Jazz Bitsas

[Johnny Wishbone]

Slow going but I’m up to the 12th fret. Nearly there but, to paraphrase Genesis, “it’s half past twelve and time for lunch”!

Edited September 1, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone

[Geek99]

On 14/08/2018 at 14:22, Johnny Wishbone said:

Yes, the ones I’ve seen with the best reviews are about £8 plus postage from the US. I don’t think that’s too bad and when the neck has only cost you £30 you can’t really grumble! The pearloid ones are at least twice that.

As for the GAS, I can only apologise!

There is some good ones available on amazon that get shipped from Japan quickly 

£11 if I recall correctly I’ll find you the asin

Edited September 1, 2018 by Geek99

[Johnny Wishbone]

And there we have it. Time will tell how robust they are but for now at least I’m pretty pleased with the look of these.

[Johnny Wishbone]

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

There is some good ones available on amazon that get shipped from Japan quickly 

£11 if I recall correctly I’ll find you the asin

For some reason I keep forgetting to check Amazon. I think I get put off a lot of the time by some of their postage charges. The ones I’ve just fitted were about £10-11 on eBay, (including delivery from the US) but I’d be happy to check out other sources 👍🏻

Edited September 1, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone

[Jimothey]

Ebay has got the exact same block inlay stickers that come from Japan for £7.69 with free p&p instead of £12.20 off Amazon 😀

Edited September 1, 2018 by Jimothey

[Reggaebass]

8 hours ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

Slow going but I’m up to the 12th fret. Nearly there but, to paraphrase Genesis, “it’s half past twelve and time for lunch”!

It’s worth taking your time on these details  looks great 👍

[Johnny Wishbone]

Finito. The black hardware doesn’t appear to be forthcoming any time soon, unfortunately, so in the interests of drawing a line under this one I’ve used the chrome stuff I already had.

Whilst the neck is definitely a Jazz width, it has a much deeper profile. This at least means it deals with the heavy gauge strings very well, although I’m not sure how comfortable it will be “in the hand” as it were. Rehearsal tonight so I’ll take it along to see how I fare with it. The enhanced thickness has meant there was very little adjustment of the truss rod required - I basically just took the slack out of it and that’s it. The relief has remained consistent over the last 2-3 days so I think that’s probably all it needs. I will of course re-check in a few weeks or so, just to see if it’s holding up as it should be.

You may notice how far forward the bridge saddles are - when setting up the intonation it appears the bridge is slightly too far back from where it should really be. When I measure from the nut to the 12th fret it’s about 43cm, whereas from the 12th fret to the saddles it’s considerably less. I did manage to get the intonation almost bang on (maybe 1-2 cents out) so decided against moving the bridge. It’s a string through so I really didn’t want to go through that If I could help it. It’s one of those annoying things you only find out when it’s really too late!

I think we’ll call this one done!

Edited September 5, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone

[Reggaebass]

That’s looking great  the black blocks look good with the yellow. My 74 jb has a slightly deeper neck profile which I wasn’t sure about at first but the more I played it the more I liked it. Really top job 👍

[Marc S]

That looks great Johnny Wishbone. Really like the result on both builds, but particularly this one.
Great colour, and the black scratchplate, black blocks and maple neck look superb. 
I think it's a fab combination, and actually, I think the silver hardware looks just fine
Don't think I'd bother replacing with the black hardware.

[Johnny Wishbone]

29 minutes ago, Marc S said:

Don't think I'd bother replacing with the black hardware.

Me neither. I can’t help thinking that would make it look a bit “80s”? And not in a good way!

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

It’s one of those annoying things you only find out when it’s really too late!

You sort of got away with that one luckily.

The lessons learned could be considered as character forming, both for the instrument and for your good self.

I've got a kit build that is maxed out on saddle height adjustment because of my inexperience.  The outer saddles are flat to the bridgeplate!.  It's fixable but like you, I don't want to undo an instrument that already works.  When I am sure that I can sink the bridge to the correct depth in my Pitbull's body (as seen at MBB5) it'll get fixed but for now I am happy enough.  It's a testbed for me and luckily it sounds well too.

You and other builders here have inspired me to do at least a pair of builds concurrently next time.  It's true.  Even before you finish your first ever bass build you find yourself thinking about the next ones.  And I thought I'd just dip a toe in the water - heeheehee

PS; Even though I am not a fan of chrome plate I think your mustard bass looks good.

Edited September 5, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[Johnny Wishbone]

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I've got a kit build that is maxed out on saddle height adjustment because of my inexperience.  The outer saddles are flat to the bridgeplate!.  It's fixable but like you, I don't want to undo an instrument that already works. 

Neck shim would seem the obvious solution, or am I missing something?

[Johnny Wishbone]

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

PS; Even though I am not a fan of chrome plate I think your mustard bass looks good.

More custard than mustard, I’m certain!

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

Neck shim would seem the obvious solution, or am I missing something?

No, you are bang on with that observation.

It has a neck shim that I put in after to bring the action at the twelfth down a bit.  What it does is to raise the neck instead of sinking the bridge as I should have done when I was refining the body shape.  To be fully effective it needs to be a tapered shim and then I will have some new snags relating to the new neck angle.

As it is now the action is on the high side of my preference but it is workable.  There is also a hidden benefit.  Playing with a higher than usual action is making me me work harder at fretting accurately at the octave marker and thereabouts.

Coming from an aero-engineering background, I don't regard my shim as a proper cure for the underlying problem so much as an attempt to alleviate the symptoms.  It's going to be fixed so that there is full surface to surface contact between the neck and the neck pocket - one day.

If I was served custard that was the colour of your bass as rendered on this screen I'd send it back.  I stand by my words; your Jazz bitsa really does cut the mustard, visually speaking.  I'm hoping you get a sound you like from it too.

[Jimothey]

I think that looks great mate!! my Yellow P bass is almost done but I'm having the same quandary you were having about whether I should change the hardware to black but Im probably going to stick with the original chrome 😀

[Johnny Wishbone]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

If I was served custard that was the colour of your bass as rendered on this screen I'd send it back.  I stand by my words; your Jazz bitsa really does cut the mustard, visually speaking.  I'm hoping you get a sound you like from it too.

You obviously didn’t go to my primary school!

Looking forward to putting it through its paces in a couple of hours. You can’t really gauge the sound through a small practice amp as all my basses sound roughly the same in that context. Will report back later.

A short word of thanks to those of you who’ve followed this thread. Your encouragement and input has been invaluable, and the thread has served as a great inspiration to crack on with getting them finished rather than just leaving them “for a rainy day”. I know I’ve not exactly engaged in artisan craftsmanship here but there have still been issues to overcome along the way.

I gigged the blue Jazz last weekend and was impressed with how the sound punched through the guitars - it was definitely much easier to hear myself at gig volume than normal. I did wonder if retiring the Warwick (see OP) was the right thing to do, but the blue Jazz has surpassed mine and my bandmate’s expectations so it looks like I made the right call. It’s a completely different sound, but a good one.

I’m also glad I did the series mod when wiring these up, as the resultant volume boost and EQ shift gives a “good change of pace” when required. It’s also a good quick fix to combat annoying interference from stage lighting as it effectively turns your single coils into a humbucker when engaged.

There’s a new P build in the pipeline - I’m told the refin of the body is at the “final buffing” stage - but that’s for another thread. I still have the lighter coloured Jazz neck that I ended up not using, which I think will probably end up in the Marketplace. The colour I’ve chosen for the P almost definitely demands a rosewood board, I feel.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone

[SpondonBassed]

13 hours ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

You obviously didn’t go to my primary school!

I get what you mean.

At Olney, in the sixties and very early seventies, we were served desserts of spotted Richard or treacle pudding with gravity defying custard.  I didn't learn that custard could flow until secondary school!  The colour was okay however and I never left any behind.  Yum.

 

13 hours ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

There’s a new P build in the pipeline - I’m told the refin of the body is at the “final buffing” stage - but that’s for another thread. I still have the lighter coloured Jazz neck that I ended up not using, which I think will probably end up in the Marketplace. The colour I’ve chosen for the P almost definitely demands a rosewood board, I feel.

It's something to look forward to in another topic.  You've proved that the uncomplicated design of those instruments lends itself to tweaks that are well within the scope of the DIY enthusiast.  Thanks for sharing.