Andyjr1515

Wow - that's special!

But back to @Stub Mandrel's topic. The first bass I bought myself was this lovely red Ibanez I bought for a song from a guy in Gloucester: And my first pimp-yer-bass attempt was on this one and was also my first attempt at veneering. Admittedly, beginners' luck! And it was this that led to me having a go at all the other stuff As a post-script, I eventually sold this to a Nepalese Buddhist who played in a Heavy Metal band in Luton and who was 'spiritually drawn' to the bass. A niche market, admittedly

Hmmm....consider that design stolen

It was when @TheGreek told me he also wanted the cross-section to be like the cross section of a contact-lens that I thought 'WTfffffff?????' I think we got close on that too. And it was an inspirational request from @TheGreek ...

Great, great choice, @funkle - @Chopthebass's builds are consistently superb...and he has a special Wal interest too

Almost certainly will be fine - and on the strap, absolutely.

Worth dropping a note in the 'Repairs and Technical' section. There are probably metal hobbyists amongst us as there are wood hobbyists like me - and they may well be happy to knock one up for the cost of a pint!

Here's a pic of the components: For your needs, then the main slider would want to be much shorter (on the Gibson, the pull tab is behind the raised bridge with the slide plate under the bridge - for a Fender, you would want it the other way round and in front of the bridge)...but the basic idea of the mechanism would be the same

Found it! It's the Gibson one - fitted to EB-0's and the like. Very simple mechanism - pull the tab and it applies the mute and push it back, the two springs return the mute back off the strings. I would have thought someone with a basic metal workshop could knock one up of a similar principle that would fit under your cover?

I'm flattered! ...but it's a bit out of my realm, to be honest That said, I'm sure I've come across something on an old bass in the distant past that had something similar. The video above about the (excellent) bassmute said that the original Fender covers used to have mutes in them - and maybe that's what I'm remembering - and those are, presumably, 'always on'? But I'm sure the thing I have in my mind was switchable. I'll have a dig around and try to remember what it was on/how it worked. Ref magnets, I think that might be problematic. I think such magnets would have to be pretty strong - and that seems to me to be something you would want to avoid so close to the pickups and strings (and you certainly wouldn't want your cover to become magnetised). I'll have a dig around in my memory banks for whatever it was I've seen in the past, but don't hold your breath...I generally can't even remember what I did an hour ago. What were we talking about?

One thing just to be aware of is that, unlike most humbuckers, the coils in the Stingray pickup are wired in parallel and use the preamp for the tone and boost in output. That's not a problem because it is a 4 conductor pickup but you will probably want to wire it up in series if you are going to go passive to get a 'normal' output level. There's an interesting article in the Seymour Duncan blog here https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/the-history-of-the-music-man-stingray-bass-pickup-1976-2021 I did a conversion to passive on @PaulS's Sterling where he asked me to also add a reverse P at the neck. I had to wire up the coils in series to get anywhere near the P output as, in its standard parallel configuration, the Stingray/Sterling pickup had a surprisingly low resistance.

No more or less than if you were using standard woodscrews. As long as the inserts aren't at all proud of the heel bottom, they won't affect the angle.

There's this too - stated to be a Bartolini part - not sure where it is, though?? Payment in SGD - singapore? https://tymusiccenter.com/bartolini-50k-push-pull-pot

You can get linear 50k pots with a pushpulls on ebay to swop one of the other tones with.

Hi, Si A few pictures are worth a thousand Andyjr1515 words. For Happy Jack's Lull, I checked the bolt length and insert length first to make sure that the bolt would use all the threads in the insert: So that also gives me how deep a hole in the neck heel I need so that the bolt doesn't bottom before it's fully tight. Machine bolts don't have the 'flex' that wood screws have - the inserts have to be fully in line with the hole. I use a brad point of the body/ferrule hole size as a centre punch with the neck clamped in the correct position to mark where the centre point of the ferrule brad-point drill needs to be: The drill hole in the neck heel should be the same diameter as the widest part of the inner (usually tapered) cylinder of the insert's external thread. They should be inserted using a bolt and couple of nuts used as locknuts and a spanner. Even if the inserts have a hex slot DO NOT use an Allen key to insert them. Only use an Allen key if you need to take them out again: These above happen to be flanged inserts. Because the join needs to be flush, there is the added complication of having to create a rebate. Normally, I would use the flangeless ones...but still only insert them to the flush depth. You can go deeper, but need to allow for the longer bolts you will need to use to ensure that all of the internal thread is utilised. Hope this helps

An M4 insert is usually around 10mm long.

I use the ones without a flange and go just a gnat's deeper than flush. Just make sure that the hole it is going into is deep enough for the bolt you are going to use or you will discover the 'quick but brutal' way of removing inserts

Happens to me all the time Just to expand. It depends what you are using the router for but, basically: - If you are rounding, say, the edges of the body outline, you would use a top bearing bit and use the cut edge of the body as your template for the bearing to follow... - ...which is the same method that you mention for the truss rod slot, where the bearing is following the side of the neck blank - If you are fine-tuning the body outline from a rough shape cut, you would generally use a mdf or similar template and use a bottom-bearing bit to follow the template. Here, though, it is essential that you are only removing a couple of mm on each pass (general rule for all uses of routers) - for chambers, then again a template can be used but it is essential to hog out the bulk of the material with a Forstner bit or similar so that, again, the router bit is both captive with the bottom bearing and also the bit is removing very small depths of timber.

You really, really don't want to go freehand with a router unless you are very experienced in their use, @Smanth I am pretty experienced and I still wouldn't ever go freehand...probably because I am also experienced in what can and often does happen when you do

From a finished article and player's point of view, it's fine. I've played both basses and guitars with Richlite and they have all played, looked and felt good. From a builder's point of view - hmmm, it's in the category of 'jolly hard work'

Try the brass one first....

I know it's just one note on one string, but that is remarkably close. It is a teeny bit of treble that seems to be the missing link (whether enough to actually hear it is a different matter). The only thought I have in terms of the body is that I would have expected a mahogany body, if anything, to reduce the treble further. Might be an interesting experiment to fit a high mass bridge to the present donor body and see what difference that makes. My guess is that it would boost treble...