Andyjr1515

One thing not to forget is to solder an earth wire to the chamber shielding. You can also/alternatively add a little copper foil tab from the control chamber towards one of the plate fixing screws so that the top plate and chamber are mutually earthed and form an all-round cage.

Looks fantastic. Inspiring!

Lovely job. I like that a lot

Sounds like success to me Never worry about make-do-and-mend if you are able to get the results.

And there's nothing wrong with that - in the same way that some players prefer a zero fret to be a smidge higher than the other frets. But, from a physics point of view, it is not actually necessary. On these things I always find it helpful to think 'what if I extended the scale from the nut end and added a -1 fret position?' In that event, my playing finger one fret up from the nut - ie, at the 0 fret position - will be holding the string down to the board...exactly as it is at the 1st fret and beyond. The nut groove flush with the board is doing the same thing. But, actually, there is a sound practical reason for opting for cutting the nut/spacer a smidge higher - and that is that the one thing that is VERY bad news is if there is a groove left at the edge of the fretboard from an over-enthusiastic 'one last sweep of the nut file!'.

This. A bridge specifically and carefully designed so as not to work.

Yes - as the others say, the bottom of each slot should be level with the fretboard.

Yes you are right that the MM pickup itself is passive. I wouldn't say muddy, but on its own it has a surprisingly low output, which may or may not give you issues. Also, 'that' sound associated with the Stingray is very much to do with the preamp and so the sound will be very different. John East does do a splendid preamp that is 'tuned' to the Stingray/Sterling sound if you wanted to head towards the adventurous...

Sounds very exciting...and I bet it does too

And @Andyjr1515 was supposed to be there heckling, too!!! Very sorry to have missed it, @Len_derby - as I flagged up to Daz, I was losing control of the day from fairly early on (yes - no change there!) Next time!!

Yup - looks good

It's just nature's way of making room for the rest of the animal kingdom

I love watching your design process, @rwillett Inspiring!

First tips, that I'm sure you already know, is face mask and gloves! I think I would use a cocktail/kebab stick pushed in to give it the support and prevent the crushing - it helps the cutting too. Personally, I use a fine-tooth X-acto razor saw but the dremel cutting disc also works (but don't forget that mask and, for this, I would wear glasses/goggles too).

Splendid, Rob - a well-deserved Gold star & Smiley Face Oh and welcome to the club...clearly your journey towards total madness creative fulfillment will be continuing...

It looks absolutely splendid, by the way....

You shouldn't need to raise or lower the neck for this - the most effective way is by changing the neck angle a teeny bit, as @BigRedX suggested above (and quoted below) If your action is too low, you put the business-card-thickness shim at the headstock end of the neck pocket; if your action is too high, you put the shim at the bridge end of the neck pocket. This teeny angle makes a much greater difference to the action height than actually raising or lowering the height of the neck.

You don't need to do anything as drastic as that. Just use a single-edged razor blade or a Stanley knife blade as a scraper: - Use it two-handed for best control (my right hand was taking the picture! ) - scrape the surface up from fret to fret moving progressively from one side to the other, repeating until you are happy with it - use medium pressure first to scrape any finish off and then, if necessary, the wood below to scrape out any ingrained dirt, dips and dints Generally, the dots,whether synthetic or natural, will be cooperative to this treatment so just carry on as though they weren't there: And, honestly, you can't overdo it. You would be having to do it for hours non-stop before affecting any of the fret security or strength When it's all done, vacuum all the dust away and then add whatever your preferred finish is (I use either decent quality lemon oil or tru-oil just wiped on and buffed off) Except for maple fret-boarded Fenders, where they fully gloss the fretboard, I do this ROUTINELY when I am doing a full setup on basses and guitars -. It makes the fretboard look new and it only takes me about 15 minutes for the full fretboard. But, of course, don't rush it on your first go!

Just picked this thread up. Splendid project - I just love old basses. Ref the fretboard finish - are you OK with that now? If it still bugs you then I have a suggested way of making it look like new with minimal risk and cost. But it looks OK in the photos

Great news! (Phew! )

No, @ped. The only way that the electrical current would actually change direction would be to take all the magnets out (of one of the pickups) and turn them around, or to wind the windings around the magnets the other way round

Ref the diagram, that depends entirely on the pickups whether the phasing of each pickup and the wiring colours match. From what you have described, @Sibob our assumption is that the two pickups are not a matched pair and happen to have different phasing. As long as the pickups have insulated cases and are simply two-conductor ones, then the two wires can be fitted either way round and the pickup, on its own, will work fine - the black wire isn't actually an earth it's a...well...just a black wire. There are fancy ways of checking, but the simplest and quickest is to swop the two and try it - and if it is no better, or worse, then swop them back and look elsewhere for the problem. But I think I would bet a pint that it will sort it

If you swop the blue and the black round at that middle pot it should sort it.