Mustang Project Bass - Help with details

[Axstar]

This was my Mustang project bass about 10 years ago. Will recreate it one day. It went through a few more changes after the Dark Star / Model One combo you see below, but this arrangement was my favorite. Stacked vol/vol, tone control, and a mini-toggle to switch the Model One to single coil mode (which by a stroke of luck hum-cancelled perfectly with the Dark Star)

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That thing makes me want to stick a Model One in my Mustang!

 

[mellowgerman]

That thing makes me want to stick a Model One in my Mustang!

Truly fantastic results. I'm a big fan of the model one and think they are grossly underrated. Both the humbucker and single coil modes sound fantastic and are different enough from each other to give the pickup some bodacious versatility... and don't forget the series/parallel possibilities as well
Just requires the removal of quite a bit of wood for the cavity! No negative impact on resonance, sustain, etc that I noticed though

 

[Axstar]

Truly fantastic results. I'm a big fan of the model one and think they are grossly underrated. Both the humbucker and single coil modes sound fantastic and are different enough from each other to give the pickup some bodacious versatility... and don't forget the series/parallel possibilities as well
Just requires the removal of quite a bit of wood for the cavity! No negative impact on resonance, sustain, etc that I noticed though

Bodacious versatility has me salivating!

On the routing, I imagine you could just about see light through the back of the bass by the time you were done?

Did you use a Model One or a WillPower equivalent? the Model One is spaced for Gibson basses, right? Does a Mustang come in narrow enough up at that end of the body?

 

[mellowgerman]

Did you use a Model One or a WillPower equivalent? the Model One is spaced for Gibson basses, right? Does a Mustang come in narrow enough up at that end of the body?

I've had several of both come through my possession, but I'm 97% sure I used the Model One. Mustang is slightly wider spacing than a Gibson or Guild, but closer to them than it is to a Precision or Jazz if I remember correctly. I'd have to try and dig up all the exact specs to be certain though.
Not to veer but to keep the bodacious vibes going:

 

[Copperhead]

First of all, I'd like to say that that is one cool bass!

And to answer your question, based on some other people's modding of the Pawn Shop Mustang to have a Novak BS-DS (photo attached), I thought the pickups would fit fine (Considering I'd use a smaller bridge than the original one in the PSM), because the rickenbacker pickups are relatively small. Based on this same image I thought that the pole pieces would fit fine, if they did on this one.
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But yeah, you're also right that I could just put two single coils into it to get that sorta "mini rick" idea going. But that wouldn't look as cool or sound as interesting, for that matter, haha. But I'll definitely keep it in mind! It would lower the price of the project, that's for sure.

Droolsville !

 

[MustangWally]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but one of my weirder ideas was to replace the body on my Mustang PJ with a Stratocaster body, mainly for the contoured shape as opposed to the flat 'Stang body. That sort of fell flat when I looked at the dimensions of the neck pocket on the Strat body. That plus my general lack of enthusiasm these days....

 

[fhm555]

...I would use Dimarzio Area J pickups, in all honesty. You want something that sounds like a single coil, and I personally don't like single coil noise. Something that 'does' a low output single coil tone would be perfect.

Yep, if you want single coil sound without the hum or hassle of shielding everything, the Area J’s are your huckleberry

 

[amphlett7]

If you're going the "Tiny Rick" route you could message Jerry Sentell.

He makes a sidewinder rick humbucker pickup that looks pretty neat!
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[Cran]

Alright, I think it's time to update you guys on how the idea/design is going. I've spent all of today tracing/drawing the mustang and doing some maths (Don't worry, it's all in real scale) to figure out where the rick pickups should go (I'll add pics as I explain). Here they are in the theoretical 24th and 36th fret positions. Granted it's not exactly the same as the positions that Axstar provided on his, but I set the scale length to 30" on Illustrator and cut that by half twice and this is the positions it gave me (I aligned the middle of the pole pieces with those lines as that's the way it made sense to me, but I may be wrong). Oh, and just to clarify, I decided to figure out the positioning of the Rick pickups and then place the BiSonic wherever in between it'd work, because its exact positioning mattered less (in theory).

So immediately it becomes evident that the mounting ring is way too big. I'm not so fussed about the pickguard end, but it overlapping with where the plate would be irks me too much to leave it there. Not to mention that when I added the BiSonic it straight up would not fit at all. So I gave it a shot to remove the mounting ring, and maybe just mount the pickup by itself onto the body. It may leave me with a big ugly route hole (which I could fix by making a custom pickguard which covers it all), but it still overlapped with the plate, and having the bridge pickup on the 36th fret line left a section still overlapping with the BiSonic.

So, even without the mounting ring there are problems (I'd say more of them, considering now I have to deal with the big routing hole instead of leaving the ring to cover it). So I had a look around Retrovibe's website to see if there were any better alternatives. Maybe they offered Rick bridge pups made for mounting on non-Rick basses? Well, they didn't, but what they did offer were Lemmy Rick pickups. This intrigued me, because the pickups on Lemmy's signature Rick were mounted without a pickguard, and didn't have a huge mounting ring at all. So I gave them a go, and needless to say they solved two out of the three problems: the huge routing hole, and the overlap with the control plate. But there was still the issue with the overlap between the bridge pickup and the BiSonic, so I sinned, and moved the bridge pickup less than an inch closer to the bridge. Look away, Rick purists! It may change the sound a little bit (along with the Lemmy pickups), but honestly it saves me a bunch of logistical nightmares. There may be some other, cleaner solutions, so if one of you guys comes up with one, I'd like to hear it. I get how my approach may come off a little hard-headed, especially with wanting the BiSonic in the bass instead of just removing it, but hey, I was just too into it to take it out. Here's what the sketch looks like now:

Of course there are some logistical problems (mainly string spacing) which I'd need to solve,but I think that doing this really helped get down a couple of things in my head, and visualise the end product a lot better. And of course, I need to clarify that this wasn't a 100% scientific approach, and I used a lot less numerical values than I would have liked, but that would have taken a lot longer. Also, I should clarify a couple of things before I post:
- 4 knob control plate: I didn't realise that they made these, but I think that it would be super useful to not need to drill a hole through the bottom of the bass so I decided to add it.
- Selector switch: I won't use it at all, but I thought I may as well leave it on the sketch and maybe the actual bass as a nod to Lee Sklar and his signature Warwick.
- Tug Bar/Racing Stripes: Now, it wouldn't be a true Mustang if it didn't have these. I didn't add them because it would be unnecessary effort but rest assured that they will be there in the final instrument.

But hey, this is my current design. I may change some things here and there, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. You guys may not be though! I want to hear if there are any mistakes/inconsistencies/oversights that I may have not thought about, or if there are solutions to the problems I listed above that I may not be seeing! I'd love to hear them and they would probably make the end result even better.

 

[MustangWally]

- 4 knob control plate: I didn't realise that they made these

Whoa, really? Where can I get one, this would simplify my next planned mod a LOT!

The third option is the regular 3 hole control plate and then route in a Strat jack plate.

 

[mongo2]

This. Warmoth says their SS necks only fit their SS bodies. If you don't have the skills and tools to make it fit, it will be a nightmare. Why not just use a Mustang neck?

I have a Warmoth 30" scale neck. The neck heel is too wide to fit in my Mustang or Bronco bodies so I narrowed the heel with sandpaper until it did taking care to remove as close to the same amount from each side as I could. It worked out OK.

 

[TraktorBass]

@Cran: How did this pan out? Did you finish the bass?

 

[Cran]

@Cran: How did this pan out? Did you finish the bass?

Well, it's panned out in that I now own an american performer mustang, haha. I've thought about putting a rick neck pickup in the far neck position, but I've decided to play it as is *for now*. I've shifted my attention to more plausible projects as of now. Sorry to disappoint!

 

[TraktorBass]

No worries.

Just curious, and congrats on the American Performer!

 

[ookla the mok]

I have a Warmoth 30" scale neck. The neck heel is too wide to fit in my Mustang or Bronco bodies so I narrowed the heel with sandpaper until it did taking care to remove as close to the same amount from each side as I could. It worked out OK.

I've been thinking about trying this with the Warmoth SS neck. Does it affect the playability after you sand the sides to fit it into the Mustang body? I'm wondering if it's more trouble than it is worth. I can pick up a loaded Squier Mustang body for $250.

 

[mongo2]

I've been thinking about trying this with the Warmoth SS neck. Does it affect the playability after you sand the sides to fit it into the Mustang body? I'm wondering if it's more trouble than it is worth. I can pick up a loaded Squier Mustang body for $250.

I had no issues with playability but it's a tedious task to sand the sides, a lot of sand and try.

 

[mrperkolator]

@Cran Where do the original mustang pickups sit in relation to the theoretical frets?

 

[Cran]

@Cran Where do the original mustang pickups sit in relation to the theoretical frets?

They sit farther closer to the bridge. Here is a photo of where the rick neck pickup would sit on the 24th fret of the mustang.

 

[mrperkolator]

Thanks for the picture. I found a template online for mustangs, and it’s tempting me to build one. Fun to figure out all the little details.