Andyjr1515

So, Mr Bond....do you cut the red wire or the blue wire? Changing the electrics round in a pre-wired loom takes a bit of concentration

Now the frets are done and the fretboard cleaned up a bit, it makes you appreciate the quality of the original build. How's these for inlays? I think we're on the home straight. Stuart's preference is to retain the three-way switch instead of the Seymour Duncan's STC-3P EQ's blend and also to go for separate treble and bass pots rather than using the supplied stacked pot. The nice thing is that this allows exactly the same control configuration as the original - and also we can use the original's wooden knobs The knobs were all drilled for grub screws but no grubscrews were in the holes. Normal knob grubscrews were too large but I found some old stratocaster bridge saddles in my bits box. Cut down with a dremel cutting disc, the height adjustment grubscrews from those were perfect!: The replacement 100k centre-detent pots for splitting the tone controls arrived this morning, so I should be able to start the electronics later today...

I've spent some time levelling and re-crowning the frets. They were, as the technical description goes, 'all over the place'. Nothing hugely out and nothing loose, but high spots - mostly middle to treble or middle to bass on about 1/3 of the frets. After levelling the high spots with a diamond plate, I then recrowned with a Hosco crowning file, then ditto with progressively finer micro-web down to 12000 grit. They look nice and shiny but the main thing is that they are level and round-topped : Next is to clean and re-oil the fretboard. In the meantime, the EQ has arrived

Bit of tidying up to do, but this is the above side: ...and this is the other side: Neither bear super-close examination - the light catches the grain differently to the neck so in some lights they look lighter and others they look darker, and without stripping the whole neck and refinishing it is difficult to hide the join - but it is nevertheless a great improvement on the original. Waiting for the EQ to arrive but today I should be able to at least finish the other bits and pieces ready for the final re-assembly. I'm sure I've forgotten something, but today's tasks will include drilling and countersinking the back cover screw holes, checking the fret levels, polishing the frets and cleaning the fretboard. All being well, end of this week should see this on its way back to Stuart

I love the thru-neck on the back shot. Great finish. Excellent work, Andy! ((one of) the other) Andy

This is probably as close as I can get. The edges will soften off when I apply the clear finish so I don't think it will be any longer the first thing your eye is drawn to! Now just got to do the other side Andy

Top job. Beautiful looking bass. Soft V is my favourite too - for bass and 6 string electric. Was never sure why it went out of fashion for the latter - it has the depth for chords and the slickness for lead...

Still have to chisel and sand this flush, stain it as close to the neck colour as possible and varnish, but the first side is in :

Cross-grain maple.....cross-grain maple....where have I used that before? Although I have some maple veneer, the cutout is a couple of mm deep and veneer is only 0.6mm thick. Yes, I could fill it but it would be better if I could remember where I've seen some thicker stuff. Maybe a head-stock plate? GOT IT! You use cross-grain maple to strengthen the back join of an acoustic: I had a rummage around in my bits box and found this: And it's the right width. And there's a bit of spare if I cock one of them up. It's been a good day!

And the second infill is off: This one is hiding a slightly bigger gap between the side and the neck but it still should be possible to minimise (or at very worst, reduce) the visual impact.

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469279560' post='3097150'] It's definitely one of those questions eh? [/quote] Oh, yes....oh, so yes....

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469279222' post='3097148'] I'm not quite sure why, other than the difficulty of doing it, but as far as I know, semi acoustics generally aren't shielded. Anyone got a view? I only asked, as I have a vague memory of a guitarist mate of mine having an Ibanez semi from the eighties, I have an even vaguer memory of that having a sort of tinfoil bath around the controls (on the inside of course). Having said that, I fully accept that I'm not as young as I was, and memory can be a finicky mistress. In short, I might be talking total sh*t..... [/quote] Shielding control chambers is a common thing to do, Stuart. Some people use conductive paint and others, me included, use copper foil. This is Kert's Camphor bass: ...but to work, it's got to be a full Faraday cage - it has to be earthed and the cover is also covered and earthed. That's why I say it would be very difficult to do that on a semi that - as with most traditional semi's - don't have a control chamber and hatch. Not sure how you would get any conductive shielding into the body cavity. Maybe the Ibanez had a Les-Paul like chamber? Anyway, though - decent question. Anyone know?

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469279010' post='3097146'] Looking great Andy. I have to admire your thoroughness, attention to detail and craftsmanship. I take my hat off to you, I really do. What do you reckon should go on there in place of the binding then? [/quote] It's a very nice bass and worth the effort I have some maple veneer that I am going to try. It will always look like an infill but, if I can continue the heel black line too, hopefully it will look more like it's supposed to be there...

[quote name='Chris Sharman' timestamp='1469275854' post='3097114'] There are no other words for it but that is a beautiful looking bass. Andy, your work never ceases to amaze me. It is also a great example of the phrase "the gap between genius and madness is measured only by success" [/quote] Well, you're probably right about the madness bit....

After scoring all the way round to minimise wood or varnish chipping, I heated the ivoroid with a soldering tip set on cool at around 200c and then eased the soft plastic away from the backing wood with a fine chisel: Eventually, the whole piece came away. Starting to look better already!

...and here's the hatch, with the rebate stained dark brown: I've had a look and I think it will need to be screwed in place. Having said that, it is a thick piece of wood so I will be able to drill a countersink and bring the screwheads down below the surface of the cover. That's the next job and, while I'm waiting for the EQ to arrive, I'm going to have a good look at that rather bodgy neck joint ivoroid strip: It will need a strip of some sort, but...well, let's see...

I've glued the rebate strips for the cover this morning: I think it's probably too heavy a cover to be able to attach with magnets but I'll have an experiment. The other thing I've had a look at is the humbucker. W1_Pro would like to add a split coil option to the humbucker. Assuming that we will initially try the present pickups, at the moment the humbucker is wired as 2 conductor only. However, this is what it looked like at the back: Six solder tabs plus an earth tab (there's a bit of shielding, Stuart!). The red is the hot so pretty sure the middle two bridged ones are earth and the two coils are joined by the black wire with a coil tap provision leading off the 1st coil 'out' (5th tab from the left). The tap wasn't connected and there was something a bit odd about the tone pot connections (neither tone worked when I tried it out on the initial stringing trial) so I've gone back to a basic approach of four wires plus earth: Red is hot, purple the finish of coil 1, joins to B&W of coil 2 ending in white, the coil 2 ground. The multimeter seems to tally so I think that's right

We fitted one to FuNkShUi's single cut camphor bass (ref Build Diaries). As a builder, I was very, very impressed - very easy to fit and very sure and efficient mechanism. Kert (FuNkShUi) has now gigged it extensively - views in terms of road tested performance, Kert?

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1469261612' post='3096978'] Basschat Bingo!! [/quote] I should add - before any other b****r inevitably will - "with the possible exception of a piezo bridge..."

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469252684' post='3096934'] So, my question would be- and please feel free to tell me if I'm getting ahead of myself here-Does the process of chambering have any implications (planned or otherwise) for the resonance of the guitar? [/quote] Now there's a hornets nest! In my view, not at all unless it's to the degree where it is essentially a semi acoustic...

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469252522' post='3096933'] One thing that has occurred to me Andy, should there be some shielding in there somewhere? I just wonder that if it's absent, which it seems to be, could that have been the cause of my original buzz issues? [/quote] I'm not quite sure why, other than the difficulty of doing it, but as far as I know, semi acoustics generally aren't shielded. Anyone got a view? When I tried it out I didn't get excessive buzz at all, but I would have thought the single coil in the neck would have been the main culprit rather than any of the wiring runs and other extraneous stuff... I suggest we see how the present arrangement fares with the EQ. Because we now have a hatch, any subsequent changes if necessary become much more straightforward

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1469189899' post='3096458'] Scary Stuff m8! Nice job though:) Wonder how he got those pots in there first time round? Ian [/quote] It's normal semi-acoustic stuff to be honest - basically through the f-hole, pulled through either with string or surgical tube. If you were doing a one-off, it's very fiddly but do-able (I've changed all the electrics on my 335 clone in the past) - but it's a right PITA if you want to experiment a bit and chop and change!

WARNING - Turn away if this offends your sensibilities! I'm going to cut an access hatch in the back of a carved semi-acoustic. There's a second real warning, actually. The trouble with forums is that sometimes the 'old hands' come across to beginners as "this is what you should do and this how you should do it". [u]Most of the stuff I do is very much, "Blimey...don't do it the way I do it! Find someone who knows what they're doing!"[/u] Below I will be showing how I cut a hatch in the back of a carved or curved hollow guitar. This is generally [u]not[/u] recommended and is highly risky to the bass's health if you have never done it before and don't apply strict checks and precautions. Stuart may well be experimenting in the future with different pickups, etc, and so would find it very helpful to have an access hatch. As described earlier, I've done this on a curved back semi before, using the piece that has been cut out as the hatch so the profile and colour completely match - much nicer than a flat bit of plastic! : Below is how I tackled the same with Stuart's precious custom (gulp) First is cutting a paper template and making sure it - and the retaining strips I will be adding to the sides of the hole - don't show through the f hole: I'm going to use a Dremel with a 1.5mm router bit in the Dremel router base. TBH, this is the ONLY thing I've ever used this base for (I normally use the excellent precision router base supplied by Stewmac and others), simply because it has provision for a template guide-ring: You can also see, above, the 10mm guide ring offset for the MDF template I have measured around the paper Template cut out and sanded smooth, stuck in position with heavy duty 2 sided tape and also clamped - trust me, you REALLY don't want this to move!!! Also I find it important, with the bit fully retracted, to carefully take the base around the template and workout how I am going to be able to hold it, where the base needs pressure to ensure it is consistently against the template side and fully vertical. I am going to be doing multiple passes of this - it has to be following EXACTLY the same path every time otherwise the resulting gap between the hatch and the body will - at best - be uneven and greater than 1.5mm : And then with the bit only slightly proud, the first pass: Scary the once, but I've got to do this another ten times in exactly the same way! Eventually, I have first breakthrough: At this point I reduce the increments of depth - I want a sliver to be holding the hatch so it doesn't drop in, catching the bit spinning at 20000rpm! Because ideally I want to razor-saw the last bridge: Done....big PHEW!!!

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1469129009' post='3096041'] The bridge and tailpiece look spot on! Matching gold knobs required... [/quote] Thanks, Norris In the interests of managing expectations, the SD EQ comes with black knobs which we will probably stick with

[quote name='W1_Pro' timestamp='1469118333' post='3095943'] That is amazing. The tailpiece looks like it's always been there. Just out of curiosity Andy, hows the action? [/quote] I've just got it set roughly at the moment at my usual starting point of 2.4mm on G and 2.7mm on E at the 17th fret. At that height no buzz. The trussrod is very responsive, by the way, allowing very accurate relief setting. I'll do a proper check of the fret levels, etc, when the major surgery is complete.