Andyjr1515

I am a bit unconventional when it comes to pickup chambers: - I hate templates...I never get them in the right place; they move and shift and rock - I hate routers...they are of the devil So what I do - and, as usual, I am not saying this is how they should be done - is: - create the corners and lug slots using the appropriately sized drills (earlier post) - hog out with a Forstner bit - chisel to the outline - and then, and only then, I might use a now fully captive bearing bit on a router to level the bottom to final depth. But only if it is really necessary. In this event, I know the router bit can't go anywhere. I know it can't do any damage. So here starts the hog: Then a sharp chisel and wooden mallet to take it to the pen line and remove the wave peaks left by the Forstner. And here it is. Based on the chamber depths, I don't think I need to rout the bottoms. Which suits me fine So final job is that I realised that I am going to have to pop a block in the battery compartment anyway for the pickup screw to screw into. So I've suggested to @donslow that I may as well put in a full block and sand it flush so he doesn't have to create the faux compartment. So that's what I'll do this afternoon.

I'm just doing the fill and routs. But I'm hoping @donslow will post the result when it's done

Yes - there is something very pleasing about Ibanez basses I did a reverse P a few years ago for PaulS and it worked out well. With this one @donslow was keen to try as best as we could to retain the classic Precision vibe and so I've stuck with the 60s Fender Precision positions. I'm quite happy with the mid point between the 60s and 70s for the J. I think it will give a good balanced but usable variation in sound when @donslow needs it.

Excellent! Battery box will not be used, so @donslow will just refit the box as a faux cover. This should be finished tomorrow, then

Well, crunch time is tomorrow morning - Rog and I are meeting in my back garden for a gloved handover and we'll see if he's a happy chappy or not

But for one detail, which actually is a good thing to flag to new modders, this might have been finished tomorrow More about that later, but in terms of today's progress - I had asked @donslow to send me both the bridge and the intended pickups with the body. Why? Well, ref the bridge - it means I can get the pickup chambers in the right place. New pickups often aren't exactly the correct pole spacing and that is OK - but you do want them to be symmetrical ref the pole positions vs the treble and bass strings. Having the bridge means you can draw the string runs which means you can position them correctly. Ref having the actual pickups - three reasons. Again, it is easier to line up the pole positions when you have the actual covers to hand. Secondly, there is no such thing as a standard bass pickup size! Especially Jazz pickups. Even Fender's aren't always the same as other Fenders! Lastly, you want the chambers to have the right radii for the corners and fixing lugs. So having the bridge and the pickups means I can get them the right shape and in the right place: For the lengthways positioning, @donslow and I had a discussion about what he wanted from the bass (PJ spacing is often different to both a P and a J). @donslow 's preference is to go for a Precision 'sweetspot' and then really just have the bridge adding some variation when needed. Even then, there are choices about the bridge position - most commonly the 60's or 70's J bass positions. The 60's Jazz position is about 10mm further away from the bridge than the 70's position. On a PJ, the 70's position can sometimes make the bridge sound tinny and weak against the boom of the P neck. So, often, makers would use the warmer 60's position for the bridge but - to keep the space between the two pickups even, would then move the P 10mm away from the Precision position, further towards the neck. I've gone for neither I've gone for Precision 'sweetspot' for the neck P and moved the bridge J closer to the P, placing it halfway between the 70s and 60s position. I don't use templates. I start with creating the corners and lug positions and radii. For the lugs, the centre of the circle is inset a mm or so: For the corners, it's a standard radius, tighter on the P than the J So then they are drilled. I used a 1/2" forstner bit for the lugs: Then a 4mm bradpoint for the P corners and an 8mm bradpoint for the J corners: So tomorrow, I will hog out with a Forstner bit up to the pen lines, tidy up the sides with a chisel and then use a small top bearing router bit to flatten the bottoms of the chambers. So why won't it be finished tomorrow? Big tip for new modders - and don't ask me how I know this: before you cut anything or drill anything - ALWAYS - look at what's on the other side. Happily, for once, I had taken my own advice so knew that the battery box was going to clash with the proper positioning of the P pickup: So yes - when I've sorted the pickup chambers, I have to move the battery box a few cm too But should be all done by the end of the weekend

Nice job on the fretboard! I like the shape of the scratchplate and I think the grain looks good on it. The colour change of the body from the outside shots to the later shots - is that just camera/light foibles or have you used a coloured stain/finish? It looks so different (from reddish brown to yellow-ish) it threw me a bit...

They look good

Hi Probably doesn't warrant a thread, but for anyone interested. A few weeks ago, @donslow contacted me to ask if I would be able to fill the existing chambers in an Ibanez body and re-rout to fit a SD Quarter Pounder P-J Set for him. It's a fairly straightforward job - and with the added bonus that @donslow will be doing the hard bit, the stripping and finishing - so I was more than happy to lend a hand. With @Roger2611 's veneer job back in its gig bag just waiting final polishing, I started it off today. I had some nice lightweight mahogany offcut from the recent SG-style guitar build which is going to be ideal, so first job was to square off the corners of the old pickup chambers and also take the curved paint edges round the tops of the chambers back to a crisp 90 degree edge: With some careful bandsaw and plane work, got the first block cut to size. And a tip - before gluing these kinds of infill blocks in place, always remember to cut access for the cable runs for the new pickup to get from the new chambers to the existing runs - they may not be in the same position as the old ones! Fitted and glued: Then planed and sanded smooth. @donslow is going to be spraying solid colour over the finished body so I just need to sand it down to the present finish : Then the next one in: Busy day tomorrow, but Friday / Saturday, this will be also planed and sanded flush and then the new chambers cut I'll let you know how it goes. Andy

Was is manchesterguitartech you used in the first place, @donslow? If so, then either of the two colours would be fine (if I was going to add the tinted clear, I would personally go for the desert sand) and they could be sprayed directly over this, using this as your primer. The manchesterguitartech paints are good quality and their solids would, I'm pretty sure, cover the shadings after only a couple of coats. If the original is another brand, then yes - sand it fully off first, just in case there are compatibility problems, and use a primer coat, preferably white.

Magnificent, @Chopthebass

And it's pretty much finished. Got to do the set-up and final polish before Rog picks it up on Saturday but, as the weather is going to go off, I'll catch the light of this afternoon to take a couple of fully assembled shots. So this is where we began: And this is where we've got to: And, for good measure, this is that it looks like from the back: As always, thanks for your interest and encouragement along the way

I can't remember what the conclusion was in terms of whether the rod is sitting proud of the neck and the fretboard needing a notch all the way down. If it is at all proud, you would have an issue with the nut which would need notching too and that would probably weaken it. On the other hand, if the rod is flush with the neck then most of the rod would be acting on the fretboard and, personally, I can't see why it wouldn't work perfectly well, albeit the need to lengthen the headstock access slot and the resulting need for a very long trussrod cover. By the way - I am intrigued why the headstock has spontaneously cracked like that. There is nothing that you could have done, as far as I can see, that would have caused that to happen and so it must have been a weakness to start with. I am guessing that by the fact that the truss-rod had originally run out of adjustment to the point where it actually broke, that maybe there had been unusually high pressure from the original truss rod on, what is, the weakest part of the neck under the nut/1st fret area. It is a massive learning opportunity for you, regardless of the outcome...

Oooooh….I should have read further down the thread! Apols

My diagram had the nut position range relative to the end of the adjuster, not the end of the bar itself, @stewblack - so I agree with @Jabba_the_gut that the rod is too long to use satisfactorily As placed, it looks about 20mm too long but, because you want to have an endstop to prevent the rod pushing right through, it is probably more like 25mm-30mm too long. While it's a pain having to buy a different rod, it will be a lot easier to find a trussrod the right length than try to mod stuff to make this one fit.

Just checked Rog's Status body ref the ongoing veneer thread - it's solid walnut and the total body thickness is 35mm. There's 13mm of wood under the neck pocket if that info helps

Looking good! My ultra slim builds were all neck-thru but yes, 25mm (in fact, Tom's African bass was sub 25mm). But with a bolt on, it starts getting challenging at much below 35mm. 40mm certainly should be fine, though. On a more general note, the thinner you go, the more you need to double check the hardware, pots &switches you are intending to fit - push-pull pots and some toggle and lever switches can be very deep!

Is it threaded on the inside? If so, you could screw a bolt from the inside fully home, then use two spanners in opposite directions?

I'm pretty sure that will be tickety-boo

Watching with great interest - and whether you use veneer or not As a guide, veneer is generally 0.6mm thick, so would add around 1.2mm to the diameter of the drum.

It's probably perfectly fine, @donslow If it is a modern two-way rod, it is probable that it will have been laid in the slot with an end stop at the heel end before the capping strip and/or fretboard has been fitted. Usually, the rod will be tight enough in the slot to stay where it is but the rod is never glued in. Some builders pop a couple of spots of flexible filler in a couple of places to stop the possibility of it rattling, but it won't rattle once it is tensioned so many don't. So - it depends on the rod and the slot - in many cases an un-tensioned rod could theoretically move. And yes - if it does, you can just move it back until the other end hits the end stop. I have built a few necks, on specific request, where folks actually want the ability to pull the rod right out for replacement. All you have to do is basically build it without a headstock plate and have a longer trussrod cover and then grab the adjuster with some needle-nose pliers and pull! In fact, weren't the early Warwicks done like that? Anyway - it will have done no harm and you were right to just tap it back

For those of you who looked at the recent SG-style thread, you will know that, for gloss, I brush on good old-fashioned Ronseal Hardglaze. The process is, on the one hand, straightforward but, on the other hand, quite heavy on the necessary tips and tricks. And one of those is that when a coat looks right - STOP! There are many times where I've got to something pretty OK and then thought, 'well, just one more coat' and the next coat has a ripple in it, or a missed bit, or a dust buggy, or the varnish inexplicably ripples, or etc etc. The result of this is that you then have to re-flatten and try again. The STOP! coat is one coat before that And sometimes it's after just 1full finish coat and sometimes it's after 8 . And I think I've got to STOP! for the top at the first finish coat. That means that I will then leave it for a week and finish with a light polish (you don't buff this type of varnish). The back and sides are easier and are also probably only one coat away, so the finishing should be basically done waiting for its hardening time by the end of the weekend. By mid next week, I will be able to reassemble, by end of next week final polish and - all going well - Rog picks it up a week tomorrow Rog has already stopped following the thread (the next time he sees it, he wants to see it for real), and I won't post any more progress shots until it's reassembled towards the end of next week. As always, thanks for the encouragement and feedback - and see you next week!

No idea - they all look good. But - wow again for that spalt!!! Looking forward to seeing how this fares

For what it's worth, for a modern 2-way rod, this is the range of positions I usually personally work with: For the function of the rod, the exact positioning isn't overly critical, but in terms of access of the adjuster and the strength of the neck: - the heel end ideally wants to be where the heel starts deepening as the neck meets the body. You want a backstop here too (just a sliver of wood glued in the slot), so that the rod doesn't push in deeper when you push the allen key in from the other end - depending on the rod design, the neck and the allen key access, I have the adjuster either flush with the headstock end of the nut (yellow) or protruding an amount (blue) I get a trussrod length that will, hopefully, fit within that range

No - there is rarely the need. The veneers are only 0.6mm thick (which is remarkable when you think they are taking slices of up to 2m or more straight off the side of a tree-trunk!). On this one, I am using two veneers together so, after sanding, there is maybe approaching 1mm there, but that would normally still be OK.