Well, I do have bad eyesight, and I live in Portland.
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Blondes have more fun - a weekend build.
- Thread starter ChickWithaRic
- Start date
I weirdly enjoy soldering, and got pretty good at it, but it’s strictly monkey see/do from diagrams. I have no real idea how electronics work, and schematics are Greek to me, a subject of mild embarrassment. I’ve built a few BYOC pedals that worked, like black magic.
I rest my case.
Pray to Leo and change your ways.
Enjoying this thread from the opposite edge of Oregon, sharing your feelings toward soldering (at least you can do it), and feeling the need to mention that the fine folks at Alembic allowed me to play a bass belonging to Mr. Kravitz back in 2000, when I was 19 years old and really had no business at all being in the building let alone touching anything. Glad you’ve got the worst of the build behind you, and glad you put that screw in there.
I'll let you into a secret. I photoshopped that screw, but do you know what? I'm going to put one in for real, just for teh LOLz.
What if it messes up the tone?
Or worse....resale value!
Or worse....resale value!
All the electrics work, as in, we have sound. I'm going to tell you now, and this is based on first impressions, I am blown away by the Guyker active set up. Bear in mind that I own a bass with a Glockenklang 3 band EQ, which I consider to be close enough to the state of the art as to make no difference, and so the terms "glassy highs" and "thundering lows" are things I am familiar with at first hand. Although this doesn't have the Glock's sweeping mid control, it can match the Glock for useable tones. The noise floor is inky black, as in I can't detect any kind of unwanted noise thru headphones. I'm not going to attempt to make measurements, music is subjective after all and I simply don't have the equipment to do that anyway. It holds its own against a Glock and a Glock is 3x the price of this little gem.
It's not all good, I find the lack of a center detent on the tone controls a little annoying but I suppose that's I'll get used to, I didn't appreciate the fact that it was 0.5mm too wide to fit a standard JB control cavity (that's just sloppy) and the supplied battery connector was one of those low rent items with the PVC cover. I replaced it with a real one. Another nitpick I will make is that it is supplied with set screw control knobs, but the pot shafts are the split type. Not a good combination.
These are minor details and I'm picking them up just to try to be objective. It's an impressive piece of elechickenry at a bargain price. I like the end user adjustable gain function accessible via a trim pot, I have played with it a little and I can see this can be useful for matching the bass to a given amplifier.
Everything has been reassembled, and I've done the setup on a set of new strings. Ammo of choice is Rotosound RB35 Rotobass 3335-55-75-95. First, I set the neck relief - 7ender specify 12 thou measured at the 7th fret, I am a little shy of that as my feeler is dragging a touch too much on the low E, but I'm using light gauge strings and that's close enough. I would guess I have 11 thou or so and I'm not going to spend my day chasing a thou.
Once I had my neck set right, I adjusted the string heights. I like to set these the same across all four, and I shot for a little under the 7ender recommendation of 3/32 at the 17th fret, again because I use light gauge strings. I'm a hair under 5/64 across all four strings with no fret buzz. That's nice, it's my ideal height for my string gauge and playing style.
Finally I set the intonation and then locked off all the adjustments with the set screws on the bridge. I did incidentally check the nut height by measuring the action across the first fret and it's within a few thou. Certainly nothing to worry about there.
I have 27 hours in this now, which is a long weekend but still, a thing you could do in a weekend.
I'm looking at another ash body from the same supplier now and thinking a transparent rose pink with a white pearloid PG, rosewood fretboard, pearl block inlays, and gold hardware would be nice. Bling, but nice.
Thanks for coming by, it's been a lot of fun for me and I hope it has been for you too. I hope everybody is having a really good weekend.
It's not all good, I find the lack of a center detent on the tone controls a little annoying but I suppose that's I'll get used to, I didn't appreciate the fact that it was 0.5mm too wide to fit a standard JB control cavity (that's just sloppy) and the supplied battery connector was one of those low rent items with the PVC cover. I replaced it with a real one. Another nitpick I will make is that it is supplied with set screw control knobs, but the pot shafts are the split type. Not a good combination.
These are minor details and I'm picking them up just to try to be objective. It's an impressive piece of elechickenry at a bargain price. I like the end user adjustable gain function accessible via a trim pot, I have played with it a little and I can see this can be useful for matching the bass to a given amplifier.
Everything has been reassembled, and I've done the setup on a set of new strings. Ammo of choice is Rotosound RB35 Rotobass 3335-55-75-95. First, I set the neck relief - 7ender specify 12 thou measured at the 7th fret, I am a little shy of that as my feeler is dragging a touch too much on the low E, but I'm using light gauge strings and that's close enough. I would guess I have 11 thou or so and I'm not going to spend my day chasing a thou.
Once I had my neck set right, I adjusted the string heights. I like to set these the same across all four, and I shot for a little under the 7ender recommendation of 3/32 at the 17th fret, again because I use light gauge strings. I'm a hair under 5/64 across all four strings with no fret buzz. That's nice, it's my ideal height for my string gauge and playing style.
Finally I set the intonation and then locked off all the adjustments with the set screws on the bridge. I did incidentally check the nut height by measuring the action across the first fret and it's within a few thou. Certainly nothing to worry about there.
I have 27 hours in this now, which is a long weekend but still, a thing you could do in a weekend.
I'm looking at another ash body from the same supplier now and thinking a transparent rose pink with a white pearloid PG, rosewood fretboard, pearl block inlays, and gold hardware would be nice. Bling, but nice.
Thanks for coming by, it's been a lot of fun for me and I hope it has been for you too. I hope everybody is having a really good weekend.
I was thinkin maybe just do up a few more PS pics to give people nervous breakdowns on the internet and not actually put another screw in. Just because you can't erase it if you don't like it.
But then I looked again and with the current spacing, looks like it would look good with or without.
I guess an extra screw never hurt anyone.
But then I looked again and with the current spacing, looks like it would look good with or without.
I guess an extra screw never hurt anyone.
As to "born on" and the serial no.: I'd really hoped you would use some kind of wood branding to mark ownership of that new iron horse... (It wouldn't hurt, I guess.)
Thanks for sharing this detailed journey! I'm somewhat relieved that there are parts of the work you do not like (or don't handle with the usual grade of perfection, although I suspect even the soldering is great...), it leaves us mere mortals at least a little less impressed...
... and true joy with that unique bass!
Thanks for sharing this detailed journey! I'm somewhat relieved that there are parts of the work you do not like (or don't handle with the usual grade of perfection, although I suspect even the soldering is great...), it leaves us mere mortals at least a little less impressed...
... and true joy with that unique bass!
Beautiful bass. And a couple of nice tips in here along the way 
I was going to sit myself down and record some sound samples, but Fender forced me into updating the firmware on my Rumble (literally, forced, it won't allow the app to connect to the older firmware powered amp) and the USB audio interface now sounds like garbage where previously it had been really nice. I'm going to get the MIDAS chipset powered Behringer, I think. Those things are a steal for under $50. MIDAS chipset? Gimme dat.
Looks like somebody at Fender is fully on board with the concept of if it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Looks like somebody at Fender is fully on board with the concept of if it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Nope. They caught wind that you were considering adding that extra pickguard screw and now they’ll stop at nothing to torpedo you.
And thank you, too. It's sometimes the replies that keep us going as we attempt things we don't think we are capable of.
