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$100 Bass Challenge - Texas Jelly

#101
10 gauge, 12 gauge, and 20 gauge shot shells work with split shafts without having to drill anything if you remove the primers with a small punch

Added: They have to be low brass, or you have to grind down the casing on some, I use the flat side of bench grinder, another thing if you want to use high brass and not grind them down or punch out the primers is to use plumbers putty, its an epoxy putty that works like play doh, and if you time it right you can get an exact casting of the knob shaft,
 
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#102
They make brass shotgun shells.

image4_5.jpg
 
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#104
Will_White said:
While those are cool and I didn't even know about them, I'm not sure what those would be good for in the context of bass, as knobs generally aren't 70 or so mm tall, they might make a decent finger slide or bridge for a cigar box bass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I was thinking they might be cut. It seemed like the brass ends of the plastic ones might be too small, but maybe not.
 
#105
mellowinman said:
I was thinking they might be cut. It seemed like the brass ends of the plastic ones might be too small, but maybe not.
Click to expand...
It depends on which shells you have and how tall you want the knobs, I have some low profile, 20ga knobs made out of some low brass skeet shells, and I also have made some standard sized 12ga knobs made out of high brass hunting shells, and I also have an over sized 10ga knob some where I'll take some pictures tonight of them but until then:
High brass 12
335051_01_300rds_winchester_super_x_high_640.jpg


Low Brass 12 gauge
846914.jpg
 
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#108
20150331_192200.jpg
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So my camera's on the Fritz so I can't take a picture of the primerless knobs, but here is a picture of the first 10 gauge knob I made it shows the plumbers putty, and the casting of the pot shaft, I also didn't have a drill press when I made this so the hole is a little off center. Not the greatest example.
 
#110
The stuff I got does, there is two types the type that comes in a tub does not, the stuff that comes in a little tube plastic tube does it's also called epoxy putty, and plastic putty, looks kinda like this.
465694752_375.jpg

It is not as hard as standard epoxy still rock hard when completely dry, and because it's like modeling clay it is easier to work with. I might have to make a post about how I make them when I figure something out with my camera. In order to cast the pot shaft you have to put it in let it set briefly drill a hole the diameter of the inside of the shaft and then press it on to the shaft and remove then just let it harden over night.
 
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#111
Will_White said:
The stuff I got does, there is two types the type that comes in a tub does not, the stuff that comes in a little tube plastic tube does it's also called epoxy putty, and plastic putty, looks kinda like this.
465694752_375.jpg

It is not as hard as standard epoxy still rock hard when completely dry, and because it's like modeling clay it is easier to work with. I might have to make a post about how I make them when I figure something out with my camera. In order to cast the pot shaft you have to put it in let it set briefly drill a hole the diameter of the inside of the shaft and then press it on to the shaft and remove then just let it harden over night.
Click to expand...

That's good info. I may use this in the future. Thanks!
 
#112
still no knobs, and the finish still needs some smoothing out, but I built the bridge out today, installed the saddles and did a set up.
I took out the chinese pickups, so technically at this very moment, it's not a $100 bass, but I'm going to throw them back in and do a sound comparison clip between them and the Fender noiseless ones I have in there now. I have a gig this weekend down in SF, and was going to take this bass with me, so I wanted to try it out tonight. It sounds great. The string spacing is good, it turned out really well. I definitely need to work on the fret ends, they're pretty sharp, but sound wise, it thunders. this is my first 5 string though, and to learn all of our songs on it in just a few days is probably too much, so I don't think i'm going to end up taking it after all.

During setup, I was able to get perfect intonation on all of the strings but the B. It is still out a bit, but close. Is that pretty common on 5 stringers? I can't really see myself going high up on the neck on the 5th string regularly, but was just wondering.

i was also thinking about putting shells over the saddle stays, so the screw actually passed through the shell (and slotted over the end of the bridge), but the tail of my bridge is too high, and I don't feel like cutting it down. Maybe sometime in the future.

For now, I am very happy I dropped in on this challenge. It has been a lot of work, and I have a lot of detail work left, but it's going to be a player, which is very cool.
I'm already thinking about what I might build next. :)
 
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#118
JustForSport said:
I really like the theme and execution- every thing complements the rest.
Great job.
Click to expand...
thank you.
I'm still slowly adding to it. Brass shotgun shell knobs, and i have the saddle i'm still slowly working on for the pick guard. i have a friend who recently got into tooling leather, and is becoming very good at it. I'm going to have him work me up a pattern on the saddle leather before I place it in as a pickguard. Should look really good when complete.
 
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#119
Fully realized theme, nice execution, and it sounds like a bass.

I'd call that a success.
Congrats!

Asusual, I'd do without a pickguard, but I think an appropriate leather piece could, you know, really bring the whole bass together.

(sorry to hear of the divorce, hope you're doing ok...)
 

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