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5 string Ricken-Musicman Bass.

#101
Videojunkie said:
Tuner question. For the bridge, I'm ok with an El cheapo static bridge. It either works or it doesn't.

Tuners matter, and crappy tuners suck. Does anyone have experience with the Guyker brand? I know they're a cheaper brand, but are they crap? The reviews on Amazon are mostly rants about how they don't fit whatever random bass the guy bought them for (usually fender or clones)...

The alternative is probably just a set of Schallers. At more than 2x the price... edit.. 3x...
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They're good enough for test units, mockups, personal instruments etc. I'll stick gotohs on something that's going to someone else, but for workable tuners, they're fine. :thumbsup: I think the main difference is that the bodies of the cheapies are mostly made from much cheaper metals, like zinc pot metal. It's workable for the most part. :D
 
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#102
Beej said:
They're good enough for test units, mockups, personal instruments etc. I'll stick gotohs on something that's going to someone else, but for workable tuners, they're fine. :thumbsup: I think the main difference is that the bodies of the cheapies are mostly made from much cheaper metals, like zinc pot metal. It's workable for the most part. :D
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Where can I get them where I don't have to spend 50% on shipping?
 
#105
I'm on amazon.ca, which is just like amazon.com but 1/4 the selection, twice the price and 4x the delivery times. :D

I just searched "black bass tuners" and found some possibly questionable units from the not-at-all-suspect-sounding company "MAXCHEER" for 19 bucks delivered with prime. :)
 
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#107
Videojunkie said:
Sorry, I meant the Gotoh tuners. I've got the Guyker set in my Amazon shopping list. :)

I'm checking with a local music store to see how much they are, but I may wind up ordering them from https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/

The problem I am going to have, is that the Gotoh's are bigger than the Guykers... so I may have some re-engineering of my headstock ahead of me.
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I order mine from a local canadian distributor - they buy direct from Gotoh. GB707s are 13 bucks, GB350s are 25, and for comparison, Hipshot U/Ls are 21 from the same guy. Shipping is a minimum of 15 bucks regardless up to about 10lbs, so I usually order lots of stuff at once from them. Probably doesn't help you much. :meh:
 
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#108
I'm going to wait and see what the local shop says. I may also reach out to the luthier who helped me with my bass and see if he has good sources.

The Philly place does have a free shipping option, and pretty good prices. I need to spend some time in Autocad and see how much I have to adjust the headstock for the bigger tuners. I really want to use the cloverleaf style tuners in reflection of the Rickenbacker headstock.

In other news, my carbon fiber reinforcing rods arrived. They are only 18" long so much shorter than the 24" truss rod.. I don't think this is a problem, as I plan on installing them near the nut and along the thinnest part of the neck. Does make me wonder if I need a second set for the rest of the neck, or to order some longer ones...

Also, my stack of wood is complete. Quite a bit of resawing ahead. From left to right, maple (birds-eye), mahogany, maple (unfigured), maple (birds-eye *body), walnut. On top is the flamed maple for the fretboard.

My next steps involve building a template for the body, and a neck jig.
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#115
Working on the faceplate. I've decided to keep it a bit oversized from the drawing (about 1.5 mm) I'll lose some of that in the cleanup and bevels.

I attached a 100% sized drawing of the plate with some spray adhesive, and the used lacquer to seal the paper against water. It worked like a champ!

I don't do a lot of metal work, so this has been a fun diversion.
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#116
Materials update, ordered 1 of the Seymour Duncan pickups. The one that comes with the preamp. I need this one first so that I can engineer the depths for the pots and switches. The remaining switches and blend pot will follow shortly. (I'll wait to order the Alnico pickup as long as possible for budgetary reasons.) I also ordered a stacking pot to make the controls 3 openings (vol, B/T, mid).

This will allow me to completely wire up the control plate and make sure that it fits properly in the bass.

Part of this is that besides the battery pack (which will be located on the back), I want the only other opening to be the control plate. Which means that there will be a hidden recess inside the control opening behind the top wood to house the preamp.
 
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#120
Random thought: do any of you guys use something like a JST connector for your electronics? I'm thinking through how I want to wire this up, and having easily disconnectable pickups and battery connections makes a lot of sense to me instead of lots of tiny solder connections. If I read this correctly, a 5 pin connection is less than 12mm wide (1/2") and would easily support 4 wire pick-ups. 2 and 3 wire are correspondingly smaller.

460PCS JST PH2.0 Connector kit 2/3/4/5/6Pin Plug with Terminal Wires Cables Socket Header Wire Connectors Kit https://a.co/d/4gUJJRo
 
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