The Mediocre Builders Club

[bass theory]

well i just appointed myself quality control. If any builds are better than mediocre quality, then it will be my duty to remove it from the club.

I think @Jon-clegg might be introuble...... his builds don't look very mediocre from a first look. these will need to be sent to me for a closer look.

 

[markwrob]

Should I look for a #1110 train as a welcome for the new ones? We don't have grape soda here, but we do admire laphroaig...

Def virtual Laphroaig is of interest!

I was about to hail @Winslow (now see what you made me do?) but IIRC you are good with the pixel pushing, too. If it was me I'd borrow from the MBassistC artwork and chisel away. But since this club is 1110 and not 1109, meh, what was I about to say?

 

[MirandM]

Should I look for a #1110 train as a welcome for the new ones? We don't have grape soda here, but we do admire laphroaig...

I've got the answer, as we are taking off here with this thread this would be appropriate I think....
The D would by my reference to my DGCF tuning and D-standard club.

 

[MirandM]

well i just appointed myself quality control. If any builds are better than mediocre quality, then it will be my duty to remove it from the club.

I think @Jon-clegg might be introuble......

You're in luck, did you know I'm a certified ISO-9001 quality consultant... I guess not but yes, I am.

 

[bass theory]

actually this was a good time to start this club. I just started a new build today.
However, for best effect, I think i should post some of my dissasterous first builds to put the current work in perspective.

If you want to cheat, you can look up my plan for this build in the mediocre bassists club

 

[MirandM]

actually this was a good time to start this club. I just started a new build today.
However, for best effect, I think i should post some of my dissasterous first builds to put the current work in perspective.

If you want to cheat, you can look up my plan for this build in the mediocre bassists club

So why not copy it here? I did this with my posts from the BHPD thread, basically because they shouldn't be there as they are referring to building, which is why I started this thread. I won't remove them but I will in future posts there only post references to my builds here.
This is also why I asked you to post some of your early work (you know what I mean) here, because it makes sense to have things that a pave a way to our building skills. It motivates others to do the same and not consider their first endeavors as being "crappy" and not worthy of mentioning.

 

[bass theory]

So why not copy it here? I did this with my posts from the BHPD thread, basically because they shouldn't be there as they are referring to building, which is why I started this thread. I won't remove them but I will in future posts there only post references to my builds here.
This is also why I asked you to post some of your early work (you know what I mean) here, because it makes sense to have things that a pave a way to our building skills. It motivates others to do the same and not consider their first endeavors as being "crappy" and not worthy of mentioning.

Ok you convinced me... the next few posts i make will bring you all up tp speed.

 

[MirandM]

I think it is good to know that here we should value every effort to what we do. It doesn't matter whether you draw your body layout in autocad or directly with a pencil on the wood, all is accepted and ok.
Is the body shape made by someone who has a CNC router at his workshop better than one made by someone who has only a file and sanding paper? Both are valid, the point is to learn from how we do things, experiences are worth much more than any money can buy.

 

[MirandM]

On youtube there is a channel of some idian youngsters that have no money to buy a super sports car. They decided to build their own ferrari, hand made with a lawnmower engine. You won't believe the skills these youngster have, just incredible. It's so nice to see young people having a go at realizing their dreams, just by hard work and imagination. I hope this thread can be like that, to motivate people to build from nothing, just try for fun and have loads of fun doing it, because if it gives you fun and in the end you even get a playable instrument, it just ROCKS!

 

[EatS1stBassist]

On youtube there is a channel of some idian youngsters that have no money to buy a super sports car. They decided to build their own ferrari, hand made with a lawnmower engine. You won't believe the skills these youngster have, just incredible. It's so nice to see young people having a go at realizing their dreams, just by hard work and imagination. I hope this thread can be like that, to motivate people to build from nothing, just try for fun and have loads of fun doing it, because if it gives you fun and in the end you even get a playable instrument, it just ROCKS!

Here are more of my builds.

 

[MirandM]

Here are more of my builds. View attachment 4253282View attachment 4253283View attachment 4253284View attachment 4253285View attachment 4253286View attachment 4253287View attachment 4253288

Interesting pick guards... how did you do those?

btw. love the zebra wood neck, one that's on my GAS list.

 

[EatS1stBassist]

Interesting pick guards... how did you do those?

I source them from a lady in Canada. EBay

 

[MirandM]

I source them from a lady in Canada. EBay

I especially love the one on the left in the second photo. I'm a big fan of modern art and in fact have made two basses hand painted with modern art (I will post those later on as they were made in 2019 during the start of the pandemic and also posted in the BHPD thread).

 

[bass theory]

Here are the posts for the six string i finished recently....

good morning. I have decided what my next bass will be like. As I said, personal progress on my own path will take a back seat to teaching my granddaughters about music, How to play an instrument, and what it is like to be part of a band. So I am writing and transposing songs to play with them that they can play as beginners. but there is only so much itsy-bitsy-spider I can do. So I will try to play simplified popular tunes. but to have any success I will have to arrange them for a bass lead, because noob that I am, I am more capable of playing lead than they are yet. so I need a diverse bass with mucho range, and chording ability. so ihave chosen the design for my next bass...….
Here it is:
View attachment 4235106

of course as always I will build my own. But this is the design I will use, spalted maple and all.
Pictured is an ESP-LTD. the design is good but I will probably use passives with 2 tone and 2 volume. although the wiring diagram I have for a setup like this calls for a stereo output, I plan to stay with a single amp head and cab. Although I did look into options for separating into 2 tracks.
either way I plan to start with bare pots and pups, and wire it from scratch.

I decided not to make the neck for my 6 string myself. It would take more time and money just to make the jig for routing it than to purchase a quality neck. so I bought a six string neck for a full 34" scale.

Man is it wide, especially after playing an Ibanez Micro. But I figured it isn't any wider for me to handle than that stratocaster knockoff must seem to a 9 year old girl. so I will teach myself to like it. I haven't used many 6string basses, but the neck I bought has 2 truss rods rather than one and seems to be made of several pieces of wood glued together. it looks like an exact replica of an ESP neck. Who knows, it might be actually from the same manufacturer. Does ESP make their own necks? or do they outsource that.

I know that in building my semi-hollows, I used a bridge, neck, and some other parts from a company who supplies the same parts to Ibanez for use on their semi-hollow Artcore series, Or at least claims to. I have used both, and If they are copies they are really good ones. same with this neck.... Now I'm getting excited.

Found a wiring diagram for an ESP-LTD. it has a fifth pot for master volume. I guess if I am going to make it a knockoff I might as well go the full way. I also found a drawing online for getting all of the dimensions. If I do it right, that guitar will be indistinguishable from an ESP, except that the headstock has a slightly different shape. and I am considering putting EMG pickups in it. They are expensive, but I was impressed with them in my semi-hollow.

wow I have 5 pages of posts to catch up on. Sorry but ill have to catch up tomorrow morning. seems there are interesting things going on... including some real live gigs.... woohoo.
I am physically wiped out. I have been working all weekend. But, some of you might be interested in seeing the fruits of my labor. please forgive the sorry condition of my shop. have other project ongoing concurrent with these, my REAL projects.

View attachment 4240212 View attachment 4240213 View attachment 4240214 View attachment 4240215 View attachment 4240216 View attachment 4240217

.

Thank you Doc, but there are many here who can tell you my first couple builds looked like jr. high school shop projects. But each one was a study in how to do different things. I still find hollows and semi-hollows a challenge, but now, solid bodies are easy. the study in this one was... no prewired anything. started with bare pot, bare pickups, and a couple resisters and built the wiring from scratch. I had all of the parts for a 3 band active system, but i don't have a wiring diagram, and while I can make one it would have taken a lot of time. so this is a 5 pot passive, the 5th pot is master volume.
had a drawing for the body. bought the wood from a hardwood wholesaler, except the neck which i bought as is. Most of the rest came from amazon or ebay. this was a fun project. total time about 25 working hours spread over almost a week.

finally got time to try and set the 6 string bass up.
about a week ago I expressed concerns about the neck being as wide as a football field, and gonna teach myself to like it...
well guess what...
put on a set of Ls Bella deep talking bass strings (flat wound stainless)
the setup was very easy, medium to low with no fret buzz anywhere.
Intonation was weird. the difference is so pronounced that i was tempted to remove the bridge and remount it at an angle. but it finally came in. the sound is very nice. but man do those strings want to ring.
Went through the entire neck playing chords(r,3,5,r) from every position with every fingering that i know. and....
that incredibly wide neck is surprisingly easy to play on. AND IT IS FUN TO PLAY. biggggg sigh of relief.
now there is soo much to learn about voicings and chording (with strumming) to take advantage of the abilities of the 6 string. I am really liking this new Beast.
I was really happy with how it turned out looking.
I am even happier with how it plays.
Whew, I didn't just throw away about $600 (what i think its value is, lol, it didn't cost that much to make)(estimated cost $250, but only an estimate, I used several parts I already had around)

here is the final photo which i took to post on show your basses thread.

I must be deep into hoarding, lol I now get adds directly from EMG and others for discounts based on purchases.
A funny one was featuring free no hastle returns. Hmm who buys parts or strings with the intention of returning them??? why would that be a strong marketing ploy???
I'm so confused

View attachment 4241161

 

[bassbrad]

@EatS1stBassist that Lone Ranger Bass is spectacular!

 

[bass theory]

on the show your bases thread there were a lot of questions asked. So I thought I would Show the bass I used as a model.
B-206SM

why use this model?
For the past 2 years it has been one of the highest rated 6 strings, And for 2021 it is rated #1


Want A Challenge? Try Playing A 6, 8 or 12 String Bass!
5 Best 6 String Bass Guitars (2020)

Personnally I think I nailed it.

i almost forgot this one

 

[bassbrad]

I'm in! I feel a big sense of superiority over all those poor sods in the Crappy Builders Club, Mediocre is a big step up in my mind! Three builds under my belt:
View attachment 4253006
View attachment 4253007

That headless bass is like something out of my dreams, love that bass. For True!!

 

[bass theory]

did this in the mean time.

finished daughters birthday guitar.
this one was a kit from Pitbull guitars, but I still got to play around a little.
first time wiring humbuckers for spit coil. Interesting using spst switch instead of push poll knob. Pitbull hasn't published a wiring diagram for this yet so had to make my own.
I was very happy to hear the different voices this baby has. Daughter heard me playing it to set it up and commented "So, I'll be able to rock and country on that guitar." I said not to mention spaghetti western themes, surfer music and Jazz...
She thinks Zuri will see it and want to trade. I said that I'll show her you tubes of all the best 10 rock guitarists of all time, each of them playing a
Strat, and she will be happy with her Strat.
anyway here it is

View attachment 4247243

 

[MirandM]

Here are the posts for the six string i finished recently....

Just a small note; you can easily just copy and paste your posts from one thread to another. No need to quote them as you will lose the visible images (they are converted to attachments). With copy and paste they will be preserved as they are uploaded to the server and have unique identifiers. This is what I did in my first posts, with the exception of replies, they won't be copied as in the original post. To do that you have to manually copy and paste the original quote, a bit more work but it is possible (see here The Mediocre Builders Club for the result, the original post contained a reply from rodry which I added by using his original post, replying to it, copying the text from the edit window into the new post in this thread. Cross quoting between threads is not directly possible, only in this way).

 

[bass theory]

The for about a day or two i decided to quit building........

Hoping for a good day. I expect the EMG pups and controls to arrive today. When I went to adjust the truss rod, I notice the 4.5mm wrench fit but the 5mm didn't. went to turn it... it was mushy. Ut-Oh... Seems I have a slightly rounded truss rod head. Bought a tapered truss rod wrench/repairer. which should also arrive today. I thought about tapering one of my own 5mm wrenches, but that tends to ruin the temper.
I also bought the external power supply for the active system so that I don't need to cut a battery pocket in the back. it is pretty cool, just use a stereo cable between the power supply and the instrument, and a mono cable between Power supply and the amp. As of now this bass has cost me more than my current drum set(well, at least minus the 20" Zildjian ride cymbal), and twice as much as any previous guitar or bass. And that is with building it myself. Clearly this is my main instrument now. with between $1,000 and $1,100 invested. The good news is that I do believe I can stop the bass hoarding personality disorder merry-go-round, because I know I will never get a better quality instrument. Many of you might, but not me. I'm done.... and just when I was getting good at building them. I guess I'll have to go back to writing my book. Or... actually put in enough time practicing to get better on bass.

the tapered allen wrench is the same idea except i might not need to replace it when i am done.

got the pickups and parts today, and installed them.
I had to put different knobs on them because the new controls need set screwed knobs and the old ones were press on. Sound is great, and now is fully active. the p-bass pickup is very stable with only a little effect from tone settings. the dual coil is very different, the range of sounds is quite large. I think i like my little toy View attachment 4251367

BTW does anyone want any EMG stickers for their case or amp? I now have many of them, lol

does anybody want to have a laugh at my expense?

I was going through my shop to organize the parts, and discovered that I have everything I need to build 1 more instrument without spending a dime. including the tone-wood. so i have a dilemma, in the form of 3 options:

1. stick to the plan and put everything away where it will never be found again.
2. build 1 final full scale 5 string bass bass. i already have a semi-hollow, as well as both a semi-hollow and solid body short scale.
3. build a baritone guitar. complete with tune-o-matic bridge. I used to have 1 but not currently.

I can build either a semi-hollow or solid body out of the wood. and I have strings to fit either instrument.

if a baritone, i will style it (body shape)very much like my daughters guitar, only with a cherry archtop like the short scale hollow bass from a few months ago. with a tune-o-matic bridge and a full set of strat style pickups with a wiring harness with 250k pots(active?). i have some cool material I can make a pickguard from. or just use the wood. this would be a 27" scale but with string spacing very much like a guitar, rather than a bass VI.

If the bass, I have an awesome full scale neck with vintage tuners, i have 3 bridges i can choose from, including a tune-o-matic. I can make either solid or semi-hollow body. I have a pair of p-90 pickups or passive soapbars. I can install. a passive wiring harness, a 2-band eq active, or a 3-band eq active harness. I could even make this a string through.

So should i stick to being done, or prove Charlie Tango right about my being addicted? and if i build, which one do i build? and with what options?