Grangur

Yesterday I took it a step further and worked on the headstock. First I fitted the ferrules. The genuine Fender ferrules look smart. (The camera really seems to have brought out the milky look. They look better in the flesh) After masking the rear of the headstock I used a set-square to check the angle of the tuning heads. The masking tape allows a punch to be used to mark the hole positions, prior to drilling each hole. The screws for the Fender heads are a bigger size than some I've used in the past. I quite liked them as you can use a decent sized drill, rather than resorting to model makers type drills.

Over the rest of the week the neck has had more and more nitro lacquer. After about 5 coats I used 0000 grade wire-wool round the decal edges to try to reduce the ridge of the edge of the decal. Having done this a few times the edge is almost gone. It's certainly quite small and the decals are looking good.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1470379432' post='3105535'] Huge amount of attention to detail here, Grangur. It's going to look absolutely splendid when it's all put together [/quote] Thanks Andy. I like to get things right. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I've been working on this through the week. First I did the water-slide decals. I can't believe I've actually made a fake Fender!! This went OK. I'd been supplied with 2 sets. I only used one. Following the instructions supplied it went on ok and all looks good. Having done waterslides myself I knew that the waterslide paper requires a layer of clear lacquer to be sprayed on the decal before it's applied. I didn't know if this had been done. The instructions supplied with them didn't make any reference to this, but I didn't want it to disintegrate in the water, so I did this and sprayed a couple of thin coats. Following the instructions I soaked the decals for soak for 30-40 seconds. Later in the process I was to be reminded that instead you should soak for 3-4 minutes. The decals won't disintegrate or anything - lacquer sees to this. What this does do is ensures the glue is well soaked and gives a clearer look to the decal. As you can see in the picture above, there's a slight milky look to the decal. This doesn't show until you apply the lacquer. This gave me the choice of should I strip the head and start again? I slept on it and decided it was ok In the flesh it looks ok.

It was clearly SO amazingly great that he could never be arsed to get it out of the case. I bet it won't meet the reserve.

If the guy in Bristol is the only guy In the UK qualified and able to do setups then OP you owe it to the community to post this person's details. This man is miraculous. Who taught him anyway? Or is he the sole person in the whole world with the capacity to calculate the fine details of the Ultimate Set up? Was it him who taught Leo Fender? Are you saying that Fender's setup instructions are wrong? Or did he write these instructions? How do the world's leading bass players manage without thia man's unique skills? Or do they all tread the hallowd path and go to this wonderful being?

Yeah, yeah, and I've got a window-cleaner who'll tell you the same about windows. What do you know of our qualifications anyway? Maybe we're far more qualified than your guy? What are his qualifications? IBTL

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1469907128' post='3101964'] Hi all. I have a custom build bass which I feel I need a new pickup for. It's a Thunderbird body with a maple jazz neck, the pickup is a Musicman style with a passive volume and tone. The exact pickup is a Kent Armstrong ( This one [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/electronics-c17/kent-armstrong-guitar-pickups-c100/kent-armstrong-bass-pickups-c101/kent-armstrong-musicman-bass-replacement-pickup-p707"]http://www.wdmusic.c...ent-pickup-p707[/url] ). The issue I have is I play mainly P-basses and a Gibson thunderbird. I find the Kent Armstrong pickup too bright. I want to stick with passive so no adding a pre amp. The sound I'm looking for is fat with enough output to match my P-Basses and Thunderbird. Any suggestions? Thanks. [/quote] I had that pup in a Wishbass. The tone wasn't that bright in mine, and I'm not a fan of too my much "zing". It's very possible that what you're not liking is the position of the pup. Don't forget a P-bass has the pup about 50mm further north than the usual "sweet-spot" for a MM style humbucker. You could always have a P-pup routed into the body if you wanted. But I appreciate this needs weighing up with the cost and your dedication to THAT bass. Could you post pics of the bass please, then we can see if this might be viable?

All done. I met with the OP yesterday. We had a nice pizza and a chat and I took the bass away. I did the work yesterday evening and tried it again this morning. It's a really nice bass. Some of the frets had some serious dents. But it's all leveled pretty well. Paul also told me about a hum problem. If you touched the pup a hum started. I then the hum stopped if you touched the tone control. I looked into this and found there was no earth to the tone pot. Also the earth-wire on the bridge wasn't connected to anything in the circuit. So I fixed all the earth issues and set it up. Paul likes a low action, so it's now set with all strings with a clearance of 2.25mm under each of the strings at the 20th fret. I also set the pup heights to 3mm from each of the strings. Had a noodle this morning. It's playing well (the bass, not me - that would take more than a set-up to achieve) No fret-buzz, clanks or anything. Really liking this bass. Sigh!! Another beauty that I'll never own. The nut is low on the G string, as suggested earlier, but it's not a problem. I could consider building the G-slot up a tiny bit, but it's not causing and buzzes. Also, as Paul likes a low action and he's not adverse to some fret noise I'd leave the nut alone. All ready for taking back to Paul now. Cheers Richard

[quote name='silverfoxnik' timestamp='1470466945' post='3106150'] Another 'just under 2 months to go now' sort of BUMP! [/quote] Err... Hummm... as Billy Apple says: [quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1470152306' post='3103646'] ..anyway children, back to the bass [/quote]

[quote name='naxos10' timestamp='1470398187' post='3105722'] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Grangur:[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]"Ahhh, but what you're missing is that there must be discrimination between the fuse in the lead and the fuse in the amp. That is to say that if there is a fault in the amp, the 3amp fuse inside the amp must blow before the one in the lead (designed to protect the lead) even gets excited enough to even think about blowing. (There's a technical term for this, but i can't remember and I can't be arsed)"[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Would that term you were thinking of be Backup and Discrimination?[/font][/color] [/quote] "Pre-arching" - just remembered it. It's about 20 years since I worked as a electrical design engineer. The fuse in a piece of equipment must fail before the fuse of the circuit supplying it - even if it's the extension lead, or kettle lead, reaches the point of it's pre-arching current.

I had a Marlin Slammer. I stripped it. The body was about 4 blocks of wood with a thick veneer on each side. It sounded fine. Squier bodies are just the same IME. TBH, looking at the lack of shaping of that body - that tells me it's blockboard or ply. It's a real budget-bass anyway.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1470395883' post='3105699'] Think in terms of power, which is voltage x current (amps) rather than just voltage alone. A 9v battery can provide only so much power and it can't be increased by doubling the voltage. If the voltage is doubled then the current will be halved.** This may or may not be a problem depending on the application, but it's something that has to be considered in the overall design. ** in theory. In practice the voltage doubling circuitry will not be 100% efficient so the total power out will be slightly less than the total power in. [/quote] ^This Also there's the other thing we haven't considered is "what will happen when we connect the 2 circuits, in the bass, in parallel?" While WE like to think they work on their own and won't see each other, that's not how they see it. For example, if each circuit has a smoothing capacitor across the beginning of the circuit, valued at say 300uF, the total capacitance across the beginning of the combined circuit will be 300+300, Then there will be other complications we can only imagine. I say drop the idea before you damage something if you ask me.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1470340463' post='3105378'] Yes, capacitors can certainly provide a peak of power but they are only discharging energy they have previously absorbed, so the average power output cannot exceed the average power input. Imagine a tap filling a bath. You can let the tap run constantly into the bath or you could repeatedly let the tap run into a bucket and then empty each full bucket in one great whoosh into the bath. Which method would fill the bath the fastest? The bucket may be able to supply a greater flow of water than the tap, but only for a short period of time. On average, the bucket cannot possibly supply more water than the tap. [/quote]Yes, I know and I agree. In all these examples though, you won't blow the fuse in the primary circuit. All that will happen is the secondary circuit will run out of juice. With an amp you'll see it will be rated as 900W Max RMS output. This doesn't mean it's giving 900w ALL the time. 900w is when the VU meter (if there were one) is at the MAX. Do your VU meters stay at the red-line for 100% of the time? OK, maybe on yours it would, if you have one. On mine it would go up and down a bit. Perhaps you're different?

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1470340463' post='3105378'] Yes, capacitors can certainly provide a peak of power but they are only discharging energy they have previously absorbed, so the average power output cannot exceed the average power input. Imagine a tap filling a bath. You can let the tap run constantly into the bath or you could repeatedly let the tap run into a bucket and then empty each full bucket in one great whoosh into the bath. Which method would fill the bath the fastest? The bucket may be able to supply a greater flow of water than the tap, but only for a short period of time. On average, the bucket cannot possibly supply more water than the tap. [/quote] Oh I appreciate all that. But what I'm saying is if you fill the bath at a rate of 15 litres a minute (100w) you can still discharge at 150 litres a minute (900W) out of the plug provided you've got a big enough plug hole and pipe to let the water fall out fast enough.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1470338811' post='3105335'] The general feeling in the UK is that we use fused plugs due to our love of the '30 amp ring main' where a 16 amp radial circuit is more common in mainland Europe, in reality a 16 amp MCB in the consumer unit would trip far sooner than a 13 amp fuse in a plugtop would blow. I've been on building sites where they have a cement mixer, radio, kettle, sandwich toaster and a nest of battery chargers all on at the same time all on a 25 metre ext reel! [/quote] What Pete isn't telling you is that they keep their feet warm on the windings of the said extension lead.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1470087617' post='3103253'] My musings are more in response to this to be honest mate, you cant just look at the wattage (900watt in this case) without looking at the voltage, the example above probably takes a fraction of the input wattage suggested. You can have many more watts out than you put in, but they are at a reduced amperage, the power to move a paper cone isn't much compared to say an electric motor, in that case you might need to reduce the voltage to the point that the input at 3000 watts now only drives a 300 watt motor. [/quote] This could be due to high levels of charge being stored in capacitors in the device, being discharged in bursts higher than the mains could supply. In the case of a welder, striking an arc will take a high current, but you don't keep that going for a prolonged period - usually only seconds. In an amp you may hit peaks of high output, but again, the high amplitude doesn't keep going ALL the time - otherwise your VU meter would simply sit on the red-line and never come down.

[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1470334573' post='3105281'] I, being mega-technical, tend to make sure that any gig leads have a 5amp fuse - its worked for fifty years, so I'm not stopping now. [/quote] Ahhh, but what you're missing is that there must be discrimination between the fuse in the lead and the fuse in the amp. That is to say that if there is a fault in the amp, the 3amp fuse inside the amp must blow before the one in the lead (designed to protect the lead) even gets excited enough to even think about blowing. (There's a technical term for this, but i can't remember and I can't be arsed) There, that's enough to add to the confusion!

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1470297429' post='3104792'] What are you talking about? There are two opposing positions put in these videos, both of which are made by experienced technicians, and both have been recommended to me in this very thread. Add to that someone above has just said that loosening the rod will not damage it. Yet here you are claiming that you have damaged yours while interrupting a productive discussion to accuse me of trolling. [/quote] In the other thread folk gave you advice on buying a bass. Yet nobody's answers were good enough for you. Here the same thing is happening again. News for you: you are not unique neither is your bass. Advice you are given is the same advice that has been given to us and countless others too. It may not be presented perfectly for you to understand but they are the same pointers that have helped countless others. What we say is not wrong. Your understanding of the information may however be wrong.

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1470297659' post='3104794'] This all seems rather chicken and the egg to me. If you adjust the truss rod without setting the action to a comfortable level (buzz or not) then you are surely going to get a false measurement when measuring the amount of relief because you're measuring it to the string. So the relief surely has to be set in the context of the desired string height. [/quote] Yes. So you adjust the relief. Then the action height. Then check the relief. Then the intonation. Then the action and relief again. Sometimes you need to adjust the action in order to set the intonation. Nothing is really in isolation. But unless you have 4 pairs of hands and tools stuck int everything you can't do it all at the same time.

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1470260768' post='3104653'] Yeah, I've seen that clip before. I notice that he says that overtweaking the rod can damage it, while the guyd from Fodera says otherwise. It's not so much that I'm struggling, it's that I'm not really seeing any improvement. [/quote] Funny he says that it's impossible to damage the truss rod. In a moment of stupidity I managed to do the impossible once. But what do I know? You clearly know everything already. After all you're the Troll.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1470207740' post='3104016'] Is an ungigged reliced bass more desirable? [/quote] I once actually saw a Fender Road worn bass being sold as "in perfect condition". That tickled I that did.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1470256078' post='3104591'] Would PAT Testing come under the umbrella of being "recently serviced"? [/quote] No. I'm out of practice on this, but PAT testing is non-invasive. It simply tests the earth works and that it's not likely to cause anyone to get an electric shock from it if it were to fail.