Zeronyne's bass assembly diary (Update 4/12/2006)

[zeronyne]

Originally posted by Tom Capasso:

Nice sheilding job. The neck/body looks tight. Was it a snug fit?

It was fairly snug. It definitely had a little play to it, but I held the neck tightly against the upper horn-side of the pocket to create at least one parallel reference point.

 

I had an idea about the bridge placement before I posted earlier. Every once in a while I play a bass where I think the G string is too close to the edge. Not sure if all that is necessary though.

Funny you should mention that. After careful study of the pix of the BenLoy Bass on the Fender site, I realized that the binding isn't supposed to be there on either side of the nut slot. I never really thought about it...I guess it's one of those things that no one mentions because it's so obvious. I need to file those down. The nut I got will still be a tiny bit wide, but not the huge amount I thought.

 

BUT, I have another weird dilemma now. I got a preslotted nut from Graphtech, and the G-string slot seems awfully close to the edge of the nut. Is this a common thing with Jazz necks? I had a MIM Jazz before, and I never noticed that the G was so close to the edge.

 

So I'm probably going to have to buy a nut blank anyway and do it myself.

 

1/8" too big? that surprises me - I don't have a bass in front of me but I'm guessing my nuts are only 1/4", so you're talking 50% bigger. Hmmmm.

Tom

1) I think you are thinking of something else other than the nut.

 

2) This could be an all-time classic out of context quote Monsieur Slidey Chair.

[The Bear Jew]

*possible jokes about MadBALL's nuts overwhelming*

 

There are just too many of them.

 

0-9, I like where you're going with this project. Looks great.

 

You can make a bass for me anytime yer ready.

[cloclo]

ooh, that shielding looks nice indeed. and thanks for sharing all this by the way. fun and informative to follow

[zeronyne]

Well, it wouldn't be a first-time project without some problems, eh?

 

I just received the tuners, bridge, and pickguard from the great folks at Warmoth. The pickguard's neck pocket is cut too deep for this Mighty Mite import body! At first, I thought the whole thing was just a different shape, but moving the pickguard towards the bridge by 1/16th of an inch aligns it to the control cavity. I wonder if all import P basses have this issue.

 

So I thought I would return this and just get a Mighty Mite pickguard. But no one has them in B/W/B! In fact, I don't even see it as an option.

 

So it's either have one custom made (at least 3 weeks), buy some blank pickup material and a jigsaw (yeah, right), or go with black pearloid.

 

It is my contention that black pearloid is not as loud as solid black. It would also be too busy, as others have stated, with the quilt body.

 

I could also just have the space there and make some sort of logo plate...hmm..

 

So that's the first little bit of useful info for the masses...the neck pocket on a mighty mite body is shallower than on an American P.

 

OK, bridge and tuners tonight...

[saxofunk]

Best of luck! It helps to stick your tongue out just a little when doing tedious projects.

[...]

Originally posted by zeronyne:

buy some blank pickup material and a jigsaw (yeah, right), or go with black pearloid.

Oh come on now. Get some metal stock from somewhere and cut yourself a custom pickgaurd out of it.

 

Good job on this project so far. Can I be next in line after Erik for a custom 0-9 bass?

[Aussie bass dude]

you wanna rock???

 

you wanna be loud??

 

Make a custom pickguard out of checker plate and spray it black

 

problem solved

[_Sweet Willie_]

I'm still voting for a bl-red-bl pickguard and red knobs. Red Devil strings. It'll be just enough of a dose of "fast" to make the "loud" of the bass that much better.

 

Peace.

--SW

 

PS: Good start, 0-9!

[jlrush]

Nice job Sam!! That body is is really sweet!

 

originally quoted by Zeronyne:

 

The pickguard's neck pocket is cut too deep for this Mighty Mite import body.

 

I had the same sort of problem when I tried to put a '62 reissue guard on a P-style body. The bass was an Austin and I don't know if they are imported, but I had the exact same problem.

 

You might try these guys www.pickguards.us/pricemelody.html.

Phone # is (530)899-1503.

 

If you can send them a drawing of what you want, they can make it.

 

Good luck! Jim

[jlrush]

Sam,

 

Sorry, didn't need to punctuate the end of that sentence.

 

Try www.pickguards.us/pricemelody.html

[zeronyne]

I went to a craft store tonight and I had a brainstorm about the pickguard. I don't want to reveal it yet in case I really mess it up, but I'm keeping the American guard.

 

Jim, thanks for the link...they were the ones that quoted at least three weeks. I hope I'mdone with this by the weekend.

 

Erik and Bump, I think you better hold onto your orders until you get to try my Werkmeister or Mean-tuned P Bass due to faulty bridge placement.

 

Willie I'm all for the black and red scheme, but the maple fretboard throws it off. But I do have plans for my next project which will be all black and red (including red Sperzels). But I'm jumping the gun here.

 

Oh! One additional bit of advice to people contemplating this project. If you are drilling into any area with a finish already applied, which in my instance is every damn screw hole, be sure to start with the drill IN REVERSE. This burnishes the starter hole slightly, preventing the poly from flaking off in big chunks.

 

I'd like to say that I didn't learn this the hard way, but I can't. See my blog tomorrow for details (hence my trip out ot the craft store for 000 steel wool).

[rumpelstiltskin.]

my bad. i forgot to mention that. i learned that at the expense of some peavey gear back in the rel/test days.

 

robb.

[zeronyne]

Made a bunch of progress today despite launching 3 websites for a client:

 

http://midiasylum.com/pbass/images/tuners_finished.jpg

 

http://midiasylum.com/pbass/images/bridge_9_finish.jpg

 

Many more photos and narrative HERE.

 

Thanks to Matt and Tom for the bridge help as well as Mr Lug's sage advice about placement.

[Davo-London]

Jazz neck and G-string distance from neck edge.

 

Funny you mention this. I played three old 60's and 70's Jazzes yesterday and it struck me how far the strings were from the neck edge by the nut! My modern Fender Jazz measures a smidge under 3/16" from string centre to neck edge at the nut and I'm very happy with this.

 

Great thread BTW

Davo

[mcbn]

Looking very good 0-9. I'm getting antsy about building my own retro P with flats.

[zeronyne]

Thanks for the info Davo. I guess I'm going to have to install it to see...it could be an optical illusion on my part.

 

I found an import pickguard! whew. All the craft stuff I bought yesterday can return to the store (which will more than pay for the pickguard).

 

Sadly, I cannot return the other pickguard...oh well, Ebay, here I come. Hmm...or I could build another one based around this pickguard...

 

Soldering (first time ever) and filing today. Oh, and I decided to make my own no-load tone pot based on an article at ProjectGuitar.com.

 

And I'm still in a quandry about drilling for the bridge ground wire.

 

Nutt, there are roughly 40 P Bass bodies on Ebay right now. Do it!!!

[getz out]

0-9,

 

Looking good.

 

For the bridge ground wire, you need a "lamp" bit (insanely long) and you should be fine. You can find them in Home Depot/Lowes, or you could stop by and borrow my set.

 

Use a piece of string to try to determine the angle of the dangle...

[saxofunk]

A "lamp" bit may be the same as an "aircraft" bit - if you want to play mind tricks with HD/Lowe's associates.

 

 

Thanks to Matt and Tom for the bridge help as well as Mr Lug's sage advice about placement.

You're welcome. My existence at the LD is justified, one of my 1700 posts was useful. Woohoo.

[zeronyne]

OK, it took 5 minutes to create a no load tone pot from a normal CTS 250k pot. I was feeling pretty good about my resourcefulness until I happen to notice that a no load pot only costs about 5 bucks.

 

Here's the LINK TO THE TUTORIAL if you'd like to try it.

 

For those of you who don't know (which apparently is only me. I had never even heard of a no load pot until this morning), a no load pot will effectively remove the tone pot - and its resistance (load) - from the signal chain when you pin the tone knob to 10. In other words, maxing out the tone knob will be the same as if you ran the pickups wide open. I assume that for a P pickup, the difference should be notable.

[ArwinH]

Originally posted by Davo-London:

Jazz neck and G-string distance from neck edge.

 

Funny you mention this. I played three old 60's and 70's Jazzes yesterday and it struck me how far the strings were from the neck edge by the nut! My modern Fender Jazz measures a smidge under 3/16" from string centre to neck edge at the nut and I'm very happy with this.

 

Great thread BTW

Davo

Whenever I drop by Hollywood guitar center's vintage room and all the nearby vintage guitar stores I alway's notice this. I guess it's jsut the idiosyncrancy of the instruments design. I've heard tell of the same problem with some musicman stingray 5's. I guess that's Leo Fender's ghost living on

[zeronyne]

Frustrating beyond belief...

 

As I mentioned before, the pickguard for American P's has a deeper neck pocket than the pickguard for these imports...if you want the guard to cover the input jack cavity, it leaves a 1/8" gap at the neck joint.

 

So I find a 14 screwhole import pickguard after a LOT of searching.

 

And they send me the wrong one.

 

And they're out of the import guards in black.

 

And I'm out the shipping cost.

 

And I still don't have a guard. I'd go to Terrapin or Chandler, but I didn't want to wait 3 weeks, and I don't have a perfect tracing of the correct guard.

 

well, I guess it's back to the craft store.

 

Stay tuned.

[zeronyne]

Arrrrgh! Huge mistake!

 

But luckily, the fix is obvious.

 

Remember at the beginning of this thread, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to position the bridge? Well, on a P Bass, there a much easier way, based on the set of constraints involved. Forget measuring side to side. All you need are a set of strings and the pickguard.

 

Once the pickups are in place and you know the general position of the bridge, stringing it up will show you a) the spacing from either edge of the fretboard and b) the strings alignment over the polepieces. Since the pickup can't be moved (due to the pickguard config), the only thing that can change is bridge placement.

 

I'm off by about 1/8", which is verified by the string spacing and, oddly enough, the centerline of the bookmatched quilt top (I didn't trust it).

 

I don't think the holes I drilled will show. (Yikes)

 

Tom, you were right to suggest using string. If I ever do this again, I'm having warmoth or USACG drill the bridge holes.

 

By the way, with a little filing, the nut worked fine. The slot spacing, while seeming oddly close to the edges, is perfect on the Jazz neck.

[saxofunk]

Damn!

 

I hate when that happens.

 

Now that you mention it, I just checked out How To make Your Electric Guitar Play Great . Dan coveres the issue of strings being directed over the pole pieces pretty thoroughly.

 

Sorry you got stung by traditional geometry.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by Matt W:

Sorry you got stung by traditional geometry.

And oh so many of us have been...

 

Best of luck as you forge forward 0-9!

 

Peace.

--Sweets

[Bottomgottem]

Any new developments?

[zeronyne]

I will have an update tonight.

 

Teaser: I have a 9" drill bit in hand, along with some plastic wood.

 

This is not going as smoothly as I thought.

[zeronyne]

OK, it has been a while since I last posted, but it's finally done...except for a setup.

 

But let me list the horrible things I did wrong. Almost all of them were either due to my loss of motivation or my ignorance. The latter is excusable...one lives and learns. Loss of motivation, however, has no excuse. I came up on some road blocks, and instead of really thinking it through and being patient, I just charged ahead like I always tell others not to do.

 

1) I misaligned the bridge, like I mentioned before. But I ended up doing it AGAIN because I didn't take the time to measure it twice (the cardinal rule). So I needed to plug a few holes with plastic wood and then dye the plastic wood with fretboard dye. It worked OK.

 

2) I finally just drilled a passage from the control cavity to the bridge area. I first used a dremel to carve a horribly rough pocket and then angled my super long bit into the pocket at what I thought was a safe angle. I was wrong, and I drilled through the back fo the bass. I'm such an idiot. But, to my credit, I was only 1/8" off.

 

4) Although I followed schematics, I somehow wired the volume knob backwards. Which brings me to:

 

5) Soldering is way harder than it seems, especially trying to heat up the body of the pot to attach ground wires and one of the resistor leads. I SUCK at it. This is one skill, however, I refuse to blow off. I am going to practice until I get it right. But somehow, it all got wired.

 

6) The Gotoh Bridge I bought seems to have some sort of coating, so solder just refuses to stick. My jury rigged solution will follow.

 

So you can see that I managed to take what started as a careful, thoughtful project and turned it into a fiasco.

 

But..

 

Robb was right. This pickup sounds ENORMOUS.

 

Pictures later tonight.

[Whacked]

What really is the benefit of soldering the ground to the bridge? Seems like a PITA to me, making sure you solder in the correct spot to fit in the drilled hole.

When I replaced a bridge, I left a good 1/2" bare, kept the insulation in the hole, then fanned the wire out a little bit (basically flattened it out from a round shape to more flat). That way the wire is being pressed to the bridge by the wood. If that leaves any indentation on the wood, I dont care the bridge covers it.

Seems to work well enough as I havent had any problems with it.

[saxofunk]

While patiently awaiting the update: Of the few (count: two) basses I have disassembled at the bridge, I've seen the same thing as Whacked. No solder, just 3/8" or so of bare wire fanned out. On my Toby, the stock bridge was coated except for a dime sized area that contacted the wire.

[zeronyne]

NOW you guys tell me.

 

My solution was way more drastic. I carved out a little pocket with the Dremel, sunk a screw in there that would contact the bridge when it was installed on top of it, and then soldered the ground wire there.

 

Like I said, I'm an idiot.

 

I waited too long today, and I lost all the natural light, so here's a horrible shot of it with a flash:

 

http://midiasylum.com/pbass/images/final_couch.jpg

 

The string spacing is a little wonky, and it needs a good setup, but hey, it's my first try.

 

I will probably switch out the body for a Jazz and make my own BenLoyPJ.

 

I want to thank all of you for the very sound advice...if I had followed all of it, I wouldn't have messed it up like I did.

 

Well, what's next? My Nordstrand build slot is imminent, and I need to practice soldering.

 

Oh, and I couldn't resist this on ebay:

 

http://i21.ebayimg.com/02/i/06/47/9d/bc_1.JPG

 

But I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. It was $40.00, so it's not like I'm making a horrible investment. Hmmm...where to find a cheap 5 neck...I wonder how wide that neck pocket is...