Wademeister

Looks like I'll be going with this Bartolini preamp: 4.6 A/P - Click here for layout diagram 2 Pickup - 4 knob configuration Controls: - Volume (with Acitve/Passive push-pull) - Blend - Mid (push pull freq selector) - Treble/Bass Stack. I like the layout and the active/passive ability of it. Also I can get it with chrome knobs which I wanted rather then the usual black that I've seen. The Bart has everything I want. Well, I would like to have a stacked volume/blend but I haven't seen that option available anywhere so I gave up on that! So far since last post I have cut the truss rod channel, made a peghead veneer from my myrtlewood board, glued it up and cut the peghead. Laminated my topwood to some mahogany and glued the wings onto the neck. This weekend I'll taper the neck, make the fingerboard and glue that on with epoxy. Next up will be cutting the basic body shape, control cavity and pickup sockets, but I need to get my preamp and pots before I do that step. What's left after that? Contour the body and back of the neck and it's ready for finish right? I'll post some more pics soon

Hey did291, I'm no expert by any means, but I have been researching bass pickups a lot lately for my own project. From what I have seen, you will probably be happiest with a J style pickup. Looks like most of them are good passive pickups, and it seems like you can get just about anything you want inside that cover. That way you can start off with a real budget job to get going and easily try different things later on. For your reading pleasure: Bass Player Online J-pickup shootout TalkBass Forum pickup discussion- I haven't read all of this one yet, but it seems to focus mostly on J-pickups as well. Happy reading!

Heya Dexter, I would say just do the one you really want. As for myself, if I am making something "just as a practice run" I don't have the same feeling about really needing to get everything just right. If it were me, I would jump in and do the one that I had got my mind wrapped around in the first place to prevent losing interest and/or cutting corners. And someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but with a maple top you can strip and refinish as long as you don't go crazy and drown the thing in stain. Working on scraps would be best to get it figured out for sure, but I wouldn't be afraid to give it a shot. Also I think I read something about Warmoth only offering a warranty on bodies they have finished? Sorry I'm lazy and don't feel like researching that one right now... Oh, and uh...be sure to post some pics man! I like to see what everyone has going on

Me too! Ya got another host or a link? I'd like to take a look at that. I never have heard anyone use the war of Northern agression phrase that wasn't on TV. I also live in Texas, and I grew up in Michigan! Hey neighbors!

Oooohh, I got a bad case of Ebay-itis. I need to take that thing off my bookmarks! Bought some pickups anyway. Would have been the P-J set if I found any going for a nice price, but I think these will do just fine. I like the look of the soapbars better if all other things are reasonably equal. So if you know about these I'd like to see what you have to say! Tons of Jazz pickup info on the web, not so much on these things, darnit. Bartolini XX M55C-T & M55C-B set 5 STRING bass pickups I think I'll order a Bartonlini preamp too since I expect it should be well matched to those pickups. I'm thinking of getting this one: since it has only 3 knobs and the price is decent from bestbassgear.com. So if I'm an idiot for going that way just say so, I can take it!

Looking good xafier! Glad to see you moving ahead. That's going to be a very cool guitar!

Go for it Bill! No doubt there are at least a million good chioces for your finish and this is one of them. No doubt you'll do a great job and it will be a great looking guitar no matter what you choose. Save yourself some headache and expense by using what you have already and jump on it right now! Come on man, I want to see! I have no patience at all...

Excellent! Now all you have to do is MOVE YOUR BRIDGE LIKE I TOLD YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE, PUNK! Just kiddin ya. When I posted that suggestion it was in hopes that you would be able to get the job done an easier way than what you were considering. That's really good news!

Cool! Quite an original idea. At least I never heard of it. Very well done too, looks really nice!

no man, they're matched perfectly. Remamber that grain running up out of the surface in one half will be running down at that spot on the other surface. Look at it from the neck or from the back strap button and the light and dark spots swap places.

Bingo! I don't think I had mentioned where I got it though. How did you know, to they whack stuff with the truss rods there so they're bent before they send them out? hahah! Ok so sounds like the quick and simple way for this is to just run it on the table saw. And for lengthwise location, I guess I should align the end of the adjustment socket with the tuner side of the nut. Sound about like the usual location? Oh, and doggone Rock City doesn't have the P5J in stock. 3 weeks lead time they say. And Charlie is on vacation this week. 3 weeks! I could be dead by then! I just have no patience whatsoever. I might break down and buy the ones I found online even though they are more expensive. Or an alternative if anyone knows of something cheap good and versatile all at the same time... I'm thinking of putting my 4 string on Ebay instead of using it for a donor. The 5 I bought was going to be great since I could use all the hardware including the bridge, but I'm keeping that one and the electronics are all I'll use from the 4.

I don't know why not, The guys doing finish work at my place do that all the time. They shoot it heavy and sand in between coats until they get it the way they want. Sometimes they fill in 2 coats, sometimes 4 or 5 depending on what they have to work with. I like the swirl, nice blend and balance of colors to my eye.

That sounds excellent, thank you. I was considering even bonding the rod assembly into the neck and sanding the whole thing flat before attaching the fingerboard but I guess that would be overkill. Use titebond for the fingerboard, correct? In fact, is there any part you do NOT use titebond with?

Some good helpful guys on this forum I'm telling you!! I'll give Rock City a call today, shall I tell them Litchfield sent me? Also, would it be possible to get concentric post and rewire that system to have one volume/blend, a bass/treble and a mid/sweep? Or would this be an entirelly different kit and add on? Looks like some of the circuit is attached to the pots for EMG's electronics, but I don't know if I've seen a good pic of this particular set other than just the pickups. Yeah I'm ignorant, educate me!

From that pic, it looks like that neck was cut with a reasonable degree of accuracy for a slightly longer scale, like 25.75" maybe? Have you got a pic of the ruler at the nut end also? I'm wondering if you may have had a mislocated bridge and possibly nut on an otherwise properly spaced fretboard. I'l bet she's tight and twangy as can be when you finish up too!

Heyas guitar_ed, I don't know if you saw the line drawing in black and white but it does have a bit more fish tail look. Been messing with it all and I'm satisfied with what I have now. Do appreciate the input though, I got some great ideas from folks here and at guitar.com for this project! Ok litchfield, for that kind of money I'm there! I may not even have to sell anything to do it! hahah! Found the set at guitarpartsdepot for $163. Same exact price as Steves, but the depot has them in stock which always helps...so where did you find them locally, not Guitar Center I'm guessing?

When I built the mockingbird, I used some string in the top and bottom positions. Held it where I had an even amout of fingerboard on both sides and marked the mounting hole locations. For scale length location I made a stick that was about 1/8" longer than my 24.75" scale and taped it on the neck so it was touching the nut and lined up the bridge saddles with the other end. Someone please correct me about the 1/8 inch though, that was a long long time ago and I'm not sure how much compensation is needed. I do know I had the saddles at mid travel when I did it I would have a fair amount of travel either way to set intonation.

Looks to me like you need to move the bridge back by twice the error you have at the 12th fret. Seeing as how the scales are growing apart at regular intervals the way they are, you just have a longer scale than you thought.

Someone tell me what's the purpose of taping the trus rod when glueing the fingerboard? Is that just to keep glue from running down in the channel, or to not attach it to the fingerboard or what? From what pics I've seen it sure looks like the glue is going to squeeze back to the taped area when the clamps go on anyway. I suppose I should get THE book and see where I've gone wrong already, haha. So what's the deal?

Awesome! Thanks again.

Yeah lucky1, that's great! Only one thing to still try out on it, lol. Hate to ask for more since you've been so helpful already, but could you try it with the myrtle wood background instead of the fish photo? I'm getting excited now, I'm just about at the point where I'm not wondering how to take care of this or that problem, or how it will be finished. Nothing left to do but run it on through! I can't run fast enough! I hope my wood arrives soon! I'm shouting and I don't know why!

OK that's a good thing to know. That PJ set is very cool and even comes with controls, but it looks like it's only for 4 strings. Will it work on a 5 string also? Edit-well bonk me on the head...I just noticed that you wrote p5j and looked that up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EMG PJ set (for 4 or 5-string) $156.00 $156.00 Weight: 1.00 lbs. each how many strings on bass? is 5-string $7.00 $7.00 pickup color is black magnet style is standard ceramic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Shipment Weight: 1.00 lbs. Subtotal: $163.00 now I'm interested!

HAHAH! That was great lucky1, thanks. All that in 10 minutes? You da man! I don't know what it is about that blue one, but I like it too. Something about it feels right. Not with the greenish yellowish wood I have though. The black/green looks pretty promising, I think that's the general direction I'm going to head for this one. The green one at the bottom looks like some sweet pickles my grandmother used to make. Candied pickled fish...now that's just wrong man! The first one is eerie looking, has some shock value to it I think. Well there's still time to decide on the finish and now I have some very cool visuals to help out I thought about the lacewood Litchfield, just was unsure about the grain on that stuff, being oak and all. And of course the myrtlewood that I ran into just grabbed me. This piece just has a watery looking shimmer that feels right to me. Google found Steve's for me when I searched EMG pickups, but for the 5 string pickups and BQC system which looks great, it's going to be a bit high again. Am I looking at the wrong stuff here? EDIT- ya posted the lacewood pic while I was looking up EMG stuff lucky1, haha. I like the lacewood, but not the scale carving idea. I think they would look overdone no matter what since real fish scales are really close to being smooth anyway. And I think I had better proceed with the myrtlewood and Ibanez plan that I had already. Not that the suggestions aren't great, but I need to stay on track or go crazy. I'm not terribly happy with the neck already, so that's just all the more reason to file these ideas away for the next project!

Well it's coming out rather screwed up looking but it will be ok. I missed alignment of one of the lams and it shows bad. Still structurally fine though so it will be painted over. Bleah. Hey, it's starting to look like a neck though! Looks nice from the end I think, but again messed up. I should have had wider lams on the outside because a couple of these are going to get pretty thin up near the nut. I think I'll paint the whole back of the neck black! Oh well, at least it should be strong. The wood came to me flat cut so I had to rearrange it. Ended up with a decent quarter after all. So about this truss rod thing... I can just cut a groove in here with the table saw to install this, right? I'm guessing I need to put the end right about where I have it sitting now, does it look like the right spot, or a good spot? Also, the rod is a tiny bit smaller than the flat base of the truss rod assembly. Do you put a quarter inch groove all the way down, or do you make it narrower down where only the round part lays. I probably don't need to worry about this one rattling if the tension is off, because it's not straight anyway. Looks like they ran around the shop whacking stuff with it for a while before they sent it to me. Oh by the way, the neck has a real nice "bonk" to it. Feels lively at this point!

Just remember the basic rule that shorter strings produce a higher pitch. Tune the open string dead on with your tuner, then fret at the 12th fret. If it's too high, then it's too short while fretted, and you need to move your saddle back to make the string longer. After moving the saddle, tune the open string to proper pitch again and see where you're 12th fret note comes in.