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Squier Jazz / T-40 frankenbuild

#102
bigmoosepi said:
Pain to strip? You don't need to strip cloth wire, that's why I like it. You just pull it back, solder and roll it back down.

Stripping wires with plastic coating is a pain in the ass to me.
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You pull it back, but it doesn't stay back so it makes it a real pain to tin the wire. If you think vinyl insulated wire is a pain to strip you need to invest in a better pair of strippers. I am an electrician by trade, it takes literally 2 seconds to strip back a wire. The fact that Leo Fender used something back in the 50s does not make it better. There is a reason it has been replaced in every other application other than guitars, the new modern stuff is better.
 
#103
Well this is a head-scratcher. Even with the shim installed, it didn`t seem to affect the action much. So, just to see what would happen, I removed the black saddle inserts. I thought it wouldn`t be functional, but would give me an idea if the problem was in the bridge and help steer me in the right direction. Restrung it...and it`s perfect. Cannot tell a difference in how it plays insofar as the strings are now breaking across the smooth chrome and not a grooved saddle. Also can`t tell a difference in sound. But action is perfect and linear over the whole neck, enabling a near-flat neck adjustment. Weird. Final tweaks & intonation tonight, and then I`ll really get down to playin` this thing and shoot some clips this way :)
 
#104
I`m totally at a loss. Last night, it played like a dream. Pick it up today, action is way high again. Removed the shim, which lowered the neck in the pocket = brought the action down (?) Measured relief, and again the neck had a slight bow. Put another 1/3 turn in it, restrung it. Strings were flat against the neck, but started lifting off the frets within a few minutes. There were no problems with this neck that I knew of when I started this project nine months ago or so. I`ve now put about a full turn into the truss this week, and it`s getting pretty tight. Not sure if this is a factor, but the neck hasn`t had tension on it, and it`s been really humid this week. I feel like I`m chasing my tail; should I just relax and give the neck time to settle in, or what ? Should I take it to a pro for a setup ? I`ve always set my own stuff up, but this has me stumped.
 
#105
Setup issues sorted out. Plays great ! I was messing around with it tonight; with the phase switch "down", and the gain knob up, it really copped a Cliff Burton sound. Broke out the wah, plugged it into my DI box. Not exactly a pure recording to hear the bass itself, but I`ll get to that. And oh yeah, I`ve never aspired to be nothing more than a woodshedder or tinkerer, and haven`t even done much of that in the last year, so concentrate on the bass, not the player ;)
 
#117
When I made the clips, I wanted to use stuff that was recognizable to kinda show some different tones. However, I have powered computer speakers, not true monitors. They have their own voicing, therefore the mix / tone sounds quite different on other speakers. Have not checked them on other platforms, so I don`t know how they sound.
 
#118
pnut166...Just found your build. Really nice! Sounds great in your clips, too. T-40 PUs are some of my favorites and I've put them on several bass builds over the years. Just as an FYI, the tone pots are 250K "S" taper. Audio taper would work but would be very sensitive in the transition from SC to HB, almost like a switch. One of the mods that's done to T-40/60s is to wire the phase switch to do SC/HB and replace the 250K S taper tone pots with 250K Audio. This gives you a normal tone control when in SC and can be very handy. I personally like the bridge PU in HB all the time and use the switch only for the neck PU.

I've also rear mounted T series pickups by cutting off the ears and making a plate with threaded standoffs that was epoxied to the back of the PU. Here's a pic of a 25 5/8" scale 5 string with a T-40 PU rear mounted. The PU is covered with black vinyl. Yours looks great with the chrome covers.

mech

MiddlinPanorama.jpg
 
#119
mech said:
pnut166...Just found your build.One of the mods that's done to T-40/60s is to wire the phase switch to do SC/HB and replace the 250K S taper tone pots with 250K Audio. This gives you a normal tone control when in SC and can be very handy.
mech

MiddlinPanorama.jpg
Click to expand...

Very nice !!! I have a whole new level of admiration for you luthiers out there after this project ! I got a lot of great suggestions on this thread on different wiring schemes. Many of them were very tempting and had me second-guessing my stock swap; your suggestion sounds interesting. But in the end, I wanted to stick with the phase switch. I really love having that extra palette of tones that it offers. The stock controls are a bit wonky...but that`s one of the things that`s endeared me to the T-40 :) I am loving this bass more and more every time I pick it up, and I haven`t played this much in over a year. The build journey, & now the fruits of the labor have really been quite theraputic for me ! I learned A LOT, both from everyone`s participation in this thread, and from the hands-on trial & error (and there were a lot of errors to learn from haha !) Now I`ve got a bead on an old Epiphone EA260 for cheap...wonder what I can do with that ;)
 

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