Finished pics! Psilos Ultra-modern bass build

[Andyjr1515]

Today's job was cutting the saddle slot.

I used the Dremel with the precision router base and a 3mm bit:

 

Rigged up a guide jig with thin packers that would ensure that it stayed level and flat when clamped down:

Then clamped it, checked it all and slotted it:

Drilled a hole from the slot to the cables channel build into the neck and put in the piezo element for a trial fit:

Shaped the bone nut blank and strung it up.

And blow me!  The flipping thing actually intonates properly!!!!

[ScottR]

I detect a bit of carving here. Nicely done Andy!

SR

[Mr Natural]

On 6/25/2017 at 10:02 AM, Andyjr1515 said:

 The flipping thing actually intonates properly!!!!

 

I always start my saddle slots using the stew mac calculator measurements- "mark that" as a rough starting position- then move it and try to dial it in best I can. I always find that at least one string isnt perfectly intonated- usually the D on a  four string. Not sure why that is- but noticed using my (soon to not be my neighbor's (they are moving) strobe tuner. One day I might venture into compensated saddles to try and dial it in but for now I get by I guess. 

looking good mr andy. looking good. 

[Andyjr1515]

I did a fair bit of 'final' shaping and sanding yesterday - still a bit more to do but another day's effort should get me to the finish-sanding stage.  In the meantime, I levelled, re-crowned and polished up the frets:

Plans often don't work out quite how you figure, but my aim is to get this essentially finished by this weekend.

[Zoltar]

So many awesome details on this, I can't wait to see it finished

[Andyjr1515]

Thanks, folks.  All being well I should be able to start the final sand and finishing tomorrow.  I'm going for straightforward tru-oil slurry and buff and will be trying to keep the resulting darkening of the wood to the very minimum possible.  

I can't wait to see how it feels once it's silky smooth.  It's a very difficult bass to photograph - there are compound curves all over the place - but this is turning out, in the flesh, to be a stunning and genuinely beautiful (rather than just striking) bass.  It's all credit to Mick who, I'm sure, had in his head exactly what he wanted it to turn out like when the rest of us (including me) could only guess 

It has certainly convinced me that I should continue my pursuit of slim and very slim instruments...

[Andyjr1515]

The primary finish I wanted to trial was the Osmo Polyx Oil Raw (3044).  

Its claim is that it minimises the 'wetting' effect on lighter woods.  I was keen, however in not losing all of the flame figuring of the sycamore in the process (it has a whitening filler in the oil that minimises discolouring of the end grain but does, of course, therefore risk impacting on the wood figuring).

I also wanted to trial the Crimson White Stain to see, if applied very thinly, how much that would mask the figuring.

With the Osmo, I wanted to check:

• Whether it did reduce the wetting darkening and tinting effect sufficiently
• Whether the figuring still showed
• Whether it could be 'slurry and buffed'
• Whether a satin silky feel could be achieved
• Whether it was sticky-less neck capable...

I've done enough trials today to know that I'm going to use the Osmo for the main finish.  Still got more work to do to verify the neck.

First of all - freshly sanded (left) vs Osmo Polyx Oil Raw 3044 (centre) vs untreated timber lightly dampened with water (right).  
Pretty impressive:

 
If I'd wiped the sanded-only properly, the darkness difference would be even less.  The main thing, though is that the yellowing is substantially reduced - and that's just water!  Figuring visibility is less, though.

Then compare it with tru-oil on straight grain.  Osmo top left, tru-oil top right, untreated bottom:
 

Now that's VERY impressive.  

So what about end grain?  Osmo top, where it's been sanded smooth, tru-oil middle, untreated bottom:

 

Then what happens to the figuring if I use a very much thinned single wipe of the Crimson White Stain, left to dry with Osmo on top (left) vs Osmo on the untreated wood (right):

I was expecting the Crimson stain to reduce the flame, but wow - for a single wipe of 50% water-thinned stain - the flame has gone...completely!  Actually nice colour so, as a white stain on say, Ash, I think could work well.  But not on my build.  I want the one on the right!

So I've done a trial coat of the bass in the Osmo - it will be sanded off to make sure I'm fully back to clean wood before I do the 'final finish', but this is broadly how it's looking after the first coat:

That's the kind of look I'm going for so decision made - Osmo Polyx Oil Raw (3044) it is!

And does it slurry-and-buff....it does indeed....it does indeed 

[Prostheta]

Fantastic analysis Andy. We don't get that particular variation here....only 3032 (satin) and 3062 (matte). The raw is really what it says it is!

[Andyjr1515]

4 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Fantastic analysis Andy. We don't get that particular variation here....only 3032 (satin) and 3062 (matte). The raw is really what it says it is!

I'm very impressed  

Just to see what happens, I've done the first light coat on the ebony too.  I think if it was at all thick you'd see the white, but actually applied thinly I probably won't even bother masking or scraping. 

[Prostheta]

Are you following the instructions? I don't....the way I work with it is to apply generously, then wipe clean after a few minutes. At least, that's what I do with the satin and matte. They produce wonderfully thin non-built films. I've even mixed up the pigmented Osmo oils such as Silk and White with clear. The "Ghost" Tele build will be built up with white Osmo....

[Andyjr1515]

22 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Are you following the instructions? I don't....the way I work with it is to apply generously, then wipe clean after a few minutes. At least, that's what I do with the satin and matte. They produce wonderfully thin non-built films. I've even mixed up the pigmented Osmo oils such as Silk and White with clear. The "Ghost" Tele build will be built up with white Osmo....

Me follow instructions?  What on earth could you have been thinking? 

No.  I've tried a couple of methods.  

First is pretty much the way you say above, but also I've tried a variation of the slurry and buff method.  After an initial 'sealing' coat done your way, I've then applied a second coat, applied with some medium abranet abrasive pad to slurry it, followed by a wipe off the excess and immediate buffing with a micro-fibre cloth.  It seems to have worked very well.  I'll know for sure in the morning when it will be fully dry for a final buff-up.

[Prostheta]

Not sure if Abranet is the best abrasive for slurry filling....probably a wet n' dry silicon carbide paper or Mirka Gold (which is what I have to hand)?

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

Not sure if Abranet is the best abrasive for slurry filling....probably a wet n' dry silicon carbide paper or Mirka Gold (which is what I have to hand)?

You are quite right...for the final coats I generally use standard wet and dry.  Ref the abranet, I just happen to have some to hand that's the wrong size for the handle - and don't have any Mirka gold which would, indeed, be better  

[Andyjr1515]

I'm really pleased with the Osmo Polyx and really, really pleased I came across the 3044 variant 

The finish is now complete bar-the-shouting and it is remarkable just how close this is to the raw, sanded, wiped, dry timber:

 

...and yet the surface is super-slinky:

 

Got a touch of tidying up to do and then it's the pickup / electronics installation, the final hardware installation and the final set-up.  These things always take a lot longer than expected, but the end is most definitely in sight.

To the point that I've just bought the wood for the next two builds... 

[Prostheta]

Even the matte is pretty raw, but it does leave a little bit of colouration. A fickle mistress and no mistake! I bet you're sick of sanding Maple by now....hard going....

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

 I bet you're sick of sanding Maple by now....hard going....

Yes, indeed....but nowhere near as sick as with the ebony I've been doing for a fill-in job!

[Prostheta]

Yeah, that gets everywhere....and when it gets into your Maple....

[curtisa]

20 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

To the point that I've just bought the wood for the next two builds... 

If the current build is anything to go by, I expect the next two builds to be some kind of black magic bass that is so far out there it isn't even a bass, man. They'll be more of, like, a reflection of our struggle against bass.

[Andyjr1515]

5 hours ago, curtisa said:

If the current build is anything to go by, I expect the next two builds to be some kind of black magic bass that is so far out there it isn't even a bass, man. They'll be more of, like, a reflection of our struggle against bass.

Actually, no    

Having been over on 'the dark side' for quite a while, the next two builds are going to be back to sanity and a couple of fairly conventional 6-string electrics.  

 

Do you reckon I'll get bored?  

[Andyjr1515]

In the meantime, one of the things to finish off before I give the headstock its final coat of Osmo is the ferrules.

I found some unused 6-string electric through-body ball end ferrules and attacked them mercilessly with a file until they gave up the fight and fitted compliantly into the holes:

After giving this its final Osmo and buff, it's the electrics installation...

[Andyjr1515]

These three or four simple photos below hide a good few hours of toil 

First of all, earthing the tuner block.  I don't know what other people do, but generally I solder my earth wire onto a small patch of copper shielding to get certain and decent connection without the risk of a lump under the bridge! :

 

Then it was the turn of the battery clip and pots.  Here's a shot with two of the pots installed and the slimline stacked pot still to do.  These first two were the ones with very small threaded areas - the suggestion from one of the other forums to tap an internal thread in a couple of spare machine head bushes worked a treat:

 

 

And here we are with all three pots installed.  Still have to finish the relief carves for the knobs and install the jack socket but you can see here that, from the back, everything is easily accessible.  The pot knobs are very easy to use in this position  - even the stacked knob:

 

...but from the front, everything remains hidden:

 

[Andyjr1515]

There are actually very few jobs to finish off. So, will it be finished very soon? Well, not necessarily! The remaining ones are going to take considerable care and lots of fiddling about. Not least the pickups.

Here are the Herrick custom coils:

They are wound individually with different resistances to balance the output of each of the strings. The pole pieces have been put in so that they can be adjusted from the back. 

And, by golly, this is a delicate, wibbly-wobbly, highly magnetic assembly! "Be careful with the blue wires - they are very delicate", Martin Herrick wisely advised...

So probably Martin has to look away at this point - because the first thing I needed to do was get the soldering iron out and desolder the one stable thing on the assembly - the stiff copper earth wire running across the four coils.

Why? Well, these coils have to go down into separate chambers so what I will do is solder 4 individual earth wires from the shields to hook up with the collective earth on the output cable.

I did a trial fit and marked the position of the cable runs to rout some slots for them to slot into and the join up to the pre-routed cable channel that's sitting under that ebony strip.  Out came the router and soon we had some slots:

 

Then I added the four earth wires to the coil shields and attached that to the hook-up wire:

 

Then a quick try, directly linked to the jack, before I start messing about with the piezo and WOW - it works    Not balanced yet, but every string is ringing out like...well....a bass  

[Prostheta]

Very very DIY pickups, and an interesting way of adding magnets to the poles. Were the bobbins 3D printed or something along those lines? I'd like to make a Wal-style pickup myself some day, and these are halfway there.

[Andyjr1515]

43 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Very very DIY pickups, and an interesting way of adding magnets to the poles. Were the bobbins 3D printed or something along those lines? I'd like to make a Wal-style pickup myself some day, and these are halfway there.

Their normal pickups are much less diy and include Wal type multi coils inside a standard humbucker casing plus other interesting stuff.   These were done for me while the founder was in the middle of moving his workshop.  Quite clever in terms of the use of the neodymium magnets - I even have the option to lever one of them off to adjust the flux! Now that really IS DIY

[Andyjr1515]

Well - this is pretty much finished 

I've got to drop the action a touch and finish the finishing on the two hatches but, before posting the finished-ish pics, here's a quick update:

Got the electrics and preamp/mixer in:

Even with the attenuation shunt in place and the gain at minimum, the piezo was still much louder than the fairly meaty magnetic signal.  To further attenuate, I added the extra trim pot you can see in the above picture (blue).

Next was to get it to someone with a proper bass rig to balance the volumes of the two sides and to work out how much gain I could add to the magnetics without picking up too much background buzz.

Here's a very short clip of Chris - a bass playing pal - running it through his rig.  In this clip, everything is at neutral

I have a clip somewhere of the difference between the piezo and magnetic.  I will post it if it is a decent enough rig.  Whatever, Mick - who this is being built for - will have a huge sound pallete to be able to tweak to his exact needs and rig 

And then, barring the final tweaks mentioned, it's done!  I'll post some shots shortly