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Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition

#361
Being the extreme wood nut that I am for whatever reason I am not a huge fan of wooden knobs and pickup covers. Instead of hiding the hardware I actually like the contrast of the wooden part of a bass against the pickups and knobs. Also, practicality becomes an issue since my setup will have concentric knobs as well. IME wooden knobs have a tendency to split if dropped or mishandled and a concentric bottom ring would be very hard to make and keep in one piece. The other great news I got this morning is that the horrible O-rings on the Hipshot knobs go on after the coating and are easily removable so that should be that. Thanks for the info and the opinions folks.
 
#362
Big B. said:
Being the extreme wood nut that I am for whatever reason I am not a huge fan of wooden knobs and pickup covers. Instead of hiding the hardware I actually like the contrast of the wooden part of a bass against the pickups and knobs. Also, practicality becomes an issue since my setup will have concentric knobs as well. IME wooden knobs have a tendency to split if dropped or mishandled and a concentric bottom ring would be very hard to make and keep in one piece. The other great news I got this morning is that the horrible O-rings on the Hipshot knobs go on after the coating and are easily removable so that should be that. Thanks for the info and the opinions folks.
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+1 on the contrast of hardware against the wood. I also like that better than an all wood bass.

Curious to see how the knobs will look when you remove the rings. Wouldn't they leave a channel? And you'd miss the structure of regular dome knobs.. those Hipshots are all smooth besides the rings.
 
#363
You'll want to see a pic of the knobs without the o-rings. The channels they sit in could be either half-round or square, giving two different possible visual and tactile impressions.

Also, if they're square channels, you have the option of replacing the round-section rings with square- or X-section rings.

Also, you can get rings in various colors.
 
#364
Big B. said:
Being the extreme wood nut that I am for whatever reason I am not a huge fan of wooden knobs and pickup covers. Instead of hiding the hardware I actually like the contrast of the wooden part of a bass against the pickups and knobs. Also, practicality becomes an issue since my setup will have concentric knobs as well. IME wooden knobs have a tendency to split if dropped or mishandled and a concentric bottom ring would be very hard to make and keep in one piece. The other great news I got this morning is that the horrible O-rings on the Hipshot knobs go on after the coating and are easily removable so that should be that. Thanks for the info and the opinions folks.
Click to expand...

there are little grooves that the rings sit in...less ugly, but still ugly.
 
#368
Big B. said:
;) Sorry, been playing symphony shows and waiting on parts to show up. Good news is my hardware is in so look for more coming very soon. :bassist:
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Geez...some guys think work is more important than building a bass:hiding: LMFAO...glad to hear your stuff has arrived Brandon...at least a couple of you guys will get finished;)
 
#369
Lab Journal #33: Howdy folks. It's nice to be back with some updates. I think I performed about 250 pages of music in the last 3 weeks. :bassist: After cleaning the dust and spiderwebs off my lab equipment the subject is revived and the experiment continues. My first order of business was getting the truss rod cover mounted permanently. The 2 magnets hold to the truss rod end just fine but it still had a tendency to slip off side ways so I predrilled and drove in a small finish nail with some CA glue and clipped it short.

Compbuildpics338.jpg


And heres one just because I like this camera setting...

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After that I drilled a matching hole in the bottom of the truss rod cover so the nail acts as a locating pin and stops the cover from slipping.

Now on to bigger things. I have decided to go with an EMG preamp to go with the SGD pickups so I went ahead and drilled for the pots.

Compbuildpics342.jpg


The layout from pickups to bridge will be volume, blend, stacked mid control and stack bass/treble control powered at 18v. I also drilled out and recessed the barrel jack. You can see it in the picture but I will post better pics later.

My ultralite tuners arrived in the mail this weekend so I drilled out for the tuners and mounted them. I ordered the smaller tuners but they are still a little bit bigger than I expected and the headstock is quite narrow so they are pretty damn close to the edge. I dont mind but it might bother some people. I regret not going with Sperzels now for the size difference. I may change them in the future but for now I am satisfied. Not to bash the ultralites. They really are great tuners and look fantastic but they are just a little bigger than I had hoped. While I am here, Best Bass Gear deserves some serious props for getting me these tuners in a hurry despite some silly confusion with my bank.

Compbuildpics345.jpg


And the back side...

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I also wish I could cut off about half of the key shaft to bring the keys in closer to the body but that is more than I care to get into. :D

Here is another shot with the strings on:

Compbuildpics352.jpg


I am happy to report that this bass plays like a dream and really sings acoustically. With just a little sanding in a couple of spots the fingerboard will be right on. As it is the action is extremely low and tasty but it does buzz a little in a couple of spots. I cant wait to get it all leveled and put on the CA coating. I think this bass may end up rivaling my holy grail Roscoe 6 string fretless that has always been my bench mark for exceptional playability. For the record my ideal fretless tone is a Diamondwood board, a super straight neck and strings that hug the fingerboard. In other words, Hi-Fi.

IMO the compound radius, like the Roscoe, really helps the wider fingerboards. My last 6 string fretless looked and sounded great but I gave it a straight 20" radius and the playability was just not quite as sleek as I would like it. I think 2 majors factors to get a great hi-fi fretless tone are consistently low action and an EQ with a variable mid range control.

Thanks so much for tuning in and for keeping me on my toes about posting. I believe I will be done with this bass by the deadline but it could very well be at the last minute. :scowl: Once I get the fingerboard sanded I will post pics of the CA coating going down and then it will be time to flatsand the sealer coat and put on the final coats of finish. Be back soon with more pics.
 
#373
James Mobius said:
those tuners do look a bit outsized for that headstock. put it on the wood stretcher!
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At the last woodshop I worked at we used to play that trick on the new guys who didn't know anything and send them to the foreman looking for the board stretcher. He was a pretty testy dude so that always made for a good laugh. :D

The headstock really is tiny (to reduce weight) so I cant complain too much. Like I said, I may change them out later but the more I look at it the less it bothers me.
 
#374
Big B. said:
The headstock really is tiny (to reduce weight) so I cant complain too much. Like I said, I may change them out later but the more I look at it the less it bothers me.
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It isn't that bad. They look ok to me.

I put the same tuners on an Ibanez SR 6 string bass (also a very small headstock) and one corner on each tuner hangs over the edge a little. At least yours don't do that.
 
#378
Big B. said:
At the last woodshop I worked at we used to play that trick on the new guys who didn't know anything and send them to the foreman looking for the board stretcher. He was a pretty testy dude so that always made for a good laugh. :D

The headstock really is tiny (to reduce weight) so I cant complain too much. Like I said, I may change them out later but the more I look at it the less it bothers me.
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I got one! got a chainsaw with a finish blade too. Seems to me there aren't a lot of choices for bass tuning machines, everyone I look at is either a Fender style traditional clover shape, or a Gotoh/Schaller shape. Is there a company out there that makes a variety of tuning key shapes? Seems like an untapped market. -Or a specialty custom shop that could mill them to order. incidentally my Chapman Stick has mini tuners, guitar size, they keep it in tune fine, even the low C string, though they don't take the abuse bass strings take since all I do is tap them, no slapping, strumming, popping, plectrumming, only the occasional vibrato bend. Those would look too small on a bass though I suspect.
 
#380
Big B. said:
And the back side...

Compbuildpics347.jpg


I also wish I could cut off about half of the key shaft to bring the keys in closer to the body but that is more than I care to get into. :D
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Take quick look at the dimensiosn listed on the Hipshot website. I believe they offer a cut down version with a shorter key shaft. It's only shorter by 0.245" though. Given the way they are designed, you might be able to just buy new posts and change them yourself.
 

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