More Bolt together than Build

[kodiakblair]

The other week a fella wanted opinions on the Peavey T45. Being an honest soul I chipped in that the T45,like the Sarzo, was a great looking bass but sorely lacking in the tone department.

 

The single humbucker T45 is 1 vol 2 tone set up and would've been better wired parallel 2 vol 1 tone IMHO. You'd need to rewire the pickup to get parallel and I don't have a spare so other options were needed. Being a fan of Warman pickups, that decision was quickly made 4 wire MM humbucker. Spare Peavey Foundation body would finally see some use 😎

 

First snag was the 2 pickup Foundation body, I'd need a scratchplate big enough to hide the pickup cavities.Printing off a Stringray plate showed the trouble,tight to neck heel exposed the bridge pickup/moved back to cover the holes and it was shy of the neck heel.

 

 

OK I can live with shy of the neck heel 😀 Pearloid plate arrived yesterday,as did the Warman. Dropped the pickup into the plate then marked pole positions on masking tape.

 

 

Popped a neck on the body and run 2 wires from bridge to tuners. I looked into pickup position/frequency response,sweet spots etc but the bottom line was the pickup position would be decided by the plate hiding holes and lining up with strings.

 

 

Plain sailing followed 😎 Routed out for pickup,wired it up,fitted stings, took a photo.

Then decided a maple neck would look better so took it apart again 😂

[kodiakblair]

What a difference 2 hour makes.

For the T40 neck to work the bridge needs moved, or the springs round the machine screws binned.

Can't wind the saddles back far enough to intonate properly 🤬 

[kodiakblair]

Popped a few notes up on Soundcloud. Bit of a change for me this playing roundwounds and my tinnitus ears can't tell much difference between the coils.Common sense tells me there shouldn't be any with them being right next to each other.

 

Tone pot isn't doing much either but with the pickup so near the bridge I'll get more variation changing playing position 👍

 

 

[Pea Turgh]

Sounds good, looks good @kodiakblair, and thanks for the tip - £17 for a pickup? I’ve bookmarked those bad boys!

[DarkHeart]

On 22/07/2018 at 00:21, Pea Turgh said:

Sounds good, looks good @kodiakblair, and thanks for the tip - £17 for a pickup? I’ve bookmarked those bad boys!

The Warman MM style pups are monsters, I`ve had several including 2 in my Westone Quantum and I`ve just put a 5 string version in a deco HB 5 string ray copy and it`s transformed it.

[Andyjr1515]

On 21/07/2018 at 19:21, kodiakblair said:

The other week a fella wanted opinions on the Peavey T45. Being an honest soul I chipped in that the T45,like the Sarzo, was a great looking bass but sorely lacking in the tone department.

 

The single humbucker T45 is 1 vol 2 tone set up and would've been better wired parallel 2 vol 1 tone IMHO. You'd need to rewire the pickup to get parallel and I don't have a spare so other options were needed. Being a fan of Warman pickups, that decision was quickly made 4 wire MM humbucker. Spare Peavey Foundation body would finally see some use 😎

 

First snag was the 2 pickup Foundation body, I'd need a scratchplate big enough to hide the pickup cavities.Printing off a Stringray plate showed the trouble,tight to neck heel exposed the bridge pickup/moved back to cover the holes and it was shy of the neck heel.

 

 

OK I can live with shy of the neck heel 😀 Pearloid plate arrived yesterday,as did the Warman. Dropped the pickup into the plate then marked pole positions on masking tape.

 

 

Popped a neck on the body and run 2 wires from bridge to tuners. I looked into pickup position/frequency response,sweet spots etc but the bottom line was the pickup position would be decided by the plate hiding holes and lining up with strings.

 

 

Plain sailing followed 😎 Routed out for pickup,wired it up,fitted stings, took a photo.

Then decided a maple neck would look better so took it apart again 😂

Somehow missed this along the way.  Great transition!  I agree also with the maple neck - very classy

[kodiakblair]

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Somehow missed this along the way.  Great transition!  I agree also with the maple neck - very classy

Thanks Andy. Maple is the way to go, just need a spare 21 fret one 😀

[Pea Turgh]

Just bought a Warman MM style pickup. Will have a think about what it goes in to...

Again, thanks for the tip @kodiakblair!

[kodiakblair]

24 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Just bought a Warman MM style pickup. Will have a think about what it goes in to...

Again, thanks for the tip @kodiakblair!

Excellent choice 😎 I picked up a Squier telecaster bass body last weekend,almost did a wee dance when I saw the huge pickup cavity. Do I fit a mudbucker ? a split P-humbucker ?

 

Nope. Warman jazzbar is the perfect size and arrived today🙂 Shame I've a few weeks yet before the rest of the parts arrive☹️