Owen Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 YES! Metal flake is The Bomb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Glad you guys like it. The pictures don't do it justice (even at this stage), it's a very difficult finish to photograph. Can't wait until it's completely finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 That's mega, I love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlungerModerno Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 That's pretty! Reminds me of this: (but in blue!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) It looks awesome. You've inspired me to resurrect my purple metal flake project!! how much flake did you buy? Edited February 24, 2015 by bartelby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Showed the girlfriend this. She was suitably impressed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 So far I've bought 200g of 350 micron flake (50g bags). Bearing in mind I used a fair bit of one bag on my test panel (and to the wind) it goes VERY far. At some point tomorrow I'll dig out my order and post where I sourced the flake from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raslee Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Feel free to do mine, that flake looks great. I've got my pick up and preamp in now, instant Ray' so i even put a sneaky decal on that my mate passed on and a recent eBay pickguard purchase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Evening all, Sorry for going quiet. As for the respray, I have been plodding along, but didn't think me adding several clear layers warranted a post. All I'm doing at the moment, is building up the clear coats until it's level (nearly there) and from there I'll start sanding and applying a hard lacquer over the top...and then the spraying will be done. In the mean time, here's a pic of my progress with the clear coats... [URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/jimryan88/media/image_zpsk4dqerre.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii527/jimryan88/image_zpsk4dqerre.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Im hoping to have the body ready for shielding by the weekend and useable again by Monday, but who knows. For now I'll just stick the stock pickup and pre back in as I miss playing it and I'll upgrade those over the coming weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlungerModerno Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Loverly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPJ Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Very cosmic in a nice way. Take your time building up the clear coats and give them plenty of time to fully cure before final sanding & polishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 Afternoon all, It turns out I didn't go to work today so thought I'd sit in the sun and work on the bass. Yesterday morning before being picked up I used up the last of the clear paint I had and let it dry over night. Today I sanded/smoothed the body the best I could with wet/dry and wiped away any gunk from the sanding process. It turns out the body is slightly textured still but not as bad as before, for comparison it's quite similar to the old musicman SUB basses but not as rough as those. After all the sanding was done, I gave it a wipe done and a bit of a polish. After all that was done, I got a tad excited and started reassembling. Over time I plan to change the bridge, but stuck with the stock one for now until I can figure out whether or not I want a mute kit on the bridge. The neck was put back on and then had to pick what scratchplate to use. The choice was between the White pearl and a black abalone one and the White won buy a landslide. With that burning issue settled, the back of the scratchplate was covered with copper foil as was the entire pickup cavity (should've got a pic of that but forgot, which is a shame as I'm pleased with how it came out). Cavity shielded, the pickup and scratchplate were put in position. Next up, control cavity. As suggested in the instructions I placed a small strip of foil up the cavity wall to meet the control plate and painted the rest with graphite shielding paint. That's currently drying and waiting it's next coat. With all that done, I've also restrung it to let the neck settle. As I've already stated, all the stock parts have been installed for the time being. As and when I can afford the parts I'll get myself a status neck, the pickup will be replaced with a Seymour Duncan Ceramic model (still need to decide on Series, parallel or both) and the pre will hopefully be replaced with a genuine EBMM one. Managed to get a nice pic of the bass in the sun and took a close up one that shows the paint texture as I've left it. [URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/jimryan88/media/image_zps9mlaiifs.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii527/jimryan88/image_zps9mlaiifs.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/jimryan88/media/image_zpsu0u6yi6i.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii527/jimryan88/image_zpsu0u6yi6i.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooks79 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Wow, that looks great! Well done. I have always wanted a metal flake finish bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myke Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 That looks fantastic! Well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Yup - looks brilliant! (Literally....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raslee Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Afternoon all, Sorry it's been a while, although, not a lot has happened recently. This morning however, I received a few bits I've ordered. First up a push/pull pot from allparts to allow for series/parallel switching. To go with the pot? A new pickup arrived this morning too. After spotting them on here, I snapped up one of the Delano pickups in the classifieds. Out of the two I opted for the ferrous plated one with ceramic magnets. Although many would argue I should've stuck with Alnico for his kind of project, I've got ceramic musicman pickups in two other basses and love them. Over the weekend I'm going to attempt to wire this thing myself (received a soldering iron about a week ago), so hopefully I'll be using it by next week. Exciting times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustInPeace90 Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Looking forward to seeing it all finished mate, love the blue sparkle finish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 This coming Friday I'll also be acquiring a 3 band EBMM preamp. At the moment I can't decide whether to put it in this, or keep the preamp with the two 5 string pickups (also EBMM) coming with it and put it all in my precision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Today I had my first proper attempt at wiring a bass and with great success. After finding the relevant wiring diagram on the Delano site, I made a start. A short while later, I very eagerly tuned the bass acoustically by ear, plugged it in, switched the mute on the amp off and.......boom it works and sounds amazing. The Delano pickup is wired straight into a push/pull pot (wired parallel/series) and then into the stock 2 band EQ. The only thing left for this bass now will be a status neck when my tax rebate comes through. [URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/jimryan88/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsa3h3m4rf.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii527/jimryan88/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsa3h3m4rf.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlungerModerno Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 Morning all, sorry it's been a while. A not long after my last post I had to make a slight adjustment. After work I sat down to play it and discovered no sound, this didn't phase me I just assumed the battery had gone. New battery out the packet, bass flipped over, battery compartment open, battery out, disconnect battery...disconnect battery...the bloody battery snap wasn't letting go. The cheap stock battery snap (the sort with the flimsy leather/plastic back) would not let me remove the battery. Instead the connectors decided they'd rather live in the battery than in the battery connector, so when I thought I had won and removed the battery, there was no socket to plug the battery back in to. A quick trawl through eBay and a few days delivery later, it arrives. A nice new sturdy plastic one. This was soldered in that evening and all systems were go. After a few hours of playing I've decided I'm really happy with the Delano, it's a fantastic pickup sounds perfect (well for me it does). After this brief ordeal I decided to give the bass a whirl at the next rehearsal. The band I'm currently working with is a mix of disco, funk and house music so for looks and sound it's the perfect bass. In fact, I'm hoping to use it at a nightclub gig tomorrow (Saturday, which ironically is one of the songs we're doing...Norma Jean, not Elton). At rehearsal, plugged in and ready to go, turn the gain and master levels to what I would with my passive precision...nothing. Oh no, what no. Gain right up to about 2 o clock and master all the way and I'm audible (for reference with my passive precision I have the gain at about 9/10 o clock and master at the same and it's loud enough). That's all set up, quick effects check (for those interested in chain order are Polytune mini, yep I'm in tune, DOD FX25 - a particularly old "kermit green" edition, nope because of the basses low output the sensitivity is WAY off, Mooer Lofi machine, yep, that still works, EHX Bassballs, nope, sensitivity on full and still not powerful enough to trigger the filter and finally a Mooer Thunderball, this works fine too) only problem now though is that somewhere along the chain the effects and bass don't seem to get along. Effects unplugged until further investigation. After that evening, the volume issue played on my mind and decided to continue with an earlier plan and went and bought a John East MMSR 2 band EQ. This arrived yesterday and last night I set about installing it. First task was to remove the stock preamp and fix the East one to the control plate, done, connect Delano to the screw terminals, done, realise I'd forgotten to remove strings and bridge to connect bridge earth cable and then removed aforementioned strings and bridge, then the battery connector (fortunately a trendy one like I'd previously ordered) needed to be removed, red wire was simple and just a case of unscrewing the terminal, the black was a cut and I'll solder tomorrow when it's not nearly 2200 and I should be in bed but I really want to get this finished now, but well ok the solderin iron happens to be plugged in I may as well do it now. Heat shrink applied over joint and control plate back in place. Done. Huzzah! Wait, forgot the knobs. For those that haven't installed an East pre, with the knobs and pots comes a small copper spring. This goes over the pot shaft and keeps a connection with the control plate. The thing with these, is that they're packaged with the spring in the base of the knob and then celotaped together. What this means, is that after you've wrestled with the tape for a bit, as you remove the knob from the pack the spring whizzes past you across the room and through a black hole never to be seen again. It was after this I got out a penknife and carefully dissected the packaging and liberated the other two springs without losing them. Volume knob, on and screwed in place. Now, the only thing I don't like about this East pre amp, is that the bass and treble controls have no centre position. It's a smooth rotation all the way round, so thanks to the contrasting black grub screws (I think they look really smart), I roughly located the middle position and screwed the knobs on to show middle. After this entire charade it was complete, Mrs Jimryan is asleep at this point but it needs to be tested to see if it all works. Quietly I unpack my amp (still in a bag from rehearsal), set everything up and get my precision to set a control level. Mute on, swap basses, the tuner is flashing so it definitely works, this is good, turn mute off, ok it's still not as high an output as my precision, but it's not far off and nothing like it was before. As a control the gain and master were both at 8 o clock, with the stingray it was now near enough the same. Now for a test and my word it sounds fantastic, absolutely amazing. Bernard's tone, nailed, precision tone done all the way up to a flea style aggressive sound done. This preamp and pickup combo is brilliant. Gonna try it full volume tonight after work and with my effects. During the week I also ordered my status neck, but not a standard one. For this project I've opted for the blue tint and no face dots and I cannot wait to install it. Only thing is, I look at this picture I took last night and can't help but think it needs bridge mutes... [URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/jimryan88/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps5oy2czdo.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii527/jimryan88/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps5oy2czdo.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bass_Guardian Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 That looks the business! Bet it sounds the business too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 According to Status, my neck is being sprayed this week and with a little luck, it should be with me the following week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimryan Posted June 6, 2015 Author Share Posted June 6, 2015 So, seven weeks after ordering, the status neck that's only take three weeks to make is nearly ready. Apparently it'll be ready by Tuesday. However, it might be as up until now every week it's been "ready next week" but we'll see. It's nearly finished!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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