Rick bass custom build

[Joseph Bavitz]

Hello, everyone. I thought I would share some photos of a bass I have designed on my computer and have had CNC routered. It has an Aguilar DCB-M5 pickup with an OP-3 active preamp along with a Ghost piezo bridge wired in stereo. It is in the process of being assembled as we speak.
The neck is from Warmoth.

 

[GKon]

I love that body!

 

[tubedude]

I like the custom design. Will it still sound Rickish with the 'bucker?
Keep us posted.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

The body design is awesome. The overall look is Rick and Ray had a baby!

 

[Joseph Bavitz]

Thanks! A couple of years ago I got the Rickenbacker lust, but was dismayed to find that I couldn’t find any for less than $2500. Being a computer guy who has done some 3D design work, I decided to buy a neck (5 string) from Warmoth, and to design my own body. I decided to wire it so that the piezo bridge sends its output to one amp, and the Aguilar magnetic pickup to a different amp, a la Chris Squire. However, the guitar guy I asked to put everything together has had it for almost 3 months, and isn’t the most cooperative person.

 

[Beej]

3 months! You may want to get it back from him and work through the installation and setup yourself. It's not rocket surgery, and we can help.

 

[Joseph Bavitz]

Yeah, I’m losing my patience with him. He says he’s been going back and forth with Graphtek about the wiring, and I know enough about electrical stuff to know that I don’t know anything, but this doesn’t seem right. I asked him if he would be willing to do it back when I had bought the parts and he gave me the thumbs up, and that I would pay him for his service, but he seems mad that I didn’t buy the parts from him.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Are you using GraphTech electronics or just the bridge? I’ve installed a couple of GraphTech setups in guitars including one with the full Roland output. It’s not a P bass but it’s not super difficult either.

 

[Joseph Bavitz]

I got the acousti phonic bridge and preamp kit. Here’s the electronics

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I got the acousti phonic bridge and preamp kit. Here’s the electronics


View attachment 7358377View attachment 7358378View attachment 7358379View attachment 7358380

That shouldn’t be all that difficult to install. If you were local I’d say come by and bring some burgers to grill and probably an afternoon, worst case I’ll get it back in a few days. However, to be fair, I’m not in his shop and don’t actually have the bass in hand, it’s possible there’s a faulty component that the manufacturer doesn’t want to cough up a new one or something like that. Again, if it was on my bench I’d let you know exactly what was going on.

 

[GKon]

Yeah, I’m losing my patience with him. He says he’s been going back and forth with Graphtek about the wiring, and I know enough about electrical stuff to know that I don’t know anything, but this doesn’t seem right. I asked him if he would be willing to do it back when I had bought the parts and he gave me the thumbs up, and that I would pay him for his service, but he seems mad that I didn’t buy the parts from him.

Some people just really suck.

 

[kesslari]

I really like it

 

[Slidlow]

Most of the Graphtech supplied stuff is plug and play. The only wiring is hooking up the passive pickups to it unless you are going with separate outputs. Get it all back and people here will help you figure out how to wire it.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Most of the Graphtech supplied stuff is plug and play. The only wiring is hooking up the passive pickups to it unless you are going with separate outputs. Get it all back and people here will help you figure out how to wire it.

Only if he’s going with completely separate outputs. The GraphTech systems I’ve installed came with a stereo jack and the electronics could sense if it is a mono or stereo jack and route the signals accordingly.

 

[Joseph Bavitz]

Hi, everyone! I got my bass back and the guy working on it made a lot of progress, but it still needs to be wired. I want a single stereo output to send the Aguilar magnetic pickup to one amp and Ghost piezo to a different amp. I also read that if a mono cable is inserted the two pickups would be blended. I have the Aguilar 3 band active EQ. Here are some photos. I have a dual battery box for two nine volt batteries in the back.

 

[Joseph Bavitz]

Hello,


My bass project is making progress! I am unsure how to hook up the two different pickup and preamp systems. I was hoping someone could give some guidance with wiring it.

The first system is an Aguilar DCB-5M pickup with an OBP-3TK/PP preamp. The package I bought contains the preamp module, two tone pots and one push-pull tone pot for the mids. I think a volume control is needed but wasn’t provided in the package.

The second system is a Graph Tech Ghost piezo bridge along with the Kit PK-0340-00 preamp kit, which includes the optional mid/dark push/pull volume pot, three way selector switch, and 1/4" stereo switched jack.

I also have a double 9V battery box wired in series

The Aguilar wiring diagrams either don’t include a diagram for the option I bought, or I am just not understanding which of the options to choose from. My emails to Aguilar haven’t been very helpful.

What I want to end up with is a stereo output, with one side all Aguilar and the other all Graph Tech piezo when I use a stereo cable. When a mono cable is used, both are blended.

When I emailed Graph Tech, one of their reps called me. I explained what I wanted and he said it was certainly able to be done and said that the Aguilar pickup and preamp output should be routed through the Acousti-Phonic preamp so that the whole stereo/mono thing would be taken care of.

I have attached a wiring diagram that I have come up with, but since my experience with this is very low, I was wondering if someone could look over the attached PDF (I attached it as a PNG file, too) and let me know if there is anything that needs to be changed.

Thanks!

Joe