Musicman SUB bass project - 2012 update, actual progress!!

[AndThenSome1]

Any chance I can buy your black control plate from you? Would love to try one out on my black SUB and see how it looks with the black hardware

[budget bassist]

I don't think I've got it anymore mate, but I'll have a look tomorrow and let you know.

[budget bassist]

I know I've not bothered with this in a while, the bass has been at my parents house while I've been at university for the last couple of years and I've never been home long enough to really look at getting it sorted. Now I'm home for the summer though and don't have a job this year, so I needed something to fill some time, so I made some actual progress today! The other day I took the Basslines pickup out to have a look at how it was wired as the available info on the internet is less than helpful, and noticed it was a bit ropey, so I re-soldered all of the joints there so it was a bit nicer and not falling apart any more, no photos of that though.

I spent a good while trying to figure out how the pre and the pickups were actually wired, as all of the info on the seymour duncan site/everywhere else explained how to wire the pickup to a stingray preamp/some other preamp etc, the bongo preamp is pretty weird and is only really specific to MM pickups, so I had to get my head around a stock MM pickup and how to wire it all, it's probably not as complicated as it sounds, but the way it's all laid out was pretty confusing.

Anyway, today I managed to get it all wired up. I've done a couple of tests and the pickups have output, the preamp has output, and I [i]think[/i] it's working as it should, but I don't have a working amp here, so I may have to wait to test it out properly. I still need to sort the hardware out and get it all bolted together again, and perhaps sort out the control cavity, as it's a little cramped with two batteries in there, but it's coming together. I may look at refinishing it at some point as well, it's a little tatty at the moment.

Here's where I'm up to anyway:

[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/metallica_rock/IMG_0223.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/metallica_rock/IMG_0224.jpg[/IMG]

[LukeFRC]

I last commented on this thread in 2008 !

I was wondering what on earth that preamp was - bongo one? It's not exactly cutting edge the way it's been made is it!

But keep going it will be finished eventually.

about 12 years ago I had a mate who I used to go and visist and in his work room/study he had a plan to build a MM sterling, he had all the bits and a real neck he got off ebay and had a guitar building friend who was going to make a body and put it together for him. I was speaking to him the other day... all the bits are still in a cupboard somewhere!

[budget bassist]

Bit late here, but better late than never! Yeah, it's a Bongo preamp, looks like a pretty standard op amp based unit to me, pretty sure most are, just designed slightly differently.
Anyway, I never managed to get that preamp working, need to send it to a guitar tech at some point and get it done really. I've just been playing it with the pickup wired straight to output. Works/sounds fine.