I've been busy!!!

[pkr2]

Originally posted by embellisher


That sounds like a winner to me, not having a drill press. But I still want to get a Dremel. Those things are cool.

They do some things extremely well but some things are better left to conventional tools.

Every home needs one!

Pkr2

[Dave Siff]

Hey Jeff, that's great! Congrats, man. You should be really proud of yourself. I couldn't even begin to tackle any of those jobs. I'm happy if I can do a basic truss rod tweak/saddle adjustment/intonation without breaking my bass. You've inspired me. Way to go!

[Thor]

On the Dremel, my favorite is the 'Mini Mite' which is equipped with a small rechargeable battery. It has 2 speeds and handles all the light duty household stuff easily. And with no cord, it totally rocks.

A nice assortment of Dremel bits/tools like the sanding disk, spindles, cutoffs and engraving/deburring bits make this an indispensable tool for the weekend warrior.

About $30 at your local HogMart.

Thor

[Bard2dbone]

Originally posted by Dave Siff
Hey Jeff, that's great! Congrats, man. You should be really proud of yourself. I couldn't even begin to tackle any of those jobs. I'm happy if I can do a basic truss rod tweak/saddle adjustment/intonation without breaking my bass. You've inspired me. Way to go!

This amused me because I think of trussrod adjustments as MUCH trickier than soldering.

[Woodsey]

i agree with Bard2dbone to me trussing and intonations are far harder than a bit of soldering. Saying that i am about to have a go at setting up my p-bass its a little bananna ed atm.

[BASSnSAX]

The thing about truss rods and saddle adjustments is that you have to just do small adjustments, especially with the truss rod.

No more than 1/4 of a turn on the truss rod. You also MUST let your neck settle, for around 1 to 2 days.

Saddle adjustments are pretty easy, but time consuming. Sit down with a tuner and play the open string and then fret it at the 12th fret, and compare how they are intonation-wise. After you get that set, then you try octaves of other notes along the fretboard.

Any more questions, check out the fabled Gary Willis set up page.

[NoGraveConcern]

Originally posted by embellisher
The only thing left to fix on the bass is making a new control cavity cover. Anybody have any advice on that?

You can get the black plastic from Stewmac.com. It's like 8 bucks a sheet or something. Use a coping saw to cut it as another member said. Then just use a block of wood with sand paper over it to sand the edges to a nice shiny finish. Drill holes and be VERRY careful countersinking the holes. I messed up 2 covers for a guitar that I made trying to drill countersinks. The drill bit catches the plastic really quickly and you end up with a 1/4 inch hole instead of a 1/16th with a countersink. Below is a picture of the one I made....

[embellisher]

Originally posted by NoGraveConcern
You can get the black plastic from Stewmac.com. It's like 8 bucks a sheet or something. Use a coping saw to cut it as another member said. Then just use a block of wood with sand paper over it to sand the edges to a nice shiny finish. Drill holes and be VERRY careful countersinking the holes. I messed up 2 covers for a guitar that I made trying to drill countersinks. The drill bit catches the plastic really quickly and you end up with a 1/4 inch hole instead of a 1/16th with a countersink. Below is a picture of the one I made....

Nice job! Thanks for the info.

[Tim Cole]

Jeff, I had to make a rear cover for my modulus, I had a gig this weekend, and the alternative was cardboard and duct tape!

So I'm looking around my junk filled room looking for ANYTHING I could make a cover out of, to avoid looking all pUnK with cArDbOaRd and tApE on my bass. I ended up taking a regular matte black DVD cover, and cutting it into a control cover. It's thin, but isn't brittle, so I figured it would be easy to work with, and shouldn't break. Using scissors, I cut the front flat cover off, and cut off all of the outside framing to have a nice flat piece.

I took a regular piece of white paper, and taped it over the cavity to make a tracing of the hole. Once it is taped, I took a pencil, and ran it lightly (like shading) around the entire cavity. The outline is plenty visible, as it is much darker than the rest of the shading. I then took scissors, and cut it out, and laid it on the plastic. For a perfect non-slip of the paper, I'd reccomend using rubber cement to glue it on to the plastic, although I didn't have any, so I just laid it there with a hand on it at all times, being careful not to move it. I then took a sharpie, and traced around the paper template I made. After that was done, take the scissors, and as careful and straightly as possible, cut it out. I needed to do some fine fitting on mine, which was easily done with some sandpaper I had lying around. I wanted to do this anyhow, to clean up the scissor cut edges. Once I had a perfect fit, I laid it in it's spot, and carefully marked on the bass iteself the locations of th screw holes, so I would know where to mark them on the cover for drilling. The nice thing about this material is, it is thin enough that you don't really have to drill. I took a sharp knife, and started a hole with that, then laid it on the body to ensure correct location with the existing holes. Took 4 pickguard screws I had left from a previous project, and I'm done.

I was just doing this as a tempory fix, but I see no reason to change it now. While like I mentioned it is thinner than normal pg stock, it is pretty flexible, nice and easy to work with, and should be plenty strong for anything I would need it for.

Time invested: about an hour.
Cost: Zero, zilch, nada

[Hambone]

I love it when alternative materials are used in instruments. We take for granted the amount of disposable stuff we have and finding ways to use it is smart and a lot of fun.

The rule is...there are NO rules!!