Chuck’s JB-4 “ Bass IV” build

[Chuck]

Hi Chuck, last shot looks good.

A lot depends on where your hand is positioned when playing. Whether your are near the bridge, where your hand will mostly likely obscure the bridge from spectators view, or if you play nearer the neck as then it could become a show piece.

With the 'Ashtray', does it need to be unscrewed for string replacements?

Yep, you do need to take it off, but I'm from the James Jameson school of string replacement - I don't! Almost all my basses have flatwounds and it's very rare that I change them over.

[wazkelly]

So that would tend to suggest Ash Tray might be the way to go?

[Chuck]

So that would tend to suggest Ash Tray might be the way to go?

That's what I'm thinking!

[Simon Barden]

Yes, the ash tray option works for me. Might you need to add a thumb rest at some point, or is the middle pickup in the right place for you to use the edge of that?

[Chuck]

Yes, the ash tray option works for me. Might you need to add a thumb rest at some point, or is the middle pickup in the right place for you to use the edge of that?

I reckon the middle one might work okay, and I like basses with ashtrays as it's a nice place to rest the heel of your hand when playing with a pick. Still, like all instruments you never quite know until you play them a bit!

[Andyxlh]

I like the chrome cover version best... great looking guitar too!

[Chuck]

Good progress this afternoon on the build - finally mounted the bridge and other hardware bit and pretty much got it fully assembled and ready for wiring... Thought I'd see if I could work through getting just one of the pickups firing, and after a bit of mucking around it was working well! I could see the end in sight as I worked my way through getting the other two done... and you can see where this is heading! Yep, finally got it all done, plugged it in and... NOTHING! Not even a feeble buzzing!! I've decided to give it a rest and come back to it one night this week and restart from scratch. Ah, the joys of guitar building!!

[Simon Barden]

You'll fix it. When I was restoring my harmony H59, I had a similar result. I didn't have a TS (mono) jack socket handy so I'd used a TRS (stereo) one and cut the unused ring contact off and its associated solder tag. A test run of the wiring harness outside the guitar with bare wire connections to a guitar lead showed all was working. I then soldered on the jack socket. Then after a very smooth 1st attempt at feeding in all the components into a hollow body and pulling them through with cotton, I plugged it in and... nothing. maybe a very slight noise but not at all right. So out it all came, at which point I found I'd cut the lug off the tip connection, not the ring, so it was never going to work. So, one new TS jack connector later, and after a much more lengthy 2nd harness install, I plugged in and got the sweet sounds I'd been looking for.

[Chuck]

Cheers Simon, I'm sure there something simple I've missed! I'll approach it in a slightly more structured way when I have another crack!

[Chuck]

Well it’s done! Finally got a chance to have another crack at the wiring and thankfully there was life in her after all. A quick polish and set-up and I have to say I’ve very excited about this one. I feel I’ve met my original goal of replicating the three pickup/selector switch setup of a Bass VI, and the fact each of the pickups has its own dedicated vol/tone concentric pot setup makes for some pretty interesting tonal variations. Once I’ve had a bit more of a pay with it I’ll certainly post some sound bites. The other thing I love so far is how easy it is to play – those three pickups make for nice thumb rests – and the neck may be my favourite among all my basses!

So here it is: a standard JB-4M kit, with a modified body, new DIY pickguard, additional JB pickup, “Jaguar” switch plate, concentric pots and a bridge “ashtray”.