SBO 23 - The Long Black

[Alex Xander]

What about adding a stregthener? Drill a hole from the strap button location and epoxy in a steel rod?

I have a friend with a Bridgeport mill. It might be just the right tool for that job.

Alternatively, the problem wood would end up as the core for an ebony front and back cap. Now we’re talking. The only problem I have is that I won’t have my ebony stash for a fortnight, and I’m very keen to make some sawdust!

 

[Reedt2000]

I have a friend with a Bridgeport mill. It might be just the right tool for that job.

Alternatively, the problem wood would end up as the core for an ebony front and back cap. Now we’re talking. The only problem I have is that I won’t have my ebony stash for a fortnight, and I’m very keen to make some sawdust!

Could also slice it and add a thin piece in the middle so your strengthening is in the center of the body.

 

[Alex Xander]

Could also slice it and add a thin piece in the middle so your strengthening is in the center of the body.

I feel like it would be a sin to hide a piece of ebony like that, but you’ve got me thinking.

 

[Alex Xander]

There’s a body wing in there somewhere!

Glueing with epoxy is messy business. My hat goes of to those who use it as their primary adhesive.

 

[Max Bogosity]

The seller threw in a piece of New Guinea ebony. When he mentioned it to me, I was thinking it might be one blank size.

I was wrong.

This puppy is 3m (10 feet) long and 5”x2”.
View attachment 5104651

I’m not sure at this stage of it will feature in the Long Black build, but it will be hard not to use it.

Perhaps for the sequel, The Longest Black.

 

[Alex Xander]

Perhaps for the sequel, The Longest Black.

So how long does one have to be to be the longest black? Is 10 feet enough?

 

[Flamingo21]

 

[Max Bogosity]

So how long does one have to be to be the longest black? Is 10 feet enough?

Upon further research and consideration, no.

The authority on the subject must be The Man In Black, Johnny Cash, who sang “I always wanted me one that was long and black” in the 1976 classic One Piece At A Time. He was referring to a Cadillac. The longest regular production Cadillac was the ‘74-‘76 Fleetwood at 252.2 inches.

You had better round up to 253” to be safe.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Perhaps for the sequel, The Longest Black.

If we learned anything from "Cards Against Humanity", the sequel is "The Longer Black", which leaves it open to make a "part 3" called "The Longest Black".
From there you move to "The Longest, Blackest Black".

 

[Max Bogosity]

From there you move to "The Longest, Blackest Black".

You may not look at The Longest, Blackest Black if you are Anish Kapoor or looking at it on behalf of Anish Kapoor.

 

[Alex Xander]

The piezo bridge and preamp turned up today from Indonesia.

There's two missing plugs on a random switch.

This may take some figuring out. The two controls are (I assume) volume and tone, but I have no idea what the switch is for and what should be plugged into the empty sockets.

I can't find a single Ibanez bass that had a piezo and a switch like this. The setup was sold by a seller that pedals oem parts and couldn't tell me what the missing bits are. I'm guessing it's for incorporating a magnetic pickup, which I don't really have plans to do, but it would be nice to know if I'm missing something.

Any Ibanez or electronic gurus here?

 

[ardgedee]

The piezo bridge and preamp turned up today from Indonesia.

There's two missing plugs on a random switch.

This may take some figuring out. The two controls are (I assume) volume and tone, but I have no idea what the switch is for and what should be plugged into the empty sockets.

View attachment 5106711

I can't find a single Ibanez bass that had a piezo and a switch like this. The setup was sold by a seller that pedals oem parts and couldn't tell me what the missing bits are. I'm guessing it's for incorporating a magnetic pickup, which I don't really have plans to do, but it would be nice to know if I'm missing something.View attachment 5106713

View attachment 5106712

Any Ibanez or electronic gurus here?

Looks like the red socket is for the battery.

The blue socket's pins are marked "GND", "FROM", "V/B", so I assume those are for the magnetic pickup circuit. Which implies the switch lets you choose piezo -> both -> magnetic pickups in that order or the opposite.

The preamp board has six trimpots -- was this from a guitar?

I'm interested who the vendor is you got this from, because I'd like to source some fairly obscure Ibanez parts too.

 

[Alex Xander]

Looks like the red socket is for the battery.

The blue socket's pins are marked "GND", "FROM", "V/B", so I assume those are for the magnetic pickup circuit. Which implies the switch lets you choose piezo -> both -> magnetic pickups in that order or the opposite.

The preamp board has six trimpots -- was this from a guitar?

I'm interested who the vendor is you got this from, because I'd like to source some fairly obscure Ibanez parts too.

That's what I was originally thinking, but the switch is a two position, and there's a socket on the main board for battery

Perhaps the red socket is to provide power to a magnetic pickup's preamp and the blue socket is the output of that preamp? Time to break out the multimeter and see if there's continuity between the battery plug on the main board and the one on the switch.

What confuses me is that the switch is only a two position. It would be great to know what model ibanez this is from, but my searches have revealed nothing.

As far as I know, Ibanez uses the same 6 trim pot board for 4 - 6 string basses. On a 4 string they only drill 4 holes in the access plate.

That doesn't rule out that this preamp is from a guitar, however.

The eBay seller is e8en

 

[ardgedee]

That's what I was originally thinking, but the switch is a two position, and there's a socket on the main board for battery

View attachment 5106740

Perhaps the red socket is to provide power to a magnetic pickup's preamp and the blue socket is the output of that preamp? Time to break out the multimeter and see if there's continuity between the battery plug on the main board and the one on the switch.

What confuses me is that the switch is only a two position. It would be great to know what model ibanez this is from, but my searches have revealed nothing.

As far as I know, Ibanez uses the same 6 trim pot board for 4 - 6 string basses. On a 4 string they only drill 4 holes in the access plate.

That doesn't rule out that this preamp is from a guitar, however.

The eBay seller is e8en

Thanks for the Ebay seller name!

Have you tried the Hoshino Gakki parts catalog? It tends to be light on useful info, particularly for older parts, but it's usually at least good for leads on what things *should* be, and for older models it sometimes has info such as recommended like-for-like parts replacements.

The part number stamped on the preamp looks like 3EMPPR[something]. So using that as a clue...

I tried "SRF705" in the HG catalog, since I know that uses a piezo bridge. There are four versions, delineated by dates. Usually this means there were (relatively) minor parts revisions (for example, some component changed factories or had a small change in specification). Sometimes it means a major model revision ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...

Anyway, here's the parts breakdown for the version of SRF705 that was produced up through last August. Check that to see what electronic components are included. It uses the 3EMPPR6 preamp board which has six sockets and trimpots, just like you pointed out -- on that preamp's page you can click on the "Open used item list" link and it will show every instrument it's recommended for. From there you can try to work out whether any of them use switches. If you can't find a match, it's possible your seller tossed in the switch because they thought it belonged, whether or not it actually did (It's also possible that as a two position switch, one position is for both inputs, the other kills either the magnetic or the piezo pickups).

 

[Reedt2000]

Found a reverb listing with pics of an assembled pre and bridge

Ibanez SRH Bass Preamp 4 String | Reverb

Here's another pic showing what looks like connections to an onboard magnetic pu pre:

Hopefully these help untangle what goes where for your application.

 

[Alex Xander]

Thanks for the Ebay seller name!

Have you tried the Hoshino Gakki parts catalog? It tends to be light on useful info, particularly for older parts, but it's usually at least good for leads on what things *should* be, and for older models it sometimes has info such as recommended like-for-like parts replacements.

The part number stamped on the preamp looks like 3EMPPR[something]. So using that as a clue...

I tried "SRF705" in the HG catalog, since I know that uses a piezo bridge. There are four versions, delineated by dates. Usually this means there were (relatively) minor parts revisions (for example, some component changed factories or had a small change in specification). Sometimes it means a major model revision ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...

Anyway, here's the parts breakdown for the version of SRF705 that was produced up through last August. Check that to see what electronic components are included. It uses the 3EMPPR6 preamp board which has six sockets and trimpots, just like you pointed out -- on that preamp's page you can click on the "Open used item list" link and it will show every instrument it's recommended for. From there you can try to work out whether any of them use switches. If you can't find a match, it's possible your seller tossed in the switch because they thought it belonged, whether or not it actually did (It's also possible that as a two position switch, one position is for both inputs, the other kills either the magnetic or the piezo pickups).

Wow, what a great resource - thank you. I think that this setup is from an Ibanez Ashula which featured a piezo for its fretless strings and magnetics for the fretted ones. From what I can garner, one of the models had an on/off switch for the piezos.

Found a reverb listing with pics of an assembled pre and bridge

View attachment 5106778

Ibanez SRH Bass Preamp 4 String | Reverb

Here's another pic showing what looks like connections to an onboard magnetic pu pre:

View attachment 5106790

That’s very helpful - thank you.

Hopefully these help untangle what goes where for your application.

 

[Alex Xander]

The bass side wing is out of clamps and roughly sanded. I played with the contrast a little on this photo to show the figure in this beefwood. You can see how it gets it’s name - it’s like a nice A5 wagyu.

I’m unsure how much carving I will do on this body. Part of me wants to do a very wide forearm contour and expose some of these laminates, but another part of my thinks a nice 45 degree bevel will provide a better aesthetic.

My experience carving through laminated has been that I never quite get the glue lines perfect and there’s no better way to expose that than carving a forearm contour at 20 degrees. I’m striving for perfect here, and in doing a heavy contour, there’s a risk I’ll have a “not so perfect” feature I can’t fix.

Decisions, decisions….

 

[ardgedee]

Wow, what a great resource - thank you. I think that this setup is from an Ibanez Ashula which featured a piezo for its fretless strings and magnetics for the fretted ones. From what I can garner, one of the models had an on/off switch for the piezos.

Interesting... The [This invalid link has been removed] has pics from the manual for the current revision. It says there's a three-position toggle for piezo, piezo + magnetic, and magnetic. Also that the fretless strings only have piezo pickup and the fretted only have magnetic. So basically it's for switching on or off the fretted and fretless sides. Maybe an earlier version wouldn't allow the player to have both sides on at the same time?

Anyway. Sorry for the derail. I'm enjoying your progress!

 

[Alex Xander]

The bass wing got a 45 degree chamfer, and you couldn’t resist busting out the Shinto rasp to see how the forearm contour would go.

It wasn’t perfect, but after a little CA glue, I’m quite happy with it.

 

[Flamingo21]

To solve the electronics riddle, don't forget there's an Electronics Forum on TalkBass, as well as several Ibanez groups in the Basses Forum. You'll find some real wizards over there.