Epoxy has hardened so clamps are off. I'll let it cure at a bit elevated heat (around 30deg C) over night.
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Fretboard sanded to 1000 grit, frets mounted and fret ends filed flush to the neck. I had to widen the fret slots with Dremel cutting disc. Stewmac fret saw is way too narrow for Richlite boards. I could have hammered the frets on but they would have bend the neck backbow badly. For Dremel cutting disc width slots the frets were tapped, not hammered. No backbow, truss rod works very well, about a quarter turn from straight to almost too much relief.
As for decal, I'm thinking maybe white is not as stealthy as the blackburst carbon is. I'm trying a black decal first, if that is too invisible I'm trying something dark silverish.
Oh, about the acoustic sound. Even with old, dirty strings the clear, ringing sound of cf is there.
As for decal, I'm thinking maybe white is not as stealthy as the blackburst carbon is. I'm trying a black decal first, if that is too invisible I'm trying something dark silverish.
Oh, about the acoustic sound. Even with old, dirty strings the clear, ringing sound of cf is there.
Hi Marko,
Maybe you could get an extra one made for the awesome cf 4 stringer that you made a few years ago? The one that now lives in Australia!
It is my main live bass and I don't let it out of my sight when it's away from my house, it's unique (yep actually unique, people, like THE ONLY ONE). Only change I made is swapping for a Bartolini humbucker and adding a 2 band eq.. Sounds fricken awesome!
P.s. - if you can use the EMG 35 that was on it, I'll send it back to ya.
All the best,
Tim de Martino
Hi Tim,
I'll send you a decal for sure. I'll send you a PM when I have the decals ready.
Marko
The last thing before finishing is to find balance point for pivot plate screw. I put all parts that will go into the bass in their places and used a round rod for finding the balance point. An M4 threaded insert is epoxied to the back. At the same time M3 inserts are epoxied for control cavity screws.
I'm amazed by the things I see getting built on TB. Really nice job.
I got a reply from decal maker and here's what we ended up. Foil decal in Pigment gray, kind of a darkish silver instead of white. The decal foil I ordered was too thin for this use, it works fine as just black print. Decal is going to be under 2-pack acrylic so I don't want to take any chances whether it will work or not.
Pots arrived yesterday. Alpha 9mm pots with proper values and tapers, A100k stacked and C1M single. I need to swap the top pot (lower part) from A100k to C1M. First I drilled the rivets that keep the parts together from both pots. When rivets are off the pot can be disassembled. To my suprise both stacked and single have exactly same size shaft end. This is easier than I thought!
I removed only the lower A100k pot, put the 1M pot in its place, carefully tapped the rivets back and used a drop of CA to lock the rivets in the holes. A custom A100k/C1M stacked pot done! Now I can have three knobs with vol/vol and bass/treble controls.
This pot has 6mm and 4mm shafts while the knobs I have are 8mm and 6mm. I need spacers but they are available (I remember seeing them somewhere) or easily made.
I removed only the lower A100k pot, put the 1M pot in its place, carefully tapped the rivets back and used a drop of CA to lock the rivets in the holes. A custom A100k/C1M stacked pot done! Now I can have three knobs with vol/vol and bass/treble controls.
This pot has 6mm and 4mm shafts while the knobs I have are 8mm and 6mm. I need spacers but they are available (I remember seeing them somewhere) or easily made.
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And knobs sleeved.
Greatest thing is that the preamp works with this custom pot. It's great that I didn't have to mess with the wafers or wipers of the pot, just swap the whole package. No scratching or anything from the pot, the same smooth action as before customizing. I call this success!
Greatest thing is that the preamp works with this custom pot. It's great that I didn't have to mess with the wafers or wipers of the pot, just swap the whole package. No scratching or anything from the pot, the same smooth action as before customizing. I call this success!
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I don't know that I've ever seen those Alpha pots for sale in these parts. I'll have to look for them. That you can swap out parts of it to customize for your specific application is very cool, and they appear to be pretty small. Awesome!
I had no idea it could be so easy to make a custom stacked pot like that! Great to know.
Your posts just keep blowing my mind, keep up the great work.
Your posts just keep blowing my mind, keep up the great work.
It was easier than with bigger pots. I tried to make a custom pot with 24mm Alpha pots but that did not work. Wipers were different, shaft diameters and shapes were different, pot cover and wafer didn't match... I was really suprised when I opened the small pots. It was so easy. Almost like building Legos.
Yeah, No Kidding...
Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a Steinberger?!
Marty McFly
That tinted acrylic clear I used on the pivot plate didn't work with the clear I sprayed over it. Tinted clear didn't harden under the clear so I needed to scrape and sand it away. I bought an airbrush, water-based black airbrush paint and sprayed the burst. Nothing to show. Spraying black burst on basically black base is tricky, I hope I have enough opaque colour on the sides and transparent on the front and back. I'm planning to clearcoat the bass tomorrow. I'm using 2-pack acrylic as clear coat.
Burst is just fine. Clearcoat sprayed tonight. I'm going to let the clear cure and harden few days before wet sanding and buffing.
