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2 string short scale for a little guy?

#21
That was a cool build, Tore, I recall when you posted it. That's the bass I was thinking of when I suggested using both halves of a P-pickup. Also, your spacing of pickups is saner than what I suggested, I just remembered P-coils have a pretty wide aperture (sensing field), and this being an XS-scale bass, the tone would likely be too muddy for usage.

As for the wiring, reverendrally, I don't know what you had in mind but three options spring to mind: a V/T (with the pickups permanently in parallel or series), a 2/V/T (series/parallel switch feeding into a V/T) or a 3/V/T (neck/parallel or series - pick one/bridge switch)
 
#22
SaintMez said:
I wish my Dad had made me a Muffin Man when I was a kid! lol
That's a great name for this bass. You're an inspiration to fathers everywhere whose children can't keep their grubby lil paws off daddy's equipment.
Click to expand...

:D lol

The bass is getting a P split pickup doubled up like a MM pickup. Wiring wise it will be straight to the jack. He's 3 and will break the knob otherwise. We can fiddle with tone later if we like, for now I just want the thing to work so he can play it.

I'm using these as individual bridge pieces...

eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

At the price i couldn't resist them... ;)
 
#27
I really better hurry up coz he was at it again today...

IMAG0620.jpg
 
#28
Some more progress tonight. Hanging with my mate Mark, luthier extraordinaire. Got the fret chart off a program he told me about. You just print it out, cut it out and lay it on the board...
IMAG0622.jpg

IMAG0623.jpg

Then you just saw through the fret lines and voila! fret slots!
IMAG0624.jpg

IMAG0625.jpg

After that he let me loose with the drill press and the abalone and we had dot markers.
IMAG0626.jpg

I have to say, it's not as hard as it looks if you just pay attention and take your time... and if you use the right tools. I'm going back next week to press the frets in. In the mean time I need to do some radiusing of the fingerboard. I'm also hoping the bridge and tuners will come in real soon too, so I can drill the tuner holes.
 
#32
Bit more done this morning....

Fingerboard sanded and radiused. Looks nice now.
fingerboardradiused.jpg


Tuners in too. There were a few tense moments with the huge drill bits I needed to use, but the belt sander sorted it out and it's come out really nicely I think.
tunersin.jpg

BTW, I had to put them on that way to get the strings to go straight to the tuners. I didn't realise that when I narrowed the headstock it would displace the E string tuner. Anyhow all good now. Off to a mate's place tonight to fret and hopefully it should have strings on it before the end of the night. Just as well coz the young fella is driving me nuts with constant demands to play my guitars!
 
#35
Back to Mark's place last night and I did my first fret job. I have to say again, I'm surprised how easy it is.

readt2pressin.jpg

Fretwire cut and ready to press in. We glued it with PVA and the frets were then pressed in. There was one little drama with the edges lifting a little so we ended up supergluing it and clamping it. After this we filed and sanded back the edges. Again, easier than I expected. Fretwire is very soft. You have to take your time and pay attention but it's nothing like filing steel like I'm used to.

Was one very funny moment when I was trying to trim the extra off the edge of a fret and managed to pull the whole fret out instead. Mark was laughing his head off at me. Oh well, I'll learn next time. :lol:

fretsalmostdone.jpg

Here's the board almost all done. There are a few little things that need attention and some dressing but it's largely done.
 
#37
Update. Got a lot done with my partner in crime last night.
neckon2pete.jpg

neckon3plate.jpg

Neck on. I've got a super strong 3mm steel neck plate with three screws in it. 2 in the pocket and one at the end of the body. I've done this because even though I wanted to make the bass super light, I also wanted to build extra strength into certain parts of it to prevent Muffin destruction. Even so, I'm gonna have to help to look after it.
neckon1gosbell.jpg

Mark pretending to be bootsy collins. :lol: The real laugh is, he's a guitarist and doesn't even know who Bootsy is.
Then we got the bridges on and the strings...
stringson1.jpg

Then it was time to give it a test play...
stringson2pete.jpg

It really needs a string tree at this point, which is on the way in the post from somewhere. We also discovered the bridges weren't far enough back, but that's ok as there is plenty of room on the body. Next stop will be routing the pickup position and the jack plate, which is a strat jack plate.
pickupplacing.jpg

Mark's a gold luthier and he was generally stoked with the bass. He reckons it's coming a long very nicely and should be awesome when finished. So the race for Christmas really begins. And now the neck is on I really have to hide it from Mr Muffin, coz if he sees it he will never leave me alone.
 

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