neepheid

I read the title of this thread as "Name that rack ear" and I thought to myself "woah, that's some SERIOUS uber-geek level knowledge right there".

As I've already mentioned, in the electromagnetic hell of our rehearsal room it's quieter than some of my other basses which I have felt compelled shield with copper tape. Make of that what you will. But I can't tell visually what the coil configuration of my pickup is - there's tape/ribbon all the way round the coil(s) and I'm not peeling that back, I'm not that curious, sorry. The way I see it, if someone is that bothered about pickups they'll probably want to change the stock pickup regardless of what it is. At least with the D5 you get a lot of other good stuff like roasted neck, rolled fingerboard edges, truss rod access at the neck heel and a standard 5 screw pattern on the bridge, so that's easy to change as well if one is so inclined.

My usual glib answer was probably unhelpful. Allow me to expand (and possibly add to the unhelpfulness). I would only use the "let me google that for you" approach once an appropriate level of banter had been established. I can see why some people might prefer to ask - sometimes it's not as simple as searching, there is an art to sifting out the garbage and frankly incorrect information out there that a search can throw up. It's even worse when it's a situation where there isn't one single right answer and you're looking for the "best" answer, which google et al cannot help you with. Sometimes people are just looking for reassurance. And just because their question is worded tersely, that doesn't mean they haven't searched previously, that is an easy assumption to make. Basically, dinna be a grump. If someone is insistent on being a grump, I'd suggest they go and eff off and be a grump somewhere else (either on their own or have a grumpiness contest with some other grumps) instead of taking it out on some poor noob who had the temerity to ask a question that the grump considers easy to answer.

Is it up on the site? I can't find it - got a link?

Are you bothered about filling old screw holes and making new ones?

Got a pic of what you have now?

You don't need to justify it to me, it's enough to read someone waxing lyrical about their new acquisition to put a smile on my face, regardless of whether or not I'd go for something like it myself.

That is a fine looking interpretation of the T-bird look. Glad you're happy with it, may it give you many hours of enjoyment! I'm OG or GTFO when it comes to T-birds (Epiphone counts, they're in the same family, and I would say are making better T-birds than Gibson are right now), but this one has not got me twitching like some T-bird-a-likes do. It seems relatively faithful to the basic shape and dimensions, just hot-rodded a bit. Not that you need my approval, but I approve.

Never heard of Suede. Brett Anderson'll be fuming!

No, can't say that I had thought about that. I hope it is released - I think the market could really use a well made but inexpensive, long scale semi-hollow bass.

I'm a Gibson man at heart (I slag them off these days because I care and wish they'd do better), so I'm fine with the speed knobs. Tieing in works in several ways - to my eyes, the black pickup cover, knobs and soon to be completed pickup mode selector tie in nicely with the black headstock and the dark fingerboard. So once this poker chip arrives and is fitted, I'll be calling this one done. Well, I might redo a couple of those solder joints on the rotary switch - a couple of them look a bit stingy with the solder. Plus I've never been a big fan of white/cream pickup covers in any bass and have rarely had basses which use them. Chrome, gold or black for me please!

Chickenhead arrived, and I've also been hatching a plan with a producer on etsy who makes custom switch bezels/poker chips (same guy as I used for my Les Paul DO/DO NOT poker chip for the pickup selector). Made a mockup to scale in Inkscape with what I want. Guy was happy to take some custom measurements and didn't charge me any extra for the custom order - nice! So, here's what it's going to look like (except the final poker chip will be black with white lettering) P = parallel 1 (one) = single S = series And yes, I quite like what it spells - I take the P1S every time I play the bass Will post up final pic when the poker chip arrives. It's coming from Canada so it might take a couple of weeks.

In a similar theme, do same to Walk This Way

It's what "let me google that for you" links were made for

Oh yeah, I forgot about the licorice allsorts

There is probably a smart way, for me, I'm convinced the swearing got me over the line

Wait, when did Rickenbacker start making Commodore 64s?

Ho-lee-sh!t... https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Sterling-By-Music-Man-DarkRay-Bass-Black/60DR NINETEEN HUNDRED QUID?

That's a new one on me, cheers, I love learning new geeky stuff like this

+1 for the bike box, long time bike box user here. Halfords et al always delighted to give away their empty boxes whenever I've asked. Adjust to fit.

Japanese G&L ASATs?

Being an ASAT bass, it can only be MIA, there is no Tribute ASAT bass.

To be honest, I didn't find the pots to be too bad, again, small hands, was able fairly easily and quickly get them in position and push them up from underneath. The jack socket was much more of a hassle, but with some improvised tools and a bit of swearing I got it to go where I needed it to https://schaller.info/en/megaswitches-preamp-pickups/306/megaswitch-rotary

Last night I sorted out my other grumbles with this bass as supplied - the terrible pots and the pointless three way switch. Never rewired a semi-hollow bass before, and with a solid centre block the only access point is the f-hole. No worries! First step - gather supplies - found some pots in my parts bin and ordered a Schaller 3 way rotary Megaswitch - so much easier to wrap one's head around than your typical rotary. Then it's time to take a deep breath and feed the guts out through the f-hole (realising that there's no way back now - even stuffing the innards back in as they are will be a challenge) Desoldered and removed the old pots and the switch, leaving only the bridge wire (taped up so it can't escape inside the bass again!) and the pickup wire. Noting the two hot wires which went to the old switch (white/green) - use multimeter to figure out which grounds go with which hots (white/black, red/green) then wire the Megaswitch using the schematic handily provided by Schaller for this very scenario (single HB, parallel/single/series) Wire up from the switch to the volume and tone pots to the jack socket (remembering to include the bridge earth wire) Test BEFORE beginning to stuff the innards back in the f-hole, then do it in order of (wired) distance from the pickup - jack socket first - easily the worst, fiddliest one - having small hands/fingers I managed to get it in the rough vicinity of the hole then used a large allen key to maneuver it into position and keep it there whilst I got the washer/nut on. Take a breath, then carry on - tone pot, volume pot and finally, three way switch (which went in quite easily - had done some testing beforehand to see what was the easiest way, found an angled approach worked best after first trying other contortions of a more twisting nature which might have stressed the wires) Finally, put the knobs on, and it's done! The chrome knob is temporary - couldn't find a chickenhead in my spares so I've ordered one. Final tests through headphones and amp revealed that it has been a resounding success - real differences between the settings (well, slight difference between single/parallel but the usual big kick going into series). Only wee oopsie (and I'm not fixing it) is that I got my coils mixed up and the single coil is the bridge coil, not the neck one as I had intended. I don't think it makes a lot of difference so I'm going to leave it.

I looked up "bass player" definition and I didn't see "makes logical sense" anywhere, you're all good.