basses for newbies (SX batch build thread)

[Stealth]

How 'bout giving the Brice a go? To me, the words budget and 6 string sound aweful funny when put together. Haven't given it much thought. I feel anything with a B string changes the mechanical needs of the instrument a lot.

As a budget six-string user who bought a really solid, yet cheap model, all I can say is it's a lottery draw - though if you give it your usual setup the same way you did with the four-strings (plus nut and saddle fixes) you could probably bring it up to par.

On the pickup side of the game, Mike at Nordstrand Pickups, Inc. did an autopsy on the stock SX pickups and made some interesting discoveries about it. He said that the pickup had some really cool magnetic orientation/polarity features as well as interesting winding characteristics. Design paths that he would not have normally taken as an approach, but he says they have a lot of P90 design influences in a jazz shape. He also has suspicions about what's causing it to become overdriven when pushed. Mike mentioned that some time ago, Carey and the team had discussed developing a bass pickup along similar lines as a cool idea, but along with a lot of development projects, they get pushed to the back burner. At any rate, he will be sending me prototype #1 of a new jazz pickup moving in this direction for testing and feedback. Lots of variables will shift on this pickup, so I don't expect to nail it on the first go.

That should be fairly interesting. The P90 is a squat wide coil not too far from the Precision split-coil pickup, but what sets it apart from other pickups magnet-wise is the fact it uses steel polepieces surrounded by two bar magnets underneath the pickup - so the magnetic field has a different shape, very different from the standard jazz. That might be the reason for the effect, along with the mentioned fact SX pickups use ceramic magnets. I wonder what Carey'll make of it.

 

[mcapote]

chunger the basses you are getting are they all gonna be jazz? I been looking towards either a p or pj lately. I miss my P that I sold off to replace my dead amp head.

 

[Doodaddy]

Excited to hear about the potential new line!

 

[wideyes]

To be honest, I'll be really happy to see a viable alternative to SX. Go get 'em!

 

[Jo6Pak]

To be honest, I'll be really happy to see a viable alternative to SX. Go get 'em!

Ditto...

 

[chunger]

chunger the basses you are getting are they all gonna be jazz? I been looking towards either a p or pj lately. I miss my P that I sold off to replace my dead amp head.

There will be 2 types in the first batch (pending scrutiny of the test sample) . . . P and J. I will have extensive input on all design variables and will stick to standards except for a chunky rather than thin neck profile. In short, these will be built to my spec and I will have the ability to tweak those specs to optimize. After the first batch, we'll see where the chips fall. These will be very basic and "safe" to start out. If cost is reduced by only having 1 kind of fretboard material, I'll do maple. If cost is further reduced by spraying them all in the same color, I'll do that as well.

I've been getting requests for things like short scale and extended range basses. I do have spec ideas for those sorts of things, but I've gotta walk before I start to run. I'm thinking to nail down the basics first and do that really well. . . then, see if I can sell them. If I can, I can then expand the range of products.

Another note: Plek finally got back to me about pricing for Plek Station and Plek Pro. As expected, the cost is way too high to remotely consider as a purchase option for my tiny operation. But, at a certain point, it does become viable. And that's good to know. So, if 1000 people sign up and pre-pay today to get their basses Plek'd. . . we'll be good to go. It'll only take 41 days to get through them all running 24/7

 

[NoobOnRoad]

So' you need 1000 people to buy your basses before the Plekage? If I still can subscribe in august I'll do it. But ATM I'm short on cash.

 

[chunger]

So' you need 1000 people to buy your basses before the Plekage? If I still can subscribe in august I'll do it. But ATM I'm short on cash.

No, no, I've negotiated a wholesale Plek rate with a local shop to do my builds right now in batches of 10+ . . . the 1000 basses comment only applies if I actually go out and buy a PLEK machine which is completely unreasonable for the scale of my operation. That would be the point at which one would break even on the machine purchase. I'm sure the figures could be sliced differently into a monthly break-down if one were to finance the machine, but in this economy, I am not going to leverage myself to start a guitar business. . .especially because I've always heard there is no money to be made in this line of work.

But, if the good people at Rondo music are going to open the door this wide and furthermore, hold it open indefinitely by refusing to supply the instruments that people want . . . I'm left with no other options but to get creative and find an alternate source.

 

[mcrracer]

Another vote for short scale basses..."P" and "J"

 

[chunger]

That should be fairly interesting. The P90 is a squat wide coil not too far from the Precision split-coil pickup, but what sets it apart from other pickups magnet-wise is the fact it uses steel polepieces surrounded by two bar magnets underneath the pickup - so the magnetic field has a different shape, very different from the standard jazz. That might be the reason for the effect, along with the mentioned fact SX pickups use ceramic magnets. I wonder what Carey'll make of it.

I think Mike's going to try an alnico configuration with a squat coil with a thinner gauge wire and then match DC impedance with the stock SX pups as a starting point. It won't be the same as the SX pickup, but the trick will be to get closer to that vibe without going into SX effect.

 

[Doodaddy]

So on this new line, will 5 strings be involved?

 

[chunger]

Too much talk, not enough bass building this is "talkbass" after all. . .

It's taken a while to get the space sorted out due to the lego building contest when folks were over for dinner, but that's a long story. The new tool organization system is really helping. I have a spot for everything now. We'll see how that settles in after a few rounds of building.

#10 is up! The mission now is a bit different than before. Get it prepped for PLEK and then move on. So, if the bass has functional electronics, they stay at this stage. The neck gets inserts and shim if needed. Alignment issues are corrected, and new strings go on.

Shim and inserts go in. . . pretty smooth on this one.

Mustn't forget to lube the threads so the neck torques down smoothly.

. . .. and then "custom handmade" strikes again. . . pickup alignment is all jacked up. There is much improvement necessary in the SX build process. In some ways, I'm happy this is the last batch of these. Blue tape marks the original location of the bridge as a reference point for when I move it to its new location.

The solution for this bass was to crank the neck over towards the left and then re-locate the bridge to the right. What a pain. Out come the hour devour skewers and glue. You can see in this image how far the bridge was shifted to the right. String alignment on the neck is not as good as I'd like, but a little extra space on the E string isn't necessarily bad. I can live with this and there is some slop room on this type of bridge. The pickup alignment looks great now. The bridge was completely bottomed out before the neck shim, and now I have some adjustment range.

Much better now. . . I'll wait for the glue to dry overnight on this and then it'll be ready to go. Not as much progress tonight as I would have liked, but I wanted to get a start. I need to find a drill press again in the area. . . several necks need to be plugged and I need to drill neck holes on 1 body that I plugged a while ago.

So on this new line, will 5 strings be involved?

It really depends on how well they're received. Plus, I need to verify quality on the test sample before moving forward with anything. First priority is the 4 string basics. I've gotta nail those really solid. I love 5 strings, but in my mind, the B needs extended scale length and graphite reinforcement to be right (my opinion). Those will take R&D along with pickup testing again.

 

[wideyes]

Tsk tsk on the factory build quality of that last bass... Looking forward to your next phase of builds!

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Chunger, I was curious about the Slide-Glide lubricant and looked it up (it's for firearms).

Have you found the lube useful for other non-firearm uses, aside from the neck screws?

 

[chunger]

Chunger, I was curious about the Slide-Glide lubricant and looked it up (it's for firearms).

Have you found the lube useful for other non-firearm uses, aside from the neck screws?

Slide glide is probably overkill for this application. . . I'd just go to your local auto parts supplier and get some Mobile 1 synthetic grease. . . or for that matter, any grease. You just want something that will stay put and not migrate too much and seep into the wood.

I end up using slide glide on a whole bunch of stuff because I have it handy in the house.

 

[chunger]

#11. . . total carnage on this one. I thought I was going to hit stride and just glide through these preps, but this one wasn't going to cooperate.

But, at least the inserts went smoothly and the pickups were aligned on this one. . . problems started when I removed the neck and there was already a shim inside. . . not a problem except the bridge was bottomed out almost. This meant I'd have to double shim it. Normal business cards are about .012". . . I put another 3x5 card in and bumped it to ~.017" on the shim.

The nut was buggered. . . ok, I've seen buggered nuts from SX before straight from the factory, but this one had been filled to make work except the person who filled it went WAYYYYYY overkill on the crazy glue and it was all over the place.

It had gotten into the nut channel in a big way and this nut was not going to cooperate at all coming out. At the first sign of trouble, I should have just sawed the nut in half down the middle all the way through and then squeezed and pried it with my fret nippers, but I pulled too much too long and buggered the fretboard.

Days like this I'm glad I'm working on SX's and not pricey guitars.

Since the chips fit really well and part of the chip had finish on it, I decided to go with crazy glue. Clamping was the challenge.

And. .. here's the mess after the glue dried.

Some sandpaper on a block to clean up the top surface. . .

And, it's not the cleanest repair in the world, but it doesn't look all that horrible either.

New Graphtech nut blank is shaved for width and length with some 220 sandpaper on a flat surface and with a dremel on the length trim to speed things along.

ANd, nut slots are cut with my handy Stewmac files that work great BTW and aren't showing any signs of dulling like the Norman files did on Graphtech.

And, a really light touch of Kyser lem-oil on the fretboard since it was really dry. . .

And, new Dunlop SS strings on. This one is ready for PLEK. I apologize for not taking more photos on this repair. In hindsight, I feel the extra coverage would have been educational, but I was so pissed that the fretboard chunked out, the nut was completely fused in, and the channel was a total mess that I forgot to document. I ended up scraping, filing, and dremeling inside the nut slot to get it cleaned up before setting the new nut blank.

Well, not as much progress as I would like, but it's another one down.

I think I'm done with gluing in nuts if I can help it. I'll just fit them snug like this one. There's really very little chance of it shifting under string tension.

 

[Moronicus]

Chunger you're like McGyver for the bass! Nice save on that one. I don't think the crack is that visible after the repair unless someone were to know about it and was searching for the hairline specifically.

What do you do when you need to open a can but can't find your can-opener? You'd probably clamp it on the table and use the dremel on it.

Much inspired.

 

[gm2_in_co]

What do you do when you need to open a can but can't find your can-opener? You'd probably clamp it on the table and use the dremel on it.

Aluminum dust in my beer. Ew! Now I'm gonna have nightmares...

 

[chunger]

#4 is slugging it out with the big boys today at a recording session for cell phone ring tones. . . yeeee hawww. .. Jasaman came by the other day because he needed a killer P-bass for the session. I handed him the one that will rule them all. I don't think this one was really made in China. I think it was made in Mordor. Still need to record samples so you guys can hear for yourselves. Everybody so far who has picked up that bass from beginner to professional has left shaking their head wondering what just hit them. One of the kids at Nueva School constantly asks Jasaman to bring it back.

Hmmm. . . a closer look will reveal which bass is actually plugged in

Nordstrand pickups shipped today. . . I'm excited for 2 experimental jazz bass pickups, 4 wire NJ4SE's to do push/pull push/pull push/pull, and a pile of the custom "Chungerfied" P-bass pickups for the current batch of Plek builds.

 

[xoloder]

This is a wonderful thread and you are doing wonderful work. Is there any way that a mere mortal would be able to get their hands on one of those custom "Chungerfied" P-bass pickups?