Super ambitious First Build, no woodworking experience..!!

[suraj]

I'm sorry to hear about your mom, I hope you're doing okay.

Can't wait to see what you've done with the bass. Post as many pictures as you want, no one's going to complain!

Thank you Im doing fine. Pictures to follow.

A - I’m genuinely sorry about your mom. Must have been tough to go through, but I feel like you guys were blessed by her spirit and bravery.

B - What happened with the plans stealing? I’ve been off the boards for a few years, but his J5 build has been super inspiring, but I had noticed all plans of his were gone. Is someone trying to commercialize on people’s plans?

Yes, it was extremely difficult.

About the plan stealing, its probably happening all the time, but there was this one cheeky guy who was very open about it. Everyone here is posting their intellect almost daily, people may silently commercialise your plans and you may never even know. It is best not to post drawings of your designs at least. I've not seen many people posting plans, and that is the right way to go.

C - Your build looks awesome and is really encouraging for beginners.

Thank you

wow, this bass rules! Nice job!!

Thank you

 

[suraj]

First, lets all admire where the bass currently is at -

So where I left off was the design of my Quad coil pickup. Once again I apologise for pulling down the rendered plan of it, but the pictures shall make up for it.


Since my pickup design is unique to this guitar, it will have to be custom built. Now I do not like the look of wooden pickup covers so I thought of using black plastic. Obviously injection molding for one piece is absolutely ********, I thought of CNC routing a block of plastic into the shape I needed. The problem was that I couldn't source a thick enough block of ABS for machining my pickup cover, so I thought of casting a block of black epoxy for machining. Before I casted the block, I realised I wanted a grainy finish on the face of the pickup, so I made test pieces of textured epoxy, casted over different grits of sandpaper. Also experimented with release agents like vaseline and wax.

These were the test pieces -

Well I casted the block soon after I chose the texture I liked most, but it didn't come out as expected, and the epoxy at the back didn't cure completely, so I scrapped the idea



Say hello to a block of Aluminium -

Now say hello to a CNC routed Pickup casing routed out of that block ^^

To remove all the machining marks I got the piece sandblasted -

The bobbin plates were laser cut out of black plexiglass(acrylic) - a bad choice..! but it worked out for now -

The eyelets were installed with a center punch in my drill press -

^^ after that they were lightly tapped with a hammer to flatten them out.


With the bobbin base plates in its new home -

I wanted the pickup casing to be black, so I got it black anodised. Although it came out grey -

So I got it sprayed with a coat of teflon and baked in an oven -

A laser cut pickup routing template, 1mm oversized -

To assemble the bobbins, I took a block of wood and drilled three holes to the right depths. As you can see it took me a couple of attempts to get it to 0.1mm accuracy to follow the curve of the fretboard -

The magnets were superglued in place -

One down, three to go -

Spacer to install the bottom plates -

Assembled bobbins -

On the winder -

Wound coil -

The quad set -

A test fit in the casing - Notice how the magnets follow the 16" radius of the fretboard -

Some wires I braided -

Ready for potting -

Paraffin and beeswax mix -

Finished pickups -

And while I was at it, I even potted my prototype pickup, the one I used for sound clips a few pages earlier -

Time to install the pickup casing in to the guitar. Things that need to be done - Route cavity, install threaded inserts, route additional wiring channels.

First the Forstner hogging -

My drill press is extremely small so thats all I could drill out with a forstner. Also I had posted long back that my forstner bit didn't drill too fast and overheated. This time I realised, my bt has a center non cutting point. Hence it required pilot holes so it drill through like butter this time.

I started hogging the remaining out with a large non bearing router bit, careful to stay away from the lines -

And finally with a template bit -

My garage is a mess, so I've done all this work with the guitar clamped to a wobbly stool

With the casing -

Next to install the threaded inserts, I had to center the pickup casing on the cavity -

^^Pieces of card and paper did that very well. Then I just drilled through the mounting holes in the pickup case, into the wood with the drill press.

Installing the stainless steel inserts after first hardening the wood with super glue -

Installed -

These are very small 3mm inserts.

I had to get creative with the tiny drill press to support the guitar while doing all this -

Then to proceed to drill the holes for pots and switches, I just played around on the actual bass instead of CAD and photoshop, made a decision, and this is it -

Drew the layout and stuck the printout -

Whew..!! That was one long update I wrote it in a hurry, so if anyone has any questions, please ask. Hope you guys are still interested in looking at my build

The next update will sport at least one coat of finish on the bass ....Can't believe i'm actually gonna be finishing the guitar soon..!!

Peace.. 4:05am, Goodnight

 

[skullservant]

That pickup is absolutely nuts. My hat is off to you!

 

[RAMUSIC]

Glad to see the new progress on this build! The pickup and control layout look great!

 

[pilotjones]

Very cool.

Have you tested the pickups with and without the aluminum housing, to see how much treble you will loose from eddy currents? I know this is a consideration with metal-housed Gibson-style humbuckers.

 

[Major Softie]

You are a maniac!

This thing is totally cool.

 

[MPU]

Very cool.

Have you tested the pickups with and without the aluminum housing, to see how much treble you will loose from eddy currents? I know this is a consideration with metal-housed Gibson-style humbuckers.

+1
If eddy currents become a problem how about routing similar cover out of ebony? Or using existing one to make a silicone mold and casting the cover with casting urethane?

 

[FerK]

Wow, great update. I've been truly looking forward to seeing one, and just about every time I clicked on "My talkbass" link I had the hope I'd see this thread pop up. Very sorry to hear about you mom, and I hope Uni, your loved ones and this project help you get on with life. All the best !

 

[Bassgeer]

That bass rocks!!!!!

If I can achieve even a quarter of the quality you have here in my first build I'll consider myself lucky!!

Oh yeah, and that pickup is a monster Cannot wait to hear the toanz that you can get out of it!! Nice job all around.

 

[TheJoshinator]

Wow, I think every one of my favorite builds has been updated in the last 24 hours! Of course we missed you, but a loss like that deserves some time off. Glad to see you're back at it!

 

[suraj]

Thanks for all the compliments and the support guys really keeps me going..!!

Have you tested the pickups with and without the aluminum housing, to see how much treble you will loose from eddy currents? I know this is a consideration with metal-housed Gibson-style humbuckers.

+1
If eddy currents become a problem how about routing similar cover out of ebony? Or using existing one to make a silicone mold and casting the cover with casting urethane?

I have been worried about this exactly since the time I decided to make it out of aluminium.

Honestly, this aluminium case was planned to be a prototype and I was supposed to make a silicon rubber mold out of it and then cast a plastic part. But budget constraints didn't allow me to do so. Silicon rubber compounds are not readily available here, and they are very expensive even if they are. I guess I can route out of ebony, but I will have to buy a huge huge board for that.

I might do the plastic casting a little later, but first i must test the sound of the pickups If it sounds good, i'll leave it alone. I did test the pickups without the casing, but not mounted in the bass. Just held above the strings, so I won't have a fair comparison when I test it in the casing.

Will grounding the aluminium casing result in further treble loss ?? Also I am going to be adding an active preamp, so maybe treble can be compensated.

 

[MPU]

Thanks for all the compliments and the support guys really keeps me going..!!









I have been worried about this exactly since the time I decided to make it out of aluminium.

Honestly, this aluminium case was planned to be a prototype and I was supposed to make a silicon rubber mold out of it and then cast a plastic part. But budget constraints didn't allow me to do so. Silicon rubber compounds are not readily available here, and they are very expensive even if they are. I guess I can route out of ebony, but I will have to buy a huge huge board for that.

I might do the plastic casting a little later, but first i must test the sound of the pickups If it sounds good, i'll leave it alone. I did test the pickups without the casing, but not mounted in the bass. Just held above the strings, so I won't have a fair comparison when I test it in the casing.

Will grounding the aluminium casing result in further treble loss ?? Also I am going to be adding an active preamp, so maybe treble can be compensated.

What size should the plastic/ebony piece be? Maybe some of us TBrs could find a suitable piece and ship it to you. If trebles are lost by eddy currents you can't really dial them back without at least high end hiss from preamp. It would be better to have them in the signal that comes out of the pickup.

 

[pilotjones]

Will grounding the aluminium casing result in further treble loss ?

The eddy currents happen regardless of the grounded/ungrounded status.

 

[suraj]

What size should the plastic/ebony piece be? Maybe some of us TBrs could find a suitable piece and ship it to you. If trebles are lost by eddy currents you can't really dial them back without at least high end hiss from preamp. It would be better to have them in the signal that comes out of the pickup.

I would ideally need a 5"x7"x3/4" piece of ebony. It would be way sweet if someone has such a piece that is useless to them. Or can't I use another wood stained black ? I guess I could also get the silicon thing done from a makeup artist friend who uses silicon rubber for masks and such.

I guess the first thing is for me to wire the pickups directly to an output jack and hear how it sounds. If it's too bad I'll switch the casing.

 

[Triad]

I hope you've put a finish or something else to insulate the magnets from the wire... anyway, stunning work, hats off!

 

[Beej]

Once this thing is done, I think you should take on a scratch build replica of a 1962 Corvette - I have a feeling it would be finished in 8 months, even if you hand molded the tires...

 

[wraub]

Once this thing is done, I think you should take on a scratch build replica of a 1962 Corvette - I have a feeling it would be finished in 8 months, even if you hand molded the tires...

Come on, man, give the guy a challenge already...



p.s. just inspirational and awesome.

 

[suraj]

The eddy currents happen regardless of the grounded/ungrounded status.

I understand that eddy currents would be present with or without grounding, I was actually talking about the additional shielding that the cover would offer once grounded, which would theoretically result in greater treble loss. I guess I'll just string up the bass and see what happens.

I hope you've put a finish or something else to insulate the magnets from the wire... anyway, stunning work, hats off!

Yes I put on a layer of insulating cotton tape on the magnets. And the same tape over the coil after potting.

Once this thing is done, I think you should take on a scratch build replica of a 1962 Corvette - I have a feeling it would be finished in 8 months, even if you hand molded the tires...

I would love to except the hand tire molding bit

Come on, man, give the guy a challenge already...



p.s. just inspirational and awesome.

Hahah, thank you

 

[mgalat]

........well, I'm impressed.

*Throws all tools away and shakes head in shame at lack of ability ...

 

[suraj]

So I tested my pickup rather crudely. Just hot wired the two bridge coils in series humbucking mode. Since nothing is grounded or shielded, it was rather noisy. Now I made two sound clips for you guys , its very crude sounding.

Keep in mind,

Its recorded with a digital camera, so the sound quality is crappy. In person, it is wall and floor shaking..!! Like things actually wobbled and fell during the recording.

There are no frets, so the fretted notes later would add some brightness.

Since I played it fretless, and i've never played one, I might sound nooby.

The aluminium pickup casing does darken the tone a bit, I might cast the same part out of plastic eventually, or make it out of a piece of donated ebony so that the brightness in tone is restored. Im still unsure if its the casing thats causing the lack of brightness or the pickups themselves as I am unable to try the pickups without the casing.

The bass is played with a pick to make the clips sound a bit brighter.

first the pictures with strings on -

^^ one can notice the folded business card for the lack of a nut currently.

And the clips -





Next update - Nooby Finishing