Wokkas IB-6S spalted maple 6 string bass

[DanMade]

What a beast Wokka. The top looks wicked and sounds cool too.

I thought the baritone was a stretch to play, that beast must be a real workout.

[gavinturner]

Wow Wokka, you really rock those sunglasses. Great job! The bass looks and sounds just awesome. I would love to hear how the pre-amp imfluences the output from the instrument. Is there a way to compare with and without somehow?? Fantastic work dude. GOTM March perhaps?

cheers,
Gav.

[Barney]

I want me one of these!!!

[wokkaboy]

@ Dan, yes it is a workout to play, wish I had bigger hands !
@ Gav, think the only way to compare sounds would be to wire it up with supplied hardware and record it, then compare it to the pre-amp setup. The kit comes with 3 capacitors so not sure why you would need 3 tone pots ! The pre-amp gives a really good range of sounds and you can even wind the bass up even further.
Here's a couple of pics in late afternoon daylight

[wokkaboy]

couple more pics of the back

[wokkaboy]

@ Lawry I have a wiring question please, I think I've done the wrong thing but where the pup and ground wires have to be soldered to the balance pot circuit board the holes are tiny and when I wound both pup earth wires together they were too thick to get into the hole so I drilled out the hole so they could fit. Do you think now these wires aren't in fact earthed now ? I ended up soldering another wire to the pup earth wires and earthed them to a earthed pot, but now and then I'm still getting some interference. Not sure if theres other issues causing this like the main circuit board or other pots being shorted out on the copper shielding

[lawry]

Hmmm. Bit hard to say Wokka. Usually there is a reasonable bit of meat on pads and eyes where connections are made but you may have overdone it. I can have a look at mine tomorrow when I'm at work and check out the tracks. I'm not sure how many layers are in the PCB but I'd be surprised if it is more than two. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

[lawry]

Hey Woks.
Had a look at the PCB and as long as you didn't drill out more than the pad diameter all should be OK. There is a small track adjacent to the pad/hole and if you didn't drill into it I can't see that there should be a problem. You can also pick up an extra earth point from the back of the volume pot (black wire) or either of the two larger holes in the centre of the PCB (the ones with the brass 'bushes' through them).
If you are getting a bit of hum/noise, check the continuity between your bridge/strings and the output jack ground (do you have a multimeter?). You should be seeing a very low resistance of just a few ohms (way less than 10) and this way you can verify that your earthing integrity is OK. If it's a lot higher you will need to check the contact of the bridge wire or solder joints.
Hope this helps.

[wokkaboy]

Cheers Lozza, that helps. I only drilled a 1.5mm hole so its not huge and was big enough for both pup earth wires. Sure there is contact with the pad. I might add an earth wire to the volume pot to be sure. If that doesn't stop the slight crackling I can borrow a multimeter to check resistance of the bridge earth wire.
Where do I have to put both points of the multimeter to for this method ?

[wokkaboy]

Love it when you get surprise deliveries from the postman. The concentric stacked knob turned up and looks about the same size and style as the other knobs. Will complete the look now, won't be missing a control knob.
One other thing Lozza you will probably have to put the balance pot closer to the hole that the pup wires come out of - there wasn't enough wire length for this pot to go on the top rear position.
Was it 24th fret to front of bridge block measurement you wanted ? I'll do this tonight. I tried to put my bridge more rearward so I had more intonation to play with, so with top B string wound forward most position = nut to 12th fret measurement, so I have about 20-25mm movement backward from there