Andyjr1515

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1475433434' post='3145887'] Now - we talked about this.... It's very simple, you just need a few modifications to your house. I must apologise - I didn't put two and two together and work out that you were the creator of that stunning peizo fretless in the build diary... Dave [/quote] Trouble is, I think MrsAndyjr1515 would just need to make a few modifications to my face No problem ref putting two and two together. You probably thought the builder of those basses was a grey haired, short, bespectacled old git. I can see why you wouldn't have recognised the tall, young, tanned Adonis you saw before you this morning Thanks for talking through the magic of double basses, Dave. It was a great thrill to be able to try one for real !

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475432102' post='3145869'] And thank you, I will be seeking advice later about finishing when I get that far. Shed is now somewhat clearer and my 'long lost' no5 plane re-appeared. [/quote] Excellent - bring it on

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1475427809' post='3145833'] I'll let you off just this once ;-) [/quote] Phew.... In case you change your mind, I'm the young, handsome, tall slim guy...you won't be able to miss me

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475427725' post='3145832'] After some pencil, paper and brain effort I think I have the solution. In the Gibson circuit, at switch position 4, the neck output signal (lower pickup in Gibson diagram, 0.05uf capacitor) is routed through through the RC combo then to the jack tip. At the same time the neck output signal is also routed through the inductor to ground. (Gibson circuit has the bridge pickup on as well as neck position 4). In the modified Andyjr Mk1 circuit above , the neck signal is fed into the RC combo for positions 4 , 5 and 6. These then provide a connection to jack tip' and the various inductor tap connections then to ground. [/quote] Brilliant! Thank you so much, 3below. That does indeed look right to me

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1470310067' post='3104957'] Go anywhere near that beautiful piece of timber with red stain and I will be forced to hunt you down and kill you! [/quote] So....am I forgiven, JPJ?

I think this is going to be OK :

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1475404399' post='3145614'] I have your king, I will release him to you in exchange for a black fretless version of this bass [/quote] Hmmmm....black fretless.....now there's a thought

[quote name='Chris Sharman' timestamp='1475411814' post='3145690'] AAAARRRRGGGHH! I can't beleive this is on my doorstep and has completely passed me by. must pay more attention to stuff in future! Hope you all have a good day! [/quote] B****r! I assumed you'd spotted it, Chris! I popped in for an hour this morning on the way past on the A52. Great to meet you all again / for the first time, folks. Some great basses and some very impressive playing Lot of organisation involved in these sorts of things - well done to all involved Got back home and the first thing MrsAndyjr1515 said when I walked in the door was, "Absolutely NOT!" Andy

While I recover from all that thinking stuff, back onto a few safer practical pursuits. I joined some 3mm mahogany sheet for the control plate cover. To get the exact shape, I used the paper impression approach: Cut that out, traced round it on the mahogany, cut it close with a band saw then sanded it to fit: Also smoothed out a dink I found on the neck: What I like about strong colour dyes and inks is that, even though that area had already had a decent number of coats of tru-oil on top, re-staining a patch covers really well: The neck is going to be finished as a "slurry and buff" tru-oil satin. The body, however, is going to be glossed. I added some purple spirit stain to a little of the polyurethane varnish to take a bit of the redness off the top and gave it a first wipe: While that's drying, I'll get back to circuits and the tortuous process of thinking again

Going a bit cross-eyed To be honest, I think this is completely wrong - the CR bit looks like it's self-contained and self-defeating I'm going to pop down to the Double Bass Bash and come back to it afresh later!:

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475351907' post='3145352'] Yes is the short answer. Longer answer is, put the parallel CR combination in front of the '4' connection on switch, neck pickup. This gives CR into switch into L then ground. Your circuit is easier to follow than the Gibson one. [/quote] OK. I think I've got the concept. Thanks 3below The Wikipedia article is very good....fascinating is the history. How these early physicists worked out what they did is amazing. In the Gibson circuit, the CR bit of the circuit appears to be there also In position 3, neck pickup only?Presumably it doesn't affect anything until there's also an earthed inductance coil in the circuit?

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475350387' post='3145331'] At a first run through that appears to match what you specify Although being somewhat 'rusty' with my Electronics I am figuring that the additional resistor and capacitor at the tail end of Gibson circuit (0.22K, .02uF?) are part of a parallel CR series L notch filter. Figure 8 [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit#Other_configurations"]https://en.wikipedia..._configurations[/url] gives the circuit and relevant maths. Are these extra 'extra resistor and capacitor' you are thinking of dispensing with? If so you may find you need to keep them. I may have also missed something obvious in working through this. Any proper Electronics /Elec Engineers please confirm or correct the ageing Physicist who ironically is currently teaching active and passive filters. [/quote] Ah....that makes sense. I don't really understand how notch filters work. I'll look up that ref in Wikipedia. Question is, whether it is possible to put those components in the right place with a two pole switch...

Anyone any good with circuits? One of the early Gibson versions with a 4-way rotary is this: The choke/notch filter I'm going to use has 4 inputs - full primary coil, 1/2 primary, full secondary coil, 1/2 secondary. That got me thinking:[list] [*]With the pickup I have and the choke I'm using, I have no idea what it is going to sound like ref the position 4 of neck pickup with choke [*]The only dial I can get hold of is a 6 position [*]I have ordered the 'normal' 3 pole 4 position rotary switch, but also have a 2 pole 6 position switch [*]My thoughts are, is it possible with the 2 pole 6 position rotary - and dispensing with the resistor and extra capacitor (I will have a fairly well matched bridge pickup that will have the same pot and cap values as the neck) - to get three of the four options from the one choke, ie 1= neck only; 2=both ; 3=bridge only; 4=neck with full primary choke; 5=neck with 1/2 primary choke; 6=neck with full secondary choke? [/list] I drew this out and it was so straightforward I'm presuming I've [b]completely[/b] missed something? Ignore the variation at the bottom left hand side - the bridge arrangement would be identical to the neck arrangement top left.

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1475260448' post='3144594'] Just so good, want want WANT! [/quote] Well - for a mere king's ransom....

I had a length of green luminlay in my bits drawer. As Pete already uses that as side dots in his fretlessThumb Tribute, I thought it would be worth putting it in for the side dots of this one. I use a 3mm brad wood drill to drill a hole a couple of mm deep; drop of cyano on the end of the luminlay stick; push in: Then I just cut off flush with a razor saw and tidy up with a single-edged razor blade. Here it is after tidying up: I've got just a small dint to sand out of the back of the neck and at the upper neck join, then it's pretty much ready for the wipe-on varnish coats And now I can't procrastinate any more - got to find the appropriate bits for the varitone selector switch and choke!

We're all waiting (almost) patiently for the finished pics We all have very high expectations based on what we've seen so far

That's looking really good. Looking forward to seeing some detailed pics of the finished bass. Any more details of your methods?

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475179651' post='3143873'] Quality of pictures sets new higher bar for build accounts In other news Gibson apparently discontinue SG basses and Andyjr now steps up to meet UK demand. [/quote] Thanks

In pictures. Drilled centre hole with 1mm router bit: Then the 6mm brad bit: This left hole in new position and sliver of old dot: Winkled that out and fixed dot in with epoxy mixed with ebony dust: Let dry, sand and: That's better!

Done - I'll post some shots once I'm off the phone to those t***s at vodafone....

No....it's got to be fixed. Now I've looked properly in the daylight, it's more like 1/2mm. What the eye sees is not as much the angle as the doubling of the effect of the gap between the edge of the squiffy dot and the 11th fret and the gap between the edge of the dot and the 12th fret which, of course, becomes a 1mm difference. I will drill a 1mm hole in the correct position in the dot itself, then use that as the guide for the Brad bit, dig out the excess MOP and fill the remaining gap with epoxy mixed with ebony dust. I'm grateful to sblueplanet for pointing it out. It would have been irritating if I hadn't spotted it until the frets had been levelled, polished and ready to go!

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1475128981' post='3143216'] What is the world coming to, 1/4 mm error. Gibson managed much more than that with my SG bass .The bridge alignment was / is out by 2mm at least. How the bass escaped with the obvious uneven string spacing on the neck is anyone's guess. Supertone adjustable saddles sorted that one out. Looking good [/quote] Mmmm....but you know when you're decorating and you spot a bubble in the wallpaper.... Trouble is, now I've seen it it will bug me. I have a spare dot. I won't rush into it, but I think I know how I could re-drill in the correct place and make the fix invisible....

[quote name='sblueplanet' timestamp='1475099171' post='3143134'] I've been looking at the dot inlays on the 12 fret position and they look kinda squint in the pic above. Is it just me? [/quote] Hadn't noticed that but just measured it and yes, you're right. Not as much as it looks on that shot but one of the two dots is about 1/4mm out. Not having a 6mm Forstner bit, I used progressively greater size Brad bits from 3mm to 6mm. I reckon one of them must have caught the edge of the hole and skewed it. In hindsight, I should have come down in bit size not up....the punch hole locations were spot on. I've also since found out that you can actually get a 6mm Forstner - I think it's the smallest obtainable. I probably will leave it be, what with Pete's squiffy eyes an' all . I could set a block in as it's the twelfth position but I think that would look a bit odd

Not much extra progress. Got distracted by a bookshelf that fell off the wall, flinging all the books onto the floor and I fixed it good and proper and it fell off the wall again, flinging all the books onto the floor MrsAndyjr1515 was suitably impressed by my skills and effort as you can imagine What I have done is darkened the body neck through to take out a pinkish hue: ...and scraped off the red dye from the maple veneer under the fretboard:

The fretwire and fretboard dots arrived I used a brad wood drill bit to drill the 6mm holes for the dots. Not the ideal thing to use but the smallest forstner I had was 10mm. Pretty much got away with it - just one bit of chipping on the ebony that was filled with epoxy mixed with ebony dust: It really does work a treat - once sanded it's pretty impossible to work out which fret it was!: For the frets, I'm sure there are better ways of doing them, but the first thing I usually do is make sure the slots are clear and that they are deep enough at the sides where I've radiused the board: I then relieve the top of the slot just a touch with a triangular needle file: I cut the fretwire oversize and buy in coils so it is already at a tighter radius than my fretboard. I put a tiny bead of titebond along the tangs then hammer one side, the other side, then the middle to make sure the tangs lock into the wood. The squeeze-out of glue tells me if the fret's seated properly, but needs wiping off the board with a damp cloth before it sets. Before I trim the ends (I forgot to take a photo so this is already trimmed) I clamp a radius block onto the board to make sure they are fully seated while the titebond cures: And there it is, trimmed ready for edge sanding, board oiling and fret level and polish : As always, thanks for looking, folks