bassman

I am confident in my abilities, and we both (guitar ower and I) have an understanding that I have built some killer basses with excellent "playing" fret jobs(but certainly not the prettiest frets), but that this will be a first- and therefore a learning experience. At worst he will end up with a fret job that plays well, yet obviously looks like a refret, with minor chipping and finish damage. He plays he guitars very well and often, his playing has already inflictedd more wear damage on his fretboard through the finish than I could possibly cause. This is without a doubt his "cheapest" axe, and he has not played it for years. As for his 58' Strat orginal, I dont want to even polish that thing.

I have not been able to find to much information on refretting a maple board, so any tips would be appreciated. I will be refretting my friends 68 Strat reissue (japan '98), I have never refretted a guitar before, I have only fretted my basses. My main concern is with minimizing damage to the finished maple fboard, I would also like to avoid having to make a new nut. I dont have nut files, as I always build my basses with zero frets, and I am not gooing to buy them at this point. I plan on shimming the nut a little higher if needed.

Follow the ktm9 procedures very carefully, you have a very short window in which you must apply all of the successive coats if you want them to properly adhere to one another. Give it ample time to dry before you subject to it to the "real world" of playing. It will never really get as hard as a nitro finish, the poly/oil finishes I use tend to look better after use (and from the very beginning IMO) because they dony show all of the little marks and scratches. On another note, I found it very un-abnoxious to work with, extremely low on the toxins and smells.

INteresting... you can even plan a spot for your cat or dog with that program- they have their own icon and everything.

It sounds like I was spoiled by the size of my first workshop. I definitely feel as though I have enough room to build basses, no problem there. Its the cutting and handling of 4'x8' sheets that is a bit tough. I made some big progess on the setup today. Part of the problem with my setup is that in addition to my 6'x8' work table behind my rather large table saw, I have an oak table (40"x90") that I made specifically to fit in our old dining room. The table is much to big to fit in our new dining room, so it is now an unnecessary workspace in the garage. I "should" probably just cut it up and use the oak to make a "real" heavy duty work bench. Why dont I just sell it? It cracked (pretty badly down the whole length) last winter along with a couple of other pieces of furniture in my house during an extremely dry period.

Hello again everyone, Its been several months since my last post here, and several months since my last bass. I have been completely engulfed in the proccess of home selling/buying and moving. My new house only has a detached oversized single car garage, my older house had a workshop that was the about the size of a two car garage +. The proper arrangement of power tools and work surfaces is proving to be harder than planning and building a bass. I am bassically trying to arrange my setup so that I will not only have room for bass building, but just enough to build the occasional piece of furniture or cabinet. Neatness and organization will be the key to keeping frustration levels low in my 270 sq. ft. work shop. All garden tools and accessories as well as bikes and my souped up Vino scooter all have their own place outside of the garage, thankfully. Are there any suggestions/tips that you guys might have for working in such a small space? There is a flipside to the new house, I am now out of the ghetto and in a fairly new, beautiful rural subdivision. My new plot of land is literally about 34 times larger than my old one, and on the end of a cul-de-sac, with as much privacy as is possible with 2.7 acres. I just love it out here in Powhatan. So I will be hanging around here once again and posting pics of my upcoming projects. I am also pleased that I will very soon be on DSL. Its good to be back... Ryan

Check ut this photo, this is how I use CF rods... http://beta.communities.msn.ca/RiceBass/fr...hoto&PhotoID=12 and remember to keep from breathing in the stuff if you cut it or shape it in any way, keep the fibers out of your skin as well. I think the best thing is just to avoid cutting or sanding it at all unless you really need to.

And another shot here...

Metal MAtt, here you go...

GregP, Thanks for clearing that up. The pups sound very sweet to my picky tastes. They got the vintage vibe I was shooting for. Cerb, The intonation on that fretless is good, cross string consistantcy was achieved with the compensated angle of the saddle. It is not perfect but more than good enough for fretless.

I will post one eventually but it looks pretty much like this.................................... Only different.

Thanks guys, I am pretty excited about this one... of course, I was already dreaming about how much better the next one will be right after I started this one. I literally daydream (in addition to dreaming about basses at night) constantly about what to do differently on the "next" one. I believe the next will be a neck thru (hidden from above) or set neck or perhaps even a bolt-thru, lacewood body with a burled/quilted/spalted maple top, bubinga neck and birdseye FB. Oh wait, I just changed my mind.......... VanKirk, Don't dis my "freely" acquired lutherie sneakers- but I probably shouldn't be showing them off in my pics or someone might track me own and steal them. I am still loving the look and feel of a poly/oil blend. Of course it doesn't protect as well as nitro, but it does not chip or show every little fingerprint. I take very good care of my basses anyhow- and I would expect everyone else who may one day own a Rice Bass to do the same.

Quilt maple top, walnut chambered body, 5 piece birdseye maple/bubinga neck, bookmatched goncala alves fretboard, spalted maple cavity cover, 26 frets, ebony knobs and birdseye/bubinga/walnut pickup covers. Homemade jazz pups-9.0k,9.4k, volume,volume,tone.

the true center line is based of the placement of the neck. basically, extend each side of the neck line taper onto the body with a straight edge, the center line is exactly in the middle of these "lines".

"Can Anyone Recommend A Good Stripper" How about Tricksy down at the Paper Moon club...

I support the Baby Taylor... my friend has one for actual backpacking trips. Its sounds wonderful for its size and price. I however, am an ultralight backpacker (10lbs or so for a weekend) so a I would opt to build something even lighter.

WHile I realize that generally neo magnets are to strong for pickups... perhaps they could be used (very small ones of course) in a pickup that would be mounted far from the strings, as in hidden in the body. This is something I may attempt to do. My main concern would be with the the loss of low end, but the neo mags might compensate for the big gap.

I just ordered some from http://www.magnetsource.com/ ... there is a $30 order minimum, but for $30 you can get about 37, 3/16"x5/8" alnico V, rod magnets.

Thanks Phil, For the first set I wind I will actually use the exact same parts one would use for single coil jazz pup. Only I will cut the bobbin in half, one half for E and A, and the other half for D and G strings. Of course I will need to add some more eyelets, perhaps you could mail me a few if I send a stamped envelope. I have ordered 43g wire to allow room for both coils to fit backinto the standard casing- fused back together of course. This is how Lindy Fralin does it, I was in his shop last week, his shop is only about 2 miles from my house. I really want to have wood pup covers, but the main reason I am making them able to fit in a standard cover is just so I can find out if I can do so with good results.

I have ordered the parts to make several jazz bass pickups. However I plan on making both the neck and bridge pickups individually humcanceling. If I connect a pair of RP/RW coils (within a standard jazz pup casing) what resistance would I need to wind each coil (which will cover 2 of 4 strings) to acheive a total pickup resistance (of each pickup that) of 8k for the neck and 8.5 for the bridge? My experience with speakers tells me that the individual coils will be wired in series with another (for one pickup), so I believe that two coils in series-each at 4k ohms- will create a pickup with a 8kohm resistance. I am pretty sure about this, it is just the fact that I will be handwinding these that tells me I better do it right the first time- four hand wound coils for one bass- ouch! Furthermore, I plan on using the standard wiring for jazz controls, volume,volume,tone (bt with a .100 cap instead of .05). Will these humcanceling jazz pups potentially interact different with each other and the planned controls than single coil pickups? Thanks for your time and very informed responses.

Funny thing, I have been using the LMII glue, and I swear that they state somwhere that its shelf life can be extended by by kept cold or frozen. So of course I have an "extra" bottle waiting for me in the freezer!?

I would greatly appreciate it if somone would hook me up with about 12 eyelets for pickup bobbins. I will send a self addressed envelop (plus a buck-wow!) to anyone willing send them to me ASAP. I have ordered all of the needed parts for some jazz bass pups, except for the eyelets- which I would hate to have to pay more in shipping than for the product. Thanks for your help.

Its looking sweet so far! I am on sorta the same page as you... I have just recently (this week) made a bookmatched fretboard from some goncalo alves, I created the mirror image of a particularly dark streak in the wood, it really has created a very sleek looking FB- this one will be fretted, so hopeully the frets wont take away from the look to much. I am following your build tut, with interest- perhaps one day I will also make a tut on one of my basses. Let me know how your glue lines (of the agled FB pieces) come out, hopefully nice regardless of lower endgrain adhesion.

Since you dont have any "presses" (clamps) of appropriate size, you can get by with some old bicycle tire rubber. Take the old inner tube of a bike tire and cut it in a manner that will yield the longest pieces- with widths of about 1/2"-3/4". You can wrap these around your pieces of wood and get pretty good pressure from them with a significant number of windings. Besides the wide glue lines- I must say that it looks very nice, especially given your lack of tools and proper supplies.

There is a little blurb in the newest "Bass PLayer" about and old bass with string spacing at the bridge of only 1.75" ,and 1.375" and the nut.