steve

hi does anyone know if a chrome ray control plate will fit the control rout of a precision (not bothered about screw holes)? I know it won't extend up to the pups, it's just the lower portion of the routing I need to cover ta very much

After more changing my mind, and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and looking at the pic spree posted, and admiring the tru-oil finish on the neck, [i]and[/i] taking into account I have 73/74ths of a bottle of tru-oil left, I've gone for a tru-oil finish to the body.... [attachment=5834:PIC_0548.jpg][attachment=5835:PIC_0550.jpg][attachment=5836:PIC_0554.jpg] I still have some wet sanding to do, but its getting there. Next job is to get the nut filed and the tuners on so I can string it up for a try out. The pickguard will clearly have to go. I'm undecided (wot again?) about what to go for, I thought maybe part clear/part coloured to hide the control route. At this stage, I'm planning on not using a tone or vol control. As far as pup goes, I am leaning heavily towards a wizard atm. So anyone have any ideas or thoughts about pickguards?

[quote name='foal30' post='132408' date='Feb 2 2008, 09:18 AM']"Serious Electric Bass" by Joel Di Bartolo fair crammed with goodness[/quote] gets a +1 from me

wow, youve done a nice job there, the before and after pics look like different basses

[quote name='spree' post='138992' date='Feb 12 2008, 06:06 PM']i think if you stain the body you might have trouble putting an oil finish over the top of it, i could be wrong of course this is what oil would look like compared to bare wood [/quote] thanks for the pic, that's not really what I'm looking for. After more surfing, my plan now is to bleach it white, apply black grain filler, sand it back and then apply some kind of clear coat, which will hopefully give me something like this F bass back... [attachment=5630:66i5ag.jpg] Before I get to that tho, I've decided to shape the body so it's more like my Fender P - basically a bit more contoured

[quote name='sgt-pluck' post='137740' date='Feb 10 2008, 06:44 PM']Hey hey - thats starting to look really interesting! Body looks great. Are you going to go for a Fender-style bridge for P-thud or something like a Badass? Also, where did you get the neck from, and is it P-style dimensions or thinner like a Jazz? Might be interested in doing a similar build/restoration. Pluck[/quote] hi pluck, thanks for the comments. At this stage, I'm prob going to use the existing F style bridge, and add an ashtray, but everything is in a constant state of flux. The neck was bought second hand off ebay, and is standard P size. I would recommend having a go, just don't expect to gety too much bass practice whilst you're doing it

I've now finished removing the finish from the body.... before [attachment=5546:PIC_0542.JPG] during [attachment=5547:PIC_0543.JPG] after [attachment=5548:PIC_0545.JPG] I still need to sand out a few bits of black finish that were sprayed onto areas where the original clear finish had worn away I had to sand out the neck pocket slightly so the neck would fit. I'm having more thoughts about the finish to the body, I quite fancy getting a really dark grain filler (black?) and then staining the body with white woodstain to maintain the bleached out look. And then an oil finish. Any advice/warnings by anyone with more experience than me (that's everyone!) would be gratefully received

[quote name='Sibob' post='137438' date='Feb 10 2008, 02:31 AM']Cool man, oh and to answer your PM observation, no I don't sell windows or houses, but I do negotiate music contracts lol.[/quote] I could tell you were involved in some kind of wheeling and dealing! [quote name='Sibob' post='137438' date='Feb 10 2008, 02:31 AM']If you're ever down this way before you decide on what pickups for the P, you're more then welcome to give my DiMarzio'd Precision a go! The DP122 is quite high output, not as hot as the UltraJazzes, but pretty hefty.[/quote] cheers for the offer, I may take you up on that if I'm in the area. Oh yeah, I had a quick look at your Jazz build thread, My Ultra's are for a 5string, are they for different project?

[quote name='Sibob' post='136956' date='Feb 9 2008, 01:45 AM']Very nice, I love these 'Franken-Threads' (I will hopefully have updates for my Jazz one soon) It fantastic that its a one piece body, I should think thats almost unheard of on stock instruments. Even special US Laklands are 2 piece mostly. If its got a nice grain, sounds more like Ash, Alder can be quite plain. Is the new neck AllParts or similar? Definitly Darkstar it, or I highly recommend the DiMarzio DP122 Si[/quote] cheers Si, After more time with the Nitromors, I discovered to my mild embarrassment that it is in fact a two piece body, but it's only really apparant at the ends, I've no idea what the neck is, there's no manufacturers markings on it, feels nice tho. I'm still undecided about the darkstar, I don't know if I can be arsed routing it out. Another option is a thumper from Wizard Pickups. My only xp of diMarzios is the ultra jazzes, which I was very impressed with, (Si - I'm still considering your offer by the way) so I may well look into a DP122

black/black/maple P's are my favourite, but the white looks nice too (altho a white pg does it for me). What did you use to blank out the holes for the pots? I'm thinking of going without controls on my Franken P

I've been wanting to do one of these for a while, and I recently won this of ebay for £36 [attachment=5496:ecdb_1.JPG][attachment=5494:eb49_1.JPG][attachment=5495:ec06_1.JPG] It was advertised as having a crack in the neck, but I thought I'd take a chance anyway. So it arrived, it was quite heavy but the neck was a POS, with an unglued brass nut. This prompted me to buy this - the pics don't do justice to the grain [attachment=5497:6d44_1.JPG] [attachment=5498:3532_1.JPG]. The finish on the body was clearly not original, so I stripped of the paint, to reveal a single piece of possibly ash or alder?? with a lovely grain. more pics to follow when i've got all the finish off. I plan to finish it with tru-oil (same for the back of the neck), but before I make to many commitments, I'm going to string it up and see how it plays and sounds acoustically. The result will determine how much work I put into the oil finish, and whether or not it gets DarkStarred

so what did you end up doing?

[quote name='steve-norris' post='133013' date='Feb 3 2008, 01:51 PM']Another thought, is there a socket type of thing i could use, if i de-solder the input cap for instance is there some sort of socket i could solder on the board so i could change caps easily by plugging them in, that way i could easily evaluate different value/quality caps without lots of soldering.[/quote] you could rig up a piece of veroboard with strips of jumper sockets (not sure of the maplin code, but they're in a strip and they're designed to mate with the pin strips they sell). Basically run two lines of sockets down two of the copper strips of the board, soldered at every pin. Connect a lead from each of the veroboard strips to each of the capacitor holes on the pcb, then you can try different combos of caps ets. Hopefully my description isn't too vague....

thats a belter, are you modding it or leaving it as is?

[quote name='hairyhatman' post='131034' date='Jan 30 2008, 11:30 PM']Does anyone know if it makes any difference which input you use at the back of the XL cab. I don't see any info. at the back so I just plug into either jack. Can't really tell any difference in sound/tone/power.[/quote] I had to replace the driver on my 115XL a while back, and checked this out while the back was open. Both jacks are wired in parallel with the driver, so it makes no difference

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='130972' date='Jan 30 2008, 09:33 PM']I'd vote for Truoil (check eBay). A lot of the gunstock finishes are easy to apply and dry to a rock hard finish ideal for necks. The 'unofficial' Warmoth forum has some info: [url="http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/"]http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/[/url][/quote] thanks for that link, there's a lot of interesting stuff on it. I did read somewhere about the truoil being a gloss finish tho?

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='130715' date='Jan 30 2008, 03:01 PM']I'd use Danish Oil - wipe on, wipe off. I did a telecaster body with it and didn't bother with any sanding or waxing and it came out great, just wiped on a couple of coats.[/quote] excellent, I'll probably go for that then, unless anyone else advises against it, what with it being a neck an' all

I've just acquired a one piece maple neck from ebay - the fretboard is finished, but the neck isn't. I'm after suggestions for the most idiotproof process for a nice satin finish. the best solution I have found to date is in [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4972763&postcount=2"]this talkbass post[/url] - the part in bold type. Anyone have any recommendations/ experience? I don't have the facilities/tech know how for spraying, so if I go down the diy route I think wiping would be my best bet Another thought i had was to pay to have it done, but I've yet to price it up

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='127090' date='Jan 24 2008, 05:08 PM']Anyway, the easiest way of doing this is get a bottle top (yup, off your favourite bear), get a piezo that fits in it. Solder a cable with a jack socket on the piezo. Put in a bit of epoxy resin into the bottle top. Stick in the piezo, put a bit more epoxy resin in. Now you can stick your new pickup anywhere... (bit of masking tape is all you need). Sounds great on violin etc. Total build price... if you source your parts correctly, less than 2 quid.[/quote] My vocalist used to have a commercially available one of these that he used to attach to the bridge of an acoustic guitar using blu-tac. Worked ok, but i found the piezos weren't as sensitive to the bass frequencies, so you might need some kind of mag pickup to boost the bottom end

hi chris, how about a dark star pickup? maybe a bit pricey but they apparantly sound great