Wazkelly's EX-5

[wazkelly]

That's really quite a difference.
28mm on my upright.

My hands and fingers are too small to play an upright but it would be cool to have a go one day.

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[blinddrew]

I think you just have to adapt your style. I'm not much of a bass player, but a friend who is (as well as being a good drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and everything else - i hate those people!) reckons It's more like playing a drum than an electric bass.

[wazkelly]

All good mate.
Haven't touched this one for a few days as waiting for neck to settle after truss rod adjustment. A few frets buzzing here and there that may require slight saddle height adjustment.
Will have another look at it over next few days.

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[wazkelly]

Does an EX5 fit into any hard case?

Looks like a few Explorer Basses being built which is great to see and suppose some of you may be wondering if it will fit into any hard cases available here in Australia?

For my EX1 I bought an Epiphone Explorer Hard Case and I should say the case is quite heavy on it's own, even more so once fully loaded with a guitar. All the measurements suggest an EX5 is just a fraction too long.....let me show you how close it really is....
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Sitting on top it looks quite tight.

[wazkelly]

This is how it looks on the inside...


The headstock has squashed down all the padding and is rubbing up against the timber ply shell underneath and similar thing happening at upper rear wing too.

Overall length is about 120 cm - 121 cm as it sits in the case, longer if you measure along the diagonal from extreme tip to tip which ends up at 125 cm.

This is how it looks with just an EX1...



Almost too much room to flop about all over the place.

[Kick]

The upper rear wing can take a little collision but that headstock can't. I would be extremely cautious when carrying around that case with the bass inside.

[wazkelly]

The upper rear wing can take a little collision but that headstock can't. I would be extremely cautious when carrying around that case with the bass inside.

You are right Kick, that's why I use a gig bag for it instead.

[wazkelly]

Finally got around to tweaking the action and setting up intonation with this new bridge on Friday night.

This fiver has a huge amount of tension on the neck and even with truss rod fully wound up tight there is still a very slight forward bow up near the nut end. Main reason for swapping bridges was to achieve a lower action however this thing was buzzing all over the place on most strings and ended up with an action that is still a bit on the high side, maybe not quite as high as before, possibly 1 mm lower??? Not sure but this bridge is a better design with how strings are loaded and if you like to palm mute, as the old guitarist in me does, this bridge is much better for that too.


Took a bit longer than usual with intonation as first I had to get height to stop fret buzzing, then adjust length to obtain correct pitch, then tighten the allen key grub screws to hold everything in place. Not so easy when strings are also in the way of where you need to turn an allen key wrench.

[ozzbike]

Waz, those bridge saddles are up pretty high. I have a few of those style bridges...and they offer less travel than the open fender style bridges they replaced.

My solution.....was little neck shims I made and stacked out of business cards. To allow you to lower the action and the bridge saddles....can I suggest a third of a business card laid in place at the top of the neck pocket....cut to shape and place so the two higher neck bolts will pass through it and hold it in place.

I hope it helps.

[wazkelly]

Thanks for the tip Ozzie.
Probably need to check fret levels around 14 - 18 as that is where most of the buzzing occurred. Will get around to doing that one day, once all other fiddly jobs on a couple of other builds have been done.

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