Between prepping for and cleaning up after Helene and wiring issues, I finally got it finished. It's assembled, set up and working.
Aside from the hurricane's side swipe passing of my area, I was finally able to finish her up. I had a few issues with Seymour-Duncan's wiring diagram for the push-pull pot for series/parallel switching. I went over it time and time again and unsoldering and resoldering all the connections to no avail. Little to no signal from the pickup and a lot of RF noise. I pulled it apart again and this time followed Guitar Electronics' and lo and behold I got a good signal! One issue, the tone pot was working backwards, but that was my fault, I wired the cap to the wrong tab on the pot. I put it on the correct side it all was (almost) well! I'm getting a lot of noise when I adjust the volume or push-pull the switch. I've cleaned it a couple of times, but to no avail. With all the soldering, unsoldering and resoldering, I may have damaged the internals of the volume/push-pull pot.
As long as I'm not trying to do volume swells, adjust the volume or switching between series and parallel it works great. The pickup is hot and fat as expected in series and in parallel it's noticeably milder, with a slight loss of character. In series into my (all tube/valve) Ashdown CTM-30 into the low impedance jack it's a bluesy/rocker. Full fat sound and drives the tubes into a light overdrive, compared to the cleans of most of my other basses. Into the High impedance jack it's a little more controlled, but still has a mild bite. On my solid state amps, I need to dial back the gain levels I normally use, otherwise the amps will overdrive. That's not the overdrive circuits, but the clean settings overdriving.
As for the looks, I think I could have let the stains do a little more. I could have let the walnut stain sit a little longer and/or dilute it a little less, to bring out a little more grain. I could have left more of the grey stain on it. Maybe, even a slightly darker shade of grey. I feel I sanded/steel wool'ed a touch too much grey stain off. If I left a little more of each, it would have looked a little more weathered. The hardware could have used a couple more hours exposure to the acid gasses. They did get some aging on the surfaces I scuffed well, but they too could have used a bit more.
I'm currently using the GHS Pressure Wound strings on it, that were on it before. I have a set of .045-.105 GHS Bass Boomers on the way. We'll see how they sound on it too.
Overall, I'm pleased with it. Maybe with time the weathering may look a little better, more appropriate to the body graphics. I don't see it being my number one, but I do see it being used heavily for when I want a blues/rock tone and drive. I will be looking into a new push-pull pot to replace the one that is giving me all the noise.
Aside from the hurricane's side swipe passing of my area, I was finally able to finish her up. I had a few issues with Seymour-Duncan's wiring diagram for the push-pull pot for series/parallel switching. I went over it time and time again and unsoldering and resoldering all the connections to no avail. Little to no signal from the pickup and a lot of RF noise. I pulled it apart again and this time followed Guitar Electronics' and lo and behold I got a good signal! One issue, the tone pot was working backwards, but that was my fault, I wired the cap to the wrong tab on the pot. I put it on the correct side it all was (almost) well! I'm getting a lot of noise when I adjust the volume or push-pull the switch. I've cleaned it a couple of times, but to no avail. With all the soldering, unsoldering and resoldering, I may have damaged the internals of the volume/push-pull pot.
As long as I'm not trying to do volume swells, adjust the volume or switching between series and parallel it works great. The pickup is hot and fat as expected in series and in parallel it's noticeably milder, with a slight loss of character. In series into my (all tube/valve) Ashdown CTM-30 into the low impedance jack it's a bluesy/rocker. Full fat sound and drives the tubes into a light overdrive, compared to the cleans of most of my other basses. Into the High impedance jack it's a little more controlled, but still has a mild bite. On my solid state amps, I need to dial back the gain levels I normally use, otherwise the amps will overdrive. That's not the overdrive circuits, but the clean settings overdriving.
As for the looks, I think I could have let the stains do a little more. I could have let the walnut stain sit a little longer and/or dilute it a little less, to bring out a little more grain. I could have left more of the grey stain on it. Maybe, even a slightly darker shade of grey. I feel I sanded/steel wool'ed a touch too much grey stain off. If I left a little more of each, it would have looked a little more weathered. The hardware could have used a couple more hours exposure to the acid gasses. They did get some aging on the surfaces I scuffed well, but they too could have used a bit more.
I'm currently using the GHS Pressure Wound strings on it, that were on it before. I have a set of .045-.105 GHS Bass Boomers on the way. We'll see how they sound on it too.
Overall, I'm pleased with it. Maybe with time the weathering may look a little better, more appropriate to the body graphics. I don't see it being my number one, but I do see it being used heavily for when I want a blues/rock tone and drive. I will be looking into a new push-pull pot to replace the one that is giving me all the noise.
