CDN rookie - EXA-5 Bass Kit

[Andy M]

Hi, Wazkelly, New member here. I posted the dry build of my EX4 on fb, and someone said I should contact you with ??? as you have built a few PB basses.

There's a bur in the neck pocket that keeps the neck from sliding all the way back, and since it's in a corner, the neck sits all cattywompus. What's the best way to clean up the neck pocket? Dremel? Chisel? I imagine if you go a little too deep with the dremel it won't matter much.

May take your advice on the output jack. A Tele style will give a cleaner look. Also, I prefer linear taper pots. Haven't looked closely yet to see if they are audio or linear taper in the kit. If audio, what do you use for an upgrade.

As far as the pickups, I'll put it together and see. I use a rack-mount preamp in my rig, so horsepower is not a problem.

[Brendan]

G'day Andy - have you got any photos of the bur - I'm guessing its on the side of the pocket - not the bottom?

Here are some links to Waz's builds.

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...t=4257&page=10
http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...t=4551&page=10

[Brendan]

In terms of pot upgrades - Bournes are available through Pitbull, but have also used CTS pots.

[wazkelly]

Hi Andy, as Brendan said photos of the problem area would be handy so that we can better understand what you are dealing with.
If on the bottom/floor of neck pocket delicate chisel work and light sanding should work, just need to make sure everything remains flat and in the same horizontal plane as the top otherwise neck break angle could be compromised.
If on the side i would also delicately chisel down vertically and then lightly sand being careful not to take off too much timber as you still need to keep a fairly tight and uniformly shaped pocket for securing the neck once bolted on.
500k ohm pots are the go and i always use audio taper for everything including tone as the roll off is more gradual compared to linear. Kit would have come with 2 x vol marked 'A' and one tone marked 'B' where the B is a linear pot. Another upside of using same type of pots is that it doesn't matter if you wire up the wrong one as they are all the same and also interchangeable if one becomes faulty. Suggest using mini pots as the control cavity is small and very tight fit with all those wires. Have mostly used bourns which have good push/pull pots for coil splitting and have also used CTS on a Tele and Alphas on recently finished ES1. Hard to tell any difference soundwise for same value ohm rated pots. CTS tend to be the more expensive ones.
If you use the tone control upgrading kit capacitor is recommended. No need for treble bleed mod if keeping the J Bass wiring as it doesn't seem to work without a switch between pickups.
Hope some of this helps.
Cheers, Waz

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