Andyjr1515

Sorry to hear this. Had a very interesting chat with him at the Bash. A knowledgeable and friendly man. Thinking of his family and friends...

Looking good!

Fabulous!

Got to be worth an arty farty or two Ready for packing up and sending back:

"That's a nice colour..." said MrsAndyjr1515 as she walked past. Trust me...praise indeed! For natural timbers, Tru-oil slurry and buff remains one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective finishes. This is after slurry and buff 2. Slurry and buff 3 will be this afternoon and then first thing tomorrow morning it will be ready to be packed up and shipped off back to @PaulThePlug, who has waited VERY patiently for it to come back to him

My guess is laser. Do I get a prize if I'm right???

That's crackingly good building

Trust me...been there, done that. And more than once...

This will get better than this after a few proper slurry and buffs and after I've sanded down some of the areas that still have a trace of the Ibby primer coat - but it's not bad with just the rough 'reveal' coat. Some of the burns were quite deep and so there remain a few darker patches, but it's much better than it was and there's a limit to how much wood I should sand away

And so to cutting the new chambers. @PaulThePlug has given me loads of photos and accurate measurements of the positioning so this morning was all about marking on the body the centre-lines and corners of the pickups and then the outline of the two halves of the P pickup, including a 1mm clearance at the sides and ends: On point worthy of note for other builders is the lugs on these types of pickups. The lugs are offset. And the radius of the lugs is actually MUCH bigger than you think. Including the clearance I had to use a 14mm drill!! Surely not???? Yup So first job is the drilling the radii for the lugs and corners: Then roughing out part-depth and up to the line with a large forstner bit: Followed by tidying up of the edges exactly up to the external pencil line with mallet and chisel to create an accurate and smooth run for the router bearing: And finally routing to depth: And new chamber done: Next and pretty much final job is sanding down and a quick slurry-and-buff, which I should be able to get done by the end of tomorrow

A bit more progress with the filling - the back battery chamber is done and the surplus controls holes likewise: Next steps are cutting the new chamber and widening the hole for the tone control. Hopefully will be able to do both tomorrow.

OK - we're off. First off is filling the existing chambers. And yes, Andyjr1515 still hates routers, but for cleaning up the bottoms of old chambers including the conductive paint well, they have their uses. And with a bearing bit fully enclosed in the chamber so that the word not allowed-ing thing can't leap out and damage the bass body or Andyjr1515's own body parts it's worth a bash: And it does do a decent job, s'pose... Next is another 'this could spoil your day machine' - the band saw. Note the essential pusher stick. As a factory manager once said to me, 'always remember that butchers use these to cut through cattle bones...' Everything squared up and corners rounded to suit the existing chambers, final dry check that you can ease it down and back out again: Then a generous amount of Titebond in the chamber bottom and sides, press it fully home and bash the hell out of it: Fit the second one in the same way and then, once the glue has hardened, a quick whizz over with the block plane: And yes - it's cross-grained. Partly stylistic (if you can't hide it, then flaunt it) and mostly practical (suitable wood available thick enough for the chambers' depth). Next job is the battery chamber at the back, which will be done the same way, and then cutting some plugs to fill a number of the controls holes that will be surplus to requirements.

It's on the bench! Update soon

Yes - all bodes very well

Yes - I hear it (nice song BTW ) Something we should have asked earlier - can you hear anything like it when it's played the same but not plugged in?

And all being well, should be able to get to it in the next few days

Perfect answer then - hang the Encore on the wall to look at but play the HB

Well they certainly don't fix cars!* *In my personal experience. Your experience may, of course, differ.

Thanks It's my lapsed AA membership card and folks are very welcome to try to get the AA to come out to them on the back of it. The AA certainly didn't come out to me when it was current... Andy (#abandonedbytheAAUKt**ts)

I generally recess them and use stainless steel countersunk washers from ACCU : https://www.accu.co.uk/search-uk?query=countersunk+wahers&page=1

OK - found it. A 'quick and dirty' way of finding and sorting high spots in frets and also negating a 'ski-jump'. Warning This is NOT the way a pro-luthier would do it and, because it doesn't involve re-crowning and re-polishing the frets and other important stuff, it is merely intended as a quick fix on your own bass and at your own risk. Also not great if you string bend on your bass (most of us don't). Don't do this on someone else's bass or any particularly valuable one!!! 1. Quick and Dirty way of finding and tackling high spots on frets Use the straight part of an old credit card to use as a 'rocker'. Put the straight edge over 3 frets (use both hands...my other hand here is holding the camera) and does it rock? If it does, then it indicates a high spot at that string position for the middle fret of the three. Do this next to each string for that middle-of-the-three fret and repeat all the way up the board. Normally, when I'm not holding a camera, I would be holding the other side of the card with the other hand and just gently applying pressure on either side. Make a note of any high spot on a simple chart: You must be using the straight part of the card edge and not where it starts curving at the corners and also the edge must be covering only three frets at a time. As the frets start closing up, just use the shorter edge to make sure you're still only covering 3 frets: On a bass, for the first few frets, a credit card isn't long enough. Anything straight and thin will do! : Note, by the way, that you can't check the 1st fret (rare that this is an issue if the nut is cut properly) Next - on the frets where there is a high spot, mark the top of the fret with a non-permanent sharpie: Then take an emery board nail file (most supermarkets, Boots, etc): Use your finger to apply pressure and file gently back and forth in the direction of the fret and where the high spot was under that particular string. The sharpie line disappearing will show you if you're filing in the right place which only needs to be under the actual string that you marked an 'X' against on your plan. A bit either side is OK but don't stray to another string's position unless that was also marked as high. THE PHOTO BELOW IS ILLUSTRATIVE. WHEN YOU DO THIS BIT, POP A STRIP OF MASKING TAPE EITHER SIDE OF THE FRET TO PROTECT THE FRETBOARD IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY ANGLE THE EMERY BOARD. Check frequently with the credit card until it doesn't rock anymore THEN STOP! If you have a whole fret that appears to be high, first check that it is seated properly on the fretboard. If it isn't, tap it lightly along the fret with a hammer and recheck. If it's still high, then use the emery board, potentially along the whole fret - but check with the credit card at each string position frequently so you don't overdo it. The fret top will be slightly flat where you've levelled it. On a bass, Quick and Dirty says don't worry about that - I would defy anybody who says they can hear an intonation difference (although you can on a 6 string electric). Also the fret top will be slightly scratched. But the scratches will be along the fret direction and shouldn't give a problem. If it worries you, a fingernail buffer will polish those out to a decent extent (what's a fingernail buffer? Ask wife/partner/sister/mother...they will be in the same area as the emery nail boards) 2. Quick and Dirty reduction from a 'ski jump' to a 'gentle ski slope' (sometimes referred to as a fall-away) What is a 'ski jump'? It is where the upper frets, restrained by the neck pocket bolts, end up at an angle to the rest of the neck (which is pulled up by the string tension). It is sometimes just the last couple of frets, but often will affect all frets that sit over the neck pocket. The symptoms are when the bass has a decently moderate action but you still have a buzz coming from the very top frets. BUT FIRST - a repeat of the warning: Don't do this on someone else's bass or any particularly valuable one!!! THIS SECTION WOULD BE BEST DONE BY SOMEONE A BIT MORE EXPERIENCED AND, IN ANY CASE, ONLY SHOULD BE DONE IF YOU CAN BE SURE YOU HAVE HIGH UPPER FRETS Purchase a cheap 2-sided diamond steel sharpening stone. Something like this from Amazon. A cheap one like this isn't going to last long but will be fine for this task: Pop a bit of masking tape over the neck pickup to stop any filings sticking to the poles Taking care that the far end isn't anywhere near scratching the bass top, lay the stone on the fretboard where you want the ski slope to start from (usually the 1st fret from where the body joins the neck). Using both hands, gently move the stone 'rough side' down over the frets in this direction. It is easier if someone is holding the bass to stop is moving: Apply light pressure for the lower frets with your left hand and slightly higher pressure with your right hand on the upper frets. You should see the tops of the upper frets flattening evenly along the length of the fret and the lower fret tops less so. Stop when the flattening of the upper frets is no more than 1mm wide. Turn the stone over to the 'fine' side (usually 1000grit) and repeat 5-6 times to take out some of the scratches. String it up and try it. If it needs some more, then just repeat And that, folks, is Andyjr1515's Quick and Dirty method.

There's a 'quick and dirty' way that can get you 2/3rds there with the minimum of equipment and, to be honest, skills. I've done a short tutorial somewhere...I'll see if I can find it when I get a moment

Yes - a well presented sequence and should, on most basses, get you down to a 'normal decent' action height. However, @roger has thrown the gauntlet not only onto the floor, but down the spiral staircase of the castle's turret He's asking about 'the lowest possible action'. And for that, the fretwork has to be as near perfect as possible. So - it all depends on the bass, the strings and, more importantly, the playing style but - my definition of a very low action on a 4 string bass (measured with a capo on the 1st fret to eliminate the nut and measured from fret top to bottom of string at the 12th fret) is around 0.75mm on the G and around 1mm for the other three. Much lower and the amplitude of the actual string vibration in places is likely to greater than the gap between the string and the fret and the bass will sound more like a sitar. To achieve that, then, as @Bigguy2017 says, the frets have to be 'rocker level flat' at all 164 positions and there needs to be no 'ski jump' at the upper frets whatsoever. In fact, for very low actions, the final 6-7 frets should ideally be levelled to give a moderate fall-away. The reason for this is that under string tension, the neck bends upwards...but the length from the beginning of the neck pocket can't bend - and so it becomes more like a rising ramp (hence the ski-jump term). Because the actions on basses tend to be higher than on guitars, most basses won't suffer this - but for low actions, they might well do so.

^ Absolutely this ^

That would be good. Your videos are satisfyingly informative (and many on YT are not! )