Number 2

[zitherman]

Well this is the second instrument im building.going ok but still making mistakes.little bit of tear out on the top horn but ill round it off a bit more and shape the lower horn to match.im a fan of kevin ferners instruments so with this one im thinking of adding a pickup at the bridge position.possibly an mm type.also considering a tonestyler.any thoughts?

[TheGreek]

Love the grain on the fretboard...Rosewood???

[zitherman]

Cheers.its a ziricote fretboard.also im going to chamber the body and fit a maple top.

[zitherman]

This ones gone on a diet

[Chopthebass]

Nice neat routing there👍

[zitherman]

Cheers.this my first attempt at chambering a body.i think the fun may start when i glue the top on.the chambers removed 1pound and 13 ounces from the body .

Edited March 8, 2021 by zitherman
Update

[LeftyJ]

That ziricote fingerboard looks fantastic! The grain on that wood always blows me away, it looks so wild with all the overlaps and randomly appearing and disappearing lines. Olive can have a similar effect, I love it 

[zitherman]

Chambering removed just under 2 pounds before maple top was fitted.

[PlungerModerno]

Looks cool, definately not number 2 in the negative sense!

The subtle grain on that maple cap is already nice, I imagine it'll look great with a clear or tinted finish. I am getting Ric "Mapleglo" vibes already. Personally, rather than a bridge pickup, I'd go for a grabber type sliding pair of '51 style single coils, but they'd both be split coils... or maybe take a leaf out of the Alembic book of tricks and wire in a dummy coil reverse wound to both singles...

Now that I think of it, there's no way to easily adapt the grabber sliding "pickguard within a pickguard" to have two independently sliding pickups without leaving big gaps in the top.

[Geek99]

Could you wire the pickups to the rails themselves? Live down one rail and earth down the other ? That would remove the cable problem and you just need a trench in the pick guard for the pickup to move along its rails 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Geek99

[zitherman]

I like the idea of a pair of single coils placed together and switchable between series/parallel or individually.my dingwall is wired this way.but even though im an electrician by trade im going to leave that idea for another build.this time im going to fit a tonestyler and concentrate on the finish.

[PlungerModerno]

On 27/03/2021 at 22:55, Geek99 said:

Could you wire the pickups to the rails themselves? Live down one rail and earth down the other ? That would remove the cable problem and you just need a trench in the pick guard for the pickup to move along its rails 

I never even thought of how to wire it, I just pictured flexible wires with a bit of slack! I was thinking of how to avoid the big hole in the top giving the "homemade" look of this:

But like the man himself said, Guy Pratt, check out his lockdown licks thread here:

It's kinda charming in it's own way.

[PlungerModerno]

On 28/03/2021 at 10:40, zitherman said:

I like the idea of a pair of single coils placed together and switchable between series/parallel or individually.my dingwall is wired this way.but even though im an electrician by trade im going to leave that idea for another build.this time im going to fit a tonestyler and concentrate on the finish.

Sounds grand. You can always make the pickup route bigger and fit a MM or other bigger humbucker later, or install a smaller form factor humbucker or humbuckers. I know Rickenbacker 4000 series basses have drop in Seymour Duncan replacement humbuckers, I think the '51 style pickups tend to be split coil or stacked coil style hum-cancelling pickups mostly. You would probably struggle to get it to sound close to an MM pickup if that was what you were after.

Edited March 29, 2021 by PlungerModerno

[zitherman]

Thanks plunger moderno,i think you are far more knowledgeable about pickups than i am.i used a local pickup winder to build an accurate single coil and loom on the first bass i built.that one has flats fitted and sounds great.this one will have the same pickup but with a stellartone tonestyler and rounds.thanks for your interest

[PlungerModerno]

I doubt it lol, I'm just throwing ideas out there. If you had good results with that pickup winder I'd say go back, as long as the prices aren't insane!

I'd say don't be afraid to play around with the strings, you might find you prefer the tonestyler+flats.