IB-4 Build Started!

[fender3x]

You don't need to solder to the shielding, there are alternatives. You can simply taps down a length of wire with the end exposed with another bit of shielding tape. Or you can use a crimp eyelet on a wire and use a small screw to hold it to the tape, or even solder a wire to a small washer and screw that down to the shielding tape. I've done all three.

I have used all three as well. My favorite currently is a variation on "use a small screw." I put some of the alu foil around the pickguard screws holes. that way it is contiguous with the alu foil on the bottom of the pickguard. In turn, that foil is in contact with the pots. Easy to see if this is working by putting a multimeter lead on a pickguard screw, and the other on the jack nut.

I don't know anyone who uses a bass tuner winder (most bass players don't change their strings anything like as often as guitar players) strings , but they exist and angled tuners could stop them working if the handle catches on the headstock or the next tuner key because of the angle.

I use a winder on my basses. I have used it more since I started building than all the time before that combined, however, which sort of makes your point ;-)

[NigeS]

So... Having got approval from the 'customer' (my daughter) for the finish on both body and neck, I'm moving onto next stages. Holes in body for neck screws opened out to a clearance fit and re-aligned to be central with the recesses. Still deciding on conductive paint or copper tape for the PU cavities, I checked to see if there would be enough clearance under for a small screw / tag: OK. But then noticed PUs sit well above the front face. Checked screw length against springs - that I assume are supposed to do under the PUs. Even fully compressed, the springs take up all of the exposed length of the screws when put through the PUs. Are you supposed to cut them down? If so - by how much? Also - how the hell do you align 4 loose screws and springs before you start to tighten them? Any advice gratefully received... Also not happy with the jack socket mounting. Even after some work on the control cavity, I'm not certain I'd be able to tighten it correctly. So I've ordered a couple of black oval Jack plates to experiment with. Complete with sockets, these are £0.99 each from Gear4music - another great UK resource! Maybe I'll use the plate with the original Jack - we'll see...

[Paul_H]

As an alternative to springs, you can use strips of pickup "height foam" (neoprene, I believe) which you position under the pickup. With the barrel socket on my IB-5, I wasn't happy with the way the outer flange did not snug up against the body, so I ended up recessing the hole using a stepped drill bit, and the fit and appearance are improved.

[fender3x]

Springs come in different lengths. Typically the short ones are referred to as "single coil" springs. The long ones are called "humbucker" springs.

If you go with the foam the nice thing is that it tends to put even pressure on the bottom of the pup so it won't look tilted, like it can sometimes with springs.

That said, if you keep foam long enough it will disintegrate and make a terrible mess. Some people like using surgical tubing instead of a spring. Unfortunately, over time it gets brittle and hard.

Hard to beat springs for durability.

[Simon Barden]

This thread really should be in the build diary section. You can use the triangle ‘report’ function to ask a mod to move it.

I’d use a neoprene foam. It’s what you’d get if you bought Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio or Tonerider replacement bass pickups and it’s what Fender use in the factory. I don’t know of anyone who use springs for a soapbar bass pickup mounting direct to the body. Just look on Amazon and you can get A4 sheets of adhesive-backed closed cell neoprene foam for just a bit more than a single strip of ‘pickup’ foam from a guitar components store.

e.g. Self Adhesive Sticky Back Closed Cell Sponge Foam A4 Sheet - Choose Thickness (8mm) https://amzn.eu/d/dL4iBpB

You’ll probably pay around £3 each for a small piece of the same foam if bought as ‘pickup height foam’.

It helps to know the rough height of the base of the pickup above the cavity floor as the foam is hard and doesn’t compress to any less than around 60% (my estimate) of its thickness. You do want to compress the foam a bit so the pickup is firmly supported. I bought a wide selection of thicknesses as I work on quite a few guitars and basses and it’s come in very useful. But if you just buy one thickness, then either measure and select or buy a much thinner foam and simply stick pieces together to get the correct height e.g. 5mm will give you 10,15 and 20mm height options.

Avoid squashy thin foam as you won’t hold the pickups in place firmly and the foam’s resistance will decrease quite quickly over time and the pickup will start to flop about.

Yes, the foam will start to break down at the edges over time, but you are talking 20-30 years on average before it becomes an issue.

[Simon Barden]

The kits with the barrel jacks are very badly made with respect to the barrel mounting. But the thin at the edges body shape normally means that a standard jack+plate fitting won’t work.

On the real thing, the control cavity is routed so there’s a flat edge to screw the barrel nut to. On the kits it’s at a significant angle. If you have a drill that’s barrel-sized (about 12mm IIRC), you can make a thin wedge-shaped block to stick on the side of the cavity over the barrel hole so you get a surface that’s at 90° to the barrel, and drill a hole through it. Makes it a lot easier to fit the barrel jack in place.

[fender3x]

I don’t know of anyone who use springs for a soapbar bass pickup mounting direct to the body.

I am curious about this. I have used springs on j-bass pickups which have four screws, similar to soap bars. It seemed to me that they worked quite well since the four screws made it possible to adjust the pickup height to be slightly higher on the treble side than the bass side, and to adjust the yaw to be parallel with the strings. Why do you think no one uses the springs?

The place I have been less happy with springs is for two-screw humbuckers where I sometimes get a bit of a yaw problem that foam would probably cure.

BTW, your post also made me realize that I have a number of guitars/basses over 20 years old. Neoprene may be better. EPS foam disintegrates much faster and is what came with my DiMarzios.

[fender3x]

The kits with the barrel jacks are very badly made with respect to the barrel mounting. But the thin at the edges body shape normally means that a standard jack+plate fitting won’t work.

On the real thing, the control cavity is routed so there’s a flat edge to screw the barrel nut to. On the kits it’s at a significant angle. If you have a drill that’s barrel-sized (about 12mm IIRC), you can make a thin wedge-shaped block to stick on the side of the cavity over the barrel hole so you get a surface that’s at 90° to the barrel, and drill a hole through it. Makes it a lot easier to fit the barrel jack in place.

It may be too thin for this as Simon suggested, but if the body width is big enough for a "football" jack plate, it might be worth just swapping out the barrel jack and putting in a football jack plate and a Puretone open frame jack. You'd need to increase the size of the hole a little, but that is pretty easy to do if you have a step drill bit. I really dislike barrel jacks, which have an annoying tendency to break. I have had even good ones, like Switchcrafts, develop connection issues. The Puretone jacks are thinner than standard switchcraft open frame jacks, so the hole might not need to be that much bigger than it is now.

[NigeS]

Thanks for the advice guys. More new options to explore... Neoprene rather than spring sounds easier than struggling with aligning springs and screws. I'll need to see what thickness I need once I've fitted the neck and bridge.
When I built I the TL copy, I came across a resource called the 'Fender University'. This was really great - gave me string heights over the fretboard and string to PU clearance for my TL. What should the nominal PU to string clearance be for a IB-4?

[Simon Barden]

Whatever you want, just not to close so the strings buzz against it. Humbuckers with the magnet at the base have much less magnetic pull on the strings than single coils with magnets as pole pieces like P-bass and J-bass pickups.

The bridge will normally need to be nearer the strings than the neck pickup to balance the output levels, though by how much depends on how many more turns there are on the bridge pickup coils than the neck ones.

I have a dislike for any set action height and clearance values. The action heights and relief values the manufacturers give are always unplayable for me.