rwillett

So two pickups. one as close as possible to the neck and one a little further back. This is the pickguard now and what you are looking for For me, that's just a case of printing a new pickguard and possible lengthening the cables at the neck pickup (or something). Pretty simple to change, just moved the sketches for each pickup. The pickguard holes are automatically generated in the pickguard, so thats it. Took just under a min to change and using Apple-Z even less time to put back. Rob

A very small amount of time...

I have, all 37 (?) episodes. That Mini will need to be restored again by the time they finish it. I think putting a 4WD system and rather large engine on an old Mini is utterly insane and stupid. Rather like some of my builds. My mum and dad used to race minis in the 70s. My dads favourite trick was to put an Austin princess six cylinder engine into a classic mini. It would fit once he'd used the rather large sledge hammer to modify the engine bay. It handled like a pig, torque steered everywhere but as it was all off-road racing, rather good fun. He had a garage business so this wasn't exceptional. He once started to build a proper stock car. The design process consisted of suspending an American V8 from the garage beams, rolling front and rear axis in to approx the right positions along with the drive shafts and then welding large amounts of lorry U-bean together to make the chassis so it all fitted (for some value of fitted). I note that the mobile library has come back again. It wasn't clear to me if they put the whole of the old library on a different chassis and engine or put a whole different chassis under the library. What's the VIN number going to be? We are into Triggers broom territory now.

Any Poles?

Ah!, Thats very helpful

I'd wait to to see if it became a massive hit before I threatened legal action. Somebody else bears the initial costs and he then reaps the rewards. Mind you the chances of this happening to me involves complex maths with the probability circling zero. More chance of Donald Trump making sense, actually no, I have more chance of writing a number 1 hit than Trump making sense. Rob

Sorry misunderstood. CAD = Cardboard Aided Design

Here's most of the bits. I need to cut and drill the aluminium backbone and floor. I've done the drill guide for this, and thats about 90 mins of work with pillar drill, tap and die set, and finger grinder followed by lots of hand work with a file. The wiring is all done, I'm printing a pickguard in white as I write this. The neck heal all fits the neck, strap buttons are done. I do need to put a small amount of maple veneer on the back of the neck, but need to source some first. I really want to do a proper quality paint finish on it, but wondering if I can do it before the SW Bass Bash so it'll dry.

And those positions in mm from the bridge are...? I can easily print two pickguards with the mounting points in different positions, so could do a 60's, a 70's position and/or a Musicman / Jazz Bass 70's bridge position. Rob

The original rail concept is long gone. Too many small hassles.

Because I'd have to have designed that in from the start on this bass and I didn't do that. I did design a pickup system that runs on carbon fibre (!) rails for my headless bass. It was very, very fiddly, very time consuming to design and build. It actually is on the headless bass now, so if anybody at the SW Bass Bash wants to see it, they can marvel at it. Part of the problem is that I had to take pickups that were designed to be screwed into a body and make them fit the sledges and rails whilst still fitting it all into the central cavity. It took a long time to get it right. Now if I did it, I'd glue the four mounting blocks in and simplify some of the other parts. Hindsight is great. I just want to make a first stab at where the pickups should go is all. I've found a site that suggest 54mm from the bass bridge for one pickup and 172mm from the bass bridge for the neck pickup. I also found sites arguing over 60's positions vs 70's positions. Thanks Rob

Just working out where to put the neck and bridge pickups. These will be hanging from the pickguard as opposed to being screwed to the body. I can put them as per my Fender Jazz, but they can go anywhere as I have a large space, approx 175mm to put them in. Any recommendatiosn or suggestions? Thanks Rob

Yes but with rubber tips over the end.

So no dancing with large cider flagons wearing hob-nailed boots? Asking for a friend...

Very good

Been far too long since I updated this thread. Other things got in the way and it's slowly morphed into something else. Basically the idea of a rail guitar was nice but it had a lot of problems I struggled to get worked out, so I was thinking about testing some other ideas: A simpler outside frame. The top and bottom is about 2/3 of the size. A simple mounting system to mount the outside frame to the centre section. That's the three circular rods top and bottom. Would they be strong enough? Still not sure. A simple control panel. The top and bottom are two distinct parts and don't join at all until ... ... a simple aluminium backbone and floor is put in. The mounting system for fitting the backbone has been simplified. Not sure if it'll work but lets find out. All of this is now printed and is being glued together. Just printing out the drill guides This is how it looks without the backbone, floor, bridge and neck. and in cross section It turns out that putting the rods at an angle makes assembly super difficult as you have to do all three at the same time I had to print some alignment guides to hold everything whilst I was glueing or to suddenly have eight arms. However having the three rods perpendicular looks naff. This will have an Aria Pro neck and a high mass bridge. Probably a cheap set of pickups as well. It is more or less done apart from the metalwork, the finish, which is a new technique but the simpler frame should make the finishing to a high quality easier and to be also setup. I want to get it and the six string done for the SW bass bash, so @neepheid may be working the Friday he turns up here He doesn't know yet. I'll post real photos shortly. Rob

I didn't know about this. Sick of junk cables from big brands who simply farm them out to the cheapest Chinese supplier. I do like a decent cable, properly made and just the right length. Mmm.... Look forward to seeing them at the bash and talking more.

Why humanely?

I think this is why I don't work with valves and large voltages. I've read this 2-3 times. It looks like English, it sounds English but I think it's actually in Klingon. Hope you sleep well and I look forward to whatever you do being done.

That made me laugh... Thankfully my coffee cup was on the desk so I didn;t spit it out over my nice keyboard. I do actually really like my ultra short scale Ibanez. It looks like it was used on a building site as a shovel, and may well have been, but it plays well, it sounds great and is a little unusual. Rob

I like the idea of a swap shop. Can I swap my cheap Ibanez GIO ultra shortscale for for a 62 Jazz please?

The crossover might be of interest as I need to do an autopsy on my dead Headrush FR-112 and see what I can replace or salvage. Perhaps I'll do an autopsy thread for it, an anti-build thread