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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

#41
octaedro7 said:
Hey Rob,
It's definitively looking good.
I wonder what's your plan regarding:
- I had a Lakland 5502 and the coil selector switch was really neat. What do you have in mind with yours?
- Hardware color?
- Knobs color and material? (Seems like the ETS ones could fit your design... or you plan to do your own?)
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks!

I did plan to use the Delano electronics that come with pups and Sonar 2 preamp. It has a build-in switch especially made for the Hybrid.

Hardware color: chrome.

Knobs color and material would be hardware, chrome. I did not find suitable / good looking knobs yet, because I want to have one stacked knob, but it shouldn't be twice as high as some are.
 
#44
roberthabraken said:
Hi, thanks!

I did plan to use the Delano electronics that come with pups and Sonar 2 preamp. It has a build-in switch especially made for the Hybrid.

Hardware color: chrome.

Knobs color and material would be hardware, chrome. I did not find suitable / good looking knobs yet, because I want to have one stacked knob, but it shouldn't be twice as high as some are.
Click to expand...

Check out the ETS knobs:
Invalid Link Removed
 
#45
You might want to keep with a fanned 5 even if the Dingwall was not perfect for you. You have only half the multiscale differential of the Dingwall, so less fret angle, and a 1.5" shorter reach to the nut, and it would allow you to keep the sweet 33" G while maintaining a respectable B length.
 
#46
octaedro7 said:
Check out the ETS knobs:
Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...

Thanks!! Still not exactly what I had in mind, but I like the fact that the stacked ones almost look the same as the regular knobs! I certainly am going to consider those.

pilotjones said:
You might want to keep with a fanned 5 even if the Dingwall was not perfect for you. You have only half the multiscale differential of the Dingwall, so less fret angle, and a 1.5" shorter reach to the nut, and it would allow you to keep the sweet 33" G while maintaining a respectable B length.
Click to expand...

Ah.. I see you're not going to make the decision any easier for me ;) :hmm:
- you are absolutely right on both the fact that the Dingwall has a lot more multiscale differential and that the 34.5" to 33" will be sweet for both low B and G... gosh..
- but I'm in doubt about a lot of constructional difficulties like the volute, frets that have to be twisted on a medium curved fingerboard, bridge grounding (not a big problem but still) and the block inlays that are fanned and made of MoP (expensive and unable to route them flush with the compound radius and due to the compound radius I cannot use a radiused sanding block) and lastly, the hybrid pickup cannot be rotated and is effectively contra angled with the bass side much more to the neck then you would normally do, I do not know if that's okay, since Dingwall always slants the pickups
- when I 'played' on the MDF template it didn't seem to be comfortable, so compared to all the extra effort I wonder if it's worth it, that's why I tried the Dingwall to help me in my decision
- but it looks so damn cool !

So.. that's why I am currently investigating how it would look as a regular V, being the more safe option :rollno:
 
#47
And here's the official V-string version of my Paradox bass design:

*removed*

It has Delano JMVC 5 FE pickups, listen to this and you know why Invalid Link Removed

Furthermore, I changed the bridge to an Aluminum Hipshot A-Style bridge with .750" string spacing.

Body shape's the same, headstock only slightly altered to fit the straight fretted neck.
Oh, and I replaced the block inlays with 1/4" MoP dots.

What do you think? :eyebrow:
 
#52
headlikeahole said:
#1 for sure. I think #2 draws my eye to the pickups which sort of takes away from the nice shape.
Click to expand...

Very good point, didn't look at it like that but I do see what you mean. Next to the looks I think I like the sound of the JMVCs better than the Jazz pu's of the Hybrid and I think I will not use the MM pu very often. The JMVCs are less expensive too.

octaedro7 said:
IMO, leave fanned frets for the future, both pup setups are going to work fine, don't give up on block inlays

=D
Click to expand...

Thanks for your opinion Gonzalo :smug:, and yes, pearl block inlays are very cool, so if everything goes well and I'm feeling lucky I might still do those block inlays!
 
#54
Quick text-only update:
  • Decided to go for the JMVC pu's in passive mode (#1), maybe I'll add a preamp later on but initially the bass will be passive.
  • I used the router table to copy the shape of the master template to the final body shape template, turns out to be great!! The table works like a charm.
  • The body template came out unbelievably smooth and straight! Only one void in the plywood I have to deal with. I'll share some pictures soon.
  • I orderd the wood, pickups, pickguard material, bridge and tuners :D:D
 
#58
So, I routed the final body template out of 3/8" good quality plywood and it came out very nice, much better than my previous templates that I made directly out of plywood.

Here's the body template:

Link Removed

And here you can see the sides are straight, smooth and the curves very fluent. I think it comes close to a CNC routed template :smug::

Link Removed

Furthermore, I've got a question about the neck pocket: do you guys think the neck pocket is large enough to support the neck and make a solid bolt-on join?

Here's a close up:

Invalid Link Removed

The bass side of the neck pocket is 4" long, the center comes close to 4 3/8" and the treble side ends up being not much more than an inch.

Should I extend the neck under the pickguard untill it reaches the neck pickup? Or will I be good with a neck pocket that 'small'?

:rolleyes:
 
#59
2 Qus
What is the length from one end to the other?
What is the surface area of the pocket?

These qus answer the two main mechanical issues of the bolton joint.
1. enough mechanical leverage to hold the neck effective with 2 bolts/screws. coz the ones closest to the edge do the work in this regard.
2. enough area to clamp the neck creating enough friction to stop sideways movement

I reckon it looks ok. Ie. similar to a fender but just a different shape. If you are concerned, you could just extend the upper part of the pocket 1/4-1/2" (say an extra fret). With leverage, a little makes a lot of difference and it's not like you really loose any access.
 
#60
reverendrally said:
2 Qus
What is the length from one end to the other?
What is the surface area of the pocket?

These qus answer the two main mechanical issues of the bolton joint.
1. enough mechanical leverage to hold the neck effective with 2 bolts/screws. coz the ones closest to the edge do the work in this regard.
2. enough area to clamp the neck creating enough friction to stop sideways movement

I reckon it looks ok. Ie. similar to a fender but just a different shape. If you are concerned, you could just extend the upper part of the pocket 1/4-1/2" (say an extra fret). With leverage, a little makes a lot of difference and it's not like you really loose any access.
Click to expand...

The lengths I have described in my last post, the surface I don't know but it's approx. a little over 11 square inches.
 

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