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my EBMM stingray begins its diet today

#201
JMac4strngr said:
This bass becomes more awesome every day...... Great work JohnK!
Where did You get the shielding paint? I am thinking of using the paint instead of tape in the future, but I have yet to use any of it.
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yeah, i like the shieding paint because there's no way for it to peel or come loose and doesn't add any real thickness to the surface its painted on. plus it allowed me to paint the tunnel for the pickup wires. the stuff that i use is not water based so it etches into the laquer and will not scratch off. MG Chemicals makes it, and it's kind of expensive ($12.50 per .7oz), but a little of it goes a long way. you could shield 4-5 guitars with it easily.
 
#202
joeyl said:
Thanks for the explanation. In NOLA, the nitro stays soft for weeks due to the humidity, I can wait 3 weeks and still leave fingerprints in the top clear coat. In El Paso, TX, the nitro is hard within a couple of days, and ready to be wet sanded in a week.
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yeah, humidity will really slow down the drying/curing process. here in socal, it will not 'fingerprint' after about 6 hours.

i have it outside right now so the UV will help cure it a lttle faster.

BTW, i just ordered another pickup to try in it, a nordstrand MM4.4. i'll install a solderless connector on that one too so i quickly A/B/C test which of the three pickups that i like best in it. with the MM4.4, it'll be hum free even in the split mode and with the shielding, dead quiet.
 
#203
johnk_10 said:
yeah, i like the shieding paint because there's no way for it to peel or come loose and doesn't add any real thickness to the surface its painted on. plus it allowed me to paint the tunnel for the pickup wires. the stuff that i use is not water based so it etches into the laquer and will not scratch off. MG Chemicals makes it, and it's kind of expensive ($12.50 per .7oz), but a little of it goes a long way. you could shield 4-5 guitars with it easily.
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Thank you, at least somebody else who likes paint better than copper tape. I had a live gig incident once: the copper tape inside my Jazz came unglued due to the constant high humidity of New Orleans and shorted out the output jack. And it was premium tape from 3M too.
I use the water based stuff :( I found a few pints on ebay a couple of years ago and it is still good. It does scratch off though, but I usually clear over it after masking off where the pots will sit. I use cotton swabs to paint the pickup leads tunnels.
 
#204
yeah, years ago, i had one incident with copper tape peeling and shorting out a 5-way switch in a stratocaster in a customer's guitar, so i removed ALL of it, and painted the cavities. i've never used it since, other than to occasionally shield the back of a pickguard, but i usually use aluminum tape for that.
 
#205
johnk_10 said:
yeah, i like the shieding paint because there's no way for it to peel or come loose and doesn't add any real thickness to the surface its painted on. plus it allowed me to paint the tunnel for the pickup wires. the stuff that i use is not water based so it etches into the laquer and will not scratch off. MG Chemicals makes it, and it's kind of expensive ($12.50 per .7oz), but a little of it goes a long way. you could shield 4-5 guitars with it easily.
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The MG Chemicals Nickel paint is great stuff. It won't peel, and it goes on fast... Much faster than cutting tape.

I buy mine in a large spray can (don't recall how much, but it was about $40). I've done at least 5 basses and have a good 20 more worth of paint.
 
#206
i haven't got the nordstrand MM4.4 yet (it shipped today), but i think it would be really cool that when it's in the single coil mode, to wire it so the two E & A strings use the coil closer to the neck, and the two D & G use the coil closer to the bridge, in effect making it a little more like a staggered coil p bass pickup. or do the same thing, only reversed, as in a reversed P, so the two higher strings are a little warmer. however, it'll be ALOT simpler just to wire it so the two side-by-side coils on the coil closer to the neck are on in the single coil mode, and if it sounds great that way, i'll probably just go with that since i'm going to try that first.
 
#210
A-Step-Towards said:
Love it , black nitro and mint would be sexy as well, but as is its a beauty.
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yeah, i'm going to kinda miss the black/white look on it, but nitro scratches so much easier than poly, and the wood grain on this plank was pretty nice so i went with natural. my first '76 stingray was a natural one so this one kinda reminds me of it. my second '76 ray was also originally natural but i painted it inca silver, filled the pickguard screw holes, and ran it w/o a guard. to me, it was a really cool lookin' bass that way and was the better one of the two.
 
#211
the finish has been baked for a week and it's pretty hard and cured now, so i just couldn't wait and put her together just a few minutes ago. all i can say is, WOW, this bass is awesome now. it weighs 8lbs 3.2 oz and i could probably knock off another 3 oz if i can get a hold of some aluminum G&L tuning machine posts, but it's not really necessary, since a little under 8 1/4 is fine with me.

i gotta say, running the pickup in the parallel position (stock), it sounds way better, (smoother/fuller) than it ever did, but i'm really diggin' the split and series modes even more. the series mode has a bit too much of a gain boost, but it has tone and punch to die for, so i'm going to change the switch to a three pole so i can run a 3.3K resistor in parallel with it when it's switched to series to keep it's level closer to the other two positions.

it's completley quiet in both the parallel and series modes (as expected), and pretty quiet in the split mode, but i'm going to install the nordstrand MM4.4 to make it dead quiet in all three modes when it arrives tomorrow.

i'm still on the fence if i'm going to use a white or black pickup cover on it, but i just used the black one for now and that's easily changeable.

here's a few quick pics that i took with a flash of the final result. this baby is a keeper now!

stingraybody-38.jpg


stingraybody-39.jpg


stingraybody-42.jpg



BTW, the neck pocket is a nice fit, very snug, but not too tight:

stingraybody-40-800.jpg


stingraybody-41-800.jpg
 
#213
ghostdog93 said:
Beauty! Fantastic work, as usual.

FWIW, I'd say black guard.
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'

thanks!

for some reason, i just don't dig black guards on rays and i really only like white ones (not a fan of tortoise or pearloid ones either). my white one has turned to looking more like parchment, which is my favorite on a natural one. going to try the white pickup cover on it later, which i slightly dyed to parchment to match the guard.

BTW, i do still have its original black/white/black one, but i took it off and replaced it with a white one right after i got the bass.
 
#218
i'm leaning towards the white one too. i still want to see it with the white pickup cover just to compare it.

i've found that the best way to balance the level of the series output to the others would be to install a small 25K trim pot on a 3 pole rotary switch (it has a two pole right now), and switch the trim pot in (connected directly to the output jack) when it's clicked in series. that way i can adjust it until its output is more even. i tried putting a resistor (with bypass cap) in parallel with the pickup's output but it changed its tone way too much, whereas putting a resistor directly on the output left its tone unchanged and just lowered its volume.
 

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