Andyjr1515

I'll show you the back of one of them in the morning. Yes - it's four coils, two rows of two.

@Jus Lukin 's preference is to use on/off switches. That said, if I was doing one for myself, to be honest, I would do the same. For me, it would be too darn difficult to replicate sounds of the 120 or so combinations of switch positions if I had three fully variable controls on top of the toggles

I suspect most folks (who would generally have just two pickups) would wire the pickups up to a blend or a three-way switch. That only starts getting really complicated when you add the third pickup (and remember - we think this is the first 3 Superquad bass in the world ), where toggle on-off switches are actually much easier to not get confused...but there aren't really many other situations where a toggle arrangement is tangibly better than the more conventional blend/3-way options.

Thanks for the kind comments, folks. I still hate routers, but, as I've said before, there are times when only a router will do! And here we go again! The pickup chambers. I use the same method - which is basically mark out, hog out, chisel out and then use a captive bearing router bit to tidy it up and reach the final depth. With pickup chambers, the first thing I do is check the radius of the corners and use a bradpoint 1mm larger (to allow for the 0.5mm clearance all round) and drill the corners: Then I hog out as close to the marked line as I can with as large a Forstner as I can: Then chisel 10mm or so down, right up to the outline: Then use a flush bearing router bit, that will be fully captive to deepen the chamber to final depth: Finally, I chisel out the room for the pickup bottom connector block that will join up with the connector cable slots I created before gluing the back on. Those original slots weren't in quite the right places but they are only there to get the cables through so will still work fine: And once the connector blocks now have their chambers, the pickups will freely drop - if needs be - to the lowest practical position: And, with that done, I can start thinking about gluing on the fretboard.

Final two steps before tomorrow's 'Chambers for the Superquads' (just you watch - Marvel will nobble that title . Expect a film on Disney+ before spring) marathon, a couple of jobs while the router table was out: Control chamber to final depth and initial back rounding: Initial top rounding: So tomorrow's job will be: - decide on the final positioning of the bridge elements, the fretboard and the pickups - create the three chambers for the Superquads. For this, I will be using the same method outlined for the neck pocket in the Wal save thread half way down Page 7 here: A Very Special Save - Page 7 - Build Diaries - Basschat Thanks for looking

Yes - there is a potential issue depending on at which stage Wal fitted the inserts - before or after adding the neck angle shim they glue to the heel. But actually, if they didn't fit the shim first and then drill with absolutely vertical drills (vertical to the body top and neck heel but, therefore, at an angle to the fretboard), they would have the same problem as well. So as long as my holes are 90 degrees to the body top, then they will align to the inserts. If I get time, for them's that have no idea what we're talking about, I'll draw a diagram Anyway - the next scary bit is done. The neck pocket. As all of the chambering, both on this build (for the scratchplate componentry and pickup) and the pickup chambers on @Jus Lukin 's headless, will be using this same method, I'll go into it in a bit more detail. Over the years, I personally have found this absolutely the most accurate and safest way of cutting chambers. Most of my fellow builders use templates and to great effect - but to me, templates usually spell problems. If I was doing repeat builds, then templates would clearly be the way to go, but for 'one-off chambers' - which most of mine are, this is the way I do it: Having marked out the line accurately, I use a forstner bit in my little drill press to hog out around 2/3rds of the depth, with the forstner just short of the chamber outline: I then sharpen my chisels because I need to chisel some seriously accurate edges!: So here, I'm chiselling away the forstner wave residue and then taking the cut, ensuring it is vertical and as accurately as possible, along the inside edge of my outline to a minimum of 10mm depth: I double check with the neck that the fit is spot-on. I also check that the bolts (which are, of course, now too long) still fit in the inserts! If it is and they do, I have an accurate 10mm vertical band that will guide the router bearing to tidy up the chamber sides and deepen it as necessary. I am using a router table here but a hand router (preferably with a decently large base for stability) would work just as well. The bottom-bearing'd router bit simply cannot now dig in anywhere it shouldn't: So the bit tidies up the sides and makes them exactly the same as my chiselled band and I increase the depth a couple of mm at a time to the final depth: Then final checks - first that the neck fits snugly and fully bottoms in the chamber: And a final check that it still all lines up: Which - to everyone's surprise and especially my own - it does So I won't go through the blow by blow, but this is how I will also rout the chambers for the truss rod access, the pickup and the electronic circuitry under the pickguard...and @Jus Lukin 's pickup chambers that will be next

So clamps off and all looks OK: The chamber will be deepened, cutting through the maple veneer you see here. And some time on the router gets the sides ready for final clean up with cabinet scrapers before I round-over the edges:

The back is glued: Now it's REALLY starting to look like a bass I've now been able to take the clamps off and had a look at the joints. They look good I'll be trimming the sides flush with the top in the morning - I'll take a photo in the daylight when that's done. And then...it's pickup chambers....

It's the main reason you do the 'drill halfway from one side, then drill halfway from the other side'. Also, my comment about having a drill press with minimum run-out (wander) is essential - and you couldn't do this sort of stuff without a drill press or similar. The final thing that helps is that the blank at the moment is straight sided - and bandsaw cut to a true right angle. As such, the datum is reliable either way up. If the blank had, say, already had the sides rounded, or if I'd used a jig saw to cut it out with a potentially wandering blade, it would have been a lot more difficult.

The other thing I should say, is that it would have been MUCH more difficult if the neck pocket was already cut. All I had to do was get all four holes in line with each other top and bottom. To do that and in line with tight fitting pocket sides too is where it is usually easier to plug the old holes and redrill/insert

As Matt Hancock would say, "That's such a good question. Thank you for asking it." My answer is, best laid plans and all that.... I did, in fact, make a scrap-ply template as originally planned. But once I'd got it, I judged I was more likely to introduce errors with it than eliminate them. With the paper template and an accurate metal rule, I could see from the impression in the paper exactly where the centre of the stud was. I judged that this was more accurate than drilling four holes in a 5mm piece of ply and then trying to position that and accurately push a drill in each of the holes to make the pin-prick mark without at least one nudging out of position.

Yes - indeed. That said, it's not difficult...it just needs a bit of planning and misty recollection from school maths and physics lessons of how to avoid cumulative errors. The measure the diagonals trick-of-the-trade is one I learnt in the window's joinery business. Makes absolute sense when you think about it but it's something I had to see someone do for real for the penny to drop Oh - and with a 43mm (edited - I'd typo'd 33) or so body blank, it needs a drill-press that has minimal run-out (the movement in the spindle that can let a drill wander out of verticality). The Proxxon is a lightweight for many 'proper engineering' tasks but the accuracy of the spindle is first class - no wandering of the bit at all.

They do - but getting hold of Wal plates is pretty much impossible. As an alternative, @Fishman has opted for conical washer inserts which will look good too.

Superb! I love that. Great vibe...

It's a fine judgement. If you think of the bottom of the valleys in those ribs as forming another smaller diameter, this this smaller diameter must be no bigger than the holes in the headstock. Then, the ribs basically cut through the wood and you have a tight fit but one that has simply cut grooves in the wood and not cracked the headstock that might happen if the holes in the headstock are smaller than that inner diameter of the bush. Hope that makes some sense...

While @Jus Lukin 's lower back wing is drying, and since receiving the No 10 UNF bolts and confirming they fit - it's time to bite the bullet and start on the neck pocket This really is - of all of the tasks - a 'measure multiple times and drill once'. There is so little room for error - positionally or in terms of angle - with machine screws, it basically has to be right. I started with a paper template, pressing down with my thumb to find the insert depressions and then using a taper punch to find the exact centre of the insert itself: After drawing the centre line on the body back, I used a template of the pickguard to make sure that the neck pocket template was going to be in the correct position. Then I used a sharp ended punch to transfer the pattern on the back of the neck pocket with a teeny dint, where I would subsequently drill using a good quality brad-point drill. You can't see them in this photo because they are tiny, but they are there. I checked all of the dimensions, including the diagonals to ensure that the dots were in exactly the right positions (the Wal's inserts are 0.25mm out of square ) : I started with a 12mm Forstner to drill the recesses at the back that the screw inserts will go into: I then used a 5mm bradpoint, using the forstner spike hole as my bullseye and drilled two holes right through - a diagonal. Then turned the body over and used the template to put the drill dots in the other two positions - again checking the diagonal dimensions to make sure I was replicating the 0.25mm out of square of the original and also that I had marked it out of square the right way round (ask me why I know that checking THIS is important )!! I then did the through-body trick of drilling 1/2way through, then turning the body round to drill from the other side and meet in the middle - this should mean that the exit holes are accurate for getting the machine screws in the inserts and the entry hole are accurate for the aesthetics of the screw heads and inserts. Testing time. Would the temporary machine screws fit?: ...and none more surprised than me! So now I could bolt the neck fully against the top of the body and first check that it still lined up with the pickguard within the 'wiggle-room' oversize: ...and then draw round the neck heel for the next step, cutting the pocket itself...which will be tomorrow Time for a cup of tea As always, thanks for looking.

Well - you know what I think about routers. But there are times when only a router will do. What I do try to do, though, is always be working with a 'captive' bearing bit. I forgot to take the shots, but I started like the weight relief - hogged out the chambers with a forster bit with the edges straightened up with a chisel. Then the bottom-bearing flush bit couldn't go anywhere but follow the chiselled line: I've included the provision for in-chamber battery for both general layout options (although I think @Jus Lukin is going for the straight-row toggle option), with the non-used chamber useful for coping with the excess loom wire. We could even go battery box if @Jus Lukin preferred and then use both battery chambers to cope with the excess wire In the photo above there is the rebate bit - again, it can't go anywhere - for the hatch. Here is the rebate with the battery in one of the recesses: And here is the healthy channel to feed three looms with their multi-wire connectors to the pickups, with the battery in the second recess: As usual, I will leave it until the morning before I glue this wing on...just in case I've forgotten something, and while the glue is setting, start on my cunning neck pocket plan on @Fishman 's Wal save Who says that men can't multi -oh sorry-just got distracted task

Building a bass is sometimes like doing a logic puzzle! I'm working on the chamber size and position and the cable channels (remembering I have to feed those large loom connectors to each of the pickups) before I glue the lower back wing on. So what are my limitations? Actually, ironically it's about how much offcut of the back wood I have. Because I will be using an offcut from the waist cuts of the back panels to make my chamber hatch. And, if possible, I want the grain to be in the same direction. So the hatch has to fit within this area, minus the 8mm rebate all round for the hatch and (hopefully) magnets to fit: And, ideally, it needs to be able to accommodate the battery. Yes - I could fit a battery box, but it would be neater not to have to. And that leaves me the area cut out of paper here - and actually, a couple of options would fit in that area. In both cases the battery could be slotted into a pre-made semi-chamber carved into the side of the chamber: I will add the battery cutouts both sides so that @Jus Lukin can decide at his leisure which type of layout or variation of these he prefers. But in both cases they share the same external chamber size and position so that can be cut on the scroll saw now:

Yes - just that. 3 Sims toggles, 3 on/off toggles, Master tone, Master Volume.

Probably not on this one, Mick, but always useful knowing what parts of potential interest are around

I've always been stunned by just how good those detuners are and how easy they are to set up and adjust. One's fitted on 'Kert's' Camphor Singlecut. It works a treat.

Well, bolt-world on ebay did me a cracking job and the UNC bolts to check the sizes and put the cunning plan into action arrived this morning! And they are the right size...but the wrong thread But that means we now know they must be size 10 UNF and so tomorrow morning, a set of those should now be arriving in the post And then, assuming they fit OK, I can not only put my 8-Point-for-not-c**king-up-the-neck-pocket Plan into action but will be also able to place a Made-to-order for the black ones that will be used on the finished bass. And, in the meantime, @Fishman has just sent me a nice Hipshot bridge to fit onto it

While waiting for the Superquads I did a couple of small jobs, including adding the 0.6mm maple veneer to the back of the fretboard. The tang slots will be filled with epoxy mixed with ebony dust before the board is finally glued on (a little way off yet): And then, this morning, the Superquads arrived : For those who have never seen them, they are 4-coil passive pickups: The three way toggle gives each pickup the option of 'P' ; Single ; Humbucker: There is a battery connection, but that is purely to power the LED that shines red for 'P' ; green for Single; blue for Humbucker. The pickups are not affected by the battery being connected or not. And - although this set up with three pickups is, we think, a World First and will have some quirky things we need to work through - they are ridiculously easy to wire up. The PCB on each switch has a ground, a 9v for the LED and a hot out. Performance-wise, they are superb - worth watching the Bassbash clip at the beginning of this thread with Nick Smith's demo of a Sims fitted bass and @TheGreek 's Silk bass. I suppose my only less-positive observation is that the cases (GRP/carbon?) have a rough surface and show the manufacturing ejector marks - exactly the same pattern on these as on Mick's a good few years ago. But, once the LEDs are all traffic lighting up, who's looking at that! And here is broadly how they will fit: Now I have the looms in hand, I can work out how big the chambers and the cable runs need to be in the lower back wing

That looks very good. Great job. What did you use to trim the veneer? Because the the tendency for a split to follow the grain, I found that the trickiest bit - and maple veneer is tough stuff!

Well...there's a funny story here As the saying goes (well, it does now), "The best laid 8-Point-for-not-c**king-up-the-neck-pocket Plan's of mice and men..." Because in checking the machine screws I have in my bits box I realised - and should have thought - that the inserts in the neck are imperial. This is an old bass. They are definitely 10- (3/16") but it has been so long since I used imperial machine screws, I can't be sure that my guess at UNC is right - they might be UNF. Yes - I can source them in the right sizes and in black ( @Fishman 's preference) from Accu.co.uk - a supplier of good quality Stainless fastenings - but, as they are made to order in this size and spec they will take a couple of weeks to come through so I thought I'd better check I'd got the right thread first In the meantime, these beautiful Schaller lightweight machine heads have come through - drop in fit, including the rear pegs: