...leave for a week....intensify coat.....and so on.
Thank you in anticipation of your DT supreme skills.
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Controlling everything just using volumes can potentially cause some issues. It would all have to be wired JB style with independent volumes, but that can/will lead to some loss of highs through the volumes to ground and other tone changes (particularly on the guitar side). Treble bleed mods are a no-go too due to the way the volumes are wired. You could wire it this way but I'm not sure the results would be ideal. I'd try to keep the two neck circuits separate.
You could do something like this:
Bass Neck volume (JB wiring) <--- Bass Neck pickup
|
v
Bass Bridge volume (JB wiring) <--- Bass Bridge pickup
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v
On/Off/On neck selector toggle ------> Master Tone (0.047uF cap) ------> Output Jack
^
|
Guitar Master volume (optional treble bleed)
^
|
Guitar pickup selector toggle <--- Guitar Neck pickup
^
|
Guitar Bridge pickup
That would let you control the bass just using the volumes but have a toggle for the pups on the guitar. A Dano On/Off/On toggle would work for the neck selector. You would have to use the same cap on the master tone for both necks, but you could have 250K volumes for the bass and use 500K volume for the guitar and master tone. And, you get to stick with just the two toggle switches.
There will always need to be some compromises with a hybrid build like this kit.
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Weirdy,
Thank you for the thoughts.
Would the mini toggle do..... http://www.realparts.com.au/electron...ch-chrome.html
It would easier to fit into the control cavity. Will have to do bourns mini pots though I suppose.
Is 250k volume and tone pots with 0.022uf cap for the bass....and 500k volume and tone pots with 0.047uf cap for the guitar going to be okay though?
So the present routings with only two large toggle switches for pickup selection would be used, and drill and add the mini toggle to replace a third bigger toggle switch.
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Hi Ozzie, from memory your PBH was finished in DT CG? How did that work out as I had plenty of dramas with humidity and found steel wool just made things worse. In these parts it seems that a fine wet sand works better between coats rather than usual dry steel wool method.
If I was to use DT for a nude finish it would be done with the neck finish as it is harder and hopefully that also means less coats would be required. Less coats = lesser chance of the dreaded weather affected DT gremlins from turning up at your place.
Edit: J Bass wiring is not so good as you cannot fully wind one off without affecting the other PUP and you always seem to need a bit of the unwanted PUP slightly in the mix to keep the desired one sounding OK. Another thought is how often do you think you would use a tone control on the Bass part as you could run a separate volume on each PUP if you want to keep with that Jazz theme and then use one of the 3 way switches as a neck selector. That Real Tone mini DPDT switch is on-off-on and Weirdy can correct me here but I thought you would need one that does on-on-on.
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Waz,
You have a good memory. Yes indeed my PBH....known as Coolie....is finished in Coolangatta Gold. I got the massive humidity issues....but only with the top or final coat.....so I sanded back and then did all the preliminary coats and then left it for ages.....then did several coats of clear gloss oil based wipe on minwax polyurethane. It sealed it quite well....not full gloss.....and a few swirl marks.
Maybe I should try the rattle can clear coats.
The J Bass wiring guide for this guitar has a single volume and a single tone for both pickups....it has a three position toggle to select betweeen bridge, both, neck. It does not appear to offer individual volume controls....just an overall....or whatever is selected.
The body has four pot holes.....am I better getting some concentric pots....e.g. volume with tone stacked on the outside?
http://www.realparts.com.au/electron...ntric-pot.html
http://www.realparts.com.au/electron...ntric-pot.html
Need these too:-
http://www.realparts.com.au/knobs/me...ob-chrome.html
That would give me a volume and tone for each pot.....and then the toggle switches could select either pickup as normal.
Only thing then is a hole for the third three way toggle.....which in the middle position would give me a kill switch....on/off/on....so bass/off/guitar. I think weirdy's suggestion of a danelctro style maybe the answer.
http://www.realparts.com.au/electron...ch-chrome.html
This is getting fun.....enjoying the thought process. :)
Oh...never wired concentric pots.....will the normal size sprague orange drop caps fit? Where do I put them? Hmmm.
Okay....insurance to pay on the 11th November.....pay days 4th and 18th.....hmmmm.....maybe I can order the kit and get into sanding after next Tuesday.....yeah baby yeah. :)
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Sorry, I should have been clearer in my previous post. Where I stated '(JB wiring)' I was meaning Jazz Bass style wiring, as in independent volumes rather than any specific JB layout. That way you don't need a pickup selector switch for the bass neck. Is there a particular reason you want the extra mini-toggle?
250K pots are common with JB pups and 500K is what you want for the guitar volume and master tone. If you use a master tone then a 0.047uF cap would work for both guitar and bass. If you have separate tone controls then probably 0.022 for guitar and 0.047 (or 0.068) for bass.
Before you finalise a wiring layout maybe get the kit first, sit with it in your lap and see how it feels and what controls will work 'in the flesh'. Then decide and order anything extra you need.
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Good advice Scott.
Hey Ozz, you can wire things up so many different ways it will spin you out and sometimes simplest works best. Always wanted a J Bass and now that I have built one with the traditional Vol, Vol, Tone cannot say I am completely in love with how those controls shape the sound. Had same layout on the EX-5 and have just converted that to 3 way selector and Master Vol & Master Tone and that seems to be working better for me. This has also allowed me to use a treble bleed, something that does not work on the std J Bass setup. There will be some purists out there who will swear by the J Bass layout being better, but it all comes down to personal taste and also what functionality you are chasing.
Just because you can doesn't always mean you should. What I am trying to say here is that if the simple Master Vol & Master Tone for both necks individually meets your needs, no need for the concentric pots. Don't know about you but I rarely fiddle with a tone knob and the volumes sit on 10 most of the time therefore they are mostly decoration with some added functionality if I choose to use such.
The only, and repeat only recommendations would be the on-off-on switch as that makes sense providing a 'kill' function plus if upgrading the guitar PUP's make sure you get ones with 4 wire and use push/pull pots for coil splitting as this provides almost Tele or Strat sounds out of what is typically a Gibson configured setup. The mini switch should easily fit in the bottom control cavity too.
Upgraded parts list should also include better 3 way switches as the standard box type are noisy and prone to failure.
