Grangur

Hi Mick, many thanks

I've been away from here for a long time. I've not checked out any members here for a long time.

I've been absent from here for quite a few years. This is my first post in coming back. I've not checked any of these people out. I do, however, know Gary Mac. He's really good and a nice guy too. He lives in Hoddesdon. If you struggle to get hold of him, contact me. I'll help out, if you're still in need of help.

Strange, but I too have been looking at it and thinking something didn't ring true. The strings are central to the pups, neck and wood lines. So, of the 3 screws, the centre one is correct. Measuring the space from the bridge to each side of the 1st pickup, which I think is pretty true to the line, there's a 2mm difference from one side to the other. The E string side is 15mm. The G string side is 17mm. If one was to fix it, I'd keep the centre screw as it is, fill the other 2 holes and re-drill them. This would, however, mean that 2 of the mounting screws have holes that may be slightly less secure than they were. The bass has given pleasure for 40 years. Yes, the bridge is slightly skewed, but does it affect the playability of it? Or the tone quality? I think I'd leave it as it is.

All soldering done, pots and knobs fitted. Both switches are as per the specifications by Leland Sklar, "DFA" functionality! Set up and ready for return. Strange as it may seem... The bridge saddles may be straight, but the intonation seems fine like this. This has been checked as far up as the 17th fret.

Today a pupil cried off with a sick wife he cares for. (I'm a driving instructor.) So I cracked on with some more routing and drilling of the pickup screw holes. For drilling the holes for the screws I used a pillar drill as this makes sure to get the holes put in vertically. A significant concern, when drilling is also to be certain that I'm not going to drill right through to the back. So I used a Vernier to measure the body to be 42mm thick and the pickup pocket to be 25mm. That leaves 17mm of wood available for the drill hole. I drilled the holes to be 10mm deep. I hate screwing the pickups in place. What really bugs me is the pathetically soft metal they make the screws from. I made a mistake of not drilling one of the holes deep enough and due to this the screwdriver, which isn't a great fit in the tiny screw head, chewed the life out of the cross-head of the screw. So I fitted another screw. After fitting the pickups I've now re-fitted the bridge and strings. Then gave it a preliminary setup, so the neck is back under tension. Next stage is to solder the electrics. Then intonation and the final setup. The white stuff you can see is where I did have 2 sided tape holding foam in place for the pickups. In the final assembly I've now used springs.

Today I finished the routing... I need to dig out a very small drill for the screw holes. Didn't want to rush that.

I'm not aware of one. Yet as a woodturner, I'm used to keeping masks and dust extraction gear.

The latest update is I ordered a template for routing the pickup cavities to suit the MM style humbuckers. Mick ordered the Wikinson WSME4 pickups. They were delivered to me and the work has begun. There really isn't much wood to remove, but it's still slow work with a Dremel and the small router attachment and small router bits. Initially I thought it's burning more than cutting. The truth is the cut away wood is that fine it's like smoke. Definitely a situation for wearing a mask to protect the lungs. I don't know what the wood is, but some exotic woods can be killers in the lungs. The inserts cut need to be cut deeper. But this is as far as the Dremel router bit will reach. The next stage will be cut without the template in place.

Nice rundown @lemmywinks Also, I've never seen any Warwick, of any description, with a string tree/retainer thingy. Something odd there.

The pickups are out of the bass and sent Special Delivery to Martin. With any luck they will be there soon. Checking the neck pickup, before sending: When connecting the pup to the socket directly, the pup seemed to work on the G and D, but not the E and A. That was odd.

To be honest, I'm not too surprised. That bass looks great. I love the woods and the through-neck. The pickups are disappointing. They lack any real meat in the sound. @LukeFRCmay have a point in the possibility they could be argued to sound "vintage". I'm pretty sure there were some vintage pups that had more of a drive than those. Also. when putting it together I first built it with a complete passive circuit. It sounded thin and very average. I then put in the G201 circuit... and to my ears it makes no difference at all whatsoever. So the purpose of that circuit is still lost on me. As Mick says, I think the search for some meat for that bass needs to continue.

The pots we have here have a splined spindle, but I guess it's possible to use a grub-screw if the diametre of the hole in the splied bush is right for the spindle. Many thanks. That said, I don't know if @TheGreek wants wooden knobs. Maybe I should make sure he actually likes the bass first? Maybe, if he doesn't like the bass, wooden knobs would make it more saleable in any case?

Thank you. The idea of wood controls is an Interesting thought. I'd be happy to turn them. What I'm not so sure of is fitting them to the pots.