GBBO Project

[c0ffinspire89]

Simon, thank you very much for the helpful answer!

It's funny what you'll discover when you forget to test fit new hardware. Turns out the pickups are just wider than the originals, and the spacing on the saddles is a little narrower than the original bridge, so the strings didn't fit well if the pickups were horizontal. Once I turned them diagonally they lined up much better with the strings. The single coil poles are centered, and the humbucker poles are evenly distributed on either side of the string. Based on what Simon mentioned, I'm interested to hear how it sounds with this change.

Routing this time was much more nerve wracking, and next time I'll make/buy templates as free handing was a little rough going. There are a few mistakes, but nothing I can't fix with a little veneer, glue, and sawdust. I'm pretty happy overall though, and now it just needs some sanding and tidying up. After that it's time to sand the body, fill left over holes and start painting!

[c0ffinspire89]

Not a huge update, but could use a little advice. Haven't had a lot of time for building, so the last two weeks have just been cleaning up the pickup cavities, routing a section for a battery box on the backside, and drilling holes to run wires. I also used a small piece of wood to fill the cavity just above the control plate, making a pick guard for this shape seems complicated and not totally necessary, so now I don't need one to cover any holes.

After doing all the items above, I started looking at the j bass control plate and don't particularly like the look without a pick guard, the shape just seems a little off. So I have been toying with the idea of using a tele plate instead with a five way switch and 3 knobs (VVT). All has been going fine until I got the 5 way switch in the mail...and of course it requires deeper routing in the cavity.

This lead me to the question, how thin is too thin for the body to be? If I stick with this course, the cavity would need to be routed to roughly 1.4 inches to fit the new switch. My concern is, the body is 1.65 inches thick, which would only leave .25 inches of wood under the switch. Being the accident prone individual I am, I'm convinced one day I'll bump that part of the body and punch a good sized hole in the body. Is that level of concern unnecessary for this case?

The other solution I found was possibly using one of these rotary switches instead. It would require less depth than the Oak Grigsby switch, I would only need to go down .15 inches instead. The problem is I have no experience with these, so would love some feedback if anyone on here has used these before. I'm just curious on the quality of something like this, and when switching positions, is it a smooth blend like a pot would be, or does it have defined positions that "click" in place, like a standard blade switch?


Reverb Listing

Thank you in advance for any assistance!

[Simon Barden]

Anything that says switch has definite switch positions that click, and those rotary switches need a reasonable effort to turn. You also need to work put how many poles you need to duplicate a 5-way blade switch, as each contact is independent, unlike a blade switch where positions 2 and 4 link two sets of terminals. I think a 5-position three pole rotary switch should suffice. More poles may be provided but you’d only need three of them.

I always view 5mm as sufficient thickness for the bottom of a control panel, so 1/4”, at 6mm, would be fine. So a standard blade switch can be fitted.