Al Heeley

Thats a lovely burst and a nice piece of maple.

Here the truss rod channel has been routed and the truss rod loose-fitted. Neck marked up ready for the start of shaping.

+1 for impossible. Any change or mod to standard factory instrument means no longer totally original so option 1 has to be the only true meaning of the phrase. How do you tell? Well only if its bleedin' obvious I suppose, like an original 50's gibson fitted with a roland guitar synth. When it comes to pots, caps, machine heads, etc. it becomes harder to tell, but is it so important? In many cases, swapping out hardware for modern stuff may be a big improvement - which is why all these guitar parts shops end up taking so much of my hard-earned money. When you're talking about necks and bodies then it becomes important in order to justify big buck selling prices.

You will be fine - theres lots of different constructions and sizes from ceramic thru mylar and poly film, different sizes but do the same job (but not on total power rating - since this is passive and the pups punch out a tiny current its not a concern). If you browse on the Guitar Nutz forum where the electronics gurus hang out you can spend a year discussing the merits of differnt cap construction on the tonal qualities imparted. these tiny ceramics tend to be cheap and less accurate in value, maybe +/- 10% of stated value rather than the bigger mylar or orange drops (spragues) which I think are more like +/- 5%. Stick em all on your tone pot and turn the knob - it goes bassier. Hurrah!

Well it looks like a great build - and nicely planneed out. Sure its not a phase problem with one of your multipups?

I just threw this together; Its not very complicated or very impressive but its really, really useful. I can leave 2 guitars plugged in then hit the footswitch to change from one to the other without having to unplug the amp and fiddle about before the start of the next song. I can have the bass plugged into the common then have either amp or tuner going off from the A/B box. That way i can kill the bass at half time without worrying about feedback or volume controls. I can use it with my lead guitar to switch between 2 amps. All for about £8 of bits from maplins, and with a stereo jack theres the thrill of retro fitting some LEDs too when life gets a bit too pedestrian. Really, should have done this years ago.

Ooh, that fretless Jazz is gorgeous. There's a few of my efforts in my sig plus the mark 2 ric I'm just starting on, in the build diaries thread.

Well it was sold as a Ric-bass replacement neck pickup, but I understand that the real Ric basses use same toaster pickup as their higher voiced 6 string sisters. If you take an original ric bass toaster pup apart you will find 6 magnet pole pieces. So I would say, to answer your question, quite probably.

Here's the inevitable early mock-up shot. Note: Body wings are laminated but not trimmed to correct size yet, which is why the lower one looks so big and the bass looks off-centred. CF rods set into the neck, next the neck will be routed for the truss rod. Once that is fixed we can start cutting out all the wood on the underside and shaping the neck. Neck pup is Kent Armstrong Toaster. Waiting on arrival of SD bridge pickup.

I don't go to any specific efforts to keep wood dry. Only when it starts raining I go work inside. I buy hardwood timber I hope has been seasoned properly from John Boddy specialist warehouse, nothing green, then I build a guitar in my garage or in the kitchen (if the wife's out). I do this purely for my own pleasure, not a money making venture, and of the 10 or so guitars I've built so far, I've not had any problems with joints swelling or warping, so I guess I may have been lucky.

[quote name='cytania' post='377438' date='Jan 12 2009, 10:26 AM']Great build diary. Does it get the classic Rickenbacker sound (clank, clank)? What do you think really contributes to the Rick bass sound? I've been wondering what taking a basic neck-thru and simply replacing the pickups with Rick ones would create...[/quote]Thanks! It really does have that Ric percussive edge. I think all aspects of the design work together to give this - the thru-neck, the mostly maple, the ric pickups and the bridge construction as well as the electronics. I've not tried the ric pickups elsewhere but they make a very impressive tone.

Many thanks guys for taking the time to measure and photo. In fact the head angle is far shallower than I imagined. Will take that into account with the build. As far as i know, there have never been any reports of problems with string/nut pressure with rics like you sometimes hear about with Fender Precisions and the A-string, so I guess the shallow head angle works fine for the design. Syn: many thanks for the measurements, that'll do nicely. I have 8 1/2 inches for the headstock so that is pretty close to your own figures. I'll go for a flat neck/body with neck 1.5mm proud at the join. [quote][url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283322"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283322[/url][/quote]remeber reading thru this thread before starting on the Lemonbacker. Great stuff! Amazing where he saws right thru the body by hand to cut the top cap off. Nerves of steel. I wish he'd get on and finish it. Sadly for me, the 4005 is an ugly boiled sweet of a bass and has none of the iconic design excellence of the 4001.

[quote name='Buzz' post='377034' date='Jan 11 2009, 07:02 PM']Al, you're doing a copy, does it have to be that perfect as to get the correct headstock angle? And now I think about it, what about the other one you did, would that also not have an angled headstock?[/quote] I'd like to get it as close as I can to the real Ric, and with the original Lemonbacker, I guessed These were just some of the issues first time round I struggled to get clear answers on.

Looks lovely - maybe he's had a treble boost fitted, like a push-pull pot that switches the cap out of the tone circuit (like the Ric 4001 reissues)

No, really, an angle is fine - in fact it's preferable! 15 degrees does it for me. Stick a long ruler on the fretboard protruding out over the headstock, and the angle the headstock slopes away at, that's the jobby. Thanks. Actually I think 15 is too much, more likely to be 8 to 12 degrees.

Thanks guys - one more Q - tell me about headstock angle on your 4001/3 - is there one (compared to the line of the neck) or is it flat like a P-bass?

Another ric question: does anyone have any info about the scrylic sscratchplate-like insert I've seen fitted with SD Ric-replacement pickups, to cover the original hole? I've seen what looks like a white or black plastic rectangle then a clear acrylic piece over the top within which the pickup is mounted, the SD two blade type pup. I'd be grateful for any info from anyone who has fitted these SD pickups to a ric. Many thanks!

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='376615' date='Jan 11 2009, 09:50 AM']I think the OP is referring to the incline of the neck to the nominal flat surface of the body as opposed to neck relief.[/quote] I am, thx will drop you a pm!

Well i think the current £27 price is a little over the top.

Hey Mike, Here's the link to the radius jig I copied: [url="http://home.mindspring.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.mindspring.com/~adhamilton/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/neck_jig_3.jpg&target=tlx_new"]Radius Jig[/url] Boddys is a great place - yard shuts at 1 on Saturdays, shop + hardwood warehouse stays open till 4 but jeez it was cold in there today. I've always got all my wood from the shop.

I go up to Jogn Boddy's specialist timber warehouse in Boroughbridge - a bit of a hike but a vast selection of hardwoods cut and planed to different sizes. Takes a bit of rummaging round to find the right size/thickness pieces but thats all part of the fun. They had in some gorgeous thick slabs of Wenge today, well worth a trip if you're in the area.

Got me some wood Found a very nice straight grained and beautifully blonde maple for the cap, and European walnut with a nice grain for the body. The neck is a Maple/Cherry/Maple sandwich.

I've heard great things about the DiMazio Model J's - huge fat bass, very powerful. Anyone here retro-fitted any?

Just had my new rig [MB4210+MBC115] up and running at a (fairly loud) practice with the band, got a lot of smiles and a scared drummer. It was great - really rich, authorative tone and it was really just on tickover. Best sound by far was classic channel voice 1 with just a hint of modern blended in (blend on 9) and compression on 3 - stacks of depth and warmth with a hint of bite from the modern - the ss preamp sound is very tyransparent, it benefits from having some of the mids knocked out of it. I'm using mid freq set between 4 and 6 and the middle knob on 3 (5 is flat). The modern channel also needs a much higher bass setting - the classic has enormous bass, I turned it down to 4 but had modern set on 7-8 to keep up. The only negative for me is the classic gain - the overdrive sound to me is really insubstantial and had me going round checking the cones and the speaker grille for rattles. Great to be able to keep up with the band volume effortlessly - leads to much more dynamic and expressive bass playing. All in all, tremendous value for money and a very versatile system.