Bass builds: My own & for clients (friends)

[ThaCoast]

Lots just this week;

My bud Jeff stopped by with 4 guitars to fix (he got flooded some weeks ago, tested all his gear, 7 are in need of fixing), only 5 of them he wants done (because Green day tribute). So just needed to replace the pots on each, 3 telecasters w/single volume pot, & a les paul custom copy: moving the switch to the neck tone position, Two volumes & master tone. & he dropped his Marshall Superlead clone in for fixing/repair/upgrade, as its still having volume drop issues. & after many tests, we suspect the output transformer is a miss & unable to keep unity level.

Last night i changed the strings on my squier dimension V, new GHS 30-100 gauge, a High C instead of a Low B, & i gotta say, i'm much more creative with these strings/set up, over the Low B string. Yeah it was cool, but High C gives me audible range instead. So far love it, i do want to replace the bridge with a hipshot Kick4$$ squier mount, & After playing around a little with its preamp through my full rig (amp/cab), & pedalboard, I feel its Mids are a little off for a good tone overall. The bass & treble sit nice, but the mids are a little finicky. I may opt to use its preamp in something other, & see about getting the Darkglass Tone capsule which is bass, lo & hi mids instead of a dedicated mids & treble controls. May react better with this stock pickup (which i do not wish to swap out, since there's no direct replacement). In due time.

I'll be cutting out the tailpiece for the Bass VI, & get its work finalized tomorrow morning in shop, along with the stingray bass body (leveling out the front & rear, & then carving the control cavity for the Noll 4 band preamp).

 

[ThaCoast]

Yesterday early morning, took a trip to the woodshop & pulled the stingray bass body. Levelled the front first in my jig with a router

^^^had drilled the control cavity months ago, when i realized the body wasn't flat. It sat dormant since then.

After its levelling, sent it through the planer to even the rear.

^^^got it all level, this was after a couple of passes in the planer.

^^^retraced the electronics portion, drilled to depth, & started cleaning up.

^^^retraced the pickup cavity, to match the pickup shape, drilled & routed to 5/8" depth. Gonna check the pickup & see its actual thickness, will either be good, or go deeper in the body.

Forgot for a final picture once it was all done, & although this is still Ash wood & has some fair weight, it's much lighter than i had anticipated. Definitely lighter than the black walnut jazz body - though nothing will come close to its weight body alone Dx.

 

[ThaCoast]

Stepped into shop real quick this morning, as i was near by hanging with my old roommate. Tweaked the stingray cavities slightly.

Pickup cavity down to 3/4" depth (as is the pickups thickness).

& traced the control plate, & noll preamp box, & drew around to alter the cavity a little.

^^^cavity is down to 1.25" deep. Body thickness is a smidge above 1.5" (where true stingrays are 1.625" - 1 5/8"). Am i disappointed; not really, considering the weight of ash & once it'll be assembled with hardware/neck, it'll gain more. So being an eighth off is a small detail.

^^^looking good! Left to do are;

- finalize arm cut
- roundover the edges w/a 3/8" bit (waiting for my recent order).
- drill for strap pins, drill for output jack & football plate.
-once the neck is mostly fabricated (fretboard attached), find scale length, drill for bridge screws/posts & ground.
- final sand & hand over to my friend Eve.

Tomorrow morning it's start of neck work.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, while at the shop after finishing the stingray cavities, i got around to completing the tailpiece for my bass VI. All sanded smooth, & after one coat of white paint, its in the hands of my friend Eve who painted the bass (along with SuperNova, Sàmhchaìr BB, & the drum kit).

 

[ThaCoast]

This was a productive morning. Started with a blank,ended with a shaped neck

^^^truss rod channel routed, had done the larger portion post picture.

^^^testing clearance & depth before routing the shape out.

^^^got most of it roured, then took to the bandsaw to trim off excess, & keep routing flush.

^^^routed the neck pocket to depth. Next up is truss wheel recess, center neck & drill for screws, & maple fretboard slotting/glue up.

 

[ThaCoast]

Lots going on in the days since the above post:

- I sold off the blackguard tele project i had taken from my old shop. To a friend who bought it as a gift for their friend who started playing guitar. Glad its in a good home, & out of mine!!

- After much testing with the Superlead clone amp, no issues detected, both tonally & tapping on various key components (wires, tubes, caps/resistors). & some back & forth between Jeff & I, we're moving forward with re"building" this clone into a 2203 circuit (easier access to cascading gain, & front mounted master volume). Once the circuit redone, i'll be adding some capacitors/resistors for a pseudo Dookie mod (considering he's exclusively a Green Day fanatic to the extreme), & it'll suit him for the tribute in the long run. Big project, but getting this completed before end of October since we have a gig November 1st.

- I stepped into shop real quick one morning, got the stingray bass neck centered & drilled, also cut the jazzmaster neck blank down to size for ease of clamping & storage in my cubical unit. This one will be on deck during the week as i get most of it completed ahead of schedule. Good thing, i'm only missing two pickups & its bridge.

- I've been messing around with the SUB sterling Ray4 bass i've taken from my other musical project. Got rid of the fur top/sides, after much elbow grease & goo gone, its all off. I tested the stock pickup passively, & opted for a replacement i have on hand (also tested passively), The replacement is also ceramic magnet like the stock, however 4 conductor lets me able to series/parallel wire it should i choose. However, it may not be the final pickup in this sub as i feel it'd benefit more from an alnico pickup instead. Should i upgrade its preamp down the line, i'd perhaps stick with a 2 band EQ, had thought of 3 band, but feel it gets a decent punch, sparkle, & thump with just the 2 band. + less controls to mess with overall. My plan with this bass is to make it match my character in the band (we all wear different colours, i'm Green); so it shall be splattered with neon green paint, I'll make a new clear pickguard for it, & have either an alien between it & the body, or Slimmer from Ghostbusters - undecided as of now, will see once its all put together. But this is an ongoing thing that i'll hope to complete (at least the visual aspect of it), prior to the new year. 2025 i'll see about upgrading for the duncan alnico pickup.

- I'm going to get back into building the Hiwatt custom 50 amp head - need to find my notes on what & how i wanted things done for the 2nd channel to use the other half of V2 preamp tube (for more gain when both channels jumped).

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Lots going on in the days since the above post:

- I sold off the blackguard tele project i had taken from my old shop. To a friend who bought it as a gift for their friend who started playing guitar. Glad its in a good home, & out of mine!!

- After much testing with the Superlead clone amp, no issues detected, both tonally & tapping on various key components (wires, tubes, caps/resistors). & some back & forth between Jeff & I, we're moving forward with re"building" this clone into a 2203 circuit (easier access to cascading gain, & front mounted master volume). Once the circuit redone, i'll be adding some capacitors/resistors for a pseudo Dookie mod (considering he's exclusively a Green Day fanatic to the extreme), & it'll suit him for the tribute in the long run. Big project, but getting this completed before end of October since we have a gig November 1st.

- I stepped into shop real quick one morning, got the stingray bass neck centered & drilled, also cut the jazzmaster neck blank down to size for ease of clamping & storage in my cubical unit. This one will be on deck during the week as i get most of it completed ahead of schedule. Good thing, i'm only missing two pickups & its bridge.

- I've been messing around with the SUB sterling Ray4 bass i've taken from my other musical project. Got rid of the fur top/sides, after much elbow grease & goo gone, its all off. I tested the stock pickup passively, & opted for a replacement i have on hand (also tested passively), The replacement is also ceramic magnet like the stock, however 4 conductor lets me able to series/parallel wire it should i choose. However, it may not be the final pickup in this sub as i feel it'd benefit more from an alnico pickup instead. Should i upgrade its preamp down the line, i'd perhaps stick with a 2 band EQ, had thought of 3 band, but feel it gets a decent punch, sparkle, & thump with just the 2 band. + less controls to mess with overall. My plan with this bass is to make it match my character in the band (we all wear different colours, i'm Green); so it shall be splattered with neon green paint, I'll make a new clear pickguard for it, & have either an alien between it & the body, or Slimmer from Ghostbusters - undecided as of now, will see once its all put together. But this is an ongoing thing that i'll hope to complete (at least the visual aspect of it), prior to the new year. 2025 i'll see about upgrading for the duncan alnico pickup.

- I'm going to get back into building the Hiwatt custom 50 amp head - need to find my notes on what & how i wanted things done for the 2nd channel to use the other half of V2 preamp tube (for more gain when both channels jumped).

Gotta be Slimer!

 

[ThaCoast]

Gotta be Slimer!

It's cause i'm debating keeping Slimer for my own Stingray bass too xD

 

[ThaCoast]

I've been on vacation for the past week, & i've done quite a bit of work in shop & at home. Pictures to come soon, for now just a quick update x)

- My stingray bass build has a battery cavity, its cover is almost finished & will route the channel for it. Then the body will be close to finished, missing the bridge screws/ground, misc wire channels drilled between pickup/battery/controls, output jack to drill out, & finalize the arm cut.

- Took the stagg body & its new 32" neck, routed the body for the neck to sit inwards, bolted the neck center, & lined up the original bridge on the 32" scale for intonation. So it is done, until i need to cut it up, glue some wood for the new body shape, & cut it all out.

- Started working on the jazzmaster neck; Truss rod channel done, neck is cut out of its blank, however i need to find some better dual side tape so the template doesn't move when using the router for the final shape of it. In time...

- At home, i started gutting Jeff's Marshall Superlead Clone. Wasn't a bad sounding amp, however lots of things within it, & how it was built are just questionable as to why? But i've got the turret board out of the chassis, so it can be half depopulated of its 1959 circuit spec components to be turned into a 2203 circuit. Also helps me focus on one thing at a time instead of seeing a giant stack & feeling overwhelmed/unmotivated. It's chassis still holds everything else, which will be cleaned up entirely (making the wires neat to limit noise floor in the overall signal). Got rid of the Post phase inverter master volume, moved the resonance control to where that volume was, disconnected all the input jacks (will be wiring only one "high" input, the other 3 will be left in place, leading to nowhere, & plugged up), ditched the 3 way standby switch which had it choose between 50 or 100 watt, however since Jeff only went 100 watts always, we got a new 2 way switch for the basic on/standby operation. Will be isolating the IEC plug's ground to another spot, its currently bunched up with a lot of others & that's not to code (i'd gather that if the wall socket didn't have a proper ground, the amp wouldn't see it at first since every other wire is grounding out at the same spot). I did recommend he replace his filter can caps potentially in the next year, 4 of them are dated 2014, the other 2 are from 2012. There's no bulging/bubbling to the filter can caps, but i suspect perhaps, these were the cause of his volume cutting in & out.

Lots going on, new projects, some to get rid of faster than others

 

[ThaCoast]

SUB Ray4 mod bombardment:

In the beginning...

^^^when the current band was only 3 piece, & the singer was playing bass instead of guitar, he decked his bass ZZ top style.

^^^relatively eaay to peel the fur off. The residue is superglue & such. Commence elbow grease & lots of goo gone.

^^^many hours later, it was all down to the original shine of black. & time for me to slime it green !! Turned out great, just had to rinse my bathroom twice xD

^^^new clear guard made to both protect the green under & have it visible. & routed the neck pocket depth some for better set up.

^^^after some wait, it was time to swap pickups. The original big ceramic magnet was alright, but lacked any definition & dynamics. Opted for a Duncan Smb-4a, their 70s stingray pickup, alnico pole pieces, & as i was to discover, made a worlds difference.

^^^electronics figured out & re-wired (w/a push pull for series/parallel pickup option), time to upgrade the hardware colour. The chrome was alright, but black definitely fits the vibe. Went with green knobs as finishing touch. The tuners i was lucky they fit the original chrome baseplates because i didnt want to plug & drill new holes. + considering the strap pins & neckplate are still chrome, it fits. I had ordered a bridge, though got refunded as they were out of stock. So i painted the short chrome baseplate i wasn't going to use for any project of mine or build to sell, so on this it went.

^^^look completed.

^^^strung w/SIT 45-100, which feel better than the former 50-105. Set up was a breeze, & it plays great! Took it to rehearsal friday night, & my bandmates love it, as does Eric the owner of this bass. Can't thank him enough for leaving me blank card to do as i see fit

I may bring it back, & wire the push pull as a on/off (or active/passive). Parallel is fine, but i think because of the two band eq, & its dip in volume, it doesn't work as well. TBD.

 

[TerribleTim68]

What a massive improvement!

 

[ThaCoast]

Affirnative . Plays, sounds, & looks amazing. Couldn't be happier with how i've made it to be.

 

[ThaCoast]

Quick mod on this one. Decided to change the tuning keys on SuperNova. The strings were very off line, & would toss the nut to one side.

^^^how it started, with 3d clover keys.

^^^plugged up,

^^^had gone back & used my bradpoint 1/2" drill bit to keep centered, & then stepped to this 9/16" bit.

^^^sanded the front & rear of the headstock to level out. Tested the new gotoh 707 chrome keys, & strings line up straight, reinstalled the string tree at its proper resting spot. Feels better overall, even open notes ring clear!

Some filling is needed, then i paint a blue basecoat & hand it over to my friend to do the similar artwork again.

 

[ThaCoast]

A week ago, i bought myself a bugera 6260 212 combo. Clone of the 5150 circuit.

^^^250$ cad used, & it shows. But still worked, somewhat.

^^^everything out of the cabinet. One thing they got right was to add shielding where the chassis is held. Unlike my usa made peavey. One speaker was also loose, took em out just to check them & see.

^^^chassis pretty clean, & after checking the power tube pcb board, it cam take el34s. However the screen grid resistors were too low value to do so safely. & theres an auto bias system in this, which is just awful as it kinda short circuits itself, no matter if you have good powertubes.

^^^idk why the electric tape on the switches if they have shrink tube, & theyre far enough from the shield of the cabinet.

^^^pulled everything out, to start modifying a little in the circuit. Implement some mods i want to do on my 5150 rebuild.

^^^the 4 small holes are where the autobias system used to be. It took the reading at the wrong point of the powertubes. Essential, what was supposed to be a fix to their prior version, has itself become a failiure point. So im opting to replace this with a true bias pot/resistor network, so i can manually check, & tweak the bias of the powertubes accurately & efficiently.

^^^subject of mods, i've gutted the power section & ditched the pcb board stuff in favour of individual parts & go traditional wiring. Waiting for new 18awg cables, rated at 600v, got a new dpst power switch which will have both the neutral of the ac plig, & the hot off the fuse holder. Safety, & i may swap the standby switch for the same type.

Long term project kinda, but easier fix up/upgrade/mod, & itll let me hear the sound of my mods to a 5150 high gain circuit. & what i'd do different if anything.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

14 AWG 600V wire is common as dirt (THHN/THWN2) at any electrical supply or decent hardware store, if you can stand some extra wire thickness.

 

[ThaCoast]

Thanks for the recommendation! I got 18awg because that's the gauge within the amp itself,

 

[ThaCoast]

Over the last couple of days, i've taken time to sit with each of my rigs; guitar, & bass. Starting with my guitar rig, & playing the Prince tribute telecaster, through the big guitar pedalbox fx, & jc-120, i've had some findings;

- I enjoy the sound a wah can give within my chaos of drives/modulations/time based effects. However, i move around as a player, guitar or bass, i like to dance around, so staying in place to work the effect kinda sucks to me.

- My phase 100 sounds good when its only with one or two other effects. When i start pilling on the chaos, it gets rapidly lost.

- The Prince tele's pickups sound good, for what they are, but there's not much clarity for the funky side of playing, & they don't push much of the drives, & can sort of sound "thin" overall.

With those noted, i'm ditching the phase 100 & wah from the board, replacing each with a Digitech Whammy V (for pitch/harmonies/octave dives), & an EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery (auto wah/filter). The Prince telecaster will get a new set of pickups, from Pegcity Pickups - their Texas Triple Stack offering (just the neck & middle RWRP pickups are all i need for this guitar). Having had a chat with the owner, & at his recommendation based on what i'm looking for in this guitar/my overall tone, the Texas Triple's were his clear cut suggestion So those will be sometime in November i'd reckon.

As for my bass rig, it took an afternoon, testing all my "live" basses, through my bass board, writing down settings of each pedal in conjunction with the bass played. & also noted a few things:

- 10 band EQ doesn't drastically change between each bass with how i had set it years ago.
- MXR Bass D.I.+ is a good distortion, & kinda alright low gain drive. Settings more or less change EQ wise depending on bass.
- Damnation Audio Dirt fixer's EQ is powerful, & also doesn't change aside from its low mids.

After playing everything through the rig, i've noted that, as much as the combination of 10 band EQ/Bass D.I.+ has been on my board since 2016, it's not really the sound i'm enjoying, or that lets me create. So i've decided to move those two, The EQD Gray Channel, & The Damnation Dirt fixer over to my smaller original bass board, & after many listen throughs, review readings, & comparisons, i've pulled the trigger on a Tronographic Rusty Box. The capability of Light to heavy drive, & that's it upper mid forward for cut, sounds perfect for what i'm looking to achieve. I'm also going to acquire sometime this month perhaps, a Sansamp Bass Driver programmable (3 settings) - this will replace the 10 band EQ, & given it has 3 save buttons, i'll group my Fender type basses, Humbucker basses, & low output basses, on their own settings. This way, i can bounce between basses & select their specific preset without losing volume in between each. It'll be the always on unit, as was the 10 band EQ. Where the Rusty box replaces the Bass D.I.+ for a better range of distortion/drive.

 

[ThaCoast]

New projects i've given myself for 2025 (along with the others to build/modify like the bat bass, & the Spoiler inspired build).

Anyway, these are two new pieces for me in my own gear round. Let's start Strats:

^^^Daphne blue alder body, maple/maple dot inlay neck*. Chrome hardware, Pegcity Red RIver Rambler pickup set. The twist is it'll be 27" scale, so Baritone Stratocaster.

^^^Lots of firsts for me in this one: It's a Jazz bass, the only one i'll ever own & keep. & also Gold hardware, i've always been bigger on Chrome due to my love of old school 40s - 50s big cars & their decked out with bold chrome! 70's spaced Duncan QP Jazz pickups, simple VVT layout, gold anodized guard (or gold guard in general, just need to trace a shape that works), blocked but not bound tinted jazz neck. Most likely going Hipshot ultralites, & some "high mass" gold bridge that looks the vintage part, but feels modern under palm.

Both of these, are tributes to IDLES Mark Bowen (baritone strat), & Adam "DEV" Devonshire (his fender custom shop Gold Jazz bass).

 

[ThaCoast]

Designed two guard shapes, since the controls are rear mounted. Debating between mirror & brushed metal - both in gold for the looks.

One around the neck pickup

One smaller guard.

I might fabricate both, & just use thin double sided tape to install + can change the look in a jiff.

Waiting for the first small batch of parts (sadly no strap pins as of yet).

On a short list of current gear modifications:

- In that parts order, i'm waiting on a new wilkinson bent plate brass saddle bridge & graph tech slotted bass nut for Sheena pbass. It sounds really muffled as of right now, even with new strings. Kinda want to see if swapping the high mass bridge it's had forever, with a vintage style plain bent plate version will open up. & if it's close, but not quite, i'll swap its bone nut for the graph tech. EDIT Friday Oct 11th: The bridge alone was alright, but not much had changed. Swapped the bone nut for the graph tech & much more clarity in the tone overall.

- I'll be acquiring a graph tech nut for the prince tele, The Brat Pbass, & Simonon Pbass.

- The Ripper bass will have it's last setting of both split coil (neck south, bridge north), re-wired from parallel to series. I rarely play that setting as it sounds too thin in comparison to the others (granted, two are full humbucker series or parallel option, & the other split is also series - neck north, bridge south). EDIT: I pulled the ripper out of its gig bag, & after going back through notes (thankfully i had them stored safe xD), i just moved on wire to a different spot on the rotary switch connecting both of those coils in series, & removed one wire which was grounded. & I'm pleased to say, all works as intended. So now, the rotary switch is: 1. Both Full Hum in series, 2. both Full hum in parallel, 3. Both Split neck North + Bridge south in series, 4. Both Split Neck South + Bridge North in series.

Position 4 sounds like a massive humbucker, & that's great for me!

 

[ThaCoast]

Last night, I had rehearsal with the Pop punk band, which has the newly modified stingray bass. Started the night playing this one, switched to the Ray4, & after 2 songs went back to this one. & so Eric, the singer/guitarist who owns this bass, asked if i wanted to do something with it. I had in mind to take it home & simply slap some new strings & give a set up. On the way home, ideas started popping.

^^^2005 fender aerodyne jazz bass. First issue with the output in line w/the controls, & direct mounted to the body. Later production changed to the more common strat jack plate type. Again, this one got a mod of paint splatter in bulk of yellow & white (Eric is Yellow in the band, he simply changed instruments when we formed this new band).

^^^up close, all of everything is bone stock about this bass, just the paint work. Which is going to be altered for my character colour; Green.

^^^headstock was left alone, some dings here & there. Nothing dramatic.

^^^7.25" vintage radius'd rosewood board. This needed a good clean. Lots of grime & grease.

^^^from far you can't really notice a difference at the rear. However the body was completely shot with rattle can black. Covering the original gloss black & its cream binding.

^^^two screws broke inside. Tuners are kinda loose, even after trying to fix em, but as tight as they can be screwed down, post still wobbles. TBD.

^^^original pots/output jack. All mini sized 250k, & the pickups do sound pretty good. Jbass single coil does have lots of noise even when both pickups are full on. Will be the first bass i take time to shield, i still have some copper foil, just need to find it. Split coil reads 8.88kohms, jazz single's 5.75kohms. Both pack punch & bite. Pretty decently balanced.

To my idea/plan;

- strip off all rattle can paint work, to get the original black gloss & cream binding exposed.

- once its back to a shine, binding gets taped up.

- & after drawing a template of this jbass body, tracing & cutting the design out, it'll be lightly taped to the front of the body (since the front has a large radius, making it an arch top type). & spray paint w/neon-fluo green.

- remove the template, & place at the rear. Doing the same thing. The sides will be blended in after w/only select few spots being painted green.

- clean off bridge + saddles, pickup covers. The covers are kinda warped inwards, so i may end up replacing them.

- Once everything's completed, assemble & wire the electronics, string w/ernie ball 45-100. Set up. Reveal.

I've ordered new full size 500k pots & a long thread switchcraft output jack. I've already drilled out the pots/jack holes so they fit without hitch when it'll be newly sprayed w/green.

Today, step one; remove the finish.

Update EDIT: The binding lives, however the old finish had already been sanded down prior to being refinished years ago by Eric for his former band when he was bass player/singer. Alas, no original black gloss finish, however, this gives me a clean slate overall to shoot in black gloss again, & do the design overtop afterwards. The bass is highly devalued, however since he has no plans on selling down the line (as it's his first bass of two, the second being the Ray4). So a little more involved refinishing wise, but it'll be pretty smooth as long as i can get it all completed in the following weeks (before extreme cold sets in properly)

 

[ThaCoast]

Stepped into shop last night, sanded away the finish from the Aerodyne J bass, & got the neck for the Rasta strat drilled & bolted to the body.

Today, the Jazz body's in uniform finishing w/gloss white. Tomorrow will start the green top coat, & once it's cured enough, i'll tape half off, & paint the exposed half in black. Then more artwork drawn on in the coming weeks. I'm debating acquiring a Dimarzio Area J bridge pickup to replace the stock one which is quite noisy & very low in output compared to the split P pickup. TBD.

The rasta strat is strung up, & set up. I just need to reverse the bridge pickup wires to not be out of phase when paired with the middle pickup. & i gotta drill new guard screw holes in the body to hold it.