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Fireman - this could be the start of something.. umm..


Woodinblack

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8 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Ooh - good plan, how about these?!

IMG_4315.thumb.jpg.91923cdd346c2f15c67aa342d9f38c85.jpg

Yes but make sure to wash your hands before you go for a wee.  Your red bass will not save you from an embarrassing chilli burn in a delicate area.

HomerDrools.png.b96c54b9e1ed201a56cfcb2391bf26dd.png

Edited by SpondonBassed
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On 13/06/2018 at 06:47, SpondonBassed said:

Yes but make sure to wash your hands before you go for a wee.  Your red bass will not save you from an embarrassing chilli burn in a delicate area.

 

+1.  In fact, +lots.  Painful and causes great hilarity among your bandmates.

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So many things in life are just designed to get in the way of what you want to do.

The last two weekends we were away, this one i had 3 gigs! During the week I did get to do some sanding, all at 1200 after the colouring, and I found the joys of lintfull paper. If you rub it down with a paper towel, it only leaves lint where something catches it, so that is the bit that needs smoothing. 

I did all the final holes I needed for neck screws and jack socket. I messed up with the jack socket but luckily it didn't do any harm and didn't show.

After having to go and get stuff I managed to put a coat of oil over everything. It looks a lot darker, I really like it, even the line down the back. Like this:

IMG_4795.thumb.jpg.52f8cfaa2f3cd8af47dd93164b32da9c.jpg

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Yes, good advice that. I have made a couple of stupid mistakes recently which would have been easily avoided, all luckily simple to get round.

The nut I bought was too wide so I bought a blank, the machine heads I got got delayed so I got some more and I remembered last night I needed to get some knobs and springs for the pickups!

I was lining up the bridge rails last night (which is what the red string was for, using the scale length from my other basses to work out the range of positions i need for them. I don't really need that angle but I think it looks quite good and covers the positions I probably will need.

I still have to wire this up:

wiring_firemanw2.png.e60832707b49cf511948f0ee8b6c810d.png

 

Everything actually gets harder now I have got to the easy bit. Before it was a couple of chunks of wood and if I messed it up, well, it wasn't expensive wood. Now it is cheap wood, cheap components and many hours of work!

 

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3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Yes, good advice that. I have made a couple of stupid mistakes recently which would have been easily avoided, all luckily simple to get round.

The nut I bought was too wide so I bought a blank, the machine heads I got got delayed so I got some more and I remembered last night I needed to get some knobs and springs for the pickups!

I was lining up the bridge rails last night (which is what the red string was for, using the scale length from my other basses to work out the range of positions i need for them. I don't really need that angle but I think it looks quite good and covers the positions I probably will need.

I still have to wire this up:

wiring_firemanw2.png.e60832707b49cf511948f0ee8b6c810d.png

 

Everything actually gets harder now I have got to the easy bit. Before it was a couple of chunks of wood and if I messed it up, well, it wasn't expensive wood. Now it is cheap wood, cheap components and many hours of work!

 

Can you describe the configuration options for the two pick-ups that the wiring diagram gives you please?  It looks to my uneducated eyes as if you may have it wired to allow series/parallel switching but I'm only guessing.

 

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1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

Can you describe the configuration options for the two pick-ups that the wiring diagram gives you please?  It looks to my uneducated eyes as if you may have it wired to allow series/parallel switching but I'm only guessing.

Clearly your eyes are not as uneducated as all that then are they!

What isn't obvious on that diagram is that the red wire is actually a joined red / white wire, which is the join between the coils, hence why there are only 3.

 

Yes, that is what it is. It has active passive on the volume knob (need some resistors on there to prevent thumps), the 4pdt switch is overall series / parallel (which takes the blend out in series) and a dpdt for single coil mode for both pickups.

I find the series parallel quite useful on my G&L, although not as useful as I found it on my geddy lee jazz bass when you really wanted to cut through.

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1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

That sense of pride you feel when you have made a minor purchasing error, but manage to cover that up using existing parts and you are confident that noone will notice the error..

IMG_4814.thumb.jpg.a553485f5851ed086d24016c6fa68d76.jpg

What error I can't see anything wrong!?! 😁

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1 hour ago, BreadBin said:

Forgot the nut?

Actually, still waiting for the replacement nut, I had an adjustable one, but turned out it was 43mm rather than 42, and yes, it made enough of a difference, so I have bought a blank one which I was expecting today

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

It's a feature tuner!

Thats what I thought!

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1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Actually, still waiting for the replacement nut, I had an adjustable one, but turned out it was 43mm rather than 42, and yes, it made enough of a difference

Yeah I bet it did :)

This is really looking good now, wonky tuner notwithstanding... 

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1 minute ago, BreadBin said:

This is really looking good now, wonky tuner notwithstanding... 

Its not wonky, its character - like a gold tooth :D

Quite frustrating when you spend ages looking and end up buying a 3L2R set, which obviously is 2 on the left and 3 on the right. But the only reason I bought those is that they were cheap, as I had to get something to cover the ones from china that had been delayed (and will presumably come), which are the wilkinson versions of the ultralights.

Actually, when it comes to tuners, the black ones are cheap noname tuners, the gold one is a Gotoh!

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Ooh get you with your posh gold Gotoh!

One of my 5ers has 4 no-names and a slightly larger (but the same finish) Grover, it's obviously a sign of good taste. 

I've a few of those cheap black ones around - you're welcome to one if it helps? 

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On 21/06/2018 at 14:18, SpondonBassed said:

I have it in mind to try that out on my Pit Bull.  The passive humbuckers have a good output and the individual coil wires are accessible for tapping.

This is the circuit that that mess is from:

fireman.thumb.png.be1d9ddfdc0cf928ee516b77c5f3d13d.png

Thats with Sw2 untapped, and SW1 in normal (parallel) mode

 

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5 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Ooh get you with your posh gold Gotoh!

Its actually from the Ibanez 1605 premium - they disconinued that one as its body was so light it head dived a bit, so I replaced them with hipshot ultralights, and cured the problem

 

5 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

One of my 5ers has 4 no-names and a slightly larger (but the same finish) Grover, it's obviously a sign of good taste. 

I've a few of those cheap black ones around - you're welcome to one if it helps? 

Might take you up on that, although I suspect that by the time the things are all together, the tuners from china will be in so I will be replacing all of them!

Edited by Woodinblack
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On 21/06/2018 at 14:18, SpondonBassed said:

Cheers.

I have it in mind to try that out on my Pit Bull.  The passive humbuckers have a good output and the individual coil wires are accessible for tapping.

 

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

This is the circuit that that mess is from:

fireman.thumb.png.be1d9ddfdc0cf928ee516b77c5f3d13d.png

Thats with Sw2 untapped, and SW1 in normal (parallel) mode

 

Many thanks.

Did you get that from the technical section?  I almost went cross eyed when I dipped into wiring schemes the last time.

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3 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Did you get that from the technical section?  I almost went cross eyed when I dipped into wiring schemes the last time.

No I just made that from what I wanted. It is a watered down version of what I have on the G&L which has a different 'tapp outside or inside coils' tap (which makes next to no difference).

The bit not shown on that that is shown on the wiring is the bit past the volume which is the switch for active / passive on the volume which just routes the input and output away from the preamp, and the preamp.

It had a slight complication as it goes to an active circuit and originally the volume is part of the active circuit (and a different value) but I couldn't keep that and have the volume work in passive mode as well, so I took the volume out of that circuit and put a passive volume before the preamp, which is how the G&Ls L series work, and if it worked for me fender it is fine by me. The G&L L series is actually an entirely passive bass (controls wise) that at the end where the jack socket would be it goes to a preamp entirely for buffering.

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Annoyed but mostly rather happy and a little chuffed.

I put the neck screws on, the bridge on, the nut on, some (old) strings on. Need to do the relief, still need to wire it. I am rather happy with it, it plays like a want (or will when the neck is adjusted). 

Annoyed because in the last days it has picked up some scratches, which I am not sure how I can correct. At the moment I will live with them. I am sure they won't be the last.

So I took some pictures:

P1120850.thumb.jpg.20605313061a6209311df9be70ec6971.jpg

P1120852.thumb.jpg.ef6ede5ae7764b5cab86f9d41490a677.jpg

P1120853.thumb.jpg.fe09b1723d4698f84223c0569ccd3661.jpg

This is what I wanted (except the lack of wiring currently!).

2 months ago it was 2 slabs of wood and a chinese neck on ebay and a bunch of parts in warehouses.

If it wasn't for the fantastic community in here, it would still be those things. Thats everyone for the support and encouragement and I would like to reiterate the point that for anyone watching, I am completely inept at woodwork, if I can do this, you can do this too (and probably a lot better).

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1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Annoyed because in the last days it has picked up some scratches, which I am not sure how I can correct. At the moment I will live with them. I am sure they won't be the last.

I think you've answered the question already by saying they won't be the last.

In my humble opinion; you have merely started building up a natural patina.  Much better than making it look like a relic.  If you like playing it, it will eventually become one anyway.

Great photos.  In daylight I can see how well the striking colour and the neck ornamentation work together.  Don't leave us hanging though.  It ain't done 'till it makes your trousers flap.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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