With my Ampeg I'm using my old SVT 4x10 and 1x15 cabinets, actually the 4x10 is almost always enough!
Nice... I'd love to try a 4x10 - from what I've read they have a fair amount of punch and with the right speakers/cab design can get plenty of bottom end. There's a new/old stock Hartke 4x10 cab for sale here locally for $450 - it's tempting and would love to try it but I really need to rein in my spending for a while - unfortunately bills and stuff have to take priority :/Originally Posted by Andyxlh
Thought I'd check in - it's been a busy week or so with work, stocktake and all the EOFY joys that go along with it!
I've been doing some tinkering with the IB-5 here the there to make it more playable. My main concern was the lack of height adjustment on the G string - in the stock configuration the saddle was all the way down to the bridge baseplate with the string still sitting a little too high. The rest of the saddles were sitting just off of of the baseplate which then resulted in the height adjustment screws sitting proud of the saddles - which I don't like as those can be sharp suckers -easily fixed by shortening them though. Ideally I like to have the saddles sitting a little higher so there's room for adjustment down the track.
Wazkelly had a similar issue with is EX-5 over on his thread so he bought a replacement allparts bridge from realparts.com.au which he found to have lower minimum saddle height and seems to solve his issue. I was ready to pull the trigger and buy one as well but noticed the string spacing is 16mm. I checked the IB-5's stock bridge and the spacing is 18mm. The neck on the IB-5 is also a bit wider than the EX-5 so I think 16mm will be a little too narrow. Plus I actually prefer the 18mm spacing, coming from a 4 string bass I'm used to the wider spacing and also works a bit better for slap & pop style playing. The other complaint about the stock bridge is the steep string break angle from the saddle to the back of the bridge and being rear loading there's risk of scratching up the body trying to load strings in to it.
From my searching around the net there's not many options out there for an 18mm spaced bridge (in black), the cheapest I could find is a Gotoh bridge in Cosmo black (dark chrome) for around $120 or something higher end which offers '3D' adjustable saddles like from Schaller - not sure if I want to spend as much as I paid for the IB-5 kit on just the bridge at this stage.
So I'm determined to make use of the stock bridge for now and keep fine tuning the setup to see if I can end up with a nice playable bass then I might go all out on a fancy bridge, new tuners, pups etc.
My thought to solve the string height issue was to reprofile the tongue on the neck so the neck angle sits further back in relation to the body (think archtop, but at a shallower angle) which will then allow the saddles to come up. Due to the curved shape of the neck pocket shimming didn't seem like a good idea so the neck came off and met the belt sander to reprofile the tongue on the neck - I did it over a few attempts, taking a little bit off at a time, reattaching and restringing to check. Here's a pic of the neck profile after final sanding:
With the initial setup the bridge position also ended up being too far forward resulting in the saddles having to moved back a fair way (which doesn't help the string break angle!) so whilst I had it all apart I moved the bridge back 10mm. Not sure if it was the best idea but it's done anyway; if I end up replacing the bridge down the track it will be another set of holes to have to fill! 2 holes are now visible so I'll need to fill or cover them at some stage.
Last night I reassembled the whole thing, loaded in a new set of 135-45 D'Addario nickels and tuned it up to pitch. Made some rough adjustments to the saddle heights and intonation to get it playable. Initial results seem positive - the saddles are at a more manageable height and position on the bridge... new strings sound and play a heck of a lot better than those ones that came with the kit! I think the kit B string was only a 130 or maybe even a 125, I had to widen the nut to fit the 135 in, but the extra tension has made a world of difference, doesn't sound and feel as 'flabby'.
Tonight I'll spend more time to dial in the setup once the neck as had a chance to settle for 24 hours.
I still need to work on the electronics side of things - the low output is really annoying as I have to crank the amp right up to get decent volume out of the thing but in turn it also boosts all the background static and noise. I'm going to try wiring a pup direct to another output jack just to take the guitars wiring out of the equation, if the output strength is the same I'll know the stock pots and output jack are working okay and that it's the pups themselves that are the issue. The pup height is about as high as I can go, any higher and they'll interfere with the strings if playing up on the higher frets.
Thanks Andyxlh... Something worth doing, do it right I guess! My previous builds from kits have been a bit hit and miss but I'm determined to make this one into something I'll actually use!
Over the weekend I set to work to suss out the low signal/volume issue. I unsoldered the neck pup from the volume pot and just wrapped the bare wires around a guitar lead and taped them in place to try the pup direct to the amp. Was very noisy (no ground) but the good news is the signal was nice and strong so there's something amiss in the wiring that's sucking the life out of the signal. I grabbed the multimeter again to check continuity with the signal paths and made sure nothing is grounding out. Then I checked the pots, the two volume pots gave me some interesting readings - checking across the outer pins gave around 515k which I expected but when I rotated the pot to the opposite end (fully open) I was getting 997k - my understanding with pots is it should be constant resistance on the outer pins regardless of pot position and the middle pin will vary as he pot is rotated. Now this was with the volume pots still wired in - so one was pin is grounded and the other goes off to the pup hot wire so quite possibly that was manipulating the reading. Then I checked the tone pots; I didn't get any reading between the outer pins on both those pots, checking between the outer and centre pin gave mixed results and cut out as I rotated the pot. Odd for them both to do it though but looks like those two pots are duds and potentially the volume pots too.
As a test I unsoldered the tone pots from the volume pots and plugged it into the amp - bingo! Boosted the output signal considerably.
So I've ordered all new pots along with new caps and will rewire the whole thing when they rock up later this week. Hopefully that'll have that issue sorted out!
Duff batch of pots perhaps?
First (proper) build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8546
Second build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ad.php?t=10229
It’s possible, the Electrnics in the Korean deluxe ST looked recycled bar the pickups. Any buck they can save, maybe they just threw some dodgy one in.
FrankenLab
Hand crafting guitars, because Death Rays are expensive.
Stock kit electronics are not worth wiring up most times and inevitably need to be upgraded at some stage.
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# 1 - EX-5 https://goo.gl/fQJMqh
# 2 - EX-1 https://goo.gl/KSY9W9
# 3 - Non PBG Tele https://goo.gl/W14G5g
# 4 - Non PBG J Bass https://goo.gl/FbBaFy
# 5 - TL-1AR GOTM Aug 2017 https://goo.gl/sUh14s
# 6 - MMB-4 Runner-up GOTM Oct 2018https://goo.gl/gvrPkp
# 7 - ES-1 Runner-up GOTM Aug 2018https://goo.gl/T9BEY8
Yeah I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt to start with - I should have tested them more thoroughly! I wanted to try and make this kit completely 'out-of-the-box' to see what I'd get. Lesson learnt!
I've found myself already researching possible pup upgrade options. At the moment I'm liking the idea of Seymour Duncan Basslines Phase II (SSB-5s). From what I've read on various forums and heard on YT demos I think they'll suit me - They've been likened to the JB/59 for bass - a combination I quite like in guitars. Plus they're reasonably cheap, doing a bit of shopping around I can get a set from US for $185 AUD inc. GST and standard delivery. Speaking of which - I didn't know from 1st July they introduced GST to imports below $1000! I guess Gerry Harvey got his way after all!
it’s always a good idea to run a multimeter across your pots, caps and even switches etc. well before you start wiring. That way you can be certain everything works before you touch it with a soldering iron, and how close they are to spec. A 500K pot could be anywhere from 400K-600K in some cases, so it’s best to know what you’re working with before you start. And, it can save a lot of headaches if something’s not working once it’s wired up.
Scott.
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