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A brace of scratchplates.


Maude
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Well it's not a build, refinish or anything exciting like that but I thought I'd do a little thread as it'll shame me into actually finishing stuff off. 

I've got a P bass, Hofner Club and a Danelectro Longhorn that all need scratchplates making for them. 

The P is a Hohner Arbor series fretless which I've just refinished in vintage white and want a mint plate for, it has an odd shaped plate so I can't just buy a replacement. 

The Longhorn has also just been refinished and needs either a clear plate or a mirrored one, so I'll make both and see. 

The Club bass is an Ignition model and comes with a very cheap looking white pearl scratchplate and control plate. 

I've made new plates for it out of cream acrylic sheet as I've never been a fan of pearloid and it matches the binding.

This is the original white pearl. 

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I've slightly exaggerated the curves of the scratchplate and slightly rounded the ends and corners of the control plate as I think it suits the shape of the bass better, still iconic Hofner but a bit of personal taste as well. Also added a little Hofner decal and a pair of old knobs I had in my spare bits box. 

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I cut these out with a coping saw and finished with sandpaper and files, then polished. The three slots in the control panel were drilled in each corner and the filed out.

You don't need any fancy tools, just a bit of patience. 

Danelectro coming tomorrow. 🙂

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I've just made two plates for the Longhorn, one clear as per original and one mirrored, to go with the sparkle sides that I did instead of the standard Danelectro white tape. 

Firstly I put some masking tape on the acrylic and drew around the old scratchplate. 

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Then carefully cut out using a coping saw. 

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To cut the pickup recess I ground down a stone disc from a 'dremmel' type tool until it had the radius of the end of the pickup and carefully cut into the plate. I used my Parkside one from Lidl, I do like a lot of the Parkside stuff, it's cheap but stands up to a fair bit of abuse. 

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Once cut I sanded to shape starting with 180 grit and ended with 3000. The more grades you use, the quicker you can get the job done as you're not spending ages trying to sand out scratches with a paper that's too fine, and the finer you finish with the less polishing needed. 

Two plates ready for polishing along with the original which has yellowed badly, on a vintage white I'd like the old plate but not the mint green. 

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A quick polish up and we have these two. 

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Unfortunately once polished I noticed that the clear one has very fine cracks around the pickup recess. The mirrored one is 3mm thickness as you can't cheaply get thinner, the clear one is 1mm as per original which is probably why the cracks appeared. I suspect they are from the grinding stone. 

This picture makes them look much worse than they appear but I might make another one tomorrow with a different method. It depends on whether I prefer the mirrored one. 

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This is the clear one in place, no screws yet. 

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And this is the mirrored one. 

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I don't know which I prefer but just for reference this is the side of the bass which made me think a mirrored one would be good. 

What do you folks think, clear or mirror? 

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52 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Mirror. I don't think that the clear one has enough pizzazz with those sparkles.

That's my thinking as well. 

Just not totally sure as the whole point if the clear on the originals is so you don't really see it. 

Not sold on the control knobs either. The lower part is very dark brown and the top has yellowed as well. I did think of concentric metal Jazz type knobs but I don't know how they fit and don't want to spend out only to find they won't fit. The tuners buttons are the same yellowed plastic so they have something to match to. 

Here's another pic of the mirror one with some reflections which kind of shows how it will fit with the chrome as well. 

20200420_205538.thumb.jpg.709285aff0146c09ed3111a9c80ada5e.jpg

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4 hours ago, songofthewind said:

Mirror definitely. Although they were not meant to be seen, the shape is stylish and moderne and looks really classy on there. IMHO, YMMV, etc.

 

29 minutes ago, Slappindabass said:

Defo mirror.

Thanks to both of you. I think we have a winner. The mirror was edging it in my mind before I made them, but the shape of the plate is odd so I wasn't sure if making it stand out was right. I have actually fitted the mirror one but thanks for confirming I'm not weird. 😁

It also means I don't need to make another clear one, every cloud and all that. 

On to the Precision one then. 🙂

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On 21/04/2020 at 21:01, Pea Turgh said:

Chrome knobs would sit nicely there.  I’m trying to by a Danelectro 6 string from my mate (who swapped the standard knobs for chrome ones) and I think it looks well swish.

I agree, and they wouldn't yelllow over time.

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On 21/04/2020 at 21:01, Pea Turgh said:

Chrome knobs would sit nicely there.  I’m trying to by a Danelectro 6 string from my mate (who swapped the standard knobs for chrome ones) and I think it looks well swish.

After looking into it a bit more it doesn't look like I can put standard chrome knobs on it. It's got dual concentric knobs but rather than standard size shafts and grub screw fixings it got old radio style fixings. The outer control has two opposing cut outs and the inner control is a lot smaller than a standard 6mm knob. I did think I could leave the lower control as it's very dark brown and then just put a chrome knob on top but the shaft size is now the problem. I'm now on the lookout for some old silver radio knobs but I can see me buying a few before I find anything that fits. 

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4 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

I think there’s a second pot out of view.  I’ll know within a couple of weeks as he’s caved to my pestering 😁

Haha nice one 👍

But they're normal single knobs I assume, if there's another out of view then I guess it's volume, tone and pickup selector switch. 

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