My first pitbull, IB-5 five string bass.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Sam,
have a look at this diagram says long pin is unused

[WeirdBits]

Just make sure your plug is seating all the way in and then go with what your multimeter tells you. It seems there can be some creative variation with these long stereo sockets depending on where they are sourced.

[Tindrrel]

Hi Sam,
have a look at this diagram says long pin is unused

So it does. I think they mean unused in a mono situation.

Still has the opposite for the other two pins as to what I determined with the meter though.

(I did check with two guitar leads and a stereo plug. Fun thing is if I actually wanted to use it as a stereo socket it would be useless. Only two pins tracked through to the stereo plug.)

I'll just wire it such as makes sense from what my meter says.

[Tindrrel]

So yesterday I continued the electronics install.

My soldering helper. Try and get as much done before placing inside the cramped space.


Inside the cramped space.


On the other side.

[Tindrrel]

The bridge ground.



Interesting to note that the black paint on the bridge prevents a proper circuit.

[Tindrrel]

Then later on I put the neck and strings on.



And off and on and off and on, while sorting out the neck shim.

Neck has just a small amount of relief in it, getting rid of it wouldn't have lowered the string action.

The high and low string saddles were already on the deck.

Shimming the neck angled it back a little, lowering the strings.

I'd already removed and sanded some height off the nut earlier too before sticking it back.

[Tindrrel]

Playing it feels ok. Need to get some decent strings.

Soundwise. Not happy. The moment I turn up the tone even a little it buzzes.

First thing I'm going to do is move the connections to ground around. I suspect there is resistance in the copper tape connections, meter shows 1 or 2 ohms in various places. Wouldn't have thought it create much difference in ground potential, but it might be something. Connecting them all to the same place and also connecting the pots directly should eliminate even that small resistance.

(Didn't really notice the buzz through my amp, but in the headphone amp which relays every squeak it was very annoying.)

[wokkaboy]

Sam close to finishing now. You would be better connecting all the earth wires to a common pot (usually a volume pot) rather than earthing to the copper shielding

[Muzza]

Wow. It went from this...


...to this...


...using Nullabor Ochre???

[Tindrrel]

The Tru-oil darkened it a lot.

Still some doubt the bottle was nullarbor ochre in the first place though. Much redder than expected.