Andyjr1515

OK @stewblack Found the pics First the standard disclaimer: this is a risky process and so only do it if the bass has no high monetary value and if it is otherwise unplayable anyway For taking the fretboard off, you need: - A hot iron - household iron is fine. If it's a steam iron then run it dry. Hot setting - Some kitchen roll - A Stanley knife blade or other very thin sharp blade - A thin steel platter of some kind. Worst case a wide but thin steel rule, but a pie spatula or similar (very thin flexible steel) is better This example below is a fretless board, but I've removed a fretted board in exactly the same way 1. Take the nut off and start at the nut end. Get the iron hot and heat up the area of fretboard before the 1st fret. Protect the fretboard with a sheet of kitchen roll or similar. I use an old heat shrink iron but household iron is fine: You need to get the wood very hot - hot enough for the glue underneath to soften 2. Take your Stanley blade (the single edged razors here are even better. Don't use two sided razor blades - you WILL cut yourself badly ) and ease it under as the glue softens. If it doesn't enter the gap at all, then the glue is still hard. Work on this until you are able to insert the blade across the whole width of the board at the nut end. This bit can easily take half an hour. If after half an hour there is still no way the blade is going in at all then either the iron isn't hot enough or the board has been (rare but not unknown) epoxied on. In the former case, turn the iron on even higher if it will. In the latter case, hang the bass back on the wall : 3. Ease your steel platter/ruler into the gap (a couple of mm will do)and carry on heating that area, walking the platter forward a mm at a time. Keep it flat at all times. DO NOT lever it up at any stage - this will almost always snap the fretboard - especially a fretted board. Again, nowadays I use a steel flexi sheet from my acoustic sides bending stuff, but first couple I did I used a metal ruler: 4. Carry on, mm by mm all the way up to the end. When you are an inch or so from the end - and this might be an hour or so later! - don't get over enthusiastic and try and pull the last bit off - you WILL break the board. Just carry on mm by mm until it is off I'll cover getting it back on in a bit. But you will need lots of decent screw clamps and some decent blocks of wood as clamping cauls and a bottle of Titebond.

I've taken a fretboard off a couple of times. It takes care and patience but it's possible to do. I should have some photos somewhere. I'll post something in the morning with some hints and tips

Yes it does and yes...trust me, been there, done that

It's looking really good @Pea Turgh

Basically yes I used to cut away the shielding to glue them onto the wood but came to the conclusion they stick better to the shielding. I use gel superglue and then a light surrounding of epoxy for good measure. To position them, I put a bit of paper packing over the body magnet (which is set in about 1mm) and pop the lid magnet on top. Therefore it is in the exact position and standing a touch proud. I pop a spot of ca glue on the top face and then press the cover in place and hold it until the ca glue has set. I lift off the cover complete now with ca'd magnet, remove the paper packing then repeat with the next one. This way, all the hatch magnets are in exactly the right place without the need to measure anything

You have my sympathies! I'm sure I spend more time hunting round for things I know I have somewhere than actually building!!

Well, here you go Hatch magnets fixed:

This a bit better, @Si600 ? And now you should be able to see the tiny angle of the bridge towards the stoptail at the bass side. Tiny, but it gives me a couple of mm safety factor for different string gauges, etc Other jobs today, I epoxied a couple of carbon rod stiffeners across the grain on the hatch to make sure it stays completely flat: Then copper-foiled the chamber and hatch and added the bottom magnets: Next job is fitting the hatch magnets and then that's down to just 4 things still to do

What - that I am going mad? That bridge, as well you know, Simon, was crossed many years ago... I'd have spotted it eventually anyway and it's a super-easy fix.

Re-read, @Si600 and promise to pay more attention next time The bridge itself is skewed and that should be. But yes - the bridge surround is also skewed...and that shouldn't be I skim read the posts because I was actually pm'd about the bridge and assumed that the other comments were also about the bridge. So, just to clarify: Yes - the bridge is skewed on purpose = Andyjr1515 is a great builder and knows what he's doing and Yes - the bridge pickup surround is also skewed, but in error = Andyjr1515 's work has been found, quite frankly, wanting and he should have gone to Specsavers (if they'd been open) In my defence, there is a bit of an optical illusion too - the two pickup rings ramp up from 1mm thick for the edge of the neck one next to the fretboard, all the way to 10mm for the edge of the bridge one next to the bridge. And the ramp is casting a shadow. But it is undeniably about 1mm out of square. And it will, of course, be fixed OK - that's quite enough c**kups emojis for one day

No - I think he'll play it

Here's a Gibson:

No - your eyes are fine. I've never explained that and it's never occurred to me that basses rarely have the issue. Yes - as @BreadBin says, the bridge is intentionally out of square. This is actually less of a tilt than the original Gibson because the bridge I'm using has more adjustment than the original Tune-o-matic - but it is tilted nonetheless. Basically, the bridge design isn't wide enough to be able to adjust for the intonation, so the bridge tilts a bit like an acoustic guitar saddle.

Gratuitous mock ups are always welcome Looks splendid!

And another one ticked off the list. I popped a couple of P Rails into the pickup rings (Matt will be supplying his own pickups) to line everything up. The strings, again, are just for lining up - they are a set of flatwounds I tried on Pete's piccolo bass build a few years ago. The P-rails are useful as one of the tasks was making sure that the pickups fitted and adjusted in the chambers and the coils of the P-rail are just a touch fatter than most humbuckers - so this should be worst case. Spent quite a bit of time chiselling out the tight spots. These now adjust fine, so I am happy that Matt's will also. And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list

And a couple more jobs off the to do list. First of all, drilling the bridge earth wire hole and fitting the earth wire. I talked about a tip to get inserts out. A bolt would be better, but I found that the screws they use to fit bed heads to beds are the right thread So with great care not to let the screwdriver slip (which is why a bolt would be better) I screw it in until it bottoms at the wood inside the hole: And then I just carry on screwing. The bolt can't go any further down, so the insert has to move the other way: With the control layout paper template, I mark the points from the insert hole to where I want the earth wire to come out into the chamber: I draw a pencil line joining those points on the other side. Then get a very, very long bradpoint drill and line it up with the line. Theoretically, it has to drill through the insert hole. Always a relief when it does, mind you And then simply push the earth wire through, with a generous length stripped of insulation, and just re-insert the insert, trapping the copper of the earth wire as it does so. Finally, drilled the recessed hole for the tele-style jack socket I am using: Just 7 items left to do

That's a scarf????????? Good heavens!

The SG has quite a cramped controls cluster. Some of that is the body shape, and some the fact that they have a top-mounted jack. While I can't do anything about the body shape, I do have the advantage of going for an edge mounted jack. I'm sure there are lots of other ways of laying them out, but after lots of mockups, sticking the knobs and tip on with blu-tack, this one below passed my 'air guitar test' of ensuring I would never accidentally hit the switch while flailing my arms Pete Townsend style, but could still reach both or individual volumes quickly without hitting either the tones or the switch. I tried with the switch position a little further forward but came to the conclusion that it is safer from accidental adjustment here. So it's still tight, but I think is going to work OK live: Inside, I wanted to leave most of the chamber bottom thicker than the pot spindles to maximise the stability in that knotty area, so I just Forstner-cut some recesses for the pots and switch to allow good thread access the other side: Once I've cut the jack hole, I'll tidy up the inside shape to make it look more like it was supposed to look like that

Hi, Derrey @ikay might be right. It is possible they are just push fit. The units themselves will be sealed in plastic so if a paper clip will go in (or the blunt end of a sewing needle) a gentle push will soon indicate if they are going to push out and that won't do any harm. If they seem firm, then they are probably superglued and won't be coming out.

Another two jobs off the list - fret levelling/recrowning ; fretboard tidy-up. And another shout here for Chris Alsop Guitars - after levelling with my 1m aluminium beam, I used one of his whole raft of really usable and practical tools - this fret recrowning file: It is a good radiused diamond file housed in such a usable handle! Easiest re-crown to date. I did the normal marking the flats on the frets with a sharpie and then used Chris's file first on its own, then with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped over the file, then with 800 grit sandpaper, and finally with 3200; 6000 & 12000 microweb cloth, again using the file as a radiused sanding block: Then used a single-edged razor as a scraper to tidy up the fretboard. It's come up nice:

Exciting! Hmmm...multi-scale...fretless...led's...multi-piece neck I can see that my "he's the guy who takes on the crazy stuff" crown may be slipping soon.

I think the chances are slim without wrecking them.

I'll sand these fully flush when I tidy up the fretboard and give the neck its final oil and buff after fret levelling, but the mother of pearl fret side dots are in: That's another one ticked off the list. Just 11 things still to go

Not quite right. It is the bending of the string, albeit vertically, to reach the fret (or in a fretless the fretboard). So if you have a high nut, your bottom frets will NEVER sound in tune because the string is bending and therefore tightening out of pitch in trying to press it down to the fret. So high nut, low action - it will be in tune at the upper frets and out of tune at the lower frets and low nut, high action - will be in tune at the lower frets and out of tune at the higher frets.

Basically, yes. In most cases with most bridges, wind the G saddle fully forward and fix the bridge so that the peak of the saddle is at scale length (yes - I wind back a couple of turns because I know how inaccurate my work is.) But before you drill holes, wind the bottom E saddle fully back (allowing for string windings too) and double check that this gives you at least 5mm longer than scale length, which is typically the maximum you are likely to have to lengthen beyond scale length to intonate the bottom strings. If in doubt, put an accurate long metal rule to the nut of one of your fully set-up basses and note where each of the saddles are sitting in relation to scale length. The thinkers amongst you will come to the conclusion that the only place that the string is going to actually accurately intonate is at the 12th fret. The reality, of course is...yes... I've said it before, basses and guitars are a series of compromises held together by hope...