Unboxing...
Got my RC-4 kit from Pitbull...everything looks great. My first try at building one of these kits...
The things I am going to do to this bass.
Attachment 17981
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Unboxing...
Got my RC-4 kit from Pitbull...everything looks great. My first try at building one of these kits...
The things I am going to do to this bass.
Attachment 17981
So, years and years ago, I was a proud Rickenbacker 4001 owner.
When I was in college (back in the early days of PCs) I worked at a place that built custom PCs. A friend of mine asked me if I would build him a computer, but he didn't have any money..but he knew I was a bass player and he DID have a bass he would be willing to trade. I had a box of spare parts and knew I could set him up for essentially free, so I said, "sure," sight unseen.
I built the computer, called him up, and he came over to try it out. He was thrilled. He packed the PC out to his car and brought the bass back in a brown hard case. He opened it up to reveal a Fireglo 4001 in perfect condition. "Is this alright? Will this cover it?" he asked.
I would like to say I was quick enough to say something like, "Oh...I don't know...can you throw in a set of strings?" But I wasn't...but I did get an awesome bass for a box full of spare computer parts, that is true.
Sadly, being a dirt poor college student, I ended up losing that bass a couple years later. Yup...pawned it for rent money. It was okay...turned out that while it was cool to own a Ric, there were some subtle things about it that didn't work for me. I loved the sound, but playing it...I would pick it up for a bit and then put it back down for one of my other basses. It just didn't suit me somehow. Over time, tho, I did come to miss it. I love the shape...if only I could get one made to suit my own peculiar tastes...
Well...I guess it turns out you can...
Welcome Geddyfan.
Not quite 2112 yet but no need to Rush things (pun intended).
Keen to hear your plans for this build.
Cheers, Waz
Edit: Also had a 4001 before getting married and when 2nd child arrived and money was tight also reluctantly sold the best guitar I had ever owned.
About a year ago had enough spare coin to buy a 2008 Fireglow 4003 and it is even better than the 4001. Love the sound and super low action on these things.
So, there are a few things I want to do differently on my RC-4 build to start...
First...I hate the pick guard. I just do. So I've decided to add a quilted maple drop top.
This will require woodworking skills...haha
I also would like to contour the body to get rid of some of the sharp edges and make it more comfortable to play.
Actually...I've already started:
Attachment 17982
First thing first...to accommodate the 1/4" thick AAAA quilted maple top I bought for this, I needed to plane the whole body down by 1/4". Yee-ha! Never used a power hand planer before...This also got rid of the binding, which I used as a guide...
Then I did the tummy cut with a grinder...I watched a Youtube video on how to do this...I got just a little carried away towards the bottom, but I think it will be okay as I keep working it:
Attachment 17983
I also did a forearm contour:
Attachment 17984
And finally...I did the rear rout for the control cavity...free-hand...first time I ever used a router. Needs some clean-up, but not bad:
Attachment 17985
So much for day one of the project...
Mods looking good so far. Good thing that basswood is soft and easy to shape. Curious to know how the 1/4 inch quilt will cover the forearm sculpting?
All looks good so far. I presume that you are upgrading the pickups. If so, then I'd rout the bridge pickup out a bit as the PBG routing is for a slightly smaller non-standard JB pickup. It's the rout in the maple top that you'll see, so that's the one that needs to be the most accurate. You can give yourself a little (Geddy) leeway here by making the cavity underneath a little bigger.
That 1/4" maple top is probably going to need some pre-bending to make it fit the curve, so you're going to need some heat or steam to help you do that, plus a suitable former.
Well, the easiest looking suggestion I've seen is to make kerf cuts in the back of the cap with a router so it will bend easier...like this (below). This is what I'm going to try.Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Attachment 18043
The thing that really sucks is that in order to do this and have nothing show, I have to set the neck first and work around it. So much for using a vacuum bag to glue the top down, and cleaning up the excess around the edges is going to be tricky. And then, of course, the neck will also make it tricky to do the new rout for the neck pickup, but I have a plan...
As far as pickups go...well...I'm going to break from anything even remotely traditional and put Music Man-style bass pickups in. I have this sick part of me that wants to do a triple-pickup setup for true aggressive obnoxiousness, but cooler heads (my friends who play) are trying to talk me out of it..."Why three pickups?" They ask...Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Because I can :D
Lots of scope for custom wiring with those. Probably wise to stick to two pickups, there's still loads of sonic variations on offer.
Yeah...I know I'm opening up a can of worms...but I like worms...Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I really like the idea of the MM Pickups, I was actually thinking along those exact lines while checking out the "Forum Special".
Two is Plenty though.... especially if they are Seymour Duncans.....
I'm going to enjoy watching this Build.
Down the track I'm thinking of doing a MM bridge pup with a Rick neck pup to try to get the best of both tones...
It's funny...it's almost like people are "afraid" of the third pickup. I just like the idea...three massive MM bass pickups, like a row of black monoliths...a bass like that should be heavier than a Peavey T-40 and instantly put a permanent dent in our shoulder while it rattles the fillings out of your teeth :D I was also thinking about coil tapping...it just seems to me it would be possible to tap the entire tonal range for a beast like that...
Haha, Three Bloody Great Humbuckers all wired up together in Series...... That'll rock the Place.....
Might as well add a Pre-Amp while you're at it......
Lets not Mess about here :cool: :cool: :cool:
So today was glue the maple top to the freshly planed and contoured body day...I'd set the neck and let it be overnight, so the first thing I had to do was cut out the shape and the pocket for the neck.I figured out where my center line was through the center of the neck so I could properly align the seam on the maple cap and drew an outline of the body with a pencil and cut that out. Then, using the center line as a guide, I calculated the cut-out needed to fit around the bottom of the neck. I cut it a shade small and the sanded by hand to get the fit I wanted:
Attachment 18051
Note to self...when cutting the body shape out of the $120.00 piece of maple, take your time and give yourself plenty to work with.
I test-fitted it about 100 times and took my time sanding, which was good because it turned out that I didn't give myself much margin for error (in other words, hardly more than none) as I should have when I cut out the cap and I ended up just BARELY covering the whole body. Dumb, rookie mistake, but I got lucky and was able to make slight adjustments to the cut out for the neck to make it work...by a hair or two.
So, to do the forearm contour bend, I tried the kerf-cut trick I found on YouTube. My cuts aren't as nice as the ones that guy did (I'm a router newbie)...
Attachment 18052
...but it did work (and no one will ever see my squiggle-cuts anyway...next time I'll use a guide) This is actually a pretty slick way to do it, barely even requiring router skills...mucho pleased.
And then the moment of truth...glue time:
Attachment 18053
Now...I'm sure everyone knows this, but when you do this, there's no such thing as too many clamps. I had ten clamps and a half-dozen 2-inch spring clams (pretty worthless, but I left them on for comic effect), and I wish I'd had about four more clamps. Everything looks pretty tight, but I'm expecting a gap or two because after planing and sanding the body, I don't think it ended up 100% flat (as close as I could get...I mean...I checked with a straight edge and it looked good to me):
Attachment 18054
Attachment 18055
Yup...that's a pretty redneck clamp-up job (note the OSB), but I think it just might work...or explode in a cloud of maple splinters when I relieve the pressure. Either way will be pretty exciting when I take off the clamps tomorrow :D
Love your work geddyfan! Boldly going where no builder has gone before!!
You can't fear the wood...fear is the bass-killer :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Chuck
Fingers crossed for glueing success and may the god of insufficient clamps smile upon you!
"Hmmm..." he says, contemplatively. "A pre-amp..."Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobastard
In the immortal words of Tim Allen: "More power!" (Grunts in power-tool fueled ecstasy)
With much excitement, I took off the clamps today...and nobody died :)
Overall, I'm pleased...there's one spot with a thin gap due to my rookie power planing job, but I'm sure that a little glue and sawdust will fix that right up:
Attachment 18091
I used a router to clean up the edges and of course had a slight disaster over the hole for the cord jack...for which I feel double-stupid because I knew it was going to be tricky, so I started there and had it perfect, and then coming around from the other side I forgot it was there and messed it up ANYWAY. Very slight though, and ten minutes with the sander fixed it.
Attachment 18092
I took the time to pull out a set of mm-style pickups just to see what it might look like...yeah, it's a bit scary, but that's why it's going to be awesome! I'm doing all black hardware over red quilted maple (debating doing a burst...the back will be black), but that bridge looks absolutely anemic next to those pickups...that WILL NOT DO! The bridge I have is too shallow anyway by about 1/8" so I'm thinking about one of those black Hipshot Ric replacement bridges. Need something beefier to be sure...originally I was going to do a BadAss III, but...I don't know...gotta find something MASSIVE. My first real bass was a Peavey T-45...now THAT was a massive bass bridge.
Of course, since the neck is in the way, I couldn't use the router for all the cleanup...I've got some hand work to do...files and sandpaper.
Attachment 18093 Attachment 18094
I need to hand work the edge of the arm contour, too. That's alright...I'm planning to take about a week to do nothing but sand until everything is dead-on perfect before doing the routs for the pickups (yes...THREE...three BIG ones).
I want to round off the edges, but I don't know if I want to take the router to it again, so I'm thinking of doing it by hand so it will be perfect...but that's a lot of work to take out the same amount of wood as a 1/4" inch round-over bit...hmmm...
Ordered black upgrades for the tuners...and got the wrong size...argh...oh well, it's going to be a long time before I actually need them...and I need to get a different bridge anyway...oh well, that's what RMA is for...black strings...I'm thinking black strings, too...
Anyone here ever stain a rosewood RC-4 kit fret board black before? And lacquer...clear lacquer on the fret board like a real Ric...just thinking out loud.
Looking at the figuring on this wood the more I clean it up, the better it looks...gonna be insane :D
looking unreal Geddy ! What is the drop top timber like a curly maple ? This is going to be a beast 3 bass humbuckers !
Quilted maple...this is what I'm going for on the body:
Attachment 18095
nice one Geddy, the quilt isn't very obvious in its raw state. Sure when its sanded and stained I hope it looks like the picture you posted !
Not sure about any RC-4 kits, but a few people (myself included) have stained kit rosewood fretboards black.
Regarding the 3rd MM pup, that's potentially going to be a lot of magnetic pull on the strings. Have you researched the possible effect on intonation and sustain?
Looking great. Glad the glue held and all is well.
Six pairs of big magnets pulling on those strings - you might loose some sustain as a result, but it will look pretty awesome. As you will be lacquering the fingerboard, any black wood dye should be fine as it's going to be sealed in so you don't have to worry about getting dirty fingers, though others have used leather dyes before to good effect. You can often get them in a marker pen form, which would make it easier to 'draw' round the inlays to avoid staining them. It will simply polish off the frets.
If you are going with 3 pickups you need to start thinking about switching and control options as you'll need to drill the holes for them before you start the finishing work on the top. You can use a rotary selector switch (like on some PRSs) rather than a Fender style 5-way, or you could use individual on/off switches, or individual 3-way off/series/parallel switches, or separate on/off and series/parallel switches (like Brian May) or..or.. too many options! But you'll need to make a decision and commit sometime soon.
Hmmm....intonation and sustain...who cares about that, right? Coolness vs. "quality" of the bass as a "musical instrument." It's tough...reconciling the 13-year-old punk and the 53-year-old "musician" inside of me...Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
Must research...
Yeah...that's why I didn't do the pickup routs...I'm going to think on it while I do all the finish sanding, etc. I could change my mind (but I doubt it)...so, I was thinking (for three pickups), I have some cts pots (regular and push-pull), so three volume (1 per pickup, using the push-pulls for coil tapping), and then a master tone, no switches. That's about as far as I've really considered...not much wiring guidance out there for triple humbucking pickups on a bass...and though I'm okay with a soldering iron and don't fear electronics, I've never wired a guitar beyond fixing a broken solder. So I guess the wiring will be an interesting challenge.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Gotta have a solid plan before I start cutting into the wood again...
...and my wife, being awesome...bought me a hard case for my project...fits great!
Attachment 18097
Gotta protect it...it might be awesome one day!
...explain THIS:
Attachment 18098
That's FIVE...watched a demo of this bass, and Bootsy seemed to be getting plenty of sustain...
Awesome wife indeed, nice case.
3 push/pull volumes and master tone is a relatively easy layout, but if you get stuck just ask and I'll draw something up for you. However, just using volume pots to select/control the three pickups may not be ideal, for a number of reasons, so you may want to consider some switches. If you add two standard 3-way toggles to your push/pull plan you could have any combination of the 3 pickups (any one, any two or all three) using those two switches, plus still have your individual volumes and coil splitting etc.
Bootsy is a special case, in all aspects.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
Thanks for the offer...why wouldn't it be ideal?
Switches can be cool...so, starting from what I described and incorporating what you describe with the two 3-way toggles, how would it all wire together?
And yes...Bootsy is special ;)
Thanks!
My real name is Scott, too, btw :)
Just caught up on this build! Great looking bass! I wish I'd thought of the body contours when I did my Lemmy RCA-4.. oh well.. next time... I love the top! Cant wait to see the finish...
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
3 volumes and 1 tone with no switches means there are four pots constantly in the circuit, regardless of which pickup(s) is/are turned up or on. This can cause the loss of some treble/highs to ground through the pots. Also, it affects the loading on the pickups which potentially changes how they sound compared to what you expect. Additionally, to mute the bass you'll need to turn down all non-zero volumes, which will be a pain if all three are up. Just my thoughts.
The two toggle switches would work like this:
Toggle switch 1 selects between bridge/bridge + neck/neck
Toggle switch 2 selects between middle/middle + toggle switch 1/toggle switch 1
So, the layout would basically be:
bridge pickup -> push/pull volume -> toggle switch 1 in A
neck pickup -> push/pull volume -> toggle switch 1 in B
toggle switch 1 out -> toggle switch 2 in A
middle pickup -> push/pull volume -> toggle switch 2 in B
toggle switch 2 out -> master tone -> output jack
(if you can understand my awkward explanation)
How Much?????Quote:
Originally Posted by geddyfan
$129 on Amazon...free shippingQuote:
Originally Posted by Hobastard
No, I mean your Wife, I want one like her.....
;) Haha! LOL!
I was talking about my wife...$129 on Amazon...free shipping...you can get ANYTHING on Amazon these days ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobastard
Oh man!! *Can't stop laughing* :)
Yeah...I actually figured that's what you were going to say...imagine it would humm like crazy, too...Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
I think you're right on the money...what about rotary switches? Then I could use the same black dome knobs I got for the pots to unify the "look"
Six knobs on a Fakenbacker...that might actually be suitably manly-man for this bass...
Might have to make the control cavity bigger...