Well, it's just about done now. I've lined the pickup and control cavities with copper shielding tape I acquired at a local electronics store. I purchased five feet of it and it's just about gone. I spent the better part of a day just cutting and sticking the copper tape down. It takes a little patience but it wasn't too hard. I even managed to snake a thin strip of copper down the jazz pickup wiring hole! I checked it with a meter and I get conductivity everywhere. From any point to any point it is all connected.
So with that done, it was time to mount the bridge and strings and set the neck. I got the neck off ebay and it was the most expensive part of the project. The neck is a Fender, made in Japan, 1970 re-issue precision bass neck with rosewood fret board. One of the first things I noticed was that the neck pocket was a bit too big and the screw holes in the body didn't line up with the screw holes in the neck. Bummer.
Problem number one. Tighten up the neck pocket. I found a piece of counter top laminate kicking around and it was the perfect thickness to use as a shim. I cut a small piece and glued it into the neck pocket on the bottom edge and it worked perfectly. Now when the neck is positioned in the pocket it sits nice and snug up against the walls and back of the neck pocket.
Next up is to plug and re drill the mounting holes in the neck. I set the neck into the pocket and clamped it down. I used a drill bit the same size as the holes in the body to "spot" the locations of the holes in the neck. Just run the drill bit in until it touches the neck and creates a dimple. Then I removed the neck and drilled the pilot holes for the screws into the back of the neck. Scary stuff. I drilled down 3/4" of an inch and I was super careful. I didn't want to drill through the fret board or anything.
Once I got the holes in it was time to mount the bridge and neck to the body and check the setup.
For the bridge, I've upgraded it to a Badass bridge. I got it in black, which I thought would be anodized black but is just painted black. Oh well. Before I put the bridge on, I used a piece of 200 grit sandpaper resting on a sheet of glass to remove the paint from the bottom of the bridge. Just put the sandpaper on the glass, put the bridge on the sandpaper and start sliding the bridge around on the sandpaper. This will remove any paint from the bottom of the bridge and also take the high spots down so that maximum contact can be made with the wood..
I've decided to string this bass BEAD so I broke out a new set of strings and threaded them onto the bass. I did have to slightly open one of the loading holes in the bridge to accomodate the B string. I also need to open the slots in the nut to accomodate the wider strings.
I messed around with the setup for a bit and it's now set up roughly where I want it.
Next up...pickups and electronics installation.
I'd like to upload more pics for you all to see, but my limit has been reached
I'll try to figure out something so I can get some more pics up here.
Stay tuned.
but it was a great learning process and it should sound really good when it's done.
THat took a bit of trial and error and lots of sanding. 
