My first pitbull, IB-5 five string bass.

[Tindrrel]

First pitbull kit. I've built from other kit makers before, varying quality kits. I have to say the pitbull quality looks nice, and the amount of community support is brilliant.

This is the first time I've built a 5 string bass. Looking forward to it.

Kit arrived last week, here's the body:


I'm planning to go Dingotone on this kit.



Body in Nullarbor Ochre. Got a colourless neck finish kit as well.

Still deciding what changes I want to make, if any. I have a vague idea of installing a thru-body bridge. First I need to learn how to position the bridge.

[Tindrrel]

Thoughts after a test fit of the parts.

- A couple of spots on the body will want more attention. This will make it feel more _mine_. So that's fine.
- The 1/4" jack is a tight fit into the body. In fact the hole will need to be widened to get the jack all the way in.
- The control pots will need washers to set the knob height so they're not floating over the body with a gap. (Might replace the pots with the non-mini equivalents if I have some already.)
- The neck fit is nice and snug.
- Need to actually think about the tuning head directions to decide which way to put the retaining screw.
- Might recess the control cavity cover - depends on some practice with a cutter and my dremel.

The pickups... the wiring diagram, http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...s/pdf/IB-5.pdf, shows bridge and neck pickup with 2-wire connections.

The kit was supplied with pups with 3-wire connections.


Not sure how to connect that.

I'm also not sure if the neck and bridge pickup are supposed to be different. The two are identical in appearance. (I recall single coil jazz pickups have a different resistance/coil windings for neck and bridge.)

[WeirdBits]

Welcome Tindrrel.

Earlier versions of the IB-5 just had 2 wire pickups, so it looks like the factory has updated the pups. The photo is not quite sharp enough to be certain, but it looks they've just added the coil series link wires makng it a 4 wire pup. If the red/white twisted pair are soldered at the tip then they should be the series link between the two coils within the pickup. That means the green and black are your ground and hot wires (matching the two wires in the wiring diagram). If that's a bare wire twisted with the green then that should be the ground and the black would be your hot. Just put some insulating tape on the series link tip so it can't short with anything. I can't be certain without a better pic, but that's my best guess without access to one of the new pups to test.

If you have a multimeter you can check which wires are which and it would also tell you which pup has the higher resistance (bridge is usually slightly higher than neck). Also, the factory typically makes the wires on the neck pup slightly longer than the bridge, so that may be another way to tell them apart.

[Tindrrel]

Sorry, I should have described the wires as well.

Theres a black one. Figures that would be ground.

There's a green one, which appears to be twisted with a bare wire (the shielding?) and soldered at the tip

Then there's a red and white wire twisted together and soldered at the tip.

Testing across from black to green wire, both pickups appear to be 16K ohms.

Testing across from red/white to black, and from red/white to green seems to be half that - so that verifies the red/white as being the series link.

Changing the battery in my meter and checking again, one pup is 15.98K and the other is 15.92K. I'm not sure that's a significant enough difference to say one is bridge and the other neck. I might have expected at least a K difference.

[WeirdBits]

Black = hot, green/bare = ground (that matches Seymour Duncan colour coding)

With the resistance so close it won't really matter which pup goes where, just put the one with the longest wires in the neck position.

[Tindrrel]

Thanks Scott.

I suppose I could get a set of pickups with specific neck and bridge windings.

However, I think I'll build this with the electronics that came with it first. See how it works out.

Tomorrow I think I'll start sanding the body.

[Brendan]

Tindrrel - as for placing the bridge - check out DB's instructions in the How to Build Your PitBull Guitar thread (http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=3048). It's with a P Bass, but the process is the same for pretty much all hardtail style bridges. Only difference that I've found is drill your neck screws and put two opposite screws in so that they are still a little proud (easier to get out), but hold the neck solidly - that way you don't need to work around the quickgrip.

As for the resistance difference between the pups - depends on brand - Entwistle Jazz Bass pups .3 k diff, SD Soapbars 1K diff, SD Jazz pups .2K.
Other thing to look for is the length of wire - if they're both pretty much the same, longer wire neck pup as it will give you more room to move.

[Tindrrel]

Tindrrel - as for placing the bridge - check out DB's instructions in the How to Build Your PitBull Guitar thread. It's with a P Bass, but the process is the same for pretty much all hardtail style bridges.

You mean Brendans PB-4 page 2? I was reading it around the time you made your post.

[Tindrrel]

The question I do have about positioning bridges and other things... should I pre-drill the holes for the bridge, control cover, neck bolts, machine head screw before I sand and finish, after I sand and before finishing, or after sanding and finishing?

[Brendan]

Tindrrel - that's the one - I've consolidated it and put it in a separate thread to make it easier to find. I use it each time I build a hardtail.