JPJ

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1407703929' post='2523239'] I'm just going through my emails to gather all my pics [/quote] Tease!

That's a shame about the RPC, its not something I've tried (yet) but I know some people get great results others less so. I'm still perfecting my rattle can spray techniques and I'm getting pretty close to a pro finish so I think I'll stick with this method. One thing, I always check with the supplier to make sure that all the elements of my finishes work together i.e. stains, sealers, paints and lacquers. There is a lot of contradictory mythology on the internet about what works and doesn't work so its best to check first. Having said all that, I am liking that sanded black finish and I recon it will look lush once its glossed. By way of inspiration, here's a similar finish done by a local(ish) professional luthier.

Today's update: Wood Butchery Complete. So today I've made a template and routed out a shallow recess for the Badass bridge. Why? Well the Badass was 'hanging' over the forearm chamfer a bit more than I felt comfortable with so, out with the trusty router. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1128_zpsda94a8aa.jpg[/IMG] Once I was happy with that I moved on to completing the opening for the jack socket. I'm going with a Neutrik locking socket so I created a little cutout to recess the socket baseplate into and finished off the inside of the opening in the control cavity. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1131_zps9477b1dd.jpg[/IMG] I then marked out and drilled and countersunk for the neck bolts and ferrules, which was a bit of a chew on as I didn't have a 12mm drill bit. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1129_zps17c801fd.jpg[/IMG] Finally, I drilled the hole from the pickup rout to the control cavity, and the battery box to the control cavity and also made a control cavity cover from some BWB plastic I bought for this purpose back in 2011. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1130_zps97ee1579.jpg[/IMG] Then I gave the whole body the first finish sanding to 240 grit, making sure that all the curves and edge radius's were free from any flat spots or edges. That is all the woodwork complete. Next up will be sanding through the grades, grain filling the tulip wood, staining the maple, and then painting the tulip wood and lacquering the maple. None of those steps are very photogenic, so I guess the next update will either be once the finish is on, or when I cock the finish up and throw the whole thing in the scrap bin

Little update - managed a few hours in the shed tonight. Earlier today I sat down and wrote a list of the things I have left to do to complete this project and I was a little shocked when I realised just how much is left to do! Anyway, after spending yesterday with my old drawing instruments working out the control layout and the control cavity dimensions, tonight I set about the body with a combination of drills and the trusty router. First step was to pre drill holes for the four knobs and one switch. Having done that, I then removed material where the four pots will sit using a 25mm drill bit from the rear. Then using the router in 4mm steps, I removed the rest of the material necessary to create the control cavity and battery box. [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1125_zps6a6658e1.jpg.html"][/url] And a final shot showing the battery box in situ. I've also drilled for the Neutrik locking jack socket but as thats still a work in progress I'll save the pictures for the next update. Good news is thats three of the fifteen remaining tasks complete

I've recently gone from the 2 x 410 to a 610, all SWR. The reason was the same as discreet, I got tired of hauling the two 410's. The reason for going to the 610 was I wanted a single 4 ohm cab, that I'd still hear on a stage dominated by two 412/100w equipped guitarists. Yes, its a heavy cab, but with the tilt back wheels its easier to move around than the two 410's on the flat. I can lift it myself in/out of the car when needed, and its reduced the number of trips to/from the van/car too. Sound-wise, on bigger stages I really can't tell the difference between the Snr and the two Golly setup. On smaller stages and at lower volumes you can sense that the cab is idling, wanting to give more than your asking for, but it still sounds tight. The spare parts issue does bother me, but when I blew two drivers in one of my Golly's I replaced all four with Eminence Deltalite II's and the cab took on a whole new personality with much more bottom end and a lovely creamy upper mid range projection, so if the same happens in the Snr then I'll probably go down the same route albeit at 5.33 ohms.

Heard a rumour that Acoustic are back in business stateside? Richard Turner of Blackberry Smoke talks about using them in the states on this video [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pix9jD0PJs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pix9jD0PJs[/url] unless he's referring to old stuff?

We've got a couple of the Behringer 12" 300w powered monitors. Got them for under £200 each (can't remember exactly how much they were) and they do the job very well indeed.

Much of the established wisdom about mixing drivers comes from a time when a typical 15" had no more excursion than the 10" it was under resulting in the 15 being little more than an amp stand for the 10's. I'm not sure that this is still the case as the drivers we are seeing these days have much better excursion and hence air moving capability. I'm sure one of the more knowledgeable forum members will either confirm or confound my 'new' theory :-)

Now that is one sexy bass! This just proves it doesn't have to be all exotic woods to produce a timeless looking instrument. Congrats, that's a hell of a bass you've got yourself there :-)

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1406901782' post='2515779'] Perhaps a cheeky five-string Ric-inspired bass... [/quote] BANNED! Seriously though, great work on the neck. I've made a few bodies now and I have it in my head to make a neck next but I doubt I'll achieve this standard. Well done, go buy yourself a beer you deserve it

Tonights progress and in truth I got a lot more done than I thought I would. Firstly, I worked on finishing the 'gut cut' on the back before moving on to round over the edge of the 'gut cut' and the forearm chamfer. I do these by hand with sandpaper as the router tends to make a bit of a mess of them due to the sloped surfaces. Then as the night was still young, I moved on to rout out both the neck pocket and the pickup. This was made a lot easier as I'd kept the template from the first time around but, because I'd already glued the maple top on, it was a bit of a heart-in-mouth operation as the business end of the template was only held with double-sided tape. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1119_zps05d92ebd.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1120_zpsd71b4f54.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1118_zps15a6b91f.jpg[/IMG] I was going to move on to rout out the control cavity, but Mrs JPJ objected to the router noise because 'its ten o'bloody clock!'

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1406800712' post='2514775'] I think part of it is hollow - send Dawn (at Status) an email. She's a lovely lady and very helpful. [/quote] Doh! Wise words indeed and email duly despatched

Does anybody know what's in the heel block of a Status Graphite replacement Stingray Neck? The reason I ask is that I have one of these that I'm about to use on a project, but its already been drilled for four neck screws and I want to go with six. I'd like to fill the existing holes first as they are rather large. Does anybody know whether there is a wood block in there so that I can just dowel them like on a wooden neck or do I need to use some sexy epoxy type filler product?

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1406720247' post='2514028'] Normally I understand the moans. But this time I sold my Hyperbass so I had plenty of funds for it. Women! [/quote] I once made the mistake of airing the view that perhaps, on reflection, the one in one out rule, should apply to her handbag collection. I won't make that particular mistake ever again

Decision made, Allparts DPDT mini-switch on-on-on in black ordered

We bought my daughter one of those 'cheap' Harley Benton electric violins from Thomann for Christmas. Despite the low price, it only took a half hours minor fettling to get it playing like her acoustic that was several hundreds more than the Harley Benton. Really authentic tone amplified too and looks pretty cool as its a skeleton body in white.

As progress advances, I'm thinking about that pesky three-way switch that was the downfall of mk1 version of this bass. Decision to be made, do I go with the three-way, do I change up for one of those mini toggles, or do I omit the switch all together as I hardly ever used anything other than the 'neck' series position on a previous Stingray V? I'm guessing the mini-toggle option would be series or parallel only, but that would be no hardship as I never used the single coil option.

Thanks, but there is a touch of de ja vu, as I've been here before with this particular build. Happy to say that so far, the one or two 'errors' this time have been very minor and easy to rectify :-)

Quick update: Managed a couple of hours in the work shed tonight. The bend of the maple worked perfectly, so I've completed the rough machining of the 'gut tuck' and also rounded over the edges of both the top and bottom. Next task is to rout out the neck pocket, pickup, and control cavity, drill for the edge mounted jack socket and drill for the volume and tone controls. I still have to radius the edge of the forearm chamfer and refine the 'gut tuck' before I get on with the finish sanding. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1116_zps0b1a6a80.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1117_zps37d2a414.jpg[/IMG]

Ok, so I've now glued on both halves of the maple cap and successfully bent the maple over the forearm chamfer. As I said in my last update, I decided to do this as a three step process, glueing one half of the maple in place, allowing that to fully dry, before glueing the second half of the cap in place and allowing that to fully dry before bending the top over the forearm chamfer. Here's a phone photo of the first half of the cap in clamps [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1100_zps674d56a3.jpg[/IMG] And here's a phone photo of the bending of the cap over the forearm chamfer [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1110_zps73825d73.jpg[/IMG] I used a slightly different technique to last time, and instead of using wedges I simply used a large G clamp to gently apply pressure and bend the cap to shape. Before bending, I had placed a sponge on the top side of the cap and soaked this with boiling water. After a few minutes I started applying pressure with the G clamp and the maple bent nicely to shape. I then released the pressure on the clamp, flooded the void between body blank and cap with Titebond III adhesive and reapplied the clamping force. Then, working around the edge I applied more clamps in sequence to achieve an even 'glue' line, which I then scraped off to leave a lovely clean join. Over the first fifteen to twenty minutes I kept increasing the tension on each clamp to ensure that as the glue began to cure, any shrinkage didn't result in a loss of clamping force. Next step will be to trim the excess top material away using a combination of a jigsaw to rough cut to shape leaving about 3-4 mm to remove with the router.

Well as you might have gathered from the lack of updates, the veneer didn't work out well at all. Too many air voids meant it was no where near what I wanted and given the relative cost of the graphite neck, pickup, circuit etc. this went off to the great scrap bin in the sky However, after almost three years and a whole lot of other projects, I decided I would get on with this again. So a body blank (tulipwood) was sourced along with a new maple cap. The body has been roughed out for a while and sitting around in my man cave, but this week I have cracked on with gluing on the maple cap. Learning from my previous efforts, I fixed one half of the top in place yesterday, then after cleaning up the glue along the joint line, today I have glued on the other half. Once this has fully dried, I will wet (soak) the maple and bend this over the forearm chamfer. Doing this way means less variables during the gluing process as trying to glue both halves of the top and bend the top over the forearm contour in a single operation was a little stressful Oh and I've ordered the finishing materials too, so the intention is to crack on with this now and have a finished bass by the end of August.

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1403874145' post='2487324'] .........you could do an add with me standing next to one of your famous users saying " We even look after normal people " [/quote] Normal? On Basschat? How very bloody dare you

Reminds me of covering my first bass (short scale catalogue job) in black 'sticky backed plastic' and wrapping the white scratch plate with tin foil.... guess which Irish bassist was my fave at that time

I'm neither for or against artificial relic'd basses. What I can say from personal experience is that the one bass in my collection that 'average punters' (i.e. non-muso, regular ladies and gentlemen who like a bit of live music with their pint/fruit based drink) comment on is the fretless P I put together using a relic'd Vintage (brand, not age) white body. Its probably one of the worst 'relic' jobs you can imagine because the exposed wood grain is actually also a paint effect but it seems to be the one bass that attracts praise. My expensive Overwater's don't solicit that sort of response from 'average punters' That said, its the one bass I don't worry about when gigging as any genuine wear and tear will hardly be noticed

Ashdown have been producing good reliable gear since they started. Sure, there has been a few exceptions (Superfly anyone?) by generally you don't hear too many complaints about the ABM range, and I know a couple of gigging bassists playing three or four times a week who swear by the reliability of the MAG series gear. Horses for courses, I've never found 'my' sound from an Ashdown head yet, but that's not to say that I won't in the future or if I had more time with one of their heads. They do seem to come in for a disproportionate amount of stick on here which is disappointing as they are a British company and the vast majority of us on here hail from the British Isles.