First built. It may take a while...

[Booooooom]

With the bridge set to its lowest position, the neck clamped in place and strung with proper E and G strings the action seemed very high so I set about making a shim...

First attempt was cut from a piece of mahogany on my bandsaw... I estimated that something around the 2mm mark at its thickest would be the place to start then sand it down to get the string action about right... the thinnest I managed to cut without breaking was about 4mm at the thick end so it time for a re-think (and I really didn't want to spend too much time on it as I wasn't really sure if it was necessary). So rather than try to reduce something to the correct size I decided to step laminate three pieces of cherry veneer I happened to have, alternating the grain like plywood. I sanded the stepped side smooth and ended up with a shim 1.75mm at the thick end tapering to a wafer-thin 0.25mm. I trimmed it to size leaving the thin end 2-3mm short of the joint line so that it won't be seen and also so that the shim effectively tapers to nothing.



With the neck and shim clamped in place, I adjusted the bridge so that the bridge could still be lowered a bit then measured the distances at the penultimate fret at the body end (I couldn’t get access to the last fret as my F clamps were in the way). I took measurements with open strings (the nut seems quite high at the moment) and also with a capo strapped accross the twelfth fret:




Without shim (open 12th)
E 7mm* 3mm**
G 7mm* 3mm**




With shim (open 12th)
E 1.5mm* 0.635mm (0.025")**
G 1.5mm* 0.635mm (0.025")**

* measured approximately with a ruler from the fretboard to the underside of the string
** measured with feeler gauges (plus the thickness of the rule when unfretted without shim)

[Booooooom]

fretted at 12th fret with shim...




the bridge...


I like a low action – as low as possible without rattling the frets unless I really dig in. Using the shim, the string height seems great to me, especially when fretting higher up the neck. There seems plenty of bridge adjustment to raise or lower the strings and I’ll either remove the nut to sand off the bottom or file down the slots at a later stage… but before I get the glue out DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY COMMENTS? as I’d hate to do something foolish here…

[Simon Barden]

I've read it through twice and it all sounds reasonable, so I can't see any problems.

What glue are you using? I'd suggest Titebond Original (the red label stuff) or their Liquid Hide glue, as both make joints that can be steamed apart later if necessary. You can get glues that make more heatproof and waterproof joints, but they are exactly that, and almost impossible to get apart cleanly without breaking or sawing things up.

[Booooooom]

Thanks Simon. My brother bought the kit for me and included some Pit Bull neck glue but I've also got some titebond regular too.

[Simon Barden]

I believe the Pit Bull glue is Titebond Original, so either will work fine.

[Booooooom]

I said it may take a while...

A very busy summer has meant that this project has sat on the back burner for most of it but some progress – and setbacks – have been made...

The neck was glued in position with shim and all was looking good and another couple of coats of oil were added.

Here's the guitar with the neck glued in position ( I used the glue that came with the kit). You can see the shim extending out underneath the neck.



Next I decided to level and dress the frets before put it all together (I'd later strip it down for another coat or two of oil and then finish off with some renaissance wax).

Time to tape up and get the sharpie out...




and level...


The neck was pretty good to start with and all frets were nicely levelled after only a few passes of the fret levelling beam. Time to round over and polish...


quite therapeutic!

[Booooooom]

i'll lemon oil the fretboard later...

[Booooooom]

So time to assemble the rest. I put the scrathplate on and realise it doesn't fit!!



It would have fitted perfectly if the neck was fully inserted into the pocket. BEWARE! So off to order some scrathplate material and start drawing...




I took the opportunity to make the bottom edge of the scratch plate parallel to the edge of the guitar. Even genuine Rics don't and this bothers me...! I also adjusted the long horizontal edge to align better with the strings. I cut a dummy from foamex and loaded the controls...



I may reconsider the pot layout as this is the original pit bull layout differs from a Rics layout... I will ponder this when cutting the scratch plate...

[JohnH]

It's looking great! Love that colour

[Booooooom]

Happy new year! Whilst Christmas slowed progress a little, the bass is almost finished. Apologies that I’m well behind with the build diary. I will try to update it in the next few days when I get chance to sort through the photos and write it up.

I’m nearing completion and had the bass wired up and working... spent about a week noodling around on it with a great deal of satisfaction! The only issues were when the switch was selecting both pick ups there was a slight dip in volume and also with both pups selected, when either volume pot was zeroed it killed all sound (below last 10% of travel). The tones were clean and clear and good differentiation between pups.

Since then I have stripped it down to give it another couple of coats of oil, waxed it and copper taped the control cavity, both pup cavities and the back of the scratchplate.

Once I reconnected everything there is a lot of noise unless both tone controls are zeroed. If the switch is set to both pups either tone pot can be adjusted without noise but as soon as the second gets moved - noise. The same volume issue as before occurs when zeroing one or other volume pot with both pups selected.

Wiggling the lead in the jack socket reduces but does not eliminate noise. I’ve rewired this with new wire with no improvement. I’ve also replaced all other hot wires and checked all connections for connectivity. All cavities are soldered together and there is connection amongst all cavities. The wiring is the same as here although I have the volume pots closest to the strings and the tones at the bottom as this makes more sense to me.

I’m considering replacing the jack socket and all pots but any ideas what’s causing these issues?