BassBus

Been doing more sanding today. started at 180 grit, then 280 grit and finished at 400 grit. The wood on the back and sides is nice and smooth now but I'm going to do more with 800 and probably 1000 grit to finish it. I'm going to sand the fingerboard with finer papers too. I've been doing some measuring for pickup placement. The front pickup (neck) is being placed in the same position as those on my Status S2 and ESP. I never solo the front pickup as I don't like the sound from a front pickup on it's own. Back pickup (bridge) is much more critical. This is a pickup I do solo from time to time. I have placed the back edge of it 45mm from the centre of the G saddle. The back pickup on the Status is very much closer to the bridge and gives quite a brittle tone on it's own. My Tokai Jazz has it's bridge pickup back edge 55mm from the G saddle and has a much warmer tone to it but still keeping that tighter feel of a back pickup. Do any of you have any words of wisdom on this subject?

They do have a point. Bass frequencies travel through a building like nothing else. You could always try a mute on your DB. [url="http://www.thestringzone.co.uk/categories/double-bass-mutes"]http://www.thestring...uble-bass-mutes[/url] And also separating the end pin from the floor would help.

I look down the neck and if I see any light under the radius gauge then I know it's not the right one. When I find one that has no light under it that's what I go with. As for frets or fingerboard. Think about it. The frets follow the radius of the finger board so it is not going to make much difference which you check. It is going to be easier to hold the gauge against the finger board though, rather than trying to balance it on top of a fret. Equally there might be some wear on the fret which could give a false reading.

Flatwounds will always sound "woolly and dead" that's really the point of them. You will never get that crisp clear sound you get from roundwounds. Some roundwound sets have a coating on them which is supposed to make them last longer. Never tried them so I don't know. Half/ground/pressure wound strings give a kind of halfway house between rounds and flats. Smooth to the touch as on flats and a little of the brightness of rounds. Then there's Thomastik Jazz Flats. I love them. Smooth to the touch, a bit of brightness and lighter tension. Yum. And they last forever.

I have two basses with piezos already so unfortunately don't need another. It has always be the intention to use mag pups on this. It does seem a shame though, to cut into that lovely walnut.

There are no shoulds or shouldn'ts in life. That's just other people trying to dictate. Do it the way you are happy with. Of course you should also take some of the cream Sam talks about and that way you shouldn't get any worse. [size=4] [/size]

Just goes to show that perfect preparation prevents pretty poor performance. Having checked measurements again and again I went with the 33.5 inch scale. The intonation is bang on the dots on the side of the neck. Can't explain why there might have been variants but there you are. Bridge installed and strung up.

I've gone with the 33.5 inch scale and the intonation is spot on the side dots all the way up the neck. Bridge installed and strung up. Pic in the rebuild thread.

As you say Pete, there isn't going to be much difference. Think I'll go with the 33.5 inches. It'll give a bit more adjustment with the saddles. I have anough trouble with my own intonation without the bass being out too. [size=4] [/size]

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1373186392' post='2134380'] This is looking really good. I'm just beginning to wonder whether my SB310 would benefit from similar treatment, except with a Stingray pickup in the sweet spot. [/quote] That would be interesting. The evolution of a bass.

Thanks for your detailed reply, Pete. Interesting. I have just checked measurements on another unmarked fretless board. From nut to centre of the two dots at the 12th is 17 inches bang on. To the centre of the two dots on my SB301 is the stated 16 12/16 (16 3/4) inches. It would explain why, before the rebuild started, with my standard fingering, above twelfth was not intonated properly. I had to compensate. The old bridge measured at a 34 inch scale.

I have posted this in 'Obscure Musical Backwaters' as well. Can anyone with one of these basses measure the scale length for me from the nut to the G saddle. Measuring the distances between each of the position markers on this bass brings the scale length to 33 1/2 inches. That would explain why my fingering never coincided with these markers before as I measured the scale length with the old bridge at 34 inches.

Oh so it is. The scale length has to fit in with the fret lengths though and has nothing to do with the adjustability of the saddle. The length from the nut to the twelfth 'fret' on my fretless bass is 16 12/16 inches. By the maths I learnt at school that doubles to 33 1/2 inches.

I have two EMG-HZ pickups that I bought from a board member. I far prefer the sound of a humbucker to single coils. Haven't decided on a preamp yet.

I wonder if any of you kind gentlemen owning Bass Collections would be kind enough to measure the scale length from the nut to the G saddle. I'm measuring up to install the new bridge on my rebuild and it appears to be 33 1/2 inches. Is that correct? Any help would be appreciated.

And starting to see what it will look like. [size=4] [/size]

The body has been away for a face lift. Mark Mawby, who is [url="http://www.smallstrings.co.uk/"]Small Strings[/url], took the old face off and has replaced it with a rather splendid looking European Walnut book matched face. As it has been such a great day it was a good chance to sit outside and set to removing the remainder of the old finish. Started with a course 80 grit sand paper and took it down to 130 grit. I think I'm going to use some finer grade paper still. Before sanding. After sanding. A little bit of Nitromors in the control cavity removed the old screening. Next job is to fit the bridge. At sometime in the future the new pickup cavities will be routed out. Once that is done the face can be planed down and Mark is going to apply a thin satin lacquer on the whole body. Having seen the results of that lacquer on some of his other walnut instruments it will look great.

Standby.

Bought a gig bag from Nick. In as new condition and no problems whatsoever.

I don't know about BC threads on finishing but there is a lot on youtube. I've been looking into this subject a bit recently and the clips on YT are really useful.

I have used D'addario halfrounds. They give a good tone but like a lot of halfrounds are quite sticky to begin with. Of all the halfwounds I have tried [url="http://status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html"]Status Hotwires[/url] are the least sticky. Their tone lasts for ages as well. There's always Thomastik Jazz Flats (JF344) which give a similar tone and are as smooth as the baby's proverbial.

Hang on, I'll just gauge the mod's tension. Ah, as I thought. Perfection is not perfect.

In 1994 I stopped playing bass. There was no music that influenced me in the rock/pop arena. Over the next seven years I picked up a bass maybe a handful of times. Then in spring 2001 a whole series of coincidences happened. That spurred me on to pick up a bass again and I really started enjoying it. What changed? I don't know that anything changed as such. The time was just right. I had changed direction musically and moved into traditional folk playing the bouzouki and that led to me getting involved in jazz. that's when the bass came back and I haven't looked back since. I look on it a bit like the life of a butterfly, if that's not too pretentious. Those earlier years were the caterpillar phase where I just went round eating up every kind of music I could. Like you, I had to play every day. then I pupated for seven years after which I blossomed forth into a beautiful butterfly. (God, what am I on [size=4] )[/size] [size=4]What I'm saying is, don't beat yourself up about it. It is what it is. If you are going to get back to bass you will in the fullness of time. Just go with it. I would also say don't sell your gear if you have the space to store it.[/size]

Phil Collins played drums and Midge Ure played some guitar.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1372583058' post='2127332'] They'd be screwed without Jagger though. Proper front man, it's not as easy as he makes it look. [/quote] That sums it up for me Kev. He may not be the world's greatest singer but what he does he does with loads of charisma. Not many to beat him except Freddy Mercury. You have to admire the fitness of them man.