Obsidian

[Obsidian CW]

Hey, TB folks!

Since I've been reading this forum for a while, I think it's time to show some of my work. First bass that I've finished about a year ago was inspired with one Vadim bass that was on sale here on TB, and after I saw this baby, I decided that I'll build one of my own similar to this one, but with mine specifications. So, specifications are: Neckthrough, 3pcs maple, 2 padouk, fingerboard wenge with red LEDs as fret markers, wings made of 2pcs padouk and 30 years old cherry (sentimental value, belonged to my grandfather) black Gotoh-like Wilkinson tuners, black hardware, custom made pickups (Wizz pickups from Koprivnica, Croatia), active 3band electronics with mid-frequency selector, treble, bass, blend and volume controls, PU finish.
Some pics:
Wooden knobs for pots:


Routed body:


Contoures:


Extracting pickup covers on CNC:


Finished pickup covers:


Corian nut:


Inserting and connecting LEDs on wenge fingerboard:


Pickups with custom string spacing:


And -voila! Finished!

[Musiclogic]

Looks like a cool bass, those LED's are bright. Nice

[chokeslam512]

Dude...

[Stealth]

Pozdrav, Obsidian, svaka čast na basu, odlično izgleda! Alex ti je slagao pickupove? Kako zvuče?

[Beej]

Ummmm....que?

[Stealth]

To translate from out local Moonspeak:
"Hey, Obsidian, congratulations on the bass, looks great! Did Alex make the pickups for you? How do they sound?"

[Obsidian CW]

Originally Posted by Stealth

To translate from out local Moonspeak:
"Hey, Obsidian, congratulations on the bass, looks great! Did Alex make the pickups for you? How do they sound?"

No point to talk on our language here...
Super-satisfied, both with finished product and with customer care.


Meanwhile, since I've finished this one, started a new project: Singlecut, bolt-on, body made of one-piece ash, neck 4pc maple with 3 0.6cm laminates in the middle, wenge fingerboard, 34"scale, 24 frets, 5 string.
Some pics:

body wood:


jigs:


Routed body:



I think that I'll go on passive configuration on this one, also wooden pickup and pot covers, colour will be transparent red/natural with black and red hardware. As soon as I get, I'll take and post more pics.

[Stealth]

Roger that. We'll keep the moonspeak off the forum. Also, check your PMs, please.

Very cool new bass. What kinds of pickups will be on this one? Are you going for with a simple wiring configuration or something more complex? (Peavey T-40, maybe?)

[suraj]

what material did you use over the leds, for the fret dots ? some translucent thing..?

[iamlowsound]

I love how small the body is. It looks great!

lowsound

[octaedro7]

Great work, both. I particularly dig the knobs, like SR´s but wooden, nice!
Also neatly placed. I´ve been wanting for a long time to create my own and precisely create them in increasing sizes. My congrats.
Are you aware that now you are obliged to post audio clips?

[Obsidian CW]

Originally Posted by Stealth

Roger that. We'll keep the moonspeak off the forum. Also, check your PMs, please.

Very cool new bass. What kinds of pickups will be on this one? Are you going for with a simple wiring configuration or something more complex? (Peavey T-40, maybe?)

Tnx. I'm planning to put passive configuration on this one, nothing too complicated. Pickups will most probbably be Wizz again, but i'm considering other options.

Originally Posted by suraj

what material did you use over the leds, for the fret dots ? some translucent thing..?

LEDs don't have anything on top. I drilled holes on the outside dimension of LEDs, put some glue and pushed them in, just to ger their heads slightly above the fingerboard, and then leveled them with fret radius. I used bright red LEDs, 5000µCd.

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I love how small the body is. It looks great!

lowsound

Body isn't very small, I made a string spacing for standard 4 stringed bass because I don't like small string spacing. Neck is pretty huge, that's why the body looks small, but I like it that way. (overcompensating... )

Originally Posted by octaedro7

Great work, both. I particularly dig the knobs, like SR´s but wooden, nice!
Also neatly placed. I´ve been wanting for a long time to create my own and precisely create them in increasing sizes. My congrats.
Are you aware that now you are obliged to post audio clips?

Audio clips will be available as soon I get my hands on somekind of recorder. Also, sorry for the poor quality of pics, I didn't spent much time on photographing because I was in the middle of building, pics were taken just to have someking of building documentation.
SR knobs were somekind of a starting point in knob design, I didn't want to put simple knobs because I don't like them, and also I have access to lathe machine with changeable rail degree, so I experimented..

[Stealth]

Originally Posted by Obsidian CW

Body isn't very small, I made a string spacing for standard 4 stringed bass because I don't like small string spacing. Neck is pretty huge, that's why the body looks small, but I like it that way. (overcompensating... )

What is the string spacing on it? 18mm? higher?

[Obsidian CW]

Originally Posted by Stealth

What is the string spacing on it? 18mm? higher?

19mm. Used to play 4 stringed Soundgear before building this bass, I copied string spacing but the neck is slightly thicker in comparison with Ibanez.

[Dave Higham]

You seem to have more compensation on the higher strings than the lower ones.
Is it just an optical illusion?

[Obsidian CW]

Originally Posted by Dave Higham

You seem to have more compensation on the higher strings than the lower ones.
Is it just an optical illusion?

Sharp eye.
Those pics were taken when I plugged him in for the first time, I didn't made setup then. I just wanted to know how it sounds.

[RobertUI]

WOW

[Obsidian CW]

Some new pics of progress made in last few days. Project was standing aside for few months because of work and lack of free time, but I'll try to finish it by the end of summer.

Neck pocket:



Cavity for electronics with wooden cover:



Body with neck in place:



And one question about a detail in last pic:



Ash body has some kind of wood pigmentation on the right side of the body center which seems to go deep in the wood. Is there some kind of way to fix this, peroxide or something? It's pretty important for me to cover it, because body will have transparent cover, so I wouldn't like to leave it this way.


Next point - wooden bridge!

[jordan_frerichs]

i like those knobs. they would match my build perfectly! How much would it cost to order like 3 of them? Also, do they have screws, I need ones that would be able to work on a push-pull pot for parallel/series switching.

[Obsidian CW]

Originally Posted by jordan_frerichs

i like those knobs. they would match my build perfectly! How much would it cost to order like 3 of them? Also, do they have screws, I need ones that would be able to work on a push-pull pot for parallel/series switching.

I didn't ordered it, made it by mysef. Process is simple:

glue down 2 pcs of maple and 2 pcs of padouk like on a picture below and leave it to dry for a day or two.






After that, cut down square pieces and drill a hole in the middle (which will afterwards be used to attach knob to a pot) so you can attach knob material on a lathe machine.



Round the material on a lathe machine (if you have a changeable rail degree on it, you can make a cone. Otherwise, you can make only straight rounded knobs), then use sandpaper while still on a lathe machine to get a smooth surface.

Afterwards, coat it with PU or nitro when finishing your instrument. But, if you work with padouk, be sure that you blow all padouk dust before lacquering, otherwise you'll get purple stains on maple. (Been there... ).
Also, padouk is sensible to UV and air exposure, and it darkens during time because of that, so my advice would be to use a PU coating as soon as possible to prevent colour change.

I don't use screws but also have a push-pull configuration on a six stringer. The catch is to use a right drill bit on a hole so it matches a push-pull pot diameter. then you just push it on a pot and it works.

hope that I helped, and sorry on a bad english!