Andyjr1515

I've just had a pm from one of our much-respected... who makes make-before-break rotaries! I'll update after a couple more discussions

Yes - he has a couple of basses with rotaries fitted. That said, I will be sounding him out over using a lever instead...lets face it, it was exactly that issue that they were designed for

Hmmm...that's a thought... Thanks - I'll investigate that

Hi I think I know the answer to this but, just in case I've missed something: I've been asked to set up a VERY simple switching system (no pots at all) - just a three position rotary switch: ON (no capacitor) - OFF - ON (with capacitor) where in both cases, the ON is direct wired pickup-to-jack via the rotary switch But, am I right in assuming that turning to or from the OFF is going to *Pop* through a live amp? I know for, say, a 5 way lever switch, there is a 'make before break' designed into the contact wiper. The question is - if this is a rotary switch, is there anyway of eliminating or at least reducing the *Pop* ? Thanks in advance

Well...it's not for the faint-hearted... The basics are - most of the time - relatively straightforward. But there a lot of things that need to be done for it to be successful and many of those need a bit of practice. One of the big challenges (there are many) is successfully profiling the board. If the bass is 'dispensable' then certainly feasible - but I wouldn't practice on anything important

Yes - I agree with this. Going to thicker strings can be an issue if the nut slots aren't wide enough, but going narrower, within the realms of 'normal' gauges, is very unlikely to give an issue.

Phew!

A small job that @vmaxblues has been patiently waiting for, while I tinkered on the dark side with the ebony 6-string and Happy Jack's Lull necks. The patiently awaited job was the refretting @vmaxblues defretted neck on his lovely Warwick. The neck had, in the past, been de-fretted and the slots lined with maple veneer - a nice job, albeit with the evidence of the tang chips at the slot edges that are unavoidable when removing frets. But well finished and sound. The temptation with fretting a lined board is always to simply use the veneer as the saw markers. The problem with a defretted-lined neck, however, is that the fret slot is usually a teeny bit wider than the veneer used to line it and so you can get slight inaccuracies - not a problem when used as a fretless, but important if it's going to return to a fretted state. So out comes the Stewmac fret calculator, sharp-nosed punch and my long steel rule to mark the fret positions at the treble and bass sides: Usually for a slotted fretboard, I would use my G&W Mitre Block - but that is only usable for unfitted boards. For this one, I had to go back to old-school methods. Using the end face of a radius block to keep the fretting saw blade vertical, I positioned the block and blade so that both punch dots disappeared under the blade width: To check the depth, I frequently checked using a tool I use to clear dust from the fret slots, now marked with a thin pen line at a depth a smidgen deeper than the fret tang: After slotting all of the positions (and yes - some of the veneer strips were indeed a teeny bit out of line) I rechecked both bass and treble sides with the steel rule and fret calculator sheet. And then time for re-fretting. @vmaxblues was happy to have my favourite fretwire - EVO Gold - which was cut to oversize length and detanged at each end. The wire I use comes in a coil and so already has the all important radius. Then - with a teeny line of wood glue along the tang - hammer one side, hammer the other, hammer the middle which, because of the radius, splays out the barbs on the tang underneath the fretboard surface and locks the frets in place. I then clamp a radius block on the fret while I move onto the next: And done, ready for levelling and recrowning: I levelled the frets with my long levelling beam and then recrowned the flattened tops with progressively fine emery and micro-web wrapped round a crowning file: Lastly, rounded the fret ends, filled the edge slots with epoxy mixed with wenge sanding dust and polished it all up: And, at last, sent it back to him

It is a fabulous pickup IMHO. With the right cap on, it can certainly get into the right muddy spectrum

Nova Guitar Parts - Andre Passini - they are excellent! I used them on @Jus Lukin 's build here: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/442299-finished-its-a-bass-jim But don't search on ebay - some folks in China have knocked them off including the logo! Contact Andre directly through his Nova Guitar Parts Facebook page - he will ship directly from Brazil but that is pretty quick and painless.

Love it. Looks great!

That's good info, @Owen

By the way - and apols for the slight diversion... and yes, this is a drop tuner on a 4 string - but it's not often you see or hear a drop tuner used in the middle of a number rather than between numbers. There's a couple of examples in this short piece that Matt Marriott included when he demo'd @mhoss32 's preamp prototype fitted in my Camphor single cut. Feel free to skip this interruption to the main topic, but if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/CJBOxnRMdFo

I think there's a practicality decision as much as a desirability one. Yes - I can see why you might want to drop to bottom A musically (maybe not as often as a drop D on a 4 string, but still useful in some instances). But the low B on a standard long scale 5-er already tends to flop around on, what often feels like, the very edge of buzz-free playability. And so, unless the B string was at an unusually high action height, a low E would be even more on the edge. It would certainly be a challenge to tune it...

Brilliant! Love it. The Lull looks and sounds good

One happy customer = one very happy modder

Wow - that's a new on me!

With the Psilos, the through neck had the angled ramp incorporated. We couldn't hide the block like @Kiwi (lovely job, by the way ) because the body was only 25mm thick! : The judgement/hope was that the block would 'wrap round' the player and therefore not be in the way. And to our great relief, that's what it does

Praise indeed! Thanks, Silvia

And it's done Slimmed Lull fretted neck: Same width and profile AJR fretless neck: Fully tuned and playable: to fully tuned and playable: in: (Of which at least 6 minutes was removing and fitting the strings) Private AJR1515 reporting back to Colonel@Happy Jack : Mission complete, sah!

Love this, @alittlebitrobot There's some nice ideas and it looks good too! I think the use of the electric plug pins has a touch of genius about it! And welcome back! You did indeed used to be a regular Yes, @Daz39 is quite right - with the Psilos, @TheGreek and I managed to hide the controls, tuners, magnetic pickups (it has magnetic and piezo) and even part of the fretboard

I think we're on the final furlong. The machine screw inserts are fitted for the fretless neck: And that just leaves the finish on the plain maple neck and headstock back/sides for the fretless (tru-oil slurry and buffed - a relatively quick job) and fitting the string retaining bars on both. Those will be in this kind of position for both necks. The original string tree screw holes will be filled as well as possible with dye-coloured filler but will not be able to be made invisible:

With the maple plug cut flush and the neck lined up, time to drill for the last insert. With the 3 machine screws nice and tight and a final check for line up, I use a 5mm brad point fed through the ferrule to make a centre point and then use that as my reference drilling with a 6mm brad point on the drill-press ready to fit the final insert. And all four done. Just got to agree with @Happy Jack where to fit the string retaining bar and that's the fretted neck pretty much done. Inserts for the fretless neck next

Yup - with the pickguard for me And looks a decent shape to my eye...

For three of the four screw holes, they were close enough for me to drill out the original screw holes with the larger holes needed for the screw inserts. However, one would have left some of the original screw hole there and so the better thing for that one was to drill it out and plug. For inserts, dowel isn't strong enough and so the better thing is to use a plug-cutter and cut a piece of rock maple: This one will be drilled for the insert last. The other three went in OK. Note - if anyone is ever fitting this type - that although they have an allen-key hex, it is still a lot safer to use a screw and nut with a spanner to insert them and leave the relatively weak hex socket just for removal if that is ever needed: With the plug chiselled flush, the neck was fitted with the three machine screws to ensure the neck was straight (using the top dots as the guide): Then tomorrow, I can just pop a brad-pointed drill in the final hole and give it a tap to mark the centre point, then drill that out to take the final insert. Then, of course, repeat the whole process for the fretless neck