Dual Build: GSJ-1 and GSM-1

[Simon Barden]

I keep forgetting to answer the 5-string bass question. It's an 80s Peavey Cirrus-style bass that I bought off eBay a long time ago. It had some Peavey Custom Shop stickers on it with a serial number of 88888, but it wasn't very well finished - no grain filler - so it may well have been a prototype. It had a 2-band active preamp in it with passive pickups. The pickups were very growly, like a Thunderbird, and the bottom B sounded really dull. Its a narrow string spacing so I've got to stick with the original bridge, but I've now drilled out the B-string hole in it so a string actually fits through it properly.

I'm halfway through putting a proper shiny finish on it using Solarez UV curing products, but it's a side project, something to do when I'm waiting for finishes to dry. I also need decent sunshine and that is pretty patchy ATM here. I'll be rewiring the pickups for parallel operation for (hopefully) more clarity and less output and will start out with passive controls and find out what that sounds like. I'll maybe add a preamp in if I think it will benefit from it. Room enough in the control cavity for some boards and a battery.

Oh, and I did stain it to darken its looks but it ended up rather patchy in take-up and the light bits went a lot darker than planned. But I haven't got any emotional investment in the bass, so I'm just leaving it and finishing it as-is. A lightly distressed look under the shine.

[Simon Barden]

Bare Knuckle Nantucket 90 arriving today for it. If that sounds bad then I'll not know what to do. But I can't fit it until my piece of fibreboard turns up so I can make a spacer for the pickup, as it will still need one to raise it up a bit. £8 for some 3mm thick fibreboard I can easily cut out myself, or £15+postage for some ready-made spacers. An easy choice.

[Dacious]

The decal definitely looks more substantial than a normal slide decal, got some pearl.

[Simon Barden]

The Bare Knuckle pickup arrived yesterday and my 3mm thick fibreboard for a spacer arrived today, so I made the spacer. Found it was just a bit too tall, so had fun sanding it down at an angle. Here it is stuck with double-sided tape so it was easy to rub along the sandpaper stuck to another bit of wood.


Got that the right height, coloured it a dark black with some spirit stain, fitted the pickup and stuck the soldering iron into the finish on the back doing so. Darn it (I didn't say). At least I can touch it up with a brush.

So here is the Nantucket 90 in position. It sounds so much better. It's still quite bright and jangly, but now its got some real grunt but cleans up nicely. I wired the tone pot connection the 'vintage' way to the volume pot output, so there';s no need for a treble bleed circuit and it does clean up well with a slight turn of the volume pot. The tone control (I used a WD Music 0.022uF PIO cap as an experiment) works well and smoothly as well, so I'm happy with that.



The bridge is angling forward slightly between its support slots on the bridge post, and as a result, the low E isn't sitting properly in its saddle slot (the saddles are really about 1mm too low on this bridge to my way of thinking). But I think the original saddle's posts have a smaller gap between the supports, so I'll try those with it tomorrow, otherwise I'll make up some metal shims to try and fill the gaps (he says hopefully).

Only minor things left now - all finish corrections.

[king casey]

Looks great Simon.
cheers, Mark.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah sweet looking sg.

[Simon Barden]

Ordered some cases from Thomann for the SGs and also for the EX-1.

Put the GSJ-1 in the case and...


It's too effing long!


Thought I'd have to return two cases but tried the GSM just in case (see what I did there?) and it fitted - just!


It must be the difference between the 20th fret neck join of the GSM and the 22nd fret join of the GSJ.

Now got to find a suitable case for the GSJ that doesn't cost too much.

(The EX-1 fitted in the Thomann 'extreme' guitar case with plenty of room).

[Bakersdozen]

The Bare Knuckle pickup arrived yesterday and my 3mm thick fibreboard for a spacer arrived today, so I made the spacer. Found it was just a bit too tall, so had fun sanding it down at an angle. Here it is stuck with double-sided tape so it was easy to rub along the sandpaper stuck to another bit of wood.


Got that the right height, coloured it a dark black with some spirit stain, fitted the pickup and stuck the soldering iron into the finish on the back doing so. Darn it (I didn't say). At least I can touch it up with a brush.

So here is the Nantucket 90 in position. It sounds so much better. It's still quite bright and jangly, but now its got some real grunt but cleans up nicely. I wired the tone pot connection the 'vintage' way to the volume pot output, so there';s no need for a treble bleed circuit and it does clean up well with a slight turn of the volume pot. The tone control (I used a WD Music 0.022uF PIO cap as an experiment) works well and smoothly as well, so I'm happy with that.



The bridge is angling forward slightly between its support slots on the bridge post, and as a result, the low E isn't sitting properly in its saddle slot (the saddles are really about 1mm too low on this bridge to my way of thinking). But I think the original saddle's posts have a smaller gap between the supports, so I'll try those with it tomorrow, otherwise I'll make up some metal shims to try and fill the gaps (he says hopefully).

Only minor things left now - all finish corrections.

Or some locking bridge posts might so the trick? There are some cheaper ones around if you can find them.

[Simon Barden]

The other posts turned out to have the same gap between supports, so weren't any better (and the heads were smaller as well so they held it straighter). But the two rear grub screws were protruding slightly and holding the rear of the bridge off the posts slightly, so it wasn't sitting completely flat against the post. I've removed those now, and the bridge is sitting level, which has done the trick.

[Bakersdozen]

The other posts turned out to have the same gap between supports, so weren't any better (and the heads were smaller as well so they held it straighter). But the two rear grub screws were protruding slightly and holding the rear of the bridge off the posts slightly, so it wasn't sitting completely flat against the post. I've removed those now, and the bridge is sitting level, which has done the trick.

Winner winner!