H's JBA-4 Fretless

[andrewdosborne]

Nice work, I like this

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[stan]

very nice H you should be proud

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks guys, I'm really happy with the way it's turning out.

Since I haven't had much stuff to work on the last two weeks (I mean, 15 minutes twice daily maybe for the tru oil, and my other kit's still curing), I got my first DIY pedal to the stage of being in the box and working 100% correctly. It's a gated fuzz with separate clean/dirty volumes, drive control, and gate threshold.

Sounds decent, if not exactly what I was hoping for. Should do better next time

[wazkelly]

Love the shiny finish you got there H.

So hard to fill Ash grain but reckon it adds more character and definition the way yours has turned out. So right about each TO coat taking next to no time at all to apply and hence the reason why I ended up with 4 on the go at one stage just to keep me busy on something.

Sounds like you have been bitten hard by the GAS bug. For a semi hollow the HB-4 looks the easier way to go as most who have tried the ESB-4 have all had dramas with the 3 anchor point bridge lifting off the body.

[Andy40]

Looks great H, sooo dark and warm looking.

Did you get all the bits for the pedal at Jaycar?

[UpperCaseH]

The 1/4" mono sockets, foot switch, and large knobs I got in various places online because my local Jaycar has some surprising gaps in its range. Several of the layouts I want to try following specify transistors that don't seem to be easily avaible in Australia and I'm not knowledgable enough to substitute things like that on my own.

So I've been ebaying a fair few components for future attempts, since it looks like you can get a clone of a 3 or 4 hundred buck pedal together for about 40 bucks (cheaper if you don't mind a plastic box and cheap/no knobs) like this, provided you can find a perfboard or veroboard layout and follow it, which I can just manage although it's the very limit of my amateur electronics skills.

Sounds like you have been bitten hard by the GAS bug.

Yep But "acquisition" isn't quite the right word since I reckon I'd still be building rather than buying new even if money was no object.

[UpperCaseH]

My cheapy ebay nut files arrived yesterday, so I filed the string slots in the nut I shaped a couple of weeks ago. I probably need to take more off the bottom, but I figure I'll leave it a little higher than I think it needs to be and wait until the strings are on - Easy enough to take more off, impossible to make it taller. Blanks are cheap enough that if I've messed it up bad I can always try again, but it'd be nice to get it right the first time.



Bass is just about ready for polishing and assembly. I can leave a very very faint line in the tru-oil with my thumbnail, almost unseeable next to the one I did 5 days ago. I'll probably leave it until the weekend at least, but it's getting real hard to be patient.

[Andy40]

I was thinking of getting one of those files as a learning process, I really can't shell out for the expensive ones....how do you rate the files H?

[UpperCaseH]

I was thinking of getting one of those files as a learning process, I really can't shell out for the expensive ones....how do you rate the files H?

I have nothing to compare them to, but I can make observations.

They got the job done, as far as I can tell. They feel fairly flimsy, especially the finer ones, but I'm not sure how much tougher they could be made given the widths. The way they are locked on to the case is slightly annoying, but doesn't make them too hard to use. You could always clip or bend them off if you found it was a problem. The single flat file is probably useless if you already have any other flat files around.

The only serious negative is that they're described as "for guitar and bass" but they were not large enough for bass E or A string slots, which I did with round hobby files I already had. I did the bone nut for my telecaster build as well and they were the right sizes for that, but I probably wouldn't buy them again for bass only.

With all that said, I'm not sorry I spent seven bucks on them, but I'd be pretty dirty if they been $50. I'd hesitate to recommend them, but... for seven bucks I'd say they're probably worth trying for yourself. They're probably fine for occasional use. I'd want something better if I was doing the job frequently.

[pablopepper]

Save even more money by buying a 'welding tip cleaner', which is what those things actually are.