GPB-4R my first build

I play bass in an 80’s band and I've really wanted to try a Precision bass, just as an alternative to my EBMM Stingray. I’d found a mid 80’s Japanese Fender with a rosewood neck that looked and sounded great. I was just about to buy it, but that was literally a week before the whole world shutdown. So I thought one of these Pitbull kits might be a good option.

I had planned to paint it in a totally OTT red glitter sparkle finish (because 80’s) from Rustoleum. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to go, stock of that paint disappeared along with so many other items from overseas. So, I eventually went for a apple green mica from Duplicolor. I had actually chosen an electric metallic green, but they only had one can of that colour at SuperCheapAuto. I used that as a base colour. The apple green actually matches a suit I wear on stage, so in the end it all worked out.

Mistakes were made. Lessons were learnt.

The main things I learnt were :
Use decent clamps
Be careful with the screws ( or maybe source some stronger ones for the important places)
Be careful when you’re spray painting. So many errors with what was intended to be the last spray of a coat.
Make sure you have a finishing method worked from start to finish. There are soooo many videos out there that it’s really easy get a bit lost.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0c31990c_k.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

As soon as I opened the kit, I was really impressed with the body and the neck. The timber in the body had a nice grain and seemed really solid. The neck looked good and straight.
The neck pocket was very snug. In fact, that was the first thing I planned to address. It had a gap of maybe half a cm between the end of the neck and the top of the neck pocket. This was due to a slightly high left corner. I initially hand sanded it little by little and then tried a dremel with a drum sander on it. Eventually I got that gap down to a more passable width. It’s one of those points that’s easy to take too much if you’re not careful.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c1ca98a2_k.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Once I had the neck pocket sorted, I loose fitted the scratch plate and worked out where to mount the bridge. I’ve seen other kits that have holes pre-drilled for the neck and sometimes the bridge, too. This kit didn’t have any of those, so there was lots of measuring and clamping and pencil marks. This is where decent clamps are really helpful. I ended up buying a few from Bunnings. If I do another build, I’d probably get more, or even better ones. Having someone around to help at this point is another option. Haha.

I used the neck plate as a template and drilled the holes for the neck in the body and into the neck. That was really difficult angling the drill around the clamps and keeping everything in position. Either way, the neck was now set in place. The neck bolts really struggled and the Phillips heads started rounding. I added a set to my list of parts to order. I had used a bar of soap to grease the screws but, I worked out later, you really need to coat them well for it to work. I ended up pushing them as far as I could into the soap and trying to keep all the flakes on as I put them in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...158c2e48_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ed12105b_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...65f026fe_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Looking back, I think the routing of the pickup and controls may have been out slightly as the scratch plate didn’t quite match up with neck or the cavity. I ended up grinding a little from the top inside edge of the scratch plate, along the neck so I could rotate it slightly to cover the neck pocket at the top and the control cavity at the bottom.
I actually ordered a white pearloid pickguard from Pitbull, at a later point and it didn’t quite fit the control cavity fully in either direction. So that’s what twigged me that it may have been out slightly to begin with.

I spent several days, a few hours at a time, sanding the body and back for the neck. Grease and dust remover is really helpful when you’re trying to work out how far you’ve actually gone under all the dust. I bought a big bottle from SCA and it’s great stuff. It gets rid of the dust and brings up the grain for a few minutes.

Once I had the bridge measured and marked, I drilled the holes. I had almost all the screws in when I busted two (or was it three) screws. I think it may have even happened bringing them back out. I then had to track down a screw remover kit and some wood fill putty. I had varying degrees of success with the screw remover, so I essentially had to fill in most of the bridge holes and offset it by a mm or two and try again. To check that it was still going to work I then fit the tuners and strings.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0e1b3ef6_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6ee7f5cb_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

I drilled the holes for the tuner backing plates. It’s a tiny screw size so the pilot hole drill bit actually got stuck. I tracked down a hand drill with a smaller chuck. That was actually easier to deal with and allowed me to back out the drill bit.
As luck would have it, I broke the head of one of the mounting screws in the G string machine head. No matter what I did it was not budging. I just resigned myself that I’d only have three screws in that tuner. I’ve seen old basses with worse, so it’s not the end of the world. Also, the face mounts for the tuners were reeeeeally snug. So that was a job for later.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...65549282_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6750e07d_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...57663792_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Once I had the bass looking like an actual working instrument, I mounted the string tree. I used my stingray for reference and checked a few headstock images. That made the strings fit more securely in the nut.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...34662cbb_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

I looked at the wiring diagram and worked out that the pickguard and pickups were already soldered in. Score! So I plugged it in and had a test play. It sounded great. The only thing missing was the hole for the earth wire. I needed to put a hole under the middle of the bridge. Someone on the forum here suggested marking a pencil line and using a long 4 mm drill bit. Makes the job a lot easier. I had thought I might need to go in from both the cavity side and the top. I started from the cavity side and basically only really took a few small notches out of the cavity lip. The long drill bit made it through from the bridge in one go and gave me a small hole not dissimilar to the truss rod opening in the neck. I drilled down a few mm first, then at an angle.

At this point I ordered the tru-oil for the neck, replacement neck screws and the different pickguard.

My next job was cutting the headstock. I didn’t want to just make a Fender headstock, mainly because I didn’t want to mislead anyone. Haha. So I came up with a pencil design using some tracing paper and marking out the existing one, then marking what I was planning on cutting off. I used a coke can, a bigger bottle and a protractor to shape some curves. Cutting it was not as easy. Is it ever, though? I tried a jig saw and got through from both ends but that kept vibrating the neck out of the clamp I had it in. I ended up using the dremel to drill several holes along the line until I had it separated. It looked pretty rough but once I’d sanded it and shaved the square edges off the whole headstock, I was pretty happy with it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7ab612c6_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8a2c76e5_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e657421c_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Once I’d given the neck another sanding, I started the tru-oil layers on the maple. I ended up doing 9 or 10 layers sanding between every 2 really lightly with 0000 steel wool. You have to be careful for drips around the edges and tuner holes. Every time it was looking sweet, I’d notice another drip. Ugh. It came up looking really nice, though. Not perfect but not bad.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...81c28e1b_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...16ff01e3_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d99734d1_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

I then moved on to painting. If I was to do another one of these kits and wanted that super smooth finish, I would have used grain filler before the primer. I actually quite liked the grain, so I was ok with the grain giving texture to the paint. I was aiming for a bass that looked like one of those 80’s vinyl couches at this point. I applied two coats of primer and from what I’d read, I needed to paint within an hour or after two days.
I then applied a few light coats of the paint and really should’ve practiced a bit first.
The first coat was bit tiger stripey. Every time I had a coat looking good I get a splatter right at the end or a big drip. So frustrating. A lot of this was because I was trying to hold it while I was painting it. Something else to add to the list for next time.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cca9580d_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cea65953_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d2efd43f_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

I let it dry for a day or two. It looked slightly better when it was dry. I then sanded it back a bit and applied more coats. In hindsight, I should have sanded a bit heavier and just got it back closer to the primer and rid of more of the paint runs. I was presuming that the later coats would fill it in a bit more. That didn’t really happen.
It did look a little more uniform, though.
Next was the clear coat layers. Again, it was splotchier and orange peelier than I’d like. I just had to let this gas off for a few weeks before I could sand and polish it.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2e8f24d9_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8f6d9217_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a67cb845_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

My wife bought one of those Cricut Maker 3 machines, so I put together a headstock decal. She stuck that on to the headstock for me. I used the same font as Triumph had used on the Street Triple. That was my old motorbike that I absolutely loved. I named it First Bass because it was the first bass I’d built. Gives some room for expansion, too! Second Bass, Third Bass, Home Run!



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...99d3600e_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

While I was waiting for the lacquer to dry, I mounted the neck hardware. I used a round file at the front of each of the tuner holes so I could get the front mounts for the machine heads in. I used a rubber mallet and a hammer on a flat piece of timber to tap them in. Gently. Ish.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...77ef8ac0_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...504cb423_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Once the lacquer was dry and no longer giving off a smell, I started sanding the rough spots back. Given that the grain was showing anyway, there was only so much I could sand. I was also being careful not to go through to the paint.
Then I moved on to polishing. I used Meguiar’s polishing compound. Once I’d done a few passes of that, I used two coats of Mothers carnauba wax and then two coats of Meguiars Tech Wax 2.0. Lots of polishing.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c282bc34_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...45c96988_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

I then put it all back together using plenty of soap on all the screws and the replacement neck screws. I also added in the copper shielding in the pickup cavity. I put that on in small strips, trying to keep it on the backing paper as long as possible.

Finally, a painted assembled bass.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f07ca32c_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...40d508fb_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

The only thing to do now is add the strap buttons and set the bridge height. It’s already playing pretty nicely though. It sounds great. Once I get it setup properly it should be sweet. It’s a bit of a Monet: pretty from afar but far from pretty. I think it’ll do nicely for my 80’s band duties.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4e6b4c65_b.jpgTimbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr

Congratulations on finishing your first bass, and also for going for an individual look. Not bad at all.

With an ash body, it's definitely going to need grain filling (as it makes getting a flat surface a lot easier) or else many coats of a primer/filler (if going for a solid colour as you did). Some woods have closed pores and don't need grain filling. The rest have open pores, (like ash) and really do need pore filling. As you have found, paint doesn't fill in any dips, but just follows the contours (it would need to be very thinned down to do so and by the time the thinning agent had evaporated you'd still have dips, albeit smaller ones).

Grain fillers are rarely perfect, and you do need to sand them back to a level surface, but they will still shrink over time. However the surface is definitely flatter as a result.

So then you put the primer on. And you sand back flat as this is also filling the remaining dips. You may need several coats of primer before you cans sand flat and not reach the wood again. Number of primer coats depends on the surface you are priming. Flat metal maybe two coats, but uneven wood needs more. You can skimp at this stage and leave it uneven, but its a lot easier to use a thick primer that builds up quickly, than do the same with much thinner paint or lacquer.

If you want a flat glossy finish, then once the body is flat, then it makes the painting and lacquering a lot easier, with less sanding as you only need to sand off the paint imperfections, not try and get the finish flat as well.

Cavity shielding only really works if the shielding is grounded and you form a complete enclosure with the shielding. You'd normally put tape all over the underside of the pickguard. This is grounded by contact with the grounded potentiometers. You'd also run the cavity tape up onto the top of the body, so that it contacts the tape on the pickguard, and so grounds the cavity tape. You can of course run a ground wire down from the rear of a pot to the cavity tape, and either solder it to it, or use an eye on the end of the wire and a screw to hold it in contact with the tape.

The P-bass pickup design is hum-cancelling (one of the two coils is reverse wound/reverse polarity with respect to the other), so you are unlikely to pick up much hum (unlike on a Jazz bass where the standard pickups are not hum-cancelling unless one i.e. RW/RP to the other and you have a 50/50 mix), but in electrically noisy environments, shielding can still have an effect, so you might as well get the benefit from full coverage.

Thanks Simon. I really appreciate it.
This is all great advice. If I make another one, I’ll definitely spend more time on that priming/grain filling stage. Doing this project has shown me how much that step affects things down the line.

I’ll see if I have enough copper tape left to cover the back of the pickguard too. I was actually quite surprised how little hum it has at the moment. I’ll follow your advice and make sure it’s all covered.

Thanks again


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Looks great Tim. I love the way the logo has worked out.

Starting a build diary and detailing the steps really helps, especially if new to kit building and finishing, as people can comment and ask questions and propose solutions as you go along.

You've ended up with a nice looking-bass, just with a different surface finish to that you intended. Some people want that look and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it at all. But if you did want a nice flat shiny finish on the next build, you should now hopefully be able to get one (never any guarantees as we all end up with guitars that are what they are!).

The hum-cancelling split coil P-bass pickup was a great invention by Fender. It first saw light in 1957, the same year that Gretsch and Gibson introduced their dual-coil humbuckers. It may well have borrowed the hum-cancelling idea from them (I'm sure Leo kept his eye on guitar patents that were being filed), but it did it whilst retaining a single-coil sound and in a non-patent infringing way.

So under normal circumstances, you are unlikely to get much hum at all from a P-bass (the coils aren't as close together as on a guitar humbucker, so noise pickup from each coil will be slightly different and so the hum-cancelling isn't perfect). But in an more electrically noisy environment, the shielding can come in useful. You don't have any control of the electrics where you play gigs, so you may pickup more noise in some venues than others.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trevor Davies

Looks great Tim. I love the way the logo has worked out.

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Thanks for that, Trevor. I’m pretty happy with the logo.


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All great points Simon.
Yeah, I think if I had have done this from the start I might have ended up with a better result.

Leo was responsible for so many outstanding inventions. It’s amazing that 50 or so years later and the designs are still in use today.


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73 years for the Tele, and the Tele bridge pickup came from a Fender lap steel which was a couple of years older than that!

That’s really impressive, isn’t it? Getting so many designs right so early on.


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Hi Tim, I am about to start a build of a PB4. I have previously built a STAF-1 with a Floyd Rose Bridge - quite a challenge for my first build!! Now I assume you are in Sydney - my condolences regarding the COVID situation there - hope you have not succumbed to the stress!!

I have a few questions regarding your PB4 build - Your first build diary is most informative and very helpful.
So, would you be prepared to help me?
Cheers, Jon W

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RAG Inc

Hi Tim, I am about to start a build of a PB4. I have previously built a STAF-1 with a Floyd Rose Bridge - quite a challenge for my first build!! Now I assume you are in Sydney - my condolences regarding the COVID situation there - hope you have not succumbed to the stress!!

I have a few questions regarding your PB4 build - Your first build diary is most informative and very helpful.
So, would you be prepared to help me?
Cheers, Jon W

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Hi Jon, I’m glad it helped. Let me know what you need and I’ll try to help. I’m just about to start my second build in the next few days.

And thank you, yes, I’m in Sydney. Hence the second build.


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Tim, thanks for the prompt reply. I live in Regional Qld, COVID situation here all good so far. I am not a muso, but enjoy building things - decided on guitar at commencement of the pandemic when we were in lockdown.

There are a few scratch plate mounting screws missing from the kit - guess I should contact PB re that.

4 small springs - do they go under the pickup mounting screws so that the pickups sit proud of the scratch plate?
Any tips regarding the mounting of the pickups in general?
Any tips regarding getting the bridge in the correct position ? - obviously it needs to be 432mm from the 12th fret - what about getting it lined up laterally - just do it by eye?
I used Dingotone on the STAF-1, but would like to try someting else this time - your Bass 1 looks great but I am unsure of where to source the "ingredients"
Cheers, Jon W

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RAG Inc

Tim, thanks for the prompt reply. I live in Regional Qld, COVID situation here all good so far. I am not a muso, but enjoy building things - decided on guitar at commencement of the pandemic when we were in lockdown.

There are a few scratch plate mounting screws missing from the kit - guess I should contact PB re that.

4 small springs - do they go under the pickup mounting screws so that the pickups sit proud of the scratch plate?
Any tips regarding the mounting of the pickups in general?
Any tips regarding getting the bridge in the correct position ? - obviously it needs to be 432mm from the 12th fret - what about getting it lined up laterally - just do it by eye?
I used Dingotone on the STAF-1, but would like to try someting else this time - your Bass 1 looks great but I am unsure of where to source the "ingredients"
Cheers, Jon W

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I’m glad you’re staying safe.
Good on you for giving it a go. Leo Fender apparently never played either and he did all right.
Haha. Yeah, it’s really great to make something tangible and get a sense of achievement.

Yeah, I believe PB are pretty good when it comes to replacement bits and pieces. You should have 11 screws for the scratch plate, if it’s the same as the one shipped with mine. The standard Fender ones have a 13 screw configuration and a slightly different shape. I’ve heard certain basses shipped with different ones. The tuner screws are a similar size, so it can get a little confusing. There should be 16 of those screws.

In terms of the bridge and the neck, that’s probably the most crucial part. Make sure you’ve got the neck in the pocket as snugly as possible and as straight laterally against the upper (E string) side of the pocket. Then it’s a matter of clamping the neck in place and using the E and G strings, clamped tightly, to set a reference point to the bridge.

There’s some great threads on here about bridge placement but I believe the distance is to the centre of the saddles, rather than the back or front of the bridge. So, roll the saddles to their middle point fore and aft, to use as your marker. I hope that makes sense. After that, once your sure you’ve got it at the right distance, yes, I guess as straight by eye as possible. From memory, I think I may have measured from each corner of the neck pocket to the leading edge of the bridge to make sure that it was as close to straight as possible.

As far as the pickups, they’re dependent on the strings and the scratch plate. They’re one of the later things to go in. You can use the scratch plate to hold them captive while you’re aligning things but I wouldn’t screw them in until your bridge and neck are set. The aim is to get the strings as close to the centre of each pair of poles.
The springs in the pack sit below the pickups screw holes and the screws run through the middle. It helps the pickups to “float” and sit proud of the scratch plate. You can get foam inserts with springs that do the same job.

Most bass players use the pickups as a thumb rest, so the aim is to find a height that is a happy medium between the strings and the scratch plate, so you get decent volume and no interruption to the strings. Definitely a bit of trial and error there. I’d use the edge height of the neck as a good starting point. Eyeball that and go from there.

I read somewhere that Fender actually have a list of specs on their site for pickup & string heights and setup specs. I haven’t found it yet, but I think it would be helpful. I’ll let you know if I DO track it down. Certainly though the PB manual is pretty thorough.

Sorry for the essay. I hope it helps, though. Good luck with your build. I’ll keep an eye out for your posts.
Let me know if you have any more questions.


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Great stuff Tim, Must have taken a lot of your time to post the essay!. Everything you say makes a lot of sense to me and I sincerely appreciate your advice. I have done a dummy assembly using clamps, so the next trick will be to temporarily attach the neck to the body, line up and temporarily attach the bridge, temporarily attach the machine heads, line up the strings and pickups and scratch plate, temp screw down the scratch plate, then pull it all down and commence the fun part - Sanding! I am in no hurry, so will post a progress report some time down the track. Thanks again, Cheers, Jon W.