First Build - "Lucifer"

[TerribleTim68]

Haha. So it just dawned on me here that I can just take my cavity template, mark out the shape on the cover and sand it down to that shape.
Sometimes I overthink this stuff. I guess it doesn't need to be insanely complicated, huh?

 

[RichterScale]

I went back and looked through my thread to see how I did it. I didn't document it very well with pics, basically just posted a few to prove I was working.
I'm totally drawing a blank on how I went about it.

 

[TerribleTim68]

It's all good @RichterScale, I got it in my head clear as day now.

 

[RichterScale]

I know I made templates and I could probably remember if I stared at them and worked backward in my head, but I'm sure someone will post that's done it 100 times, so I don't have to hurt myself.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Ive been lining the bottom of my control cavities with a piece of 1/16" thick hobby store aluminum plate covered with copper shielding foil on basses with a thin top over the cavity. It takes very little from the cavity depth, but makes the thin remaining wood top a lot stronger, particularly on a bass with lots of knobs like yours! I epoxy it in and drill the controls through it. The copper foil forms the primary shield, and you can solder stuff to it as needed, or star-ground to it. The foil or paint on the sidewalls laps onto it. The aluminum is easy to.shape when its that thin.

I have yet to pull off a true integral cavity cover, i just lack the skill with a jigsaw or coping saw to cut one out cleanly from a back. Bass is looking great, you must know what you are doing electronically, Im just a solder monkey.

 

[dwizum]

That's a lot of stuff in a tight spot! But I have confidence you can do it. If I were in your shoes, I'd keep that cardboard template, punch all the controls through it, and wire them all to each other right in the template. Then pop them out, drop the assembly in the bass, and connect the pickups and jacks. That'll reduce the amount of time you're spending soldering in the actual cavity.

In terms of thicknesses, most short shaft pots and switches will want 1/4" or less, since the shafts are 3/8". I've had instruments where the top of the cavity was more like 5/16" and it works but you're barely getting the nuts to engage. 1/4" of good hardwood isn't going to be a problem though I would definitely reinforce like @Gilmourisgod explained if you have to go thinner than that. But if you have 1 1/2" body, and a thin plastic cover, you should definitely be able to manage 1/4" for the roof of the cavity.

I use the cavity template to mark out the cover material with a sharp pencil, then saw 1/16" or so away from the line, and sand/file until I juuuust kiss the pencil line. There's always some tweaking but never a ton.

 

[A9X]

If I were in your shoes, I'd keep that cardboard template, punch all the controls through it, and wire them all to each other right in the template. Then pop them out, drop the assembly in the bass, and connect the pickups and jacks. That'll reduce the amount of time you're spending soldering in the actual cavity.

This is excellent advice. I've wired many control panels on industrial gear using this method if the confines were tight and it's saved much frustration, scratched knuckles and the odd inadvertent solder burn from trying to work in close confines. Leave flying leads to the output jack do that once the controls are installed you have the three wires already connected to the main assembly and just need to solder to the jack. Leaving them a bit long and soldering up to the jack whilst not attached to the bass is usually easier too.

 

[John_Nicholas]

You are far more talented than you give yourself credit for!

This bass is coming along great! And the cardboard is fabulous and should be used as @dwizum and @A9X suggested, using it to hold all the components and solder them on the cardboard. This will give you far more room to solder everything and not accidentally burn the back of your bass! Ask me how I know?

 

[Jon Clegg]

That's a lot of stuff in a tight spot! But I have confidence you can do it. If I were in your shoes, I'd keep that cardboard template, punch all the controls through it, and wire them all to each other right in the template. Then pop them out, drop the assembly in the bass, and connect the pickups and jacks. That'll reduce the amount of time you're spending soldering in the actual cavity.

+1 on this suggestion:

Also I made a small terminal board for connecting the pickups using stripboard and some 0.1" spacing terminal blocks to make life easier than trying to solder in the pickup leads.

 

[RichterScale]

I also did the out-of-body soldering experience. It worked out great.

Not sure what you're doing for knobs, but I was looking at mine and remembered you're into wood turning (guessing you have a lathe?)
Mine are some type of painted brass-like metal, but they have grooves milled around them and filled with O rings.
Made me think that would be something doable with wood knobs, if you wanted to go that route. I bought HF O rings to replace mine after I painted the knobs. I don't remember the size I used, but one of them fit perfect.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

 

[Gilmourisgod]

These were cheaper when I bought them a few years ago, but I've used them on a few basses now. Somebody else probabaly sells them for less. They sell a matching black plastic cover, which I taped to MDF and used to make a "positive" MDF template of the cover. The electronics cutout is generic enough to work with most setups, though it might be too small for yours.
Control Cavity Routing Templates - StewMac

I thought I could cut a grain matched cavity cover out of the back by running a 1/32" dremel bit around the perimeter but.... nope.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Okay, lots of "stuff", so rather than try to quote everything, I'm just gonna ramble to get caught up.

@RichterScale, yup, woodturning. The knobs will be custom woodturned knobs made by me, at least that's the current plan. Because, you know, we can then overcomplicate this first build a bit more! I posted a shot of the blank I glued up a while back as test piece, but I don't think I ever posted a pic of the finished test piece, but it was very "Instagram-able" so here's that pic -

So that is wenge with a purpleheart stripe and a basswood "marker", finished with CA glue I think (I honestly don't remember, but the CA finish would be the stronger option). Again, just a test piece, it won't actually go on the bass (I don't think anyways). But I can tell you, when I posted that pic on the book of faces I had 3 bass player buddies try to place an order.

I'm still debating the actual design, does it work, do I like it, is it "good enough", etc. But yeah, woodturned knobs, why not?

Et Al - Regarding the top of the cavity, good tips. I will consider the thin sheet of aloominoom, mostly because it's just fun to say aloominoom. But, I'll have to see what the extra space looks like.
Regarding the top thickness, I guess I should break out the calipers on the pot shafts and see what I'm working with here. Good point on that dictating the thickness, I hadn't even thought about it.
Regarding the cardboard template, yup, already planned in wiring it all up outside! A drop-in unit will be nice, even if I only need to finish up the pickups, battery and jack.

A couple other thoughts that came to me while I laid in bed struggling with insomnia -

• Yeah, I guess I need to get some copper shielding tape or something. I wasn't even sure if I was gonna shield it, I mean, it is active and I've literally never shielded an active EMG setup and never had a problem. In fact, I know EMG says that they don't even recommend shielding it (I've talked to them in person a few times, repeat customer and all that). So I don't know yet. I know you guys are all gonna start jumping up and down about how if you don't shield it, it'll hum like crazy or aliens will come probe you or whatever. I'm still debating it and will probably shield it only because I do have a pre-amp bypass in there so if I'm gonna cut the active circuit, it may be a thing. But again, I've literally never owned a shielded bass in all my life. And how do you sign the inside of the cavity if it's lined with copper shielding anyways?
• Speaking of batteries, I guess I still need some way to plug a battery (or two) in, huh? I suspect there's some sort of guitar building battery terminal one can buy from some overpriced luthier supply house, right?

Anyways, enough rambling for now. I should tend to my day job for a bit.

 

[ctmullins]

Ah, EMGs. Yep, you probably don't need shielding. But you should consider a battery box. Which means more routing, yay!!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Ah, EMGs. Yep, you probably don't need shielding. But you should consider a battery box. Which means more routing, yay!!

These are not EMGs, I'm just saying, I've never needed shielding with those. I don't really know if all active setups are like that or not.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I laboriously shielded my first bass build, and then somebody pointed out what a waste of time that was for EMG humbuckers. D’oh! Well, it looks shiny anyway, that should count for extra points!

 

[Jon Clegg]

I shield the cavity regardless. As for the battery box, Amazon or ebay are your friends.

 

[dwizum]

These are not EMGs, I'm just saying, I've never needed shielding with those. I don't really know if all active setups are like that or not.

The "you don't need to use shielding with EMGs" is really a combination of a number of factors and I would definitely not extrapolate it to all active basses. Their pickups have some internal shielding (surprisingly few other brands do) and their preamp designs for the preamps in their active pickups are hyper focused on noise reduction. And their plug and play style wiring harnesses mean they have control over your wiring and can keep you from doing things that would cause the wiring to pick up noise. Their pickups and wiring components are all really well designed as individual components but they're also all very carefully designed to work together.

I'm envious of you if you've never needed 5o shield any of your basses!

 

[Rôckhewer]

I've literally never shielded an active EMG setup and never had a problem.

I have built 11 basses with EMG pickups & EQ circuitry.... No shielding. No problems...and nobody ever complained.
But...you just said they weren't... EMG... so um...??. And you got that spooky Darkglass thingy... and a bunch of switches...(that EMG circuits don't usually have) ... so... probably better safe than sorry?
IDK... I'm not an electronics expert.

And how do you sign the inside of the cavity if it's lined with copper shielding anyways?

...don't use copper?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N01RNF...abc_884NFD20F6BJ2GS2S9V0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[TerribleTim68]

Yeah @Rôckhewer I had considered the paint. Just not sure I want to purchase a can of paint that would literally last my entire lifetime, my son's lifetime and probably his son's lifetime too. I do dig your fancy inlay thing on the back side of the cover. I wonder if I can get my friend with the Glowforge to do some work.....