blablas

That's a set of beautiful basses you've got there!
Hope they sound as good as they look.

My cheap lot, all Harley Benton's.

A couple of B stock ones, some new ones and one sold as deko (which has been turned into a player).

Finnished another PB-Shorty conversion.

RiB-Shorty

Harley Benton RiB-shorty project is done.


Detail pictures:




This was a smooth and simple conversion, only minor setback was the breaking out if the chunk of wood while drilling the hole for the sidejack.

Verdict:
This one was the best made HB instrument I've had in my hands until now. Nice tight(ish) fitting neck/neck-pocket, frets are level and there are no sharp fret ends, only two tuners were a little bit misaligned that were fixable without any 'filling and drilling'. I replaced one bridge saddle due to the fact that the height adjustment screws were not at an straight angle to the intonation screw (the original one worked okay but I don't like these small disturbing details).
I also placed a neck shim, this was not necessary but I prefer to have the strings a little bit higher in the bridge position.

These Chinese toasters sound amazingly Rick-ish, even though they are dual coils (in series), the round rolling sound with a bite, the only minus is that they are slightly microphonic.

Shielded the controls cavity.



This should be enough, the pickups are fully shielded constructed and will be connected with a shielded cable.

Drilled the hole for the sidejack....
And with doing that created a serious repair job for myself.
While the drill-bit was coming through a big chunk of wood broke out on the topside, luckily it was a clean break on the woodgrain, repaired it almost invisible, you can still see some very thin lines where the breakout was - these lines are primarily how the light breaks on the thick polyurethane top-coating, I cant feel them.


After this repair I mounted the bridge and neck to check how the pickups aligned with the strings... judge for yourself.

I didn't read it (all), a picture can tell me more than a thousand words, another very nice build you've done there.

Thanks for all the compliments!

Going to do an attempt at making sound samples this weekend.

Aligned the tuners (and removed the stickers).
Before:

after:

No filling and drilling, there was just enough space to move the tuners around in a aligned position after loosening the screws.

Routed the cavities for the pickups in the body.

[url="http://www.bax-shop.nl/"]bax-shop.nl/[/url] in the Netherlands, big assortment and sometimes very competing prices to Thomann.

Black Label and stainless Red Label fit without any problem.
It's the nickel Red Label that do not always fit, I've got no experience with their Yellow Label nickels.

The headstocks of my two most recent builds.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1436545398' post='2819085']"Problem" or "design feature": to help them sell their branded strings?
[/quote]
Not really, the Red Label nickel B strings more often than not don't fit the Warwick tail piece!
Only after some fiddling with the string and some pliers they will go in.

... 20 Minutes after my previous post.
Delivered.

A bit bored waiting for the next PB-Shorty that should be delivered today...
To kill some time made and edited a picture of the things that are already prepared for this one.

Not sure yet which pickguard ring I'm going to use for the bridge position, for the time being I'm using the black one.

First I want to get a bit more comfortable playing this beast, but samples are planned.

What strings are you using on these Blablas

The backside.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/6Eqyx6p.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/SGAxHxW.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/54lHB1D.jpg[/IMG]

Finished my latest DIY project.
[IMG]http://s20.postimg.org/xd3uxgj4t/mk4_4.jpg[/IMG]
[URL='http://basschat.co.uk/topic/240945-de-afwerking-mk4-4-blablas-has-that-building-itch-again/page__view__findpost__p__2813127']More detail pictures[/URL] & [URL='http://basschat.co.uk/topic/240945-de-afwerking-mk4-4-blablas-has-that-building-itch-again/']Full build diary[/URL]. (both on BassChat in the Build Diaries section)

Made a new pickguard for the MMB-Shorty.
Old:

Got bored with this one.

New:

I was making one last week for the upcoming RiB-Shorty conversion project and I could get two pickguards from one pickguard plate.

And a few more pictures.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/pX4NZ1P.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jM0ykgb.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uZoYubF.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/I6QRJ3n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jb2BY0z.jpg[/IMG]

More detailed pictures of the back are coming.

Finished my latest DIY project.


And the one I made before that.

Not exactly on display, they are standing in racks and/or are hanging on wall hooks.

Almost forgot the last build picture: Dated, numbered and signed.

I set the date at June because it was finished that month. Due to breaking two strings I needed to wait until just inside July before I received them.

[quote name='roman_sub' timestamp='1435857718' post='2813142']
incredible. would you play the strings in threes?[/quote]
That's the purpose with this string layout.