Prostheta Posted March 14, 2010 Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 Whilst I am still able to do work, I have decided to invest new life into my main bass. The instrument is a plain old RBX-775 in black which I bought around 6 years ago. As you can tell (having been my only 5-string) it's had a LOT of rehearsal time and gigging abuse. The Het skull I added is plain glow-in-the-dark sticky plastic. I also added some under the bushings for three tuners, and around the pickup cavities as pinlines. I also added brass tube inlays and side markers, filled with "cores" of fluorescent green Perspex, underlaid with circles of reflective foil. These work nicely under blacklight! The pickups are a little boring, but the active circuit makes it nice and quiet with decent output. I decided to upgrade the fingerboard and fretwork with Ziricote and stainless steel fretwire as it needs a fretwork attention something rotten. In addition, I want to take the neck back to the Maple (currently black gloss) and apply an oil finish. I'm going to take the opportunity to apply a Ziricote headplate and to bind the headstock and fingerboard in black plastic as this will help keep it tied together with the black body. I started by removing the plastic half headplate and removing all of the paint to the sealer using Nitromors. The plate was attached using plastic nubs which I had to crack off, and the Nitromors pretty much ate up. I ran out of stripper before I got *all* of the paint off, but the remainder won't be huge work with a sanding block and paper. I steamed the fingerboard today using Brian's Fretboard Removal Tutorial which worked an absolute dream. First of all, I yanked all of the frets! They were soft as butter (since I'm now used to using Evo wire and about to tackle SS) so no wonder they had worn so badly....SS strings don't help either ;-) Underneath, I found one of the "u-section box" truss rods (I hate them!) and tons of yack remaining from the fingerboard and the glue. Next job will be to clean the glueing face of the neck and to sand all of the sealer off. I aim to make sure this is done properly by checking if the grain raises when dampened....no splotchy nightmare patches I hope! Next will be to glue the headplate, rout the binding channel for the headstock. (damn Yamaha and their cheap-ass flatsawn necks!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted March 14, 2010 Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 that Tutorial is awesome. I'm just about to do a FB transfer and that helped a TON. BTW - didn't know you were a fellow 'banger. Cool live shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moth Posted March 14, 2010 Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 I like restorations I'll watch this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 Brian nailed all the steps on that one. A great tutorial. I actually found that by pulling the frets first, the board flips up nicely one fret at a time as you advance the pressure. The board flexes in the empty slots, concentrating the bearing pressure from slot to slot (if that makes sense). Last board I did (frets in) had a lot more resistance spread over a longer area in the bend and didn't want to play ball as cleanly, plus it took a lot more time. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a restoration Moth - it's more that my warhorse is currently not on the frontline and would appreciate some freshening and upgrading! The plain NS fretwire flattened and dipped crazily from my steel strings, and they weren't very tall to begin with, IIRC. I like BIG frets under my fingers, and since I utilise a lot of bends and vibrato (more difficult on a 35" scale!) the slinkier feel of SS frets should be a lot better. As much as the original IRW was nice, the two Ziricote boards I bought recently have an unbelievable "WHOOOOOOONNGGGG" resonance when rapped with my knuckles. I am hoping they liven up this bass and the fretless Infinity i'm using them for. I'm half tempted to rip this neck in half and to laminate in some Purpleheart or whatever, but I really shouldn't go too far to town on this given my limited budget and timescales. The existing pickups measure 120mm x 38mm (wide because of the mounting tabs) so I hope to replace the pickups with either 2x EMG45DC, Delano SBC6HE/S or some Bartolini M5s. Basically, just to remove the anemia of the stock pups. Perhaps an OBP3 (or EMG EQ) in time, but not an immediate concern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 I have decided that the entire face of the headstock will be faced with Ziricote and the black plastic cover will be refitted using flexible sealant or epoxy in order to maintain the balance between the body and the headstock. In addition, the existing truss rod cover (body end, recessed in the neck heel) will be faced with Ziricote also. I played around with the idea of using Ebony to replace the plastic headplate and trussrod cover, but it would be too much in my opinion. Best maintain a sense of aesthetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 (edited) As you can see here, the Death Star is orbiting the forest moon of Endor *slprleerrrp*. No, wait. I meant to say, after a few measurements of the neck I figured out exactly where I will be needing to take stock off. The depth from the base of the truss rod rout to the underside of the neck is a comfortable 3.5mm - the former nut slot is circa 1mm deep. The headstock angle is 12°. The face of the heel possesses an angle to face with the neck pocket and bring the strings up to the right height. Better not touch that! The underside of the neck in the absolute centre is flat with the heel face, which makes for a pretty economical neck. Personally, I would have scarfed it for even more economy but I presume that this extra work would outweigh the cost in Maple at the Yammy factory. I aim to reface the headstock by 2-3mm before adding the Ziricote, taking <1mm from the glueing face for the fingerboard and shaving 0.5mm from the rod rout (with sandpaper) or if the worst comes to the worst, shaving a small trench in the underside of the fingerboard. This will allow me to advance the point where the angle of the headstock "starts", thereby allowing addition space for the zero fret on the fingerboard and a guiding nut. The stock Yamaha tuners will mount comfortably in headstocks ~18-19mm thick, so a slight increase in thickness from the Ziricote facing will not affect this in any way. The plastic headplate may require trimming to accommodate the advanced nut position, although that isn't exactly rocket science. So this is a side profile of the neck, as sketched up in CAD (if you can call 0.5mm tolerance "sketching"). Edited March 14, 2010 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2010 This is actually a very slender neck in the lower positions compared to most 5-strings out there, but appears to have a steep taper; the neck measures 43mm at the nut and 64mm at the 12th fret! Compare that to say a Warwick Infinity at 45mm/61mm (not that i'd know....) or an Ibanez SR5 45mm at the nut, 67mm at the last fret! Pretty different, and makes sense now i've measured it....I often found it more akin to a broadneck in the upper registers, but not so much with the actual string spacing. Shame the neck pocket and monorail bridge recesses already exist, otherwise it would be tempting to redefine the taper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 I rewrapped the truss rod, since the previous tape over the rod had blatantly failed. The rod didn't seem glued in like I originally thought a box rod would be....in that respect should I epoxy it back in? This is the type: http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Da...s2.html#Bending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Progress! Today I worked on the neck, planing the glueing faces for the fingerboard and the headcap. As I type this, the headcap is clamped up and curing. Nothing much more I can do at this stage. Well, I lie. I did photos and I present to you....PROJECT GUITAR IN STEREOSCOPIC 3D!!!! Phooey to Disney - indeed, phooey. Basic Instructions: Click the thumbnails and open the image full-screen, preferably with a black background to make it easier on the eyes. Stare at the picture and cross your eyes, bringing the images together in the centre. Enjoy! Advanced Instructions: Once images are aligned, bring your hands in front of your face (palms facing your eyes, 2-3" away) from the left and right to obscure the residual left and right images leaving a gap in the centre. Enjoy! Click images for larger: Big hires pic (I love my new camera) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Nope, I've tried going cross eyed, relaxing my vision etc, can't get the 3D, neck looks cool in the single shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 The concept of cross-eye stereograms is that your right eye focuses on the left half of the image and the left eye on the right half. No need to relax the eyes, as essentially most people can cross their eyes easier than they can focus at a longer length as with "magic eye" pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereogram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 The concept of cross-eye stereograms is that your right eye focuses on the left half of the image and the left eye on the right half. No need to relax the eyes, as essentially most people can cross their eyes easier than they can focus at a longer length as with "magic eye" pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereogram now I see it, I let the vision go so I can see three images, the one in the middle is composed of the other two and yep it's in 3D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Ain't it fun. </GNR> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postie Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Ain't it fun. </GNR> Not really, I have a headache now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 It's all about depth of field. >2m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moth Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 astigmatism makes things like this not work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reinhold Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Yeah, I hate my astigmatism just for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Yeah, I hate my astigmatism just for that reason. I thought astigmatism was a nice bit of driving by the Top Gear pro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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