Yet Another Bitsa P-Bass Build

[Waddo Soqable]

Cutting a plate from sheet metal and drilling the holes is easy enough, I've made things like that myself, but if youve got to pay someone to do it then it starts to get tricky, plus chroming i suspect would be expensive especially for a small one off item.

As you say, a ready made off ebay would be the painless route !

[bloke_zero]

I've a mustang control plate I bought but never used and could send you? Might not be perfect though

[Velarian]

29 minutes ago, bloke_zero said:

I've a mustang control plate I bought but never used and could send you? Might not be perfect though

I’ve tried a full scale paper cut out of a Mustang control plate but unfortunately it’s too small and not curved enough to cover the routing. 
 

Thanks for your kind offer though, it’s appreciated. 

[Velarian]

So, with a bit of image manipulation and an educated guess about how to scale the picture, I came up with this version of the two pot MM control plate, which I think looks ok. In fact the eBay seller has just confirmed the sizing and if anything, it’s a bit bigger so I think I’ll take a punt on it! 😬

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Velarian

[Velarian]

I was going to mount the pickups today before working on the bridge position but it turns out the shielding plate on the back is too large for the routing. I’ll need to trim the plate to fit.

 

[Velarian]

However, the pickup covers fit snugly in the holes so I think that will be ok for the purposes of aligning the bridge. 
 

[PaulThePlug]

Recomend wrapping each of of the pickups in cling film, then a freezer bag over each half... to protect the windings and keep any filings off....

 

If its a real problem, you could always leave off the shielding plate and use screening paint...

[Velarian]

Another great idea! I wouldn’t have thought of that. 
 

Thanks. 

[PaulThePlug]

thats because you havent spent an age cleaning wire wool type dust of the pickups after a fret clean... 😉

[Velarian]

I’ve now got the bridge position marked out. I did it by finding the centre of the neck and extended that to find the centre of the body at the bridge position and marked that. The position from the end of the neck was relatively straight forward in that the front edge of the bridge only just covers the ground wire hole whilst still allowing sufficient adjustment of the saddles. I’d have preferred a couple of mils further back but it will be ok as it is. I did the elastic string thing to check alignment with the neck and the pickup pole pieces and it all looks good. If I’m feeling brave I’ll try drilling the bridge holes tomorrow. 
 

[jezzaboy]

I had one of their bodies and you are right re the ground wire hole, it could be doing with moving back a bit. Looking good.

[Hellzero]

Use @Andyjr1515 trick with a wire soldered to some adhesive copper. 😉

[Velarian]

The two pot MM control plate hasn’t worked out too good after all ☹️
 

it’s alright cutting out bits of paper and shuffling them around to make them fit in a reasonable way, but what I’d totally failed to take account of is that when the pots are mounted, given the tight space in control cavity, this dictates the position with very little movement. I just doesn’t look right unfortunately. Back to the drawing board I think. 
 

[Waddo Soqable]

You didn't fancy doing a bit of fettling of the wood with a dremel or something to make a bit of room under the plate ? Sometimes you only need to take a little bit off or enlarge the slot a bit..

Are the pots full size as opposed to mini pots btw?

[Velarian]

No, the thought of fettling the body fills me with dread 😂

 

The pots are full size CTS pots courtesy of KiOgon so that does limit the available adjustment. However, the control plate did come with a cheap wiring loom that has mini pots and even though there was more play with the position it still doesn’t look right.

 

I think I need to stick to a more traditional P-Bass pickguard shape and I did wonder about using a ‘Phil Lynott’ style mirrored plate and cutting that down. It would be made from acrylic so not quite the real deal but it might work. I came across this bass on Reverb which gives some idea, although the red tort in this example doesn’t look good IMHO. 

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Velarian
Typo

[Pea Turgh]

There’s got to be an online shop where you can order a bit of metal cut to your design? It would be a shame to “make do” on such a visible part.  Everything else looks quality, so a nice little custom Musicman style plate is deserved!

[Velarian]

1 hour ago, Pea Turgh said:

There’s got to be an online shop where you can order a bit of metal cut to your design? It would be a shame to “make do” on such a visible part.  Everything else looks quality, so a nice little custom Musicman style plate is deserved!

I’ll keep looking. I may use a temporary solution to make do until I find the right thing. 

[Pea Turgh]

Definitely keep the Kiogon loom, and don’t route!!

 

Looking forward to seeing it done!

[DarkHeart]

Why not get a clear guard and attach/paint something to where the pots are or maybe even smoked/chrome window tint film cut to shape?

Edited September 8, 2021 by DarkHeart
spelling

[Velarian]

I’ve ordered a mirrored pickguard which I’ll cut down in a similar fashion to the Reverb example. Let’s see how that goes. 

[PaulThePlug]

^

I would be going for a fuller more complete semi circle, using the Vol control hole center as the circle center, that way the Vol knob will sit in the middle with the same size scratchplate surround all the way around. slightly further up if it doesnt quite cover the route, but defo a semi circle... That extra 'tag' in the example looks a little jazz-esq, prolly alright on a offset body shape, jazz or jag, but looks odd on the steady contours of a P... More templating required..

Only needing to use the 4 holes is nice...

[Velarian]

4 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

^

I would be going for a fuller more complete semi circle, using the Vol control hole center as the circle center, that way the Vol knob will sit in the middle with the same size scratchplate surround all the way around. slightly further up if it doesnt quite cover the route, but defo a semi circle... That extra 'tag' in the example looks a little jazz-esq, prolly alright on a offset body shape, jazz or jag, but looks odd on the steady contours of a P... More templating required..

Only needing to use the 4 holes is nice...

I completely agree. I’ll use a compass to draw a curve using the volume control centre. Minimal screws holes that match a standard p bass plate is definitely an advantage. I’ll use a cereal box to test some template variations. 

[Hellzero]

I will work with any box, not only cereal ones, unless you are a cereal killer.

[Velarian]

On 05/09/2021 at 11:38, Hellzero said:

Use @Andyjr1515 trick with a wire soldered to some adhesive copper. 😉

Thanks, I’ve just found the post you’re referring to. Very useful information. 

 

[Velarian]

Things stalled a bit this past week. I chickened out of drilling the bridge holes and thought I’d do something simple instead; mounting the machine heads. Well that turned out to be less straight forward than I expected. First the headstock ferrules were loose and kept falling out so I tried packing them with a bit of tape. That was less than satisfactory but I pressed on. Then I didn’t have a drill bit small enough for the mounting screw holes so I used a bradawl. Also not great. This totally amateurish approach caused me to ruin several screws so I ordered a couple of packets more. When they turned up they were the wrong ones and I ended up with 20 string tree screws can you believe! I decided to leave things and stepped away from it for a few days.

 

Today I remembered that I had another set of no name machine heads and the ferrules from those fit the holes perfectly. The mounting screws from that set were also a shade narrower than the ones I’d ruined and fit the holes nicely. So job done, that’s another step forward.