Hello from Brisbane

[Paul_H]

Hey all.

I'm about to commence work on my IB-5, a Christmas pressy to myself. Somehow, 25 years has gone by since I last picked up a bass, but in the immortal words of Gough Whitlam, "It's time..."

I'm pimping the bass from the outset - Schaller bridge, Gotoh machine heads, Bartolini pickups, bone nut and quality electronics.

For the finish, I've decided on a Jarrah stain for the body, then finishing the body and neck in Tru-Oil.

This is a first-time build of this nature for me, but I plan on doing a P-bass soon as well. I have experience with electronics (repairs, very basic design) and live audio, and currently handle the sound reinforcement for a small church band (mix of acoustic and electric instruments). For the record, my all-time fav bassist is John Deacon.

I can't commit to a build diary, but I will put up some finished pics - maybe a sound bite or two.

I look forward to drawing on your combined wisdom and experience, and hopefully giving back where able.

Kind regards, Paul Hunt

[FrankenWashie]

G'day Paul, sounds like you are going hard core with this one straight off the bat, good on you! Welcome to the forum, I look forward to seeing and hearing what you are crafting.

[stan]

Welcome Paul, great first choice, we are here to help, enjoy

[Fretworn]

Welcome Paul.

[wazkelly]

Welcome Paul.

Like the sound of the mods you have planned and wondered if you are going to use an active or passive setup?

I nearly bought Bartolini's for my EX-5 but ordered some Custom John Bensons instead which are the prefect size for IB5 being 102mm x 40mm cavity. Cost wise the Bensons may come in a bit cheaper and sound awesome in a passive wiring setup with push pull pots to split the coils which created plenty of sound options without needing to go active for now.

[Paul_H]

Like the sound of the mods you have planned and wondered if you are going to use an active or passive setup?
.

These pickups are for a passive set-up, although they can be used in an active set-up as well. I just prefer to have the active electronics outside of the instrument and not have to faff about with batteries.

I am also planning to implement some of the Bartolini wiring options (eg one or both coils of the humbucker, etc) with micro-switches between the pots - if I can physically fit them. (I've spent the last hour or so routing out the bottom of the pot cavity to clear some space) These also provide for a range of tone options.

The other thing I am toying with is building a parametric eq box (functionally a preamp I guess, with a FET buffer input and a little gain and a low impedance output). There is a kit of board and components available from Jaycar and Altronics, and I feel confident that the centre frequency ranges could be modified to suit the bass. With variable centre frequency and variable Q, I think that a lot of shaping could be obtained. As ever - budget and time permitting

[wazkelly]

Sounds interesting. I went push pulls instead of micro switches to economise on the available control cavity space. Not a fan of onboard active eq's either for same reasons.

[Brendan]

Welcome along Paul - plan sounds great - keen to see how it turns out.

[robin]

Hi Paul, welcome to the madness. I am sure you will be very happy with the IB-5. I build one for a young lady to play at her church up at Nambour and it sounded awesome out of the box, so with the mods you propose it should be stunning.

Good luck with the build.

rob

[Andy40]

Hi Paul, Welcome fellow Brisbanian.