JPJ

[quote name='Mateybass' timestamp='1389150672' post='2330702'] Yes, most definitely. It's all about pressure on to those piezo elements. The more the better, but too much and they choke... probably why early bridges had the channel cut into the foot. If the bridge is resting on the body then there is less force directly on the piezo. It shouldn't be wobbly inside the socket, but it shouldn't be so tight it is being partially suspended over the piezo element. Also, check the upper bridge is free to slide up and down on the metal threaded adjuster posts. Any resistance here also means you're not getting the full available pressure being transmitted through the bridge to the piezo. Again, not too slack, but not too sticky either. The bridge should be free to move when you adjust the thumbwheels by a quarter turn. The density of the wood grain of the stock bridge isn't fantastic, so the less of the jelly wood the vibrations have to travel through, the better the sound will be. Applying simple physics principles means that if your metal threaded poles are not screwed all the way down into the lower portion of the bridge, then the vibrations are not reaching the foot of the lower bridge as efficiently as they might. The upper bridge rests on the thumbwheels and this is the start point of travel of those vibrations down to the piezo element. If they then go through the metal threaded posts and into the body of the lower bridge, you are introducing a resistance path for the vibrations. If they are screwed all the way down to the bottom of the foot (but not so tight they poke through) then the path only has a small part of the less-dense wood to go through before reaching the piezo. Similarly, if anyone is experimenting with making their own upper bridge (the bit the strings sit on) I would have thought that a rounded bottom would give a better vibration transmission than a flat one, since the thumbwheels would have to be dead equal for the bridge to be sat flat ontop of the thumbwheels. If you make the flat with a round bottom instead, then there is no problem with the angle of the bridge where it rests on the thumbwheels.. If anyone has the woodworking skils to try this, I'd be interested to know the difference. At the very least, a direct copy of the upper and lower bridge in a harder wood will have benefits on vibration transmission regardless, and differing wood grains or types will transmit different tones from the strings. [/quote] So last night I finally got around to dealing with the tight bridge. I sanded off all the horrible black coating which revealed that the bridge itself is a rather rough and ready affair with lots of high and low spots covered in that thick black goo of a paint. I also noticed that the screw posts are only set into the bass of the bridge by about 1/4" and that mine are starting to 'break' out the wood at the top of the holes due to string pressure. Anyway, after reassembly and re-tuning, I didn't notice any improvement in the bass side response, with the E string in particular still sounding a little weedy by comparison to the D & G. So today I've done a little further investigation and by a process of elimination, I've managed to confirm that the bass side transducer is producing no output. To prove this, I swapped the transducer wires on the preamp board in various combinations which showed that both 'sides' of the preamp board are functioning correctly, but that the bass side transducer is kaput. I've fired an email off to my local Stagg dealer but in the meantime, does anyone know whether replacement transducers are available from Stagg?

[quote name='budget bassist' timestamp='1410338075' post='2548194'] Interesting that the neck has the wheel style truss rod adjuster at the body end of the neck, not many basses have those... Could it be something a bit more special than you first thought? [/quote] I love those adjusters, probably the biggest advance in truss rod technology ever. I just wish more manufacturers would adopt them although I guess they are patented to Musicman?

I don't think manufacturers specify voidless ply for their production cabs. The best way I've found of bracing and changing the resonant frequency of panels in bass cabs is to inset strips of softwood using a router and strong adhesive. This way the bracing doesn't affect the cubic volume of the cab but has the desired effect.

I'd go for a good construction grade exterior plywood. This comes in various grades and the better ones are almost void less without the expense. Honestly, I don't think that void less ply makes that much of a difference, a bit like gold plated jack plugs

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1409742987' post='2542813'] Probably a silly question, but how much shock protection do racks provide? If the amp is bolted directly onto the rigid box with no cushioning, how does it protect against impacts? [/quote] It will protect the amp from 'mechanical damage' of direct impacts with other objects in the back of the van/car etc but not from the shock of the impact. You can however, get shock mounted racks where the rack inner is isolated from the rack outer either by a layer of foam or by rubber suspension mounts. Mine has the isolating foam like this [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/006-3.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/006-3.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Looking at this again there is something quite Pedulla about that body shape (in a good way) :-)

Wow looking good! Thats some stunning wood you've got there. FWIW, I'd go with a proper bridge too, I find those monorails detract something from the sound imho.

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1409849636' post='2543962'] Doh! I so want to see this in its finished glory. [/quote] So do I But, between the day job, other peoples guitars and a desire not to mess it up this time, I'm prepared to take my time and get it right first time'ish

So the primer has gone off enough to allow it to be flatted back so today I flatted it and removed the masking to allow me to feather the edge of the primer on to the front. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1175_zps86a7e503.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1175_zps86a7e503.jpg[/IMG][/URL] I then masked the front again, with the line of the masking tape being about 4mm inside the line of the primer. I did this because when I flat the edge of the black paint I don't want to sand through and show grey primer, so hopefully by very carefully sanding the black I'll be able to loose the edge without showing through to the primer (fingers crossed). I then got on and sprayed three good coats of gloss ebony black nitro to the edges, back and sides. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1177_zps762057a9.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1177_zps762057a9.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Thats not a great photo but I'm really pleased with the depth of image in the black and the relative smoothness of the top surface of the paint which will hopefully mean only a light sand with 1500 to flat it back. Now its a waiting game. I intend leaving the black at least a week before I flat it out and get on with staining the front.

Racks are the only way to protect your gear from the inevitable car/van/road rash. If you value your equipment and need to be able to rely on it firing up first time every time, then they really are the only way to go. My amp is housed in a substantial 4U shock case which used to be a complete PITA to move until I modified it with an extra top handle and some corner casters procured from those lovely people at Swanflight cases. Probably the best £15 I've spent in ages. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1169_zpsd6fcce37.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1169_zpsd6fcce37.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

So, we are into the finishing stage. After lots of sanding I discovered that the join between the two halves of the maple cap wasn't as tight as it might have been. This presented a bit of a quandary as to what to do, so in the end, I decided to open the gap up to a consistent 1mm along its length and then fill it with black grain filler like this. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1161_zpsa040b94c.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1161_zpsa040b94c.jpg[/IMG][/URL] picture taken mid sanding :-) Then, progress was halted by a combination of the day job and painting two telecaster bodies for a friend, until today, when I masked the front up and sprayed the primer onto the back and sides. Learning from previous, I intend having the black finish of the back and sides wrap over the radius of the top, and then I will (hopefully) be staining the top black, before sanding back and finally finishing with a translucent british racing green nitro. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1173_zps82ac28df.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1173_zps82ac28df.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1174_zpse7a54733.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1174_zpse7a54733.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Next step will be to flat the primer and apply the black paint. As I think I said before, I'm in no hurry to finish this and will be taking my time to get the finish as good as I possibly can within the limitations of my facilities (shed) and application method (rattle cans).

Hmmm this could be a very interesting experiment Personally, I'm still in the 'jury's out' camp when it comes to whether the wood alone is the source of either 'growl' or 'brightness' etc. Most basses made today will be from two or more pieces of wood glued together, so in theory, the glue is also 'contributing' to the overall sound. Warwick basses, famed for their growl use wenge but the also use a separate bridge and tailpiece, active electronics and very often, the growlier ones are neck thru's. Contrast that with a typical F type with the BBOT bridge, passive pickups and bolt on necks and there are a lot of variables between the string and the amp to affect the 'sound'. I accept that neck thru's are a very different beast to bolt-on's and, personally, I prefer bolt-on's as the amount of detail you hear with a neck thru shows up my sloppy playing After saying all of that, I would just go with a piece of timber that is the same as the rest of the body and make a structural repair. I can't imagine that the amount of wood that you are adding versus the amount of wood remaining from the original body would be sufficient to make a noticeable change to the sound of the bass.

Somebody may have changed the speaker (from 8 ohm to 4ohm) to get the full output without an extension cab and if they did, they've also gone on to do a cracking mod to the extension speaker socket to ensure you can't plug in an extension cab and inadvertently present too low a speaker load to the amp.

Cheers for that, turns out your correct I emailed Rothko and Frost this morning via their website and received a reply in 10 minutes confirming that all is ok in terms of shooting nitrocellulose over cellulose. After sending my question, I also found some really useful information on their website regarding spraying, finishing and polishing here [url="http://www.rothkoandfrost.com/wood-finishes/"]http://www.rothkoandfrost.com/wood-finishes/[/url]

I think I may have hit on a problem with my latest self-build. I intended spraying the back and sides of the body using a black cellulose paint and then doing the maple top using a combination of stain and tinted nitro-cellulose lacquer. However, I've just remembered that the two are not really compatible are they? I'm sure I've read somewhere that you can spray one over the other but I can't remember which way round is ok and which way is a non-starter. So is it cellulose over nitrocellulose or the other way?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1408663270' post='2532423'] An excellent read; thanks for sharing. [/quote] Fascinating stuff!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the PJB combos. The briefcase is 100w, 2 x5" and will hold its own against a quiet drummer. Add DI support through the PA and you've got a viable small combo solution. I've used mine in rehearsals and believe me, we are not a quiet band!

I'm such a geek, I find threads like this one fascinating. At the end of the day a loudspeaker is simply a piston device designed to move a volume of air. The fascinating bit for me is the interconnection/reaction between the loudspeaker, its enclosure and the surrounding environment. I'd love the chance to play my bass through my amp (known variables) through a variety of speaker sizes, each housed in a box optimised for: a) the chosen speaker; amplifying bass guitar, in one of those acoustic chambers

Ooh matron, tissues quick! What a lovely piece of work, I'm loving that top! Congrats on a stunning looking bass.

So what am I 'hearing' because in a blind test I swear I could tell the difference between a 10", 12" and a 15" speaker

What a looker! All that natural wood and black hardware, it just looks like a timeless classic already. Congratulations on a lovely piece of low end hardware.