mistermikev

thanks for the advice gentlemen. I've done plenty of fret leveling but this is my second shot at replacing and as mentioned the first fret did not go well. I hope that's just a product of slot depth. With that in mind... how do y'all measure the slot depth? Piece of paper and a pen?

that is a great tip. I like the idea of super glue as opposed to wood glue... I'm not sure why. I plan to tape up my frets when I next attempt to prevent getting glue on my fretboard. I think I will use a block to hold them in place, and another block to hammer them in. thanks for the tips gentlemen!

I used the plastic end on mine once before... and didn't have an issue but it just seems like it could mar the wood at any moment if you hit it with an edge. Think the rubber should do it... or like mentioned the plastic with a block. Think I'll try that next attempt. thanks again for the responses!

here's what happened in my head when I read that: "my specialty fret hammer has been ordained by none other than scottr"! hehe I was using the rubber end. It should be nuff to push a fret in... I mean it did push in the ends... there was just about a heavy 32nd a half in long - in the middle - that just would not sit in there. Here's what I've learned: you can't put in frets w/o a fret saw. thanks again guys - I am in your debit (hehe).

thank you gentlemen. I very much appreciate the advice. I was using a simple home-depot special with one side plastic and the other rubber - nothing like your fancy hammer collection! thank you again for the input. building up the courage to go back at this!

thank you gentlemen. I think you are spot on, good advice. I will implement some changes and take a look.

thanks gentlemen for the replies and commiseration. I will have to snag a fret saw asap. (hangs his head) Do y'all use a mallet or a press? I've seen a few tutorials on building a press caul and also I've seen you can buy one with inserts for approx $50. also had some ideas about 10" pvc pipe and chopping out a couple of pieces and gluing to a bar bolt or something. Not sure it would have helped anything here but just wondering if it is "a better way"?

thank you sir. I had used a can of air to blow out, and thick razor blade to check for sawdust and other in the slot before install. So I guess the slot probably was just a hair shallow. Will have to check actual depth and snag a fret saw. any opinions on LMII fretsaw vs stew mac?

so... I come to you know for help/advice... this build was going along swimingly but now really struggling with frets. I got my fretwire coiled up in appox a 10" coil from the vendor. I figured - no need to build a bender. I got my fretboard pre-slotted and radiused. I did do some sanding on it to bring down my fret markers after cutting them off(120-220) - but not a lot... and I was paying attention to try to stay 80+% on the markers and not the fretboard. I also sanded from approx 220-3k for finishing purposes. I put super glue on the fret, placed it and started tapping on one end with my rubber mallet. To my horror - the center was not flush. Couldn't get it flush. the glue was still wet... so that's not the issue. Panic! Thought "well I'd better pull it before the glue sets"... and pulled out a good divot along with it. doh! so... in your experience, if you had to pick one thing, was the problem more likely improper fret bend (bent too much) or improper slot depth? if it is a problem with improper fret radius on the frets... it would seem it's bent too far... so would a diy fret bender 'un-bend' my fretwire? seems unlikely. should I buy pre-radiused fret wire? anyone use? fretwire you are a worthy adversary... I am humbled.

so what am I doing on a 3 day weekend while I wait for things to dry??? obsess over designs for my next build. I want to try inlays... would like to avoid angled neck if possible but one choice would require it so... def want to try set neck or neck thru next... not sure I'm ready but def willing. Just calling these off the top of my head... we'll call this one the "diamonte" The "Blues Jay" and the "Delta Lectro"

I'm an sg fan. I gotta say the natural really highlights the carve. looks great. nice work.

thank you sir. I probably would have been happier with a 4p4t... oh crap why did I think that... now I'm going to have to dig through my bag of rotary switches!

right on. I remember the montgomery ward and sears catalogs. that's a good memory. cheers

never done that myself but I've seen some layouts that just look pretty that way. All those curvy lines! Cudos to those who dare. this mornin' I whipped this up. This is my wiring plan for this bass. A 4p3T plus a les paul toggle. 3 modes... each with 3 possibilities (that's 9 combinations). Was going to go with a 4p6T from stew mac and do a number of other combos but don't want to buy anything else from stew right now and have a number of 4P3T lying round so... Uses two humbuckers with the same winding and polarity ala PRS style.

all great advice... it's not so much that I have issues with bugs but more I don't re-build the same thing a lot... always finding new circuits to try. afa quality, I'll admit: fab looks nicer. I've worked on old fx with razor thin copper w/o issue so I'd say I'm decent at desoldering. That said recently I struggled my arse off to desolder and remove a header that I installed upside down on a fabed board. had to wait a week to get a new board. iow I think there are pitfalls either way you go...or perhaps I'm just old and stuck in my ways! (yeah that's probably more likely)

I hear ya brother... never enough time to do the things... I'm just picking up what the internet put down... and back to the 'never enough time theme'. this is a box of tested circuits ranging from guv'nor clones to jcm800 fet emulators to anderton projects. I call it the box of shame cause I'll probably never get to 90% of it. but then you can't change your design literally every time you build something, hehe! Almost everything I build is a one off. Makes for some interesting troubleshooting some times. as mentioned... it's the drilling that is a little ruff especially when you are staring at a 220 hole chorus! I use a dremel with a foot switch and a gooseneck... keep a knife sharpener handy. I've found that if you switch bits every 30 holes and keep them sharp it goes pretty fast. I've been asked to troubleshoot a phaser circuit once that was built on cardboard. Basically point to point. I suppose that is one way to get around drilling! When I get fed up with it I start doing all my layouts in strip/vero board. As long as you don't need to make something smaller and don't mind cutting the traces - well it makes me feel like I'm not doing as much work anyway! I hear ya on the drilling. I recently bought a mfg board for a dimension c chorus clone... some things just aren't worth it!

in that vein I had considered replacing the 4.7k bright switch resistor with a 10k trim... but forgot to do so before I made my layout/etch on this one. As I recall the orig had a fairly subtle effect. Also considered adding YET ANOTHER control to this bass with a few different options for caps but it is already overloaded so... perhaps I can try that vicariously through you? Or perhaps next time I'll try it.

I've built the stingray for both bass and guitar before and experimented with different op amps. You def can get more boost if that's what you want. I prefer this op amp over all others for one reason: I have a lot of basses and guitars with 9v batteries... the less I have to worry about changing them the better. if battery wasn't an issue I'd be putting strings of cool led lights in my guitars just to remind me to unplug the cable after use! Also, between the stingray and the sabre2... sabre2 is really just some minor improvements over the stingray. it adds a hi rolloff option to the feedback loop, a 1u input cap to prevent unnec lows getting into the feedback loop, and 20 picofarad increase to the the cap that bleeds off some more highs in the feedback loop - generally making it a bit less harsh should you crank it up. Other than that they are identical. In my build I actually increased that to 140p, changed the bright cap, and added pulldown resistors based on my prior experiences with the circuit. So I could technically say I built either one!

thanks prostheta but 90% of the appeal is the idea of low current draw! tossing in a dual would break that. plus - it was good 'nuff for ernie!

making my own circuit - well, not really. making my own layout based on baja's schematic and erni ball's circuit... wish I 'made the circuit' - haha. bajaman is a member over at freestompboxes. you can find all sorts of his stuff online. someday I'm going to build his tubedriver clone... -inspiring. Like building a model pirate ship! thanks for the responses.

I feel like I am probably wearing out my welcome by constantly posting minor updates... sorry y'all! anywho, this week I got my neck shaped: as many suggested it was a very satisfying experience. I found a diagram of fender custom shop neck profiles and decided I'd shoot for the "60's P bass oval C" profile. I used my planing jig to put in a taper a hair north of .79 at 1 and .95 at 12th(more like .85 due to a 3/8 truss rod - I didn't want to end up with much less than a quarter on the bottom). Then I did two facets as google had taught me. From there I winged it and at the end did a lot of sanding with the profile of my hand. Feels great! I cleaned up the knobs I made and if you look close you can see the small access for my truss rod that I cut. also cut some relief for my tuners... don't know if I need it but thought it might echo the body nicely. then I figured I might as well get started on my active preamp... The other day before work I whipped up a nice compact layout for a "Pre ernie ball sabre2 bass preamp" - based on baja's schematic (the man the legend - thank you baja!). Below you can see it in the bag as I ironed on my press-n-peal blue and doctored it up with an etch marker. about an hour and a half of etching using ferric chloride and voilla wired it up knowing the top side(trimmer) would be exposed via my f hole, so I did all the wires on the back... and put it in my test jig and blamo - works right out the gate. labeled all my wires for convenience later and saturated the top with liquid tape... will hide it a bit, and prevent unintentional shorts. Note the LM4250 above... I'm told they have a really low current draw and will allow a 9v to last for years under normal usage. I have used them in other basses and am a believer... still haven't changed a battery in any of them while I've changed them a couple times in my lakeland tetsuya clone, and alembic stratoblaser clone -which were both built well after. anywho... thanks for listening!

thank you sir. That is a real compliment given your body of work, I will try not to let it go to my head. It is all I can do to be patient (not start finishing) waiting for a few things. Need to get my hardware so I can do final align on the neck/bridge as I think I need to deepen my neck pocket (5/8 -> 3/4), then rout my access to the truss adjust. Been keeping myself busy with dreams of other projects! mahog/maple dano u59, blueshawk, sg, lp, walnut strat, mm axis... dreams of sugar plums dancing! I glued some ebony to some maple burl and cut out some knobs and a 3 way switch tip. need to order a 4p6t from stew mac. need to do an etch of my preamp... been dreading that. Last night I planed down my neck at an angle on my router sled. drew some lines based on a 60's neck profile and will likely start shaping the neck profile with files tonight. Looking forward to what others have said is the most satisfying step. thanks again all for support/advice/encouragement!

danger will robinson... I had a 1"x2" router bit come loose in a big porter cable router once... in my top 1 of scariest things ever list. whole router started vibrating violently. Likely my error but I'm not really sure if it just came loose... either way I tighten the piss out of my collett every time now. Something I'll never forget. interesting and ergonomic looking guitar. right on.

update: got my headstock overlay done. cut my nut slot. did my inlays, sanded the top headstock transition.

disclaimer: I have no idea. New builder here and wondering much the same... perhaps if I bump you one of these kind and knowledgeable folks will chime in. Here's what I have read so far...pretty much everyone is going to tell you that the only reliable way to do this is to layout your specific items on paper. Since it is the year 2018 I'd say as long as you take a calipers and measure you could do this more accurately in a graphics program. my guess is you could lay things out on a flat plane, then see how far off your bridge would be. that distance is your 'rise' and your scale length is your run. rise/run = slope. then figure out the length of contact in your neck pocket... that is the adjacent and we probably want to know the height of the opposite or "what is the armount of rise in that neck pocket from front to back) so... tan(slope) = opp / adjacent adjacent * (tan(slope)) = opposite. there are probably better explanations and perhaps easier methods so perhaps my sloppy explanation will invoke them.