D&R's build thread

Longish post incoming -

After my last post yesterday, I painted the headstock on the Jackson neck (for the GSR) black to cover the logo up. Hopefully I'll get my own logo on soon, as soon as I figure out the cricut...
gsr24.jpg

Apparently I never posted an update about the pickguard and pickup trim ring for the Cort, so here's those with the pickups mounted -
cortjb17.jpgcortjb18.jpg

Also, rather than putting on another clear coat on the Cort, I decided to call it done and proceeded to sanding (320 > 400 > 600 > 800 > 1000). Then I mounted the pickguards (oh and the battery cover and neck plate I made) -
cortjb19.jpgcortjb20.jpgcortjb23.jpg

Mounting the bridge pickup was a little challenging, in terms of making sure it lined up, so I got kinda creative -
cortjb24.jpgcortjb25.jpg

I think it worked out okay -
cortjb26.jpg

Mounted the tuning keys -
cortjb21.jpgcortjb22.jpg

With the neck mounted, I lined up and mounted the bridge -
cortjb27.jpg

I've also mounted the jack but I didn't make the jack plate so no picture. I have conductive paint and a 3 way blade switch on the way - once those are in, I can shield the cavities and wire it up, then strings and see how it plays!
 
Longish post incoming -

After my last post yesterday, I painted the headstock on the Jackson neck (for the GSR) black to cover the logo up. Hopefully I'll get my own logo on soon, as soon as I figure out the cricut...
View attachment 6993080

Apparently I never posted an update about the pickguard and pickup trim ring for the Cort, so here's those with the pickups mounted -
View attachment 6993084View attachment 6993085

Also, rather than putting on another clear coat on the Cort, I decided to call it done and proceeded to sanding (320 > 400 > 600 > 800 > 1000). Then I mounted the pickguards (oh and the battery cover and neck plate I made) -
View attachment 6993086View attachment 6993087View attachment 6993090

Mounting the bridge pickup was a little challenging, in terms of making sure it lined up, so I got kinda creative -
View attachment 6993091View attachment 6993092

I think it worked out okay -
View attachment 6993094

Mounted the tuning keys -
View attachment 6993088View attachment 6993089

With the neck mounted, I lined up and mounted the bridge -
View attachment 6993096

I've also mounted the jack but I didn't make the jack plate so no picture. I have conductive paint and a 3 way blade switch on the way - once those are in, I can shield the cavities and wire it up, then strings and see how it plays!
Looking great so far !
 
The blade switch arrived a couple days ago. I took a few minutes today to cut the control plate, throw on some copper foil shielding, and install the switch -
cortjb28.jpgcortjb29.jpgcortjb30.jpg

Here's what it looks like "in context" -
cortjb31.jpg

Next is wiring. This is gonna be a simple bass - just 2 pickups and the switch. No volume or tone knobs. I really thought about just bypassing the switch altogether but probably doesn't hurt to have at least a little flexibility...
 
So wiring is done on the Cort. It sounds good except for one thing - it has a pretty significant buzz when touching the strings. That's gotta be a grounding issue, right? The pickups are single coil, 3 conductor. It's probably difficult to tell from the pics, but I'll try to explain how I have them wired -

I have the red leads going to the switch, and then to the tip via the blue lead. The white leads are wired to the ring via the black lead. The grounds (bare copper wire) are connected to the bridge ground, then screwed into the body (which was already painted in shielding paint.)

cortjb32.jpg cortjb33.jpg

My guess is that I need to run a lead from the grounds to the ring lead. Is that right?
 
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So wiring is done on the Cort. It sounds good except for one thing - it has a pretty significant buzz when touching the strings. That's gotta be a grounding issue, right? The pickups are single coil, 3 conductor. It's probably difficult to tell from the pics, but I'll try to explain how I have them wired -

I have the red leads going to the switch, and then to the tip via the blue lead. The white leads are wired to the ring via the black lead. The grounds (bare copper wire) are connected to the bridge ground, then screwed into the body (which was already painted in shielding paint.)

View attachment 7014078 View attachment 7014079

My guess is that I need to run a lead from the grounds to the ring lead. Is that right?
So turns out I was right - I ran a wire from ring to ground and problem solved.

But...a new problem emerges - the strings bottom out on the frets above...oh the 13th or so fret. So you get a really choked high note and nothing more. Unfortunately, the action is pretty damn good throughout the rest of the fretboard, so I don't think it's a matter of simply raising the saddles... I think I gotta adjust the truss rod. I just don't know which direction, and also it's at the heel so the neck would have to come off. Maybe this is best left to some sort of professional...
 
The Cort J bass is done -
cortjbfinal.jpg
I raised the saddles and loosened the truss rod a quarter turn...took care of the bad noises north of the 12th fret.

...and the GSR is done -
gsrfinal.jpg
I really like these pickups in these positions. The neck pickup sounds like meaty P bass, the bridge pickup sound is way more useful than your typical J bass bridge sound, and both together is a reasonable facsimile of a J bass.

I also put another coat of pain on the Ampeg cabinet, and started building a stand/table for the drill press. I have a bronco body/neck, a P bass body, and several telephone handsets in the shop, so plenty to keep me busy in the coming months (except when my wife and I are away for our 5th anniversary.)
 
The Cort J bass is done -
View attachment 7017807
I raised the saddles and loosened the truss rod a quarter turn...took care of the bad noises north of the 12th fret.

...and the GSR is done -
View attachment 7017814
I really like these pickups in these positions. The neck pickup sounds like meaty P bass, the bridge pickup sound is way more useful than your typical J bass bridge sound, and both together is a reasonable facsimile of a J bass.

I also put another coat of pain on the Ampeg cabinet, and started building a stand/table for the drill press. I have a bronco body/neck, a P bass body, and several telephone handsets in the shop, so plenty to keep me busy in the coming months (except when my wife and I are away for our 5th anniversary.)


We definitely need pictures of you putting the next coat of pain on that Ampeg cabinet. :smug: :roflmao:
 
Roughly around the time I finished my last two project basses, I picked up a P bass body (a Glarry or similar, I think. It's really light!) and a Bronco body/pickguard/neck/tuners for not a bad price. So I'm on to the next things, I guess.

I do have one detail left on the Ibby-Jack, which I'll hopefully deal with soon.

Anyway, I got started on the P bass body a couple weeks ago. I had an old Maxon pickup lying around that'll go in it, and of course I'll be using an old record for a pickguard/pickup ring/whatever -
pbass1.jpg

The first thing I did was to make the pickup cover. Fortunately, the pickup came with a ring that was very helpful in cutting the pickup cover to shape -
pbass2.jpg pbass3.jpg

The body didn't have the control cavity cover, so I made one -
pbass4.jpg

Then, I moved on to expanding the pickup route so the pickup would fit -
pbass5.jpg pbass6.jpg pbass7.jpg

I think I did okay -
pbass8.jpg pbass9.jpg

More to come maybe? My wife and I leave for our 5th anniversary trip this weekend so I probably won't get much done for a while...
 
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Roughly around the time I finished my last two project basses, I picked up a P bass body (a Glarry or similar, I think. It's really light!) and a Bronco body/pickguard/neck/tuners for not a bad price. So I'm on to the next things, I guess.

I do have one detail left on the Ibby-Jack, which I'll hopefully deal with soon.

Anyway, I got started on the P bass body a couple weeks ago. I had an old Maxon pickup lying around that'll go in it, and of course I'll be using an old record for a pickguard/pickup ring/whatever -
View attachment 7027408

The first thing I did was to make the pickup cover. Fortunately, the pickup came with a ring that was very helpful in cutting the pickup cover to shape -
View attachment 7027409 View attachment 7027410

The body didn't have the control cavity cover, so I made one -
View attachment 7027412

Then, I moved on to expanding the pickup route so the pickup would fit -
View attachment 7027413 View attachment 7027414 View attachment 7027415

I think I did okay -
View attachment 7027416 View attachment 7027417

More to come maybe? My wife and I leave for our 5th anniversary trip this weekend so I probably won't get much done for a while...


Those old Japanese pickups in that form are pretty nice. Some were single coils and some were humbuckers but they tended to look the same on the outside. Both sounded good. I should have kept a few of the ones I had. The basses they were on tended to be narrower spring spacing so that might be something to check but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works just fine with the strings a bit outside the pickups edges. The ones I had were loud.
 
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Those old Japanese pickups in that form are pretty nice. Some were single coils and some were humbuckers but they tended to look the same on the outside. Both sounded good. I should have kept a few of the ones I had. The basses they were on tended to be narrower spring spacing so that might be something to check but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works just fine with the strings a bit outside the pickups edges. The ones I had were loud.
I hadn't thought about spacing but honestly I'm not too worried about it. I think it'll be fine. Guess I'll find out when I get a neck and string it up...
 
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Made some progress on the p-bass body. I sanded the finish off the front and back (I decided to leave it on the edges), then stained it with "classic black" Minwax Polyshades -

pbass10.jpg pbass11.jpg

Then I sanded the most of the black off. I was trying to highlight the grain. I don't think it worked as intended (it's a little uneven) but I think it came out pretty well. I'm hoping it'll look nice under the color coat.

pbass12.jpg pbass13.jpg

I think, next time I try to do something like this, I won't bother sanding to 320 before putting on the black. Also I won't use polyshades! Just simple stain or black paint. No reason to sand through a layer of poly as well...

Also, I put the finishing touch on the GSR - I put the logo on the head stock.

gsr-head-stencil.jpg gsr-head-logo.jpg

I hope I'll have time to stain the P bass body this week...
 
Aye. To pop the grain strikingly, you really need something that absorbs pretty well into the surface fibres (like water-based or spirit-based dye). Poly tends to stick near the surface, which isn't to say it can't work, just that the threshold between "too much colour", and "Crap, I'm already through the colour layer" is pretty thin; might work better on a more open-grained wood. I find water-based dye to come off almost too-quickly with a p320 pad, and that's supposed to be one of the best at doing it.
 
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Aye. To pop the grain strikingly, you really need something that absorbs pretty well into the surface fibres (like water-based or spirit-based dye). Poly tends to stick near the surface, which isn't to say it can't work, just that the threshold between "too much colour", and "Crap, I'm already through the colour layer" is pretty thin; might work better on a more open-grained wood. I find water-based dye to come off almost too-quickly with a p320 pad, and that's supposed to be one of the best at doing it.
This is good to know. I used the polyshades because it's what I have, but...yeah, not ideal.
 
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I haven't really had time to do much work since my last post, what with travelling for shows and work and such. But (of course) I've had time to buy things for future projects! Huzzah!

One such acquisition is this vintage Danelectro convertible body -
dano-conv.jpg

As can be seen here, this is far from a pristine body. The bass side of the neck pocket is lifting, and the area around the controls is depressed a bit (more here - https://reverb.com/item/85151630-danelectro-convertible-body-1950s-1960s). Initially my plan was to see if I could repair it. I don't think the little flap (if you will, or even if you won't) by the neck pocket would be a big deal - just glue and clamp. The control area, however...I have no idea how I can brace it since there's so little room to get underneath and no access on the back.

So what I'm thinking about now is either -

A) make a control plate to mount over the damaged area. This has the advantage of keeping with my theme of upcycling old vinyl records. The problem, though, is whether the top is thick enough for pickguard screws. I guess maybe I could glue it, but the area isn't flat, so...

Or B) make a whole new top, using thin plywood (I have a bunch in the shop.) This would be neat because I could stain the plywood (I was initially planning on painting the body.) The problem with this idea is cleanly removing the old top, and cleanly integrating the new top.

The other big problem with this build once I've sorted out the above is finding a suitable neck. I'm hoping to find a short scale neck (30") that fits the pocket, and that's proving to be a challenge. And Danelectro necks are very hard to come by; when I find them, people ask a few hundred dollars, which seems like too much.

As for the pickup, I think I may actually go away from the original way this guitar was set up (which was a lipstick tube in the middle of the sound hole.) Instead, I think I'm gonna mount a gold foil between the bridge and the sound hole. That's a long way down the road, though.

I'm off next week, and home, so hopefully I'll get the P bass body stained up. I bought a Harley Benton neck for it, but the heel doesn't quite fit. While I was thinking of how to resolve that issue, I found a good deal on a Squier P bass neck with tuners, so that's on its way now. If that heel works, I'll probably end up saving the HB neck for a future project.