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Custom 5-String for Steve

#102
So, I got the bass all wired up and played it last night but had a problem. The amount of buzz on the signal was unacceptable. I double checked the wiring and I had followed Nordstrand's instruction correctly. After some bench testing it seems that their instructions are also correct.

I resolved the problem by grounding the strings. I don't understand this. I have never had to ground strings before (never used Nordstrands before). Grounding the strings reduced the buzz substantially even when not I'm touching the strings. Is it possible that there's no shield above the coils on these pups? I would think as humbuckers they should be pretty quiet regardless, but they're not.

So, anyone have much experience with these pups? They're the DC5 series.

Edit: And yeah, I am in a small room with a computer, an lcd monitor, a plasma TV, a Tivo box, a DVR, and a wireless router.
 
#108
grace & groove said:
You need to get soundclips of this thing!


What about finding a professional who's particularly good with fretless? Maybe plays some heavier stuff.... ;)
Click to expand...

You'd think I could do that after playing fretless for 30 years. But I've been spending so much time in the shop my chops are a bit degraded :(

Worshiper said:
Great job... Thanks for the tutorial...I still vote sticky... What kind of finish is that?
Click to expand...

KTM-9 is the finish. My first time using it, and I'm not set up for spray so it was a learning experience. They say you can use a foam brush and I found that problematic because if you press a tiny bit too hard you get thousands of tiny bubbles out of the brush. A regular high quality brush was pretty good but it was hard to get a good smooth coat. So after sanding out to 12000 I applied a thin top coat with a piece of cloth like I would use for Tru-Oil then buffed it out. That worked quite nicely.
 
#111
And so, it's time for a final wrap-up of this project. After playing it a bit and thinking back on the original design rationale, I have to say I'm pretty amazed how it came out.

From post #1: "My customer's tone requirements go kind of like this: smooth bottom not dominating, strong punchy mids, very crisp well defined highs."

My thoughts playing it were like this: "Tight rich sounding mids, highs that really crackle when digging in, bottom end is subdued, but warm and pleasant."

That's a pretty good match I think. Also I find that the lows, when boosted with the tone controls have the same rich sound as the mids.

So it looks like today's my last day with this bad boy, I'll be boxing it up tonight. I'll leave you all with this pic, and my thanks for watching the build!

Link Removed
 

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