New Build - Five String single cutaway fretless

[Jisch]

Third coat went on flawlessly and it's almost dry already. It's a near perfect day for finishing in the garage - temps in the sixties and lots of wind.

 

[Jisch]

In case anyone is wondering I work from home, so I can sneak down and sand down a coat or add another coat in between calls (or sometimes while I'm on calls).

Fourth coat looks good, I'll sand it back after this one, then probably 2-3 more and I'm done. I can't wait to take the tape off!

For whatever reason the back always seems to be pointed toward the light when I take these pics, the front is equally cool looking, even it you can't see it too well here.

 

[Dug2]

Thanks!

I really enjoy building and learning new stuff as I go. LC is a great community, so rare to find a place on the internet that's so encouraging and helpful, I'm glad I can contribute in some way.

class act

 

[Jisch]

I just put the last coat on the bass this morning. Assuming there are no dry spots or drips I guess that's done. It looks pretty damn good. My wife saw it and literally gasped, that was a good endorsement

I started messing around with a few ideas for the truss rod cover making plies out of different laminates and CA glue, I'm not 100% sold on any of these yet, but I'll make final decisions once I peel the tape off and look at it against the rest of the bass.

 

[Photobassist]

Man, that bass looks slick!! Nice work Jisch!

 

[Jisch]

I spent an hour or so last night starting to put things together. Honestly I'm bit overwhelmed. There are a lot of little things that need finishing/fixing. I normally rush through the build phase I get impatient to hear it. This one is no different, but I can either take my time and really finish it or I can slap it together and fix things later. Knowing myself I'll probably do a combination of those things.

In no particular order:
- I need to switch the jack out (need one that will work through the wood)
- I can't find the freaking screws for the tuners
- Buff out the headstock
- sand the edges of the fretboard CA (it's sharp!)
- figure out what to do to mount the pickups - due to my weird pickup routes 2 screws land in the top of the wood, 2 will need to go into the wood under the pickup cavity
- check the fretboard for flatness - fix as necessary
- sand and refinish the truss rod cover (it fell over face side down onto the floor while wet)
- drill out the knobs to a larger diameter and get set screws
- buy screws for the control cavity
- find the control cavity cover - it's completely finished and I put it somewhere!
- check continuity on the copper in the control cavity - due to the irregular shape of the thing I used a lot of pieces of copper, I hope I don't have to solder all those junctions

As I said, a bit overwhelming. It looks like most of today will be rainy, but it's not raining right now, so I'm going to go for a bike ride think about this I'll work on it when I get back.

 

[Jisch]

Man this thing is not giving up easily! The jack that came with the preamp isn't long enough so I had to replace it with a long reach one. I had three jacks "in stock" - one of them had bunged up threads (I found that out after soldering it in). One of them had an open on the sleeve (i.e. wouldn't work to turn on and off the preamp), I never soldered that one in. Another one was fine before I installed it, but once I tightened the nut the sleeve went open. I ended up fixing the one with the bunged up threads, I basically installed and uninstalled jacks three times. On to the next step.

 

[Jisch]

It's done! Other than the jack problem, I didn't have any other issues. I still need to cut the string slots a bit deeper, but it still plays pretty nice. I got it to record pretty well, but it seems like I have to turn it way down to prevent it from distorting, more investigation necessary. I wonder if the Alumnitones are overwhelming the Audere preamp.

I'll get some pictures when the sun comes out, but here's a short clip, sorry for the mistakes, but hey it's quick:

I'll put up a finishing post in a bit, I have to clean up, wow I made a mess during the final assembly, my wife is a saint.

 

[mapleglo]

It's done! Other than the jack problem, I didn't have any other issues. I still need to cut the string slots a bit deeper, but it still plays pretty nice. I got it to record pretty well, but it seems like I have to turn it way down to prevent it from distorting, more investigation necessary. I wonder if the Alumnitones are overwhelming the Audere preamp.

I'll get some pictures when the sun comes out, but here's a short clip, sorry for the mistakes, but hey it's quick:

I'll put up a finishing post in a bit, I have to clean up, wow I made a mess during the final assembly, my wife is a saint.

Sounds great! Yes, the Alumitones are pretty hot. When I record with them, I ended up going through my MXR bass preamp, with the gain wayyyy down, using the direct out output.

 

[Jisch]

Hmm, I will probably have to try bypassing the preamp and see what it sounds like.

 

[Jisch]

I believe I have a wiring problem. I was playing through my practice amp last night and found that I had reversed the pickups, that's a simple fix. Also when I turn the mix knob to either extreme (solo either pickup) the volume is extremely loud, when it's at the indent with an equal mix of both it's about half volume and sounds really honky. There was conflicting instructions - the pickup instructions said to ground the return, whereas the preamp had a connection for the return. At this point I can't even remember what I did (I think I put the two pickup returns together and connected them to the return on the preamp), but I'm sure with an hour of messing about I'll figure it out.

I spent some time last night messing around with the set up. I was terrified that this neck was too thin, it looked so flimsy before I put the fretboard on, and even after it still is a very thin neck. I had to "loosen" the double acting truss rod to induce some forward bow in the neck. Crazy.

I filed down the string slots in the nut, I love how a minor adjustment like that improves the action so much. BTW those nut files from geetargizmos are worthless on a graphite nut. What a waste of money. I tried to use them and really was creating zero dust, at most it polished up the slot. I reverted to my tapered rat tail file and all went well and I had them all done in half hour or so. I do need to get some proper slot files though, the rat tail is a dangerous way to do slots.

The pickups had to be adjusted to the correct height. I really like the way those pickups look, very cool, kind of retro, but I'm not 100% sold on the mounting method. I'll take some pictures, but you can see the screws, I think they should have the screws go through the legs on the side instead of being inside the legs.

I have an intonation problem on the G string that makes no sense. All the other strings are intonated perfectly and logically (the saddles look like a staircase), but that G string wants to have the string saddle WAY back, I have to cut the adjusting screw to get it that far back and still be able to stabilize it in with the lock in screw. It's weird.

I am going to try and make a truss rod cover that is out of maple so it blends in with the light color of the cocobolo, another great suggestion by my design consultant/wife. Those dark ones I made are too disruptive to the dark/light line I've maintained from the fretboard to the headstock.

 

[Manton Customs]

I have an intonation problem on the G string that makes no sense. All the other strings are intonated perfectly and logically (the saddles look like a staircase), but that G string wants to have the string saddle WAY back, I have to cut the adjusting screw to get it that far back and still be able to stabilize it in with the lock in screw. It's weird.
.

Looks great so far!

For the intonation issue, it's probably that the nut slot of the G string throwing it out. A little hump or unevenness in the slot can cause all sorts of intonation issues. Also remember the slot needs to be angled down towards the headstock.

 

[Jisch]

I can't figure out what's wrong with the pickup/preamp combo. I think I have to remove the preamp for now. I have an email out to Audere, maybe it's a bad preamp.

 

[Will_White]

I can't figure out what's wrong with the pickup/preamp combo. I think I have to remove the preamp for now. I have an email out to Audere, maybe it's a bad preamp.

you could try running it on 18 volts, if the pre can take it, just put three 9 volt clips in a series loop (hot of clip one goes to ground of clip two, hot of two to ground of three, hot of three to ground of one) to test it.

 

[Jisch]

I think I solved one of the pickup problems when I couldn't sleep this morning (sometimes this insomnia pays off). I think one of the pickups is wired backwards (actually just has the leads soldered on backwards), so when I mix the two pickups together it's summing two out of phase sources which leaves just the difference between the two. This would explain both the low volume and the honky sound. I'll try swapping the wires around and see what happens, I'll report back of course. I am not sure if there is a volume/distortion problem or not. Going to 18v would give me more headroom, I need to verify the Audere amp is ok with 18v before I try that.

 

[Jisch]

I reversed the polarity on one of the pickups and my problem went away. I'll send an email off to Lace to let them know. I really wish their website had better diagrams of the wiring, they tell you where to connect things, but not how they connect within the pickups.

 

[Jisch]

Just thought I'd acknowledge good customer support - I sent emails to both Audere and Lace about my problems.

I got an email back from Audere suggesting one of my pickups was wired backwards. So glad I figured that out on my own , it seems obvious now.

I got an email back from Lace apologizing, asking about my instrument and saying they were passing my comment along to their production team. I also made some suggestions about their website - they should really have it better organized and have REAL schematics for their pickups - not just the wires sticking out of a cartoon picture of the pickup, I probably could have figured this out a bit quicker if I was looking at a diagram (even though I could have made my own back reverse engineering their wiring instructions to hasten the troubleshooting as well). Anyway, they were both responsive, which is good to see, I am disappointed that Lace sent out a pickup like that, but I guess mistakes happen. If it was any way impacting to the sound of the instrument I'd ask for a warranty replacement, but I'd actually have to ask for 2 new ones as there is no way I know of to determine which one is wired backwards!

It's still snowing out (we don't get snow in April, this is weird), so I haven't done the real photo shoot yet, but here's the two sisters next to each other:

The bass sounds really good in my practice amp - probably the best B string on any bass I own, it is super loud, I might actually have to use the volume knob on this one, the round wound strings sound really articulate. Now I need to get it in the basement for a test through my big rig. First band practice with this thing will be on Tuesday, so psyched.

I've got the body for the eight string drawn as a sketch, I need to draw it full sized.

 

[Jisch]

I need to work on the neck, which will probably mean a re-coat with the CA glue - I'm getting buzzing between the 12th and 14th fret on a couple strings. I don't like how high the action is to make that buzzing reasonable. I found high spots in this area before I coated the board, but I thought I had it fixed. Perhaps I'll get lucky and it's a high spot in the CA. I'll have to make some measurements and see what I see.

I'll worry about that after tonight's practice - real bassists don't play above the 9th fret anyway, right?

 

[Jisch]

I used the new bass at practice last night. It is super loud, not in an obnoxious way, but it's noticeably louder than my other basses. It's sounds great, very clear and articulate. I messed around with the EQ and mixing, adding just a touch of bass seemed to be the spot.

Surprisingly I didn't even notice the buzz around the octave, maybe it's not that big of a deal. More experimentation needed, it wood be great if i could get away with just an adjustment of the CA layer.

All in all I'm very happy, pics soon, I promise, but traveling for work today.

 

[Jisch]

Ok, finally a sunny day, it's the afternoon and I have time to take some pictures. Let's close this build out.

I just re-read before hitting the "post" button - to be clear I'm really proud of this instrument and I love playing it, the critiques I mention below are just that - critiques - there's always room for improvement!

Full frontal. I like the way the wave continues on to the headstock, although with wax on the headstock and CA on the fingerboard, they are not quite the same color, it depends on the light though, sometimes they look exactly alike. I probably should have CA coated the headstock for consistency:

The majesty shot:

More majesty?

I didn't plan on making the fingerboard shiny, but once I started polishing I couldn't help myself. It already has some marks on it from the strings, but nothing you can feel. I've probably been slapping more often than I should:

Knobs. I knew I couldn't finish the top of them with tung oil - cocobolo doesn't play nice with oil finishes, but I should have coated the maple on the bottom with oil to yellow it out a bit, the maple stayed really white and it's really the only white on this bass, maybe I'll sand them back and try again (sometime):

The maple really popped when the oil (and now sun) hits it. I was initially bummed that the best figuring on the maple was on the back of the bass, but in retrospect it's a really good place for it, if this was on the front you'd hardly see any of it between the fingerboard, pickups and bridge.

I love how the sides get these waves in them when you build a body out of laminates like this. :

There is some irregular coloring in the maple on the lower horn - it kind of looks like a tool burn (which was driving me crazy for a few minutes WHY CAN'T I SAND OUT THESE BURN MARKS!?). I guess I should have looked more carefully at the wood I was selecting. I don't recall noticing any of this when I was cutting the slats out, it might have been buried in the wood and only exposed once I cut it out.

Probably the most unconventional thing about this bass (and why I can call it a single cut :-D), this one feature cost me a lot of time, not in a bad way, but it took a lot to figure out how to connect this and to form it so it looks "natural". I think it has sort of a water drop kind of feel to it, I'm not sure I'd ever connect a upper horn like this again. I think it looks good, but it's too much work (and no short cuts I can think of):

More of that bookmatched tiger maple popping:

The dots and lines (sorry you're suffering for my laziness, I didn't want to take it back outside after I realized I missed this shot):

I've been using this bass as my main bass during band practice and it's working out great, it's got a really nice tone to it, although I find that I have to boost the bass a bit, with the preamp flat it's a bit mid-rangey. Not a bad thing, but I'm glad I have that bass boost available on the bass itself, I like leaving my amp relatively flat. I presume it's the Alumitone sound, but I haven't gone back and listened to any other samples. I swapped back and forth between this and my whammy five fretless bass last night, this one's much lighter, but other than that they play remarkably the same, which is good in my book. I like the fact that two basses built almost a year apart are pretty similar.

I really like this laminated body and I'll definitely be making more of them in the future. The nice thing is you can select your wood and it's pretty easy to work around any issues. The glue up is a bit painful, but not that big of a deal.

The CA coated fretboard is really nice, I like it a lot, but oiled boards definitely give you a more organic sound, I know it's a stupid way to describe it, but the oiled boards some more woody, where as this one sounds a bit more bright and defined. I have a slight issue with buzz on 2 or 3 positions up around the octave, I haven't taken the time to figure out what is wrong and fix it. I notice it when playing by myself or recording, but in a live situation I don't really hear it. I'm totally absorbed into my other build right now, I guess I'll fix it when it bothers me enough or after that other one is complete.

This is my first unlined fretless, but I have the frets marked on the side of the fretboard, they look decent. I was originally kind of upset about how mottled the light side of the cocobolo was, but after getting it finished I like it, it kind of has a marbled look to it. I guess the oil gave it a bit more definition.

This is my first time using an Audere preamp. It installed really easily, the preamp and the pots take up almost no real estate inside the bass. I'm totally happy with it, it's got plenty of control and is dead quiet. It's an interesting comparison to the cheapo one I put in the firewood bass - that one is noisy and the band on the bass knob is way too wide, it pulls a lot of mid-range with it.

I had one friend try this bass (I need to figure out a name for it!) for a few minutes (he seemed to like it a lot), I need to have someone who plays bass for real try it out and give me their opinion. I'm way too close to it to give an honest opinion.