Kiwimatt's YB-4

[kiwimatt]

Headstock ended up like this


And then I couldn't resist, and mounted the tuners.


Which I will point out, before anyone else does! - that I intended them to be perpendicular to the edge of the headstock, and so all on different angles, I just think it looks better. Everyone to their own!

[kiwimatt]

I think I said, before, but I give it a decent nudge this weekend, none of the usual weekend activities, so it seemed to move pretty quickly.

Observe, my high-tech spray booth...

[kiwimatt]

Then onto the fun stuff - lining the cavities and wiring.


The wiring diagram was a bit confusing at first (says 250K pots, but the kit shipped with 500K pots), and figuring out which wire went where from the neck pickups was different (just the one wire), anyway - I eventually had one of those "oh" moments, where you think "you dumbass, it's actually pretty easy".
Bonus - didn't even burn myself on the soldering iron.

[kiwimatt]

Then I stopped taking photos for a while, because putting it together and it going from separate pieces into an actual, real bass guitar was probably the most fun of the build.

Anyways, I ended up with this;


A couple of detail shots

[kiwimatt]

I did cut the truss-rod cover down from how it came in the kit. The original covered too much of the blue on the headstock.
I just used a sharp knife, then 1200-grit wet and dry paper, then buffed it by rubbing the cover quite hard on an old towel.

[kiwimatt]

So, that's about it really. It came together pretty quickly this past week, and whilst I'm not sure it's up to the amazing standards I've seen on here, I'm happy with it. No headstock logo/decal yet - I'm not sure what I'd put on there, so I'm happy to leave for a while without one.

I've done a proper setup on it - the only thing left is to lower the nut - the action on the lower frets is a bit too high, but that aside, it plays well and sounds bloody good - I wanted a PJ, they have that growl that a P-bass (which I already have) just doesn't, and this has definitely got it!

I've got a Boss ME-20B effects processor, and with some distortion on from that on, that bridge pup gives it a really grunty growl (I dunno, that's the best description I can come up with) - it's wicked.

Anyway, that's my YB-4 build, definitely won't be my last - hope you folks enjoyed it!

Cheers,
Matt.

[JohnH]

Looks great! I'm a sucker for timber back/coloured front combos, and this works particularly well

[brisboy]

That's a great build! Love it.

Sent from my SM-J120ZN using Tapatalk

[FrankenWashie]

Choice Bro! I really do like the way the variance of the bass wood pieces has actually produced a really cool stripe pattern.
The burst has come up pretty well also.
Will you be putting this up for the Guitar of the Month comp?

[Sonic Mountain]

Great work. These are pretty nice kits and a lot of fun to mod, great result. I actually really like how comfortable mine is to play. The body size ,it's a good weight (even with my additions) and the contours are very comfortable yours would be even more so with the forearm relief. There seem to be a few more GOTM contenders in the threads this morning.......