great looking bass, it sounds great Waz
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great looking bass, it sounds great Waz
Great video angle Waz....much better..
challenge try to watch the video without singin' "Money!"
Thanks for putting it up mate can't wait to hear the new pups
Cheers ThreeBbass, Stan & Andy.
Spent most of the day on this beast where a large part was trying to figure out which coloured wire did what as they came with no instructions or wiring diagrams. Internet searches found nothing other than on Tonerider they listed a bunch of manufacturers and which colours they all used. Hmmm, that helped a little bit but the multi meter gave me a few more clues to narrow down the options.
Here are some progress shots including the new parts required to do the coil splitting. Also thought I should do a proper shielding job in the cavity as not so sure the shielding paint was doing a good enough job and last shot is the humbucker wiring list from the Tonerider site.
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About 4.30pm this afternoon did first sound check and realised I must have swapped things around on the neck PUP as when both were on in middle switch position things sounded more in parallel than series. Nailed the Bridge PUP with the coil split so went back in and de-soldered and resoldered the neck same as the bridge.
2nd sound check was around 5.30pm and man is this thing louder now! The minister for home affairs was blowing up a bit from all the noise so I had to revert to headphones off the amp to fully check things out.
The Benson's have a much greater tonal range, predominately lower mids, and the coil splits gave a Fenderish sound in each position. Will have to do demo video on another day when the missus is out of the house as these things are seriously loud.
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Sounds like you've nailed it Waz!
Thanks Deddy.
Amazing colour and finish!
The original pups sounded OK to me, so I can't wait to hear the new ones.
Thanks H, once I had lowered the action and reset intonation they did sound much better but too late as the Benson's have been on order for a couple of months and do sound better, as you would hope so after spending around AUD $280 for the pair plus another $50 odd for new electronics.
Totally worth it
EX-5 demo after installing John Benson Custom Handwired Soapbar Humbuckers
Hi Andy, definitely agree as the sound quality and combinations through coil splitting has produced the sounds of 2 Bass Guitars in one. Very happy indeed and will post up how to coil split the stock Chinese Humbuckers under a separate thread.
http://youtu.be/wsj_nIS59F8
Great demo Waz - You've got a lot of tone options available with this bass, I especially like the split coil sound.
Waz really nice sound and nice build.
Thanks Guys.
@ Ponch, the split coils was worth the extra expense & effort as it is now 2 guitars in one.
Real Parts package arrived today....
Have not been able to get the action nice and even all along the neck with this build and part of the problem seemed to rest with how high string saddles are on the bridge, even when fully lowered and also the ridiculous break angle from saddles to base where the strings are fed through. I reckon the cylindrical shaped saddles are about 10 mm or more in diameter which looks bigger than on a traditional F style Bass bridge?
Spotted one of these on Real Parts website when shopping for other bits and pieces and thought why not? It can only help lower action at bridge end a bit more than at present but also help to reduce sharp break angle, particularly on the low B & E strings. It has plenty of small allen key adjustable movement and final intonation will no doubt take much longer than usual but it should be worth it in the end.
Hope to get stuck into this on Sunday along with a few other minor maintenance jobs on some other guitars and basses.
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Hope it works for you, Waz. And let's hope the larger existing bridge doesn't leave any marks that the smaller new bridge can't hide.
Thanks Simon.
It has a smaller footprint and there may be some indentations left behind but reckon existing screw holes should end up being covered. Being my 1st build it was good enough at the time and those things are merely cosmetic. Need to make it more playable and as I play down near the bridge end my right hand should hide any tell tale signs, at least I hope so.
looking mighty fine there Waz as usual
Just finished a Mosrite copy with the same problems. Took lots of sanding to make it look right. I applied about 6 coats of tung oil to the basswood body. I sanded with 400 grit between coats. Turned out pretty nice. Did major sanding before I applied any finish. Good luck on the project.
I just posted to the wrong thread. Will do better next time. Howard
Thanks PhrozinQuote:
Originally Posted by phrozin
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Hmmm, been a bit slack and didn't realise where the past 2 months went in relation to this baby?
Made a start on the bridge replacement tonight. Removing the old one lifted a bit of finish off that will be obvious just in front of the newer one as it has a much smaller footprint. Old one on the left and newer one on the right which has slots on the back to make string changing a whole lot easier than feeding through tiny holes and risk scraping string across the finish as you draw them through. Feeding them back out was not a lot of fun either so I wont miss the stock kit bridge one bit.
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Also had a few holes to fill with bamboo skewers and PVA glue.....the reason why so many holes? It was my 1st build and located the bridge too far across on the treble side initially and had to move across by about 5 mm which was well hidden until doing this modification.
Attachment 25957
Can u fix the finish with a small paintbrush? Nice colour, especially with the black hardware.
Hi Andy, my plan is to leave the masking tape where it is in those shots to sand back the bamboo skewers then remove a bit more tape forward towards neck and apply a few coats of Tru Oil with a rag. The lifted part will mostly be under the new bridge.
Deliberately taped it up that way as reference marker points for a few things and to help with placement and intonation too.
Agreed the colour goes great with the black hardware best of luck patching those holes Waz.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andyxlh
Love the contrast you get between the amber body and the black hardware!
Deliberated long and hard about the replacement bridge and ended up biting the bullet last weekend. Also relocated front strap lock to the neckplate to help with a better balance and reduce neck diving to some degree as these these have a very long neck....Also some shots of the neck break angle which shows bridge PUP needed to be lowered and most likely neck one a little bit too. Will wait for neck to settle after truss rod tweak before re-stringing and then re-check all measurements again.
Front Strap lock relocated...
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Shaping up nicely.
Thanks mate.
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Looks killer Waz
I had an Epiphone explorer bass back in the day. I ended up having to store it in a keyboard gigbag. It was an unweildy thing, but did the job.
Yeah, know what you mean as i ended up finding an explorer bass gig bag in USA and was very close to buying a keyboard one or custom building a case.Quote:
Originally Posted by OldManNick
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
That's looking great wazkelly!
Have you got it back up and running yet? How's the Allparts bridge?
I think I have the same issue with my IB-5 as you did with the stock bridge - can't get the saddles low enough on the treble side and the string break angle on the bass side is quite steep. I initially thought it was a warped neck (and may still be) but looking at those pics of your original bridge it looks very similar - the treble side saddles are bottomed and out and still not low enough. I've been looking around for a suitable replacement bridge but not sure if I wanted to spring for a brand name bridge or take the risk with a cheaper Chinese one but that Quick Release Allparts bridge looks like a nice compromise.
Hi Michnet, have had a few jobs on the go at once and need to get back onto this one. The bridge has a lot of micro adjustable parameters and reckon it might take a couple of hours to set it up properly. Hopefully I can get that done before end of next week.Quote:
Originally Posted by michnet76
Suggest holding off ordering one until I report back as I was very close to opting for something else as unsure how much lower it will go compared to the stock bridge. Main win is a better string break angle over rear of the bridge plus easier top loading. The low B was so far back and wound really high which caused a very steep angle back to the retaining hole, made things difficult trying to feed a string on, plus the gravel rash caused each time you take it off for replacement.
Thanks for the reply - I was on the Realparts website site last night and had it in the cart along with some new Gotoh tuners and pots ready to pull the trigger... Then I noticed the string spacing is 16.5mm (66mm total) so thought I'd check the original supplied bridge (I presume it's the same one that came with the EX-5) which is 18mm (72mm total) spacing. Cosmetically I think it will look okay with the allparts bridge - I squeezed in the strings on the bridge side to emulate the 66mm width and it gave equal spacing all the way along the neck between edge of the fretboard and the B and G strings. With the stock bridge, the gap on the edge gets narrower going from the nut down to the 24 fret. I t prefer the 18mm spacing though, having fat stubby fingers it suits me better!
The only bridge I've come across with 18mm spacing, apart from the higher end '3D' ones which offer adjustable spacing, is the Gotoh J510B0-5CK (http://luthierssupplies.com.au/produ...roducts_id=447) which is a bit more pricey. The minimum saddle height from top of guitar body is 12mm looking at the specs diagram so may not be much lower than the stock bridge height anyway. Another thought I had to make the stock bridge saddles lower is to take the saddles off and grind a mm or so off the bottom of the saddles on the G/D strings. I haven't had a good look to see how much meat is between the bottom and the adjustment screw hole but it could be another option.
My original thought to solve the uneven string height issue is to reprofile the base of the neck at the joint (the tongue?) to change the neck angle. I might try shimming to start with to see what kind of angles I'll need to achieve it before attacking the neck with a belt sander!
I will measure it tonight, re-string and see how things line up and report back.
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Only got around to re-stringing tonight to take some measurement shots....
Attachment 27181
String spacing is about 16 mm centre to centre of the saddles which is the same as on the old bridge replaced
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End of fret board is around 70 mm wide and clearly plenty of room with the 16 mm string spacing however not sure how 18 mm might work as that would push the outer strings a further 4 mm outbound?
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Slight forward bow in the neck and haven't touched the bridge saddles yet....they are all fully wound down which has the string height about 12 mm above the face of the body and in this shot shows things sitting about 2 mm - 2.5 mm above 21st & 22nd frets.
A quick play for a few minutes felt good but will need to spend more time to see if any there are any frets buzzing before starting on the intonation. Would like to take a bit more out of the front bow but truss rod is wound fully tight, only needs a fraction more but with a flappy low B you cannot afford to drop string height too much on that side.
Fairly pricey bridge and not sure you would achieve much as the diagram showed string saddles were a combined 14 mm high? On the stock bridge I was 15 mm and found the action too high.Quote:
Originally Posted by michnet76
Grinding down the saddles solves part of the problem but the bigger one is the ridiculously high point the adjustment screws come in at, and as you lower the saddles that angle increases. The massive diameter of the saddles is also part of the problem too and had me looking at Fender style 5 string bridges to see if there was anything better. Unfortunately not much out there in black hardware.
At first glance and quick play the one just fitted looks like it might do the job. Hope to do intonation and tweak the action tomorrow night to get a better indication.
Checked string spacing on current MMB4 build this morning and it is about 20 mm, no wonder that I thought there was a huge gap between strings.
Presume fivers need to be a bit tighter otherwise fretboard would be too wide.
I will check the Yammy fiver and my J Bass tonight as these measurements now have me intrigued.
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Well i had never stopped and measured string spacing on any of my basses until last night. Interesting results.
EX5 = 16.5 mm
Yammy 5 string = 18 mm
MMB4 = 19 mm
J Bass = 19 mm
P Bass = 20 mm
Now I understand why the EX5 feels easier to play as the strings are just that little bit closer which is good for me having rather short fingers which are better suited to playing 6 string guitar.
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