Recent content by Sub Four

Today i got the bass back from the local Plek service, happy to report that the neck and frets were quite good to start with, and the curve and levelling i discussed with the plek operator turned out perfectly. The action is quite low now and no buzzing at all. Very happy :D

Started to work on this in march, it took roughly 80-100 man hours to build. As i did not trust myself to be able to build a proper neck on the first approach, i commissioned a local master builder with the neck blank. The only other parts sourced in are the metal bits (bridge, tuners, strap...

Finished, and quite happy with the results... :D

There was a lot of sanding involved and we used paper up to 1500 grid. The fretboard is made out of ebony which had very few pores, so that helped in getting the end grain quite smooth.

Working on the wiring and electronics... Finished... :D Now the only thing left is setting everything up and spend lots of time on testing :bassist:

Shaping the fretboard end... Final sanding and polishing... Wax treatment... Done... nice and shiny

A quick break at home with the family, before we continue with the final sanding/polishing and installing the electronics/pots...

Installed threaded inserts for the pickup screws, then applied copper shielding, also started to carve/sandpaper the fretboard end into a smooth shape... Test installation of the humbucker pickup set...

I transferred my 1:1 drawing to the top layer panel and used a jigsaw to cut out the cover before all layers were glued together. Image #4 Starting my very first build, lots of questions

First installation of strings for a quick test of the neck setup...

I noticed that on a lot of early sixties pre CBS Precision basses the E and A strings are not centered between the pole pieces. It looks like the E-A split coil is a bit too far to the right, any idea what the actual reason is? It's not just the photo angle, the D-G strings are fine and i don't...

Heating up the bone glue to mount the fretboard... ABM bridge... Installing the ABM brass nut...

I tend to be a bit obsessive about the details being this the first build where i don't want to mess anything up, but it is a lot of fun taking your time and bringing it to life :)

Creating the pickup shells and installing the coils...