Super ambitious First Build, no woodworking experience..!!

[pilotjones]

It's worth a look to see exactly what Warwick's patent covers, if you haven't already. It can be enlightening to find out that what you thought was an original feature that someone is patenting is not, and the patent turns out to claim some minor detail.

[suraj]

Originally Posted by pilotjones

It's worth a look to see exactly what Warwick's patent covers, if you haven't already. It can be enlightening to find out that what you thought was an original feature that someone is patenting is not, and the patent turns out to claim some minor detail.

it seems warwick hasn't patented the design of their Easy Access^TM covers. Their only trademarked, so I guess I could trademark it somehow if its worth the effort. I would be glad to see this idea used on other instruments, but having a TM for it would be cool

[suraj]

Apart from the above topic I was thinking about finalizing pickup positions. The concept is - to use two humbuckers, very close to each other, almost touching. But each humbucker will have a single coil mode. Ok I think i've reached my limit to explain this in words so I'll use a diagram.



Basically the coils are located in such a way, that the inner single coils of both pickups come together in the Musicman sweet spot, well almost. The resultant outer coil of the bridge pickup lies at the warwick bridge pickup position, slightly closer to the bridge than a Jazz bass.

Now the aesthetic problem this poses is that the two pickups touching together looks like a large mass on the bass, but the advantage is that I have to then fabricate only one large pickup cover that houses both pickups. Also the cavity to route would be easier . I also tried another option to split them 10mm apart. That will affect the tone a little.



Let me know what you guys think..

[DeMayunn]

Make the pickup covers out of wood, this looks fabulous!

[bentlee]

This is a very nice build considering you said having no previous experience with woodwork whatsoever.

It does remind me of another build from not too long ago, the Uber Jay Spalted Maple esp the back laminate and the jack recess.

Did you get your inspiration from there?

[i hate username]

Very well done the bass looks beautiful. Hiding the battery cases and the control cavity under the magnetically attached covers is pure genius. Definitely a feature that's going into my dream bass(someday ill have you)

[Stealth]

If Jason Lollar, a renowned pickup winder, could make this:



nothing should prevent you from having four coils in a row.

(That's a guitar-sized P-90 Darthbucker. Knowing P-90s, that's huge.)

[suraj]

Originally Posted by DeMayunn

Make the pickup covers out of wood, this looks fabulous!

I have no experience with these, and quite honestly I prefer the look of matte black plastic call me weird

EDIT : I'm actually reconsidering this and maybe wood pickup covers might look great it would actually be simpler than outsourcing CNC milling plastic.

Originally Posted by bentlee

This is a very nice build considering you said having no previous experience with woodwork whatsoever.

It does remind me of another build from not too long ago, the Uber Jay Spalted Maple esp the back laminate and the jack recess.

Did you get your inspiration from there?

Thanks for the link, and thanks for watching ..!! That's one of maurizio's builds I haven't seen.. And after I look at the finished bass I see it's similar in a few ways to mine.. His is however, 20? No 60 times better I really like his recessed jack idea better and his overall execution..

Originally Posted by i hate username

Very well done the bass looks beautiful. Hiding the battery cases and the control cavity under the magnetically attached covers is pure genius. Definitely a feature that's going into my dream bass(someday ill have you)

Thank you I'm glad you like it.

Originally Posted by Stealth

If Jason Lollar, a renowned pickup winder, could make this:



nothing should prevent you from having four coils in a row.

(That's a guitar-sized P-90 Darthbucker. Knowing P-90s, that's huge.)

Nothing's actually preventing me from making four coils in a row, but that fact that they "look" a bit large put together into one single looking pickup. So I split them into pairs of two coils (two regular humbuckers) in the second rendered image. That way they are still very close to each other(10mm away), function in a similar way, and they're massy-ness is broken. All for aesthetics really. But the reason why I posted those two different pickup arrangements was to ask if its just me who finds the four coil pickup too large and dominating looking..

Hope I explained myself

That darthbucker does look huge..!!

[suraj]

So I finally decided to put 4 coils in a row. It's a quad coil dualbucker all inside one casing, that fits in one routed pocket. The design on the cover has kinks that kinda breaks down the scale of this pickup into two humbuckers, but still keeps them pretty much attached. So it doesn't look as massy as the first render, but still essentially the same. Its amazing how two lil kinks made me go from - no way, to - that's perfect..!!



Design problem = 0 ; Suraj = 1

A bit of a zoomed in view -




The above pickup cover design is only a sketch. All the dimensions have to be worked out from the inside out. From the magnet dia, to the coil thickness, the bobbin, the pickup casing, and finally the routing template size.

[wraub]

I am continually impressed with what you are doing, based on your stated lack of experience and what seems to be a notable lack of resources.

You obviously have a passion for this, and a skill set to match, combined with the sort of outside thoughtline that makes for constantly creative solutions. I salute you, good Sir.

And, the little kinks in that PU cover definitely make all the difference.

wraub

[suraj]

I'm glad you like it this guitar building thing is quite addictive..! so much so that i'm thinking about what next to do on my bass while I shower, drive, often messing up other things in life that i'm supposed to do ... With so much thinking going on i'm bound to come up with solutions. Sometimes I even make problems for myself

Stay tuned, the build is gonna go very slow, but it'll get there

[Stealth]

I really like the shape of the pickup - it gives a distinct "end" to each MM pickup but still keeps it in a block.

In hindsight, here's another company that makes huge pickups - Enfield Guitars Super 8 (pdf). Many, many switch positions.

[suraj]

Originally Posted by Stealth

I really like the shape of the pickup - it gives a distinct "end" to each MM pickup but still keeps it in a block.

In hindsight, here's another company that makes huge pickups - Enfield Guitars Super 8 (pdf). Many, many switch positions.

I'm glad you could see this distinctive "end". That is exactly what I was trying to achieve.

Thanks for the link, a very interesting pickup. Seems like a lot of permutations and combinations, but if you show that to a customer, he will demand a week or two to learn it all up . The large pickup never bothered me, it just looked disproportionate to my bass design. Well that's sorted atleast.


Now i'm torn between exposed pole pieces or hidden

EDIT :

IMO, the exposed poles look badass, and powerful, almost mean..
The hidden poles looks elegant, gentle, classy..

A picture is worth a 1,001 words -

[suraj]

Im sorry for double posting, but here's another picture. The pickup is just placed on an old 3d model, so the body may look a little different from what it currently is.

[roberthabraken]

I feel the more elegant look of the hidden pole pieces would've suited the bass better if there were minimal controls visible (hidden or just less).

The baddass powerful look of the exposed pole pieces fits the bass well, considering the huge amount of control knobs and the separate bridge pieces.

[suraj]

Thanks for the input rob, I agree with your statement there.

i'm still torn because a plain pickup without poles would be an ideal platform for a logo or nice big thin signature in white, so it wouldn't be that plain anymore.
But the exposed poles adds a couple of man points to the bass and could have a much smaller logo.

As of now i'm slightly leaning towards exposed poles, but will wait for some more responses or ideas..

[Shardik]

Very cool design, and ambitious indeed.

I love the looks of that pickup solution, but at the same time I wonder:

That pickup solution is in principle two humbuckers placed close to each other. How about staggering them differently? I would think that the tonal variety and hence the flexibility would be greater, but of course the look would not be as slick.

[Hopkins]

Originally Posted by suraj

I'm glad you like it this guitar building thing is quite addictive..! so much so that i'm thinking about what next to do on my bass while I shower, drive, often messing up other things in life that i'm supposed to do ... With so much thinking going on i'm bound to come up with solutions. Sometimes I even make problems for myself

Stay tuned, the build is gonna go very slow, but it'll get there

I don't think that ever goes away. I am about to start my 8th build when I get a weekend off. I have been up at night thinking about it to the point that I have been loosing sleep over it

[Stealth]

How about a composite? Make a wooden or opaque plastic cover with open polepieces, then glue a semitransparent or darkened plastic/plexi cover on it so you can emboss or print on it?

[suraj]

Originally Posted by Shardik

Very cool design, and ambitious indeed.

I love the looks of that pickup solution, but at the same time I wonder:

That pickup solution is in principle two humbuckers placed close to each other. How about staggering them differently? I would think that the tonal variety and hence the flexibility would be greater, but of course the look would not be as slick.

You are right, they are two humbuckers in principle. I had done some sound testing on this bass a few pages ago, with a pickup in different positions. I also posted sound clips. Pointers I gathered from that test -

1. I didn't like the sound of the pickup any closer to the bridge than a warwick thumb bridge pickup position. Just sounded too nasal, although some people love that tone. The tone in the warwick position ( which is just a a few mm closer to the bridge than a Jazz bass ) was fantastic. I loved it.

2. I really liked the MM position.

3. I also liked the sound a little towards the neck from the MM position. maybe 20mm away.

4. I did not like the tone so much further towards the neck. While it was a round bassy tone, I have another bass for that. This bass is all about the in your face mids, and tight focused tones.

So after all these findings, I realized, if I placed the two humbuckers so close that the inner coils (coil 2 & coil 3) fall in the MM sweet spot, the outer coil of the bridge (coil 1) falls in the warwick thumb position and the outer coil of the neck (coil4) falls in the position i mentioned in pointer no.3... So tonally this was a win win experiment

I hope I explained myself.

It isn't that I decided to make a quad coil initially, the experiments made me do that. Aesthetically the quad coil looked too large, so the slick look was designed

Tone - check x
Looks - check x

Originally Posted by Hopkins

I don't think that ever goes away. I am about to start my 8th build when I get a weekend off. I have been up at night thinking about it to the point that I have been loosing sleep over it

I'm sure you've gone through it for a longer time, sometimes I wish I can switch off my mind from bass building, and do other important things that I'm supposed to do as well.

Originally Posted by Stealth

How about a composite? Make a wooden or opaque plastic cover with open polepieces, then glue a semitransparent or darkened plastic/plexi cover on it so you can emboss or print on it?

Thats a brilliant idea..!! and whats brilliant about it is that its actually executable..! I could even emboss or print on the back side of the semitransparent piece so that the print or the emboss never gets damaged. Although I would rub out the glossy surface of the thin plexi to a satin. Thanks for the idea will seriously consider it.