customstocker

thanks

Does anyone on this forum own 1 of these cool basses ? I was wondering if the pickups (3 single coils ?) are 1/2 a standard musicman humbucker ? I mean, dimensions wise ? I can't find any info on-line regarding these pickups .

the Wal uses alnico 5 ferrous bar magnets which , when inserted across all 4 pole pieces, something funny happens & a layer of distortion is in play...at least in a traditional single coil . I use neodymium magnets which have a clearer output & use 1 magnet per coil = 8 altogether. Iv'e been in touch with an electronics whizz from Portugal & between us, I think we have got pretty close & now have a 1 humbucker per string model making 3 types in total. There is nothing out there like a WAL though, it's a great piece of product design. But if it's the tone you are after.........

Ive made the pickups but with different magnets

ive got 1 wal pro pot spare

you need to rip out the electronics & put an 8coil pickup inside

great job Andy, it's just amazing !

wow, the Bass looks totally amazing, the Osmo gear is impressive to say the least. There is a German product which is very matt & used for base coats but even this stuff darkens the wood . I need to try this stuff myself. really interesting thread, Ive had about 10+ pages to catch up on as we have just got a proper internet connection.

I mean if the bridge was sunk into the underside then it could have a sliding cover to hide it until it needed tuning. not sure if you would still require the bridge angle or whether it would allow the bridge to sit flat. I guess it depends on how high the bridge is whether or not there would be A. enough space for it to be sunk in & B. enough body thickness to allow the design to work without creating too much stress at this area By the way, I saw a nice fretless last year with a white Ebony fingerboard, this would sit well with what you & Mick have come up with which looks amazing by the way. I can build a pup for this when you have a cavity design in mind in either single coil or full humbucking mode

what would be altered strength wise if the bridge was lowered into a routed cavity on the underside under a "patch box" which slid out for tuning ? this might relieve the angle of the strings going through to the bridge saddle on top. .

i tried wing nuts, looked awful. here's the machine heads after heat treatment [attachment=224341:DSC_0065.JPG] & the jack output [attachment=224342:DSC_0052.JPG] 1 thing about this bass, the tone is really deep & I've got the action to the point where it's really nice to play, on The Greek's advice I changed the strings to the lightest gauge I could (30-85) which has allowed the neck, which is 30+ years old, to relax. From the horrible state it was in when I bought it, it's starting to get there. Just need to find some interesting industrial parts to finish it off

thanks for the comment on the knobs, these are next but I want to use something as a basis, not just turn them from steel, I guess the rigidity of a material has an effect on the tone & the sustain , Iron just breaks if you try to bend it, unlike brass so there must be some effect on sound, after all, some bells are iron ! Interesting thought.

I built a new Franken bass recently & wanted to use a cheap modern bridge that was chromed, I thought that if I could remove the chrome with a gas torch & patinate the brass? beneath, it might look interesting as the bass in question was to look weathered. I heated up the saddles first & saw a dimensional change as the thing distorted, let out a puff of gas & collapsed. when it cooled down It was just a blob of white crystal. ! has anyone else tried this ? what a load of rubbish !!!!!!! I had the idea for a while to build an industrial looking bridge from a lathe cog but the only ones I have are for my lathe for screw cutting & needed. I did have a massive cog from a mangle & have used it, best I could.[attachment=224302:DSC_0006.JPG][attachment=224303:DSC_0033.JPG][attachment=224304:DSC_0047.JPG] as you can see, the cog wasn't ideal as the internal holes cut the corners off. I am finally getting the hang of silver soldering though & got a couple of brass sections to fill the gaps. The saddles are made from a steel which has an addition of another metal to help the finishing & is heat blued, the brass has been patinated to roughly match the iron that the cog is made from with a Gunsmithing patina ( which stinks ) the saddle grooves in the base were cut on my mill, a bit deep actually, if I do another one like this I will just skim the surface. The worst bit on this project was machining down the back of the cog. Iron needs a very slow cut & the shape has probably helped to knacker the bearings on my lathe. All in all, though , quite pleased for a first attempt. The bass itself has an ash body which is quite small, the electronics are passive 1x V 1x T & the pup is one of mine, a split-p 4 coil humbucker with a 12 K ohm output. for more images of the bass you can find it here . http://www.herrickpickups.com/gallery-demos/builds-work-in-progress/ Thanks for looking

Hi . I have a few Basses but would be a liar if I was to call myself a musician , I started playing bass about 8 years ago . . A lack of timing doesnt help me , terrible taste in music ...& limited free time, the latter , I'm sure is a common complaint .I customised a few basses myself & then out of the blue, a few years ago , I was bought into a stringed instrument project in Germany . The resident Luthier there's, heart wasn't in the project & the thing wasn't going to plan . my background is design based & I think I was their last resort. To cut a long story short , at a certain point in the project we needed a pickup which had an arched top face , this didn't seem to exist so I built a simple winder from a gutted overlocker sewing machine & made some units from all raw materials . as these were unconventional I made a replacement pup with the same materials for " Mike ", the German Luthier's, hand built strat , so we could test efficacy & actually hear the sound on something that he was willing to play .Mike is a great blues guitarist & the results were encouraging out of all expectations Iv'e continued on & off with the pups & am experimenting with multi-coils now . There are an awful lot of custom pickup builders out there already , but also plenty of blogs with players complaining about whats not out there in the way of after market stuff.... which , lets face it , goes against the whole point of custom building in the first place . my idea is to offer what's missing as well as standard stuff . Recently Iv'e been working with an electronics boffin in Poland & have developed an active unit with 3 filters for use with hand wound pups on a 1 or 2 pup bass . I have a cheap & nasty Jazz bass clone by Mensfeld , built in the 80's bought 2nd hand to test a pair of jazz pups that I wound . I routed off it's fingerboard last summer with the truss rod still inside , which was pretty scary ! & added a padauk fingerboard, this is 1 of the woods we used in Germany on the Violafon instrument as it gives a great sound on a fretless, god knows why it's not used more , maybe because of the colour . on this cheap beaten up jazz clone with the new electronics fitted & the padauk fingerboard it sounds alot better than the hundred quid it cost . see pic , thanks for reading . [attachment=209238:fretless jazz giffard brass probes kbks & swiss sights 002.JPG]

just found this feed on the site , recently bought a beautiful super low action stingray from Paul , just wanted to say thanks again for sorting out the courier to my g.f 's place in Poland , even with the knuckle head couriers there , their mishap couldnt damage the bass which Paul had packed for war , thanks mate, mh

i learnt to build e guitars & basses via an instrument project i was involved with in Germany for the last 2 years , padauk was 1 of the woods we used for fingerboards ...like the orrible one sold on ebay in the pic . i had a violent allergic reaction to either this wood or cedro mahogany, that we built our necks from ,over a day & a half , my face swelled up until my cheeks & nose were a single unbroken surface & plasma was dripping from sores in my nose . in the morning i was rushed "chipmunk faced" into the local A&E for a hydro cortisone injection & a long course of tablets . . couldnt drink anything for about 2 weeks . that was the worse part . moral of this tale is .....exotic hardwoods.....if youre thinking about doing a DIY instrument ....read them up fully before you wade in & cover yourself in their dust ..