Usable Triple-Double J Build?

[MovinTarget]

What kind of pickguard are you looking at putting in?

Will be pouring a sheet of epoxy, custom colored and cut to fit...

Still debating in my head the "look". I'll be refinishing the body as well, so I'm trying to determine the best color combo from my options on hand and how to make the PG is big enough but not too big.

 

[MovinTarget]

Beautiful afternoon to work outside!

Traced bass and overlaid the template

Used drill to start holes, knocked out with chisel:

First time using a shinto rasp, I think its awesome! Doubt I'll need to sand the flat surfaces when done:

 

[Beej]

From that point, I have a secret to save time. Just file the very top of each hole to the line. Just enough for your router bearing to ride against. Then zip around the hole once with the router and ride the bearing on your filed edge, and it will clean up everything below it, razor sharp. Flip your template over and run it around again, and that will clean up anything remaining from the original filed hole. Square corners can then be cleaned up with a chisel. This trick turned an hour long process of template making into about 15 mins for me.

 

[MovinTarget]

From that point, I have a secret to save time. Just file the very top of each hole to the line. Just enough for your router bearing to ride against. Then zip around the hole once with the router and ride the bearing on your filed edge, and it will clean up everything below it, razor sharp. Flip your template over and run it around again, and that will clean up anything remaining from the original filed hole. Square corners can then be cleaned up with a chisel. This trick turned an hour long process of template making into about 15 mins for me.

Hah! Great minds think alike! I realized this as I kept going!

Also remember, "Burleywood" is very very soft! >.<

Dinged the body behind the bridge trying to pop it off... grrrr

 

[MovinTarget]

This is why I also cut a little for the neck pocket and the the middle pup (even though I am not routing more out of it) to help make sure everything aligns correctly:

 

[Beej]

Throw a bottom bearing bit in your router and run around that neck pocket cavity and the middle rout, and there you have your perfect template.

 

[MovinTarget]

Since the new neck pup route has no reference depth I had to drill some holes so ye olde router could run smoothly.

Grabbed my fattest bit and taped off the max depth as I REALLY don't want to weaken the area near the neck any more than necessary...

With done, its the moment I've all been waiting for:

Notice the graduating sizes in flush trim bits? Yeah, because my template is so thick, I need them ALL.

After all that prep this part goes pretty fast, but also pretty clean.

Here is the finnished result:

 

[MovinTarget]

Throw a bottom bearing bit in your router and run around that neck pocket cavity and the middle rout, and there you have your perfect template.

I might go back and do that when I have time... If this experiment works, I may be doing repeat builds...

 

[MovinTarget]

Forgot to mention when I posted this pic:

Remember, just because one's plunge base on their router can extend so far that the collet is exposed does not mean one should actually do this... "Hey do'ya smell somethin burnin?!?!?

 

[micguy]

As someone who has experimented a bit with multi pickup basses, I predict a couple of things:

Folks sometimes have "stratitis" (a wobbly sound on your lowest string when fretted up high) from just 2 or 3 pickups. You may have to run your pickups pretty low to avoid this, given that you have 6 of them.

It's exciting to think of all the possible combinations and permutations that you can have with 6 pickups. But you'll almost certainly find that most of them are not your cup of tea, and that switching between them, you'll get all kinds of variation in low frequency content, which will drive your FOH person mad. I have a 3 pickup bass I just finished, it has a grand total of 2 combinations on a switch, and a tone circuit for each of those. In my case, I was only allowing combinations that hum cancel (the pickups are single coils), and I had to do some shenanigans to make even those 2 modes balance. I like my new bass, but I know from precious experiments that the other 6 possible modes (2 to the 3rd power) wouldn't be useful for me - especially the "all pickups off" one.

Good luck, I'm certain you'll learn something from this.

 

[MovinTarget]

Good luck, I'm certain you'll learn something from this.

And that is entirely the point.

Thanks for your observations and experiences. I may look into modding the balance pots so that when they are swept all the way to one side or the other it will eliminate the one signal from the circuit (normally you will still hear a little bit of the signal for the one side even if you have it 100% the other way). That might help with clarity. I'm also planning on keeping the neck pup be a low as possible since it would be so much louder than the others.

This is why I went with the dual balance scheme though, so that I could blend in the different signals in a (hopefully) intuitive way.

Oh, and I seriously doubt I'd be running all 6 at once except to drive the FOH dude to the funny farm

...and I don't even play out anymore...

 

[MovinTarget]

Switching gears...

As you can see, the original pg and controls plate would no longer work, considering the number of controls and pickups being added:

With the pup routes overlaid:

So I'm going to have to get creative...

 

[MovinTarget]

Playing around with PG ideas...

This one reminds me of the result of a drunken one night stand between a Ric and a Stingray, lol

I know I am going to need more space in the control route as I am adding one more pot and 3 switches... so this is estimating the usage... haven't routed yet.

 

[MovinTarget]

Trying to decide if this would be enough for 4 knobs, 3 switches and the jack...

The control section will be a separate piece, so you see I lose a little bit at the top...

Hmmmm gotta think about this...

 

[MovinTarget]

Not in love with this arrangement yet, but they would fit based on the component footprints:

I had the switches between the V/T and the two Balances for a couple of reasons:

1. Protect the switches a bit more since they are smaller.
2. Use them to create separation between the knob pairs so its easier to "feel" whats what when not looking.

I dunno though. The actual positions are not set in stone either...

 

[CatchaCuda]

I'm not implying that anything is wrong with your design, but are you familiar with the Marcus Miller pickguard?

The amount of thought, effort and time that you're putting into this is extremely respectable.

Edit: D'oh! I think your intent is to have the pickups completely surrounded by pickguard.

 

[MovinTarget]

Yeah, its a bit like a stingray pg in that respect going all the way to the bridge almost...

One thing I was noticing with the Glarry before I tore it down was that I would hit my fingers against the first knob from time to time so I was trying to push things back a little w/o squishing them together...

Its raining today so I won't be routing anyway... it means I can plan this out a bit more...

 

[MovinTarget]

I know this may be tedious to some, but after fubaring my first bass body on the knob placement... just trying to work this out.

The next 2 attempts I tried to run controls in parallel lines and, after the first, I saw I could trim it back in the second...

Trimmed at the bottom but this was a photocopy so i couldn't erase some of the lines:

 

[Beej]

I'd be a touch wary of getting a pickguard closer than about 1/2" from the edge due to the roundover.

 

[MovinTarget]

I'd be a touch wary of getting a pickguard closer than about 1/2" from the edge due to the roundover.

True, I made it fat there for support but also as insurance, the new route won't get near the edge.