Andyjr1515

OK. Bridge not fitted yet - I won't do that until the neck is bolted in place - but basically the body is finished with the scratchplate fitted and the pickup working as it should: @Fishman had asked me if I could do anything with the pick/nail scratches on the pickguard, so the above is after I've given that a bit of attention. You can see them clearly here on a 'before' shot: It's quite a delicate operation, because the surface is textured and slightly shiny, so you want to remove the main visual edges of the scratches without taking that bobbly surface or shine away. I did another 'wet & dry' approach but this time where the sanding medium was some pretty fine micro-web and the wet was good old beeswax balsam (this will be used for the final clean and polish up of the finished bass) and even so applied very, very lightly in stages of wipe off, buff up, look at the result, repeat. If you look very closely, you can see the lines, but they are very faint now and - as you can see in the photo - pretty invisible from normal distance So this is going to a safe storage place until those pesky unf bolts and cupped washers arrive

I'm told that it was also put to Mythbusters to see if licking a Scalextric track would prevent you tasting sherbert for a number of years. It was apparently rejected because the show's producers considered it "ridiculous that anyone would be that stupid."

Happily, of the two experiments on my list of 'cool things to try', the licking the Scalextric track was first on the list...

You were there! Honestly, that is how it felt. Absolute shocker in all respects....

See above. Advice duly gratefully received and firmly rejected

When I was but a lad, we used to lick the terminals of batteries for the magic of being able to 'taste' the electricity. The 9v cells were always the best because they gave the best tingle. So - the 11 year-old Andyjr1515 thought - the 12v Scalextric track runs should taste even better. Let's just say that sherbert didn't taste the same for about 5 years...

Yes! I did the continuity check as suggested by @Hellzero , I took the 'you can't do any damage' approach as muted by @Rich , plugged it in and tested it and then saw @Jabba_the_gut 's photo link and that is exactly where I'd plugged it Great team work And we have taps, folks So I can now fully assemble the body and then just have to wait for the neck bolts to start the set-up process Many thanks, folks, much appreciated

A quick call to @Rich ; @MoonBassAlpha or anyone else wot knows. I'm just about to do a 'tap' test of the pickup now that everything is grounded, etc.. The circuit board has two outputs to the jack connector: I'm assuming that they are both the same and I can choose either one?

Given my capability with electronics, I think the reality is, in the unlikely event that it doesn't work, that it would need to be sent to someone who knows what they are doing. I know I don't really know what I'm doing with the building stuff...but I REALLY don't know what I'm doing with electronics

Starting to get ready for the assembly of the body components and electrics. I soldered the bridge earth wire so I didn't forget it and then turned my attention to the jack plate. First is the scarily large hole you have to bore to fit a standard-sized jack (the Wal is pre-wired with a connector and earth but it's still a standard switchcraft stereo jack): Then marked and drilled the screw fixing holes: Note the round nut. It isn't a rounded nut...it's a round nut with spanner flats machined - an 'everything is a going to be a bit different to the norm' step too far, perhaps? And this, of course, is how you would get your $8000 Les Paul Custom. But far, far too safe for Andyjr1515. So he's going to hit it with a chisel. 'Take that, you lump of wood!' : And then abuse it more with another couple of chisels: Still got to sand, stain and tru-oil the edges, but that's going to be better... Over the weekend, the plan is to get the scratchplate on and see if the 30+ year-old circuit still works

One of the jobs today was sorting the earth on the bridge. Nowadays, I use the shielding copper foil and use the drill-hole to hide the solder joint with the earth cable. I find this a much more certain way of getting a good earth contact without the danger of the bridge being lifted off the body by the splayed wires of the more traditional way of doing it. I solder the earth wire to a strip of sticky-backed copper first: I then just feed the wire through the drilled hole, peel off the backing paper and stick it in place: Lastly, after sanding the paint off the back of the bridge block, fix that and then do the all-important electrical continuity check: As I outlined in a previous post, the head block connects the other three strings to earth via this string saddle. I heard from Martin and have a set of switches on the way - I've ordered all three as they will have been overstressed the same amount as the one that failed (and, actually, while I was plugging and unplugging cables, a second one did the same thing). I gave him a call on a couple of things I wanted to check and came away wiser on two other things: - I'm an engineer (by qualification though, clearly, not by skill ). But I hadn't thought through "If you pop a nut on the switch shaft before you put the spring washer and switch in, then the outside nut is tightening up against the inside nut and so there's no stress on the shaft to switch joint and you can tighten up as much as you like". I think the fact that I hadn't thought that through confirms that you should never walk over a bridge that I've designed... - For many two pickup sets, the bridge is more powerful than the neck. For a guitar 3-pickup arrangement, the middle pickup is usually the same lower power than the neck. But it is also reverse polarity and reverse wound so that it humbucks with both the bridge and the neck pickup. So one of my question marks was how was this going to work with the Superquads, where I have a bridge and two identical neck pickups. Martin clarified - the Superquad bridge pickup is exactly the same power as the neck pickup. Therefore, to get the 'reverse polarity reverse wound' effect, then to put the bridge in the middle. So the bridge, middle, neck pickups will actually be neck, bridge, neck Superquads Finally, he confirmed that this - to his knowledge - is the first triple Superquad bass in the world Might be worth entering it into the US-based NoTreble ezine's 'Bass of the Week' comp - it would be pleasing to win that for the fifth time (he says with all due modesty )

No word yet from Martin at SimS about the replacement switch (I'll ring them later) but it actually won't hold anything up at the moment - I can still do most of the remaining stuff up to and including finishing the wiring, fitting the Status strings and doing the set up. So I'm expecting full LED gloriousness later today for the neck and bridge pickups which can be tested fully. For the middle pickup, I will just need to fit the new switch when it arrives and solder the three wires to it (ground, hot out and battery). I'll leave the hatch fixing decision until the replacement switch is in, but that should be pretty much the last thing on the build list

I think this is what you might call Work In Progress But why is that middle switch not fixed in place? Ah...there's a bit of a story to that. What happens when you don't know your own strength? Well, to fix toggle switches like this, I use a socket without a handle. Because of how they are made, you can't tighten them up in the same way as you can potentiometers. And so I'm careful. But clearly not so nearly careful as I thought An email has gone to Martin at SimS confessing my sins and to order a replacement In the meantime, even with the inability to switch the options on that middle pickup, I could plug it in to make sure I'd got the basic wiring right. And it is VERY promising

Looking great

Test it at the back of the heel where it isn't going to show, but I think you will find that you will probably need to stain it or add stain to the Tru-oil for the kind of colour you describe. The Tru-oil (and any other oil) will darken the wood but won't change the basic colour tone.

NOW what's he doing?????? Well, starting with the reason - two phrases sum it up: - one of the 'not essential but if it could be done' requests from @Jus Lukin was that it would be nice if it could stand against a bass speaker without the need for a guitar stand - one of the things on my 'what I would do differently if I built another one of these' is to make the body a cm or so longer at the tail and deepen the cutout for the tuner knobs Because 'it's a little bit tight' With the bottom E fully intonated (ie the furthest back of the tuner cylinders) it was clear on a hard floor, but the tuner was touching the ground on a carpet. So I needed some slightly longer strap buttons. Now there maybe some somewhere...but I couldn't find any. But with a teeny bit of ingenuity...and a much bigger hacksaw blade...and longer fixing screws in the post - hey presto, strap button extensions! : And the acid test. Hard floor almost vertical: Clear! Carpet at a more normal 'leaning against the speaker' angle: Well clear. Phew!

I think the tests you've done that I'd missed confirm that one isn't needed @Maude For acoustics, anything you add or take away changes the sound. For a DB, as with a violin, the soundpost is integral to the design of the sound box. For a standard X brace design, it isn't. That might make a tangible difference or be negilible, but there will be a difference. But, for non-academic perusal only, if I was putting one in to stop the top collapsing, I would put it where that danger exists, which is under the bridge. But don't lose any sleep over it because I might well be completely wrong on every aspect of the above

Ah...missed that. Sounds sound

You've made a good job of getting that off. One other thing that is worth looking at, by the way, if I remember my applied maths well enough, in terms of vectors. I am assuming that the down force on the bridge increases with the increased break angle over the bridge from the string angle which will, presumably change the forces that the string tension will apply to it. The top looks more substantial than an average acoustic guitar top so may well be fine, but it might be worth some judicial check on how thick and rigid that top is. If there is any doubt, you might want to consider a 'sound post' dowel each side of the bridge inserted through the f-holes?

That is indeed different.

Oh....that's probably worth stealing different!

And the chambers are copper-foiled. I have to join the panels with a teeny wipe of solder ('conductive glue' isn't to be trusted) and then check the earth continuity. The bridge earth will be soldered inside the cutaway to the small patch of copper that will make great electrical contact with the bridge while maintaining a good, firm contact between the bridge and body. The apparently random tabs are positioned so that at least one is going to be firmly against the conductive layer on the bottom of the scratch plate assembly. I'm hoping that the black UNF hardware (custom order because of the sizes and thread, hence the leadtime) will be with me by the end of this week because I don't think it is that long now before it's time to start getting some strings on, trying it out and setting it up!

Yes - good tip about bending the wires out of the connectors. I'll see how I fare with the rest of the mass. Luckily they are pretty fine wires but twelve Andyjr1515-quality solder joints per loom wouldn't be pretty - however much shrink tube I used Mind you, not as bad as Schaller's 'thick unbendable shroud and cable coming straight out of the back of a non-standard pot' that features in the top-level Flagship EQ/piezo-mag mixer. Clearly no one at Schaller (and usually I am a BIG fan of Schaller) had actually tried to fit one into any conventional instrument... Not their finest moment...

Yesterday was all about working out the pickup heights to put spacers for the adjustment screws to bite into and then shielding the bottoms of the pickup chambers. With all shielding, a simple ohmmeter check for electrical continuity is pretty essential, and for the sticky backed copper, running a trace of solder to bridge each panel join is also a must - you can't rely on 'conductive glue' : All of this took most of the day yesterday, but by the end, all three pickups are fitted and have the required adjustment range: You can see why I'm not certain that magnets will keep the hatch down...and remember, none of the other stuff if in place here yet. Oh...and remember that these connectors go in vertically at the very top of the switches: So, while I ponder on that particular houdini challenge, I'll buy myself some thinking time by spending a few hours on a much less mentally taxing task of adding the copper shielding to @Fishman 's Wal - assuming I haven't used up all of my foil

Bummer about the band! But that looks really nice...