Question for the masses. What is the bridge setup measurements for the 5 string bass? Am I right in assuming it's the same as for the 6 string videos on the website?
Question for the masses. What is the bridge setup measurements for the 5 string bass? Am I right in assuming it's the same as for the 6 string videos on the website?
In terms of distance from the nut? It's a 34" scale so your high G saddle will be furthest forward, probably just a bit further away than the 34", and the rest of the saddles will be staggered back from that. It's a general Fender style bridge and StewMac reckon that the bridge fixing screw hole centres should be 35" from the bridge, which should allow at least 1" of saddle adjustment.
I'd move the G saddle forward so that it's still got about 10mm of thread still showing at the neck end of it, and position the bridge so that the centre of the saddle is 34" (863.6mm) from the fingerboard edge of the nut. Hopefully this should put the fixing holes at roughly 35" (889mm) from the nut to tie-in with the StewMac recommendations.
Any doubts, then it may help to show us a picture of the bridge. The one in the PBG picture of the kit doesn't look right to me; the one of the built IB-5 looks different and with longer saddle screws.
Last edited by Simon Barden; 01-01-2017 at 10:46 PM.
OK. The bridge on the pictured built bass is what's supplied with the kit, not the picture showing the parts. I'll follow your recommendations Simon and hopefully all will be well. Thanks mate
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
That's good. It gives a lot more scope for adjustment if necessary.
The next question I have is what pins do I use on the output jack. The kit comes with a 3 pin barrel jack. The longest pin looks like it's the earth but there is nothing on either of the other 2 indicating what is what.
The PBG wiring diagram for the IB5 only shows a standard jack socket, so isn't any help here. Generally for this type of connector, web info indicates that normally the lugs are all slightly different lengths, with the shortest one being the tip/hot connection, the middle one the ring connection (for stereo output or battery switching) which would remain unused in your case, and the longest one, which is the shield/ground connection.
The only way to check thoroughly is by sticking a lead in the barrel and measuring with a multimeter. A standard guitar lead will let you check which lug connects to the Tip, but the Ring and Shield connections on the barrel jack will both connect to the shield on the lead's jack. If you have a stereo/TRS jack lead, then its easy to check the connection of all three lugs. The ring connection isn't used, so unless you plan to fit an active circuit in, it can be a good idea to clearly mark the ring connector and then snip it off, so that you don't accidentally use it or have a loose strand of signal wire shorting against it.
Conversely you could wire the shield/ground lug and the ring lugs together (for extra ground contact area, never a bad thing).
The factory seems to use a rather unique three pin flush-mount socket... they never connect up the way you expect and I think have changed at least once. Current batch, I believe, still has shortest pin as hot and the middle as ground/sleeve. This post may help, but as Simon said, it's always good to check with a multimeter just to be sure.
Scott.
The IB-5 usually has a stereo jack with three pins - (http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...s/pdf/IB-5.pdf). From memory, the pins are a larger one (lets call this the bottom) and two more arranged in a sort of broken circle around the jack when looking down the jack from the wiring end. I've tried to represent the three lugs with the three lines in the diagram shown. The lug that is closest to the centre (and typically shortest) is generally the mono (or "hot") lug, the furtherest outside (and typically longest) - the earth. Hopefully the diagrams below should explain it better... If it's different from the photo below, if you could take a photo and attach it, we should be able to work out a solution for you pretty quickly. That said, WeirdBits and Simon have it right with the multimeter- that's the best way to check.
Last edited by Brendan; 02-01-2017 at 11:13 PM.
Current builds:
GPB-4B: https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...548#post184548
Tip, ring & sleeve is what this type of plug was originally known as.
It is a telephone cord type switchboard plug like you see in the old black & white movies, known correctly as a Sylvester Switchboard.
Some businesses were still using them as late as 1980 here in Sydney, Email Whitegoods had three of them
OK. Some diagrams have the hot wire as white, but an earlier post from someone suggested the hot wire was black. The pups with the kit have a green/bare, a black on its own and red/white soldered together. So which is the hot wire in my case? Black??
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