WBO 2023 - Bateries not included

[postalflunkie]

Nine coats of true oil that's had a week to cure, and a coat of Howard butcher block conditioner on the fretboard.

I'll let this cure some more over the weekend then buff it out and hit it with a couple coats of Renaissance wax.

Now, time to start soldering up the controls.

 

[postalflunkie]

Body buffed with Meguires then a good coat of Renaissance wax, polished out with a Surbuff pad on the random orbital sander. The neck got buffed back with a Grey scotchbright pad and also waxed.

And then the pickup route, control cavity and cover were painted with shielding paint.

Gonna be squeaking this one in, but I'll definitely have it done before the deadline

 

[hawk400]

Enjoying this build, love me a hippie sandwich, especially with purpleheart mayo

 

[postalflunkie]

Moving along a little bit at a time.
The bridge, pickup, output jack and strap buttons are now installed.

I have all the pots, various capacitors and resistors ready to go. Now to find some time to dig out the soldering iron and get this all together.

 

[postalflunkie]

Well, it's all together just not inside the bass. Just need another night to get it in the bass and solder up the pickup leads and output jack.
Let's hope everything works as intended.

 

[hawk400]

You're really making progress, maybe you have time to build a second one before the deadline!

 

[postalflunkie]

You're really making progress, maybe you have time to build a second one before the deadline!

Not even time to build a case for this one.

 

[hawk400]

Not even time to build a case for this one.

Yeah I'm just jealous as my build is stalled until health improves a bit.

 

[postalflunkie]

Wireing is all done, no hum, no snaps or pops when moving the switches and all the pots work as they should. I'm pleased with the mid control, with the push pull down it scoops like Marcus Miller and with it up it enhances the bottom end. I'm not sure what frequencies it's cutting, I'll have to look that up again.
As far as the peizo goes... well I'm not happy with it at all. It sounded great on my son's upright bass (mounted to the bridge) but on the solid body it just sounds unnatural, almost synthesized.

Of course to test this all out I had to mount the tuners and put on my crappy old test strings (new Boomers will go on later)

A couple twists on the truss rod, a quick adjustment of the bridge saddles and the intonation is mostly spot on.

And here we are with the rest of the family

 

[postalflunkie]

Looking at the Electronic Projects for Musicians book my mid frequencies with the 0.22uf cap should be around 107hz in the down position (full coil) and 260hz in the up position (half coil).

The five way switch for the pickup is giving me single coil, half out of phase, parallel, series and series with a .1uf "OMG" cap

I'm going to try some different caps on the half out of phase position. Right now it sounds too similar to the single coil position.

 

[postalflunkie]

So I'm trying to wrap this thing up today. I set the bridge saddles, adjusted the truss rod, set the intonation and adjusted the pickup height. Then the old set of used strings came off and brand new Boomers went on. Rechecked the intonation and truss rod relief with a few very minor tweaks and decided to call it ok for now, I'll recheck everything after a week of being under string tension.

Now to play around with the capacitor on the half out of phase position on the switch. I desoldered the 0.01uf cap that I didn't like so much and pulled a variety of different values out and began trying each one just by alligator clipping them to the switch. I settled on a 0.1uf cap, it sounds more "halfway" between a single coil and a humbucker fully out of phase.

So, all done! Now just need to make an audio sample and take some "glamor shots" and post my final entry.

Oh, one other thing, my family and friends always tell me I'm a nerd because I a wear hawaiian shirts all the time, so I thought this was the nerdiest strap I could put on this bass.

 

[Beej]

That strap kills.

 

[Reedt2000]

That strap kills.

I'm sorry what? I couldn't hear you over the shirt...

 

[Flamingo21]

What's nerdy about wearing Hawaiian shirts? I'm not seeing it.

I like the strap, by the way.

 

[Mickey666]

What's nerdy about wearing Hawaiian shirts? I'm not seeing it.

I like the strap, by the way.

It's an American thing...

 

[postalflunkie]

My submission for the Winter Build Off 2023 in the Scratch Build category.

Batteries Not Included
This is a culmination of my love for unusual pickup switching and unsual tone controls, an all passive circuit that stretches the abilities of just two coils in one pickup. It also has the option of bypassing the magnetic pickup and using a piezo pickup hidden under the bridge.

Specifications
Body: Chambered purpleheart and hard maple core, padauk front and back, full roundover.
Neck: seven piece maple, padauk and purpleheart, neck-thru
Finger Board: Rosewood 24 frets plus zero fret, GraphTech nut (string guide), glow-in-the-dark side dots
Finger board radius: 9.5 inch
Scale Length: 32 inch
Headstock: 2+2, 13° angle
Tuners: Gotoh Chrome GB707
Bridge: Gotoh Chrome 201-B
Gotoh Chrome strap locks
Pickups: Humbucker, 9mm alnico5 pole pieces mounted in purpleheart and maple cover. Peizo dot under bridge.
Electronics: Passive with Volume, Bass cut, Mid cut (with switchable mid frequencies) Trebble cut (pull to switch to piezo pickup), Five way pickup switch (single coil, parallel - half out of phase, parallel, series, series with OMG cap on neck coil) Chrome knurled knobs
Finish: Tru-oil, Renaissance wax
Strings: GHS Bass Boomers
Weight: 8.4lbs
Strap: Walker & Williams padded leather "island girl"

Sound demo




Photos:

 

[BishopJP]

Looks great!!!

 

[Mickey666]

Nice

 

[Gary_M]

That turned out so nice! Sounds great, too.

 

[TFM94]

Oh hell yeah, that's a beauty! Love the glow in the dark side dots, not just for the glow effect, but mostly because they're a proper size.

The padauk and purpleheart combination was a bold move, but somehow it works really well!