Andyjr1515

Just seen @Hellzero 's post...he said the same thing but a bit more politely

These sorts of things are part of the 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' so it's worth walking away from it for a day or two to let your sub-conscience work through it a bit. That bridge looks as cool as fu a cucumber. And, actually, you know the intonation positions for the strings you are using. If it was me, I'd just super glue them in position...

The Switchcraft jack sockets have gained their reputation for the grade and consistency of the spring steel they use. I have replaced a lot of standard jack sockets on my own instruments and other peoples in the last 10 years...but to my recollection, I have never had to replace a Switchcraft one. The barrel sockets are another matter...even the Switchcraft barrel sockets fail eventually. I don't have many pro players I do work for, so it's not a statistically sound example, but all of the ones I do often ask for stereo sockets to be fitted as @Hellzero mentions above. Whereas on cheapo jack sockets it is usually the spring of the hot contact that looses its flex and cause the failures, the other weak spot on a mono jack is the ground contact. On a mono, this is wholly reliant on the barrel keeping contact with the jack stem. Using a stereo jack, the earth is connected to a proper spring contact. They are also noticeably harder to pull out with the old 'standing on the cable' trick. So I think this is the principle that the Pure Tone's have adapted and added to. It would be interesting to know the spring-steel grade they use - if it's good, then it is probably a decent belt and braces for high usage players. That said I would probably personally stick with stereo Switchcrafts for that category, simply because they are a known and proven quantity.

It needs a few photos, but essentially: - the top wing nut is the string clamping nut - the hole in the inner cylinder is where the string will go eventually - turning the knob at the bottom anticlockwise raises that inner cylinder plus wing nut out of the tuner, until the string hole appears (around 10mm) - the string is threaded through the hole in the inner cylinder, pulled tight and firmly clamped by the wing nut - turning the knob at the bottom clockwise pulls the cylinder back into the tuner body, taking both sides of the string with it. In doing so, the pitch of the string rises. - you can see in the photo of the strung up headstock that the inner cylinders with the wing nuts are at different heights. This is because the different strings require different degrees of tension to get them to pitch with, in this case, the top E pulled the furthest down They are remarkably easy to string up and extremely precise in their tuning. Real 'blue-sky thinking'

Yes - I'm looking forward to that too. At the moment it's in the 'I have no idea yet' category

Hi @ADAM ROBERTS Just spotted this (and @LowMoFo and @ezbass and @Aidan63 's kind references ) Clearly I can only comment on the problem with the neck and not your dispute with the maker. It's a complicated one because there can be a number of issues that can cause buzzing on the upper frets - not least the impact of the unusual weather this spring and summer. A pro-player I know had his 20 year old mandolin suddenly develop a severe neck bow (and they don't have truss rods). It was unplayable. When he got it out of the case a few weeks later to show me, it was almost back to normal. From what I understand, your truss rod is 'maxed out' - it does adjust, but the adjuster won't tighten any further and you are not able to add any more back bow in the event that it needs it in the future. While I can only generalise, some immediate thoughts: - It may not, of course, need any more back bow in the future. If the original problem was weather related, then you have had the frets levelled at it's most extreme case (which is good). When the weather returns to more normal levels, it is more likely that the rod will need loosening rather than tightening Or - as it is a one-way truss rod, there may have been a compression in the neck wood that the adjuster nut or the anchor plate bear against. Sometimes this can't be fixed. But often it can. 'Maxing out' the adjuster simply means that the adjuster has reached the end of the thread cut into the rod. So the fix with washers, is simply to unscrew the adjuster, put a suitably sized washer or two over the rod and then put the adjuster back on. The washers then bear up against the neck wood a couple of mm or so (however thick they are) sooner than the adjuster would have done, which gives the adjuster a few more turns before it bottoms against the end of the trussrod thread. This is a pretty standard fix and a google should find you the size of washers you need (and I'm sure there will be many Youtube clips on how it works and how to do it). However - if there is a structural failure in the rod or the wood that the internal rod components bear against, then it would need a rod replacement or internal repair...which sometimes isn't possible and always isn't easy. Let's put it this way - if it is a neck pocket based on Fender dimensions, it is usually cheaper and easier to fit a new neck. I hope this helps. Whereabouts in UK are you? Have a peep at the 'sticky' post of 'Basschatters willing to help others' or some title like that. There may be someone close to you who can have a look and give you a view what the issue is and how to fix it. Andy

This is already !ooking really nice. Can't wait!

Those are the steinbergers. They used to fit them on the low cost epiphone firebirds. Now they cost a small fortune. But they are the best tuners I've ever used. Completely different mechanism to anything I've seen before And unprompted, J's asked for them to be fitted to this

Pretty sure this is the general shape we're going for:

Sorry...it's one of J's requirements. A firebird type with steinberger 'modern banjo' tuners

I'll be using my battle-worn home-made 15 foot radius dish to form the back curve of the walnut. I positioned the mould and made a couple of mahogany side pieces that will become the ends of the hollow wings and also the mating faces with the through-neck. The side pieces clearly also need curved bottoms (no, @SpondonBassed. Just no. ) These will also be used to press the thin walnut sheet down into the radius dish: They will sit here, either side of the through-neck, glued to the walnut sheet backs with bent sides ( back and sides acoustic-guitar style) and flat-bottomed ebony panels on top: I will be adding some acoustic-like cross braces to hold the shape of each wing's back. I also measured the depth of the intended chamber to ensure enough room for the jack and pots and then cut the tops of the two bearers to final size. The dotted blue line on the mould sides represents where the tops of the sides will sit, with the flat ebony sitting on top of the bearers and sides, either side of the visible through neck: This isn't the neck (or planned lamination), but gives an idea of what the top will look like:

It may well end up as one

The basic construction (although I'm designing this a bit on the hoof, so it might change) is going to be a full length and visible multi-laminate neck and then an ebony-topped semi-acoustic wing stuck on either side. The back and sides will be walnut, dished and bent as in an acoustic and topped by the ebony. What I haven't decided yet is whether the open-box construction would be strong enough to resist any warp tendencies that might come from the ebony - which will be by far the most significant strength element in each wing. So what is inside might change. But, whatever, a mould is going to be needed. Yes - I could make one, but buying one from radiusdish uk is a lot easier! This is a 335 mould and so I will need to cut a block to be able to form the florentines. It'll be something like this: The back walnut panels will be positioned again either side of the visible through-neck: And, at last, a piece of mahogany offcut that's been clogging up my bits box has found a use!

Actually, creepy and secret I've realised that this shot is of the back. The proper bookmatch side has a ripple line but not the eye looking deep into your audiences souls. It'll be staring forever at the dusty interior of a dubiously built semi acoustic

Hi All I know this should be posted in "Guitarchat" but, in spite of the recent upgrade, my virus checker still throws the most severe warnings it possesses when I try to log in to it. So apologies to those who aren't fussed at following a guitar build thread, but I'll do a summary progress thread for those who might also delve from time to time into the dark side. And for all...this is REALLY one I can't be sure of success. So those who like watching car crash movies in (very) slow motion, I'm sure there'll be much to see along the way It's a build I've been discussing with J for months. It's a Trini Lopez deluxe semi - but with a difference. The trini lopez deluxe that Gibson used to do was a florentine-horned and firebird headstocked variant of the ES335 semi acoustic. Here's an example: And it's MASSIVE. To scale, this is the size compared with a Les Paul: J isn't after a clone. He wants this kind of shape but is happy for me to experiment with the construction method (the original 335's are hollow-bodied with a solid through block to tame the feedback) Oh...but he does want the top to be in ebony. Let alone the weight, I wasn't sure you could GET ebony wide enough. And you can't, quite - because this is an exceptionally wide guitar. But...hmmm...if I have an exposed multi-laminate neck (think Aria basses)...hmmm...this might work... And yes - that is indeed some actual ebony, complete with an interesting sandy stripe. Because I said 'yes' and bought it. Now just got to work out how to make it!

You'll find that it's generally more projects

Hi @benh I tend to use first4magnets They let you buy 20 magnets for a number of the sizes and there are various pull strengths for many of them. I vary depending on the need but for hatches, I tend to use 5mm dia .26kg pull for the body and 4mm .25kg for the hatch. For trussrod covers I use 3mm for the headstock and 2mm for the hatch itself

It doesn’t really matter with a bitsa where you are unlikely to be swopping the neck often, but generally (not always) the necks tend to be the more accurate and so it is the pocket that is generally sanded. That said, it is slightly more difficult. I us a fairly coarse paper and wrap it round a flat bottomed pencil or similar to allow me to apply pressure but keep the surface straight. It takes patience but you do get there eventually If you do go for the neck, use a cork block or similar, again to allow pressure to be applied but keeping the surface flat. Brush or vac the paper regularly to stop the paper getting clogged.

Mine too

Yes - like it @ped

You mean with my weak necks and all the holes that I drill in the wrong place and cover with veneer? Fair point...

So here was the plan. The three integrated pcb pots were only going to fit in one orientation, but happily with just enough room for the hatch-fixed pot to sit in the middle of them all: But this was ignoring the substantial wiring looms and connectors. It took some judicious 'under the cover' chisel work to get this to fit without any boards or components shorting or fouling What the eye don't see... : ...the heart don't grieve over : What - no zip ties? Actually, no. There is so little room between the bottom of the hatch and the top of the units, that I have to spread the connecting wires around the area for the hatch to fully seat If this becomes a permanent fixture - which given my first impressions, it might! - I will simply drill the fourth hole in the camphor top and have the blend front-mounted, which would give me the ability to put in some much neater cable routing but, at the moment, it is function over form

And so the plan is for me to take out the 2-channel Seymour Duncan EQ and fit @mhoss32 's system and get Matt to do a video with it fitted Two initial challenges were: Challenge 1 Getting it back from Matt Achieved! More than that, before passing it back across, Matt did me a video of the same piece that he will play when the new system's been fitted, as a reference. And here it is back at chez Andyjr1515: Challenge 2 Fitting the 4 knob system into the existing 3 knob control chamber and making it reversible This took a bit of thinking through, some measuring and a fair bit of PM to-and-froing between the two of us. Solution was: - Go V/T/T - Add a blend pot - Fit the above blend pot in a false control cover at the back of the bass Well, got half a chance! That decided, @mhoss32 made up a blend pot loom for me and sent the blend loom, battery loom, volume unit and two tone units on to me while I got on with stripping out the SD EQ from the bass and cutting a temporary control cover:

Hi Anyone who has been following @mhoss32 's stunning build... ...will have been as awe-struck as I was with the sheer depth and breadth of inventiveness in the building and equipping of that amazing instrument. It's worth a full re-read of the thread, whether it is for the immensely impressive wood-working, the top-drawer finishing, the designing and making of his own pickups or for the design and manufacture of his own EQ system!!! So you can imagine how happy was I when @mhoss32 approached me to try out his EQ in one of my basses Hmmm...which bass... ....hmmm....all of my own basses are still with Matt Marriott... Why are they with Matt? Well, he has been doing some videos of a number of my builds - electric, acoustic and bass - and what with Covid, etc, still has them. And it includes 'Kert's Camphor Singlecut': ....hmmm...now there's an idea

Anything in between the pickup and the jack has the potential to change the sound so yes, an extra pot in the chain will have an impact, as does the volume pot itself. Ref the tone pot, as far as I understand these things, the capacitor's job is to bleed off the treble frequencies from the signal. Without the capacitor, the whole signal spectrum is bleeding off through the pot coil and so yes, the tone will be affected, although in a different way than if a capacitor was in the chain. A number of the basses I've done for Tom have had no volume pot or tone pot - the pickup is wired direct to the jack. It makes an interesting comparison to if you add just a volume pot or a volume and tone pot.