3below

With your 'one piece' necks, do you 'cut' in neck angle, angle the body wings or have a parallel body-neck alignment? From your builds I am starting to see some advantages of through neck construction, it seems much simpler than tenon joint or routing for bolt on neck. Am I missing something?

Do you have a known functional amp ? If so wire the speaker (EBS 10) directly to a speakon or jack socket. Try the 10" with this direct configuration. Hopefully all will be ok, the battery - cone movement test is encouraging. If you do not have a spare amp, do you have a multimeter. If you do, disconnect the 10" speaker from crossover etc and measure the dc resistance. 6 - 8 ohms is good, 0 ohms or infinity is not good. Suitable multimeters for this purpose are cheap if you do not have one.

Planer-thicknesser is one of the best tools I have ever purchased, should have done it years ago. I have just re-discovered planer 'snipe' with 4' x 8" x 2" mahogany I am starting with. Roller in and out feed has helped but it is time I cut it into the two slabs for jointing.

Another vote for DiMarzio J bass pickup here. No hum, plenty of output. See what turns up on *bay used.

The John Birch short scale 'EB3' I had many years ago had the strap button on the back of the upper horn, lower chamfer. It was serious a 'neck diver' even with mini Schallers. My current SG bass (short scale) is a slight neck diver. I rather like the angle the heel strap button sets the bass at, seems easier on my left wrist. Even with the strategies adopted in design I would still be very tempted to knock up a [b]very rough[/b] pine (or something cheap) body and neck to further investigate the neck dive potential. I am inspired by BC builds, I have the mahogany but am currently awaiting new planer thicknesser drive belt and have to set up some new blades. Tomorrow I hope.

The figured timber is stunning. Will it have the 666 model number engraved on the truss rod cover?

My Corvette has got 'horn' envy, it feels very inadequate.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1470166270' post='3103822'] .... I disagree, yes light has a frequency but thats an irrelevant innate property of the transmission mechanism and there is no overt combination/splitting of a signal ergo the claim that its not AM is fair and reasonable IMO. [/quote] If there is no overt combination of the signal, how is the guitar signal amplitude (electrical) being converted to light intensity (amplitude)? As I see it, light is propagating (travelling) along the optical fibre. It is carrying the information (amplitude of guitar signal) through the intensity (amplitude). This is simply amplitude modulation by any other name. We can of course look at the patent disclosures and establish the circuits used, they may be novel and a 'new' form of non-modulated signal transmission has been developed. If this is the case they will have 'big players' in the communications technology sphere chasing them. Guitar cables will be small beer.

I am with 4stringslow on the AM modulation, not that being a Physicist has any bearing on this. Being an older git, luckydog makes the connection, what is wrong with my old cable. Yes, if I gigged rather more I would probably go wireless , then again virgin unicorns have been seen in this part of Mid Wales, so who knows. I do know I will not be forking out for the Analogue Optical Guitar Cable.

[quote name='ColinB' timestamp='1469690013' post='3100270'] There's something seriously wrong with your mains electricity for the trip to go off just by plugging in the USB lead. I'd be far more worried about that than the toneprint tbh. It might be more than a killer tone that you'll end up with! [/quote] +1 there is something seriously wrong somewhere. Try the amp - usb connection in another location (that has a circuit breaker). If it works correctly I would get your home electricity and pc checked. You can get mains testing plugs which will give you some indication (however they do not detect neutral - earth reverse).

[quote name='Pow_22' timestamp='1469602375' post='3099584'] The Mk3 Sound City's are close, the Mk4s are sh*te tho [/quote] If you get a good mk4 they are pretty decent. If you get a 'bad un' then noise is your friend . I got lucky with a 'bedroom' condition mk4 at a knockdown price. It was broke, aka needed a new pre amp tube. Bought cheap enough they make a good donor for Hiwatt conversion.

Warwick Rockbass 5er that I owned had a substantial 3 piece maple neck. I had no doubts about the stability and the build quality was also flawless. I would take a long hard look at used Warwick prices, they are a great value for buyers and depressing for sellers. A German Corvette is on here for £350 at the moment, what a used rockbass would fetch is anyone's guess.

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1469130969' post='3096065'] I remember going past the 15th fret once. I think it was in 1987. [/quote] Me too and to give a lesser number, I am thinking about building a short scale eb3 / les paul double cut type bass (early EBO). To reduce (get rid of hopefully) any neck dive I would move the bridge as far back as possible. The ensuing length would be taken up in a shorter neck with less frets, probably about 3, making it 17 in all.

An architectural salvage supplier near to me [url="http://www.roofingandsalvagedepot.co.uk/"]http://www.roofingan...agedepot.co.uk/[/url] has mahogany snooker table sides at £12.50. One of these could probably make a complete bass(including neck), two certainly would . You may be able to find similar locally to you? Making your own two piece body has several advantages. If you have access to a planer-thicknesser then purchasing rough sawn timber is much cheaper. Finding a 'mate' with a suitable width planer-thicknesser to thickness the 'planks' before gluing the blank becomes much more likely. Another issue to consider is: routing cavities etc before cutting out the body shape or routing after cutting the body shape. The former in many cases gives the router base a much greater and easier surface to operate on. You might want to investigate the neck dive on a Grabber / Ripper style bass, elongate the upper horn slightly? Move bridge rearwards, shorten the neck whilst maintaining scale length.

The deception of pictures

Super skill with the control plate and a nice touch using purfling / strip to take the saw kerf up. I feel the need to bring my 335 type bass to you for some cosmetic fettling in the bridge area.

JAN3 seems good, I fitted one to a W that I bought that had suffered the JAN2 broken tabs. Am not sure the brass version is worth £££ more. Cheapest price I found on JAN3 was from Australia, go figure

Same seller has a Rockbass Corvette at an eyewatering BIN price. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warwick-Corvette-5-string-rock-bass-guitar-/222185740093?hash=item33bb4d573d:g:h8UAAOSwygJXhptN

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1468786114' post='3093332'] Yes, I agree - a fully rearward bridge is a must. The best example of that is the Cort Curbow - looks and feels like a short scale and is, in fact, the full 34" Interestingly, this is one of the issues faced with the semi-acoustic (ie the other new project just started). The bridge placement and resulting neck placement actually makes it pretty impossible to reach the first fret... [/quote] I have a 335 / EB2 long scale that verges on that same problem. Then again I am only 5'3" and have short arms It does balance fairly well though. The mahogany looks stunning btw.

Currently owning an SG bass and thinking a long scale version would be rather nice I have given some thought to the neck dive issue. My thoughts were move the bridge as far back as possible and possibly lengthen the body slightly. A few inches gained this way would certainly help with the balance in addition to lightweight tuners etc. Even with the timber cut as shown in the pictures there is some length gain still available. Look forward to seeing the build

Do you have access to a luthier near to you. Get them to look at the cracks and give a diagnosis. My initial feeling from the pictures is that I would not describe it as EX condition.

Truss rod buzzes usually sorted by adjusting truss rod. Tighten slightly, or if this fails, loosen rod, give neck a gentle push in the middle whilst holding headstock then retighten rod. If this fails I am with Grangur on this one, it is something else. One of my Warwicks has a seriously irritating buzz on unfretted A. I know it is the truss rod cover and one day will sort it, one day soon

6 Ohms is quite OK. Solid state amps will just deal with that, problems start at low impedance. Some solid state amps will deliver down to 2 ohms, others get a little unhappy with less than 4 ohms. As I understand it, if you have an impedance mismatch with valve amps a speaker impedance less than amp output impedance is preferable (e.g.speakers 6 ohm, amp output 8 ohms). The 'rated' / 'quoted' impedances are not exact since they change with frequency (and quite significantly around resonance). With only 2 ohms difference between 8 and 4 with your 6 ohm cab I would not worry about it, but then again it is not my kit. If you want a 4 ohm 2 x 15 bass cab that is virtually indestructible my advice would be sell the Peavey and add your proposed replacement driver expenditure to that. Use it to buy a BF Dubster or Vintage. It will be (IMO) far more cost effective and someone else has done all the design work for you. Biased viewpoint, I have a BF Dubster and s/h it cost less than the drivers it contains.

The build speed is seriously impressive. Makes me tired just contemplating it, however it also makes me think I must do something with 3015 Kappalites and two sheets of 9mm birch ply I have in my parts store