Maude

I've noticed in the pictures that the bridge pickup is not square and quite noticeable now the ramp is fitted. I might have to realign that as can't unsee it now.

😆

@Bassassin Those look lovely, nice organic shapes. I'd have liked to have done more shaping but for what I needed the straight edges worked best. It's a fair old slab and does add a bit of weight to the bass but it's relatively light to start with.

Ha ha, its not just my little finger that's weird 😯 I think it's something I've developed to keep my plucking hand in place as I get a bit lively when playing.

I've just measured and there's still 8-9mm clearance between the ramp and strings, and the ramp is 15mm thick. So just to give an idea of the issue I had, imagine being used to playing over a pickup, most of us do, but that pickup being nearly 2.5cm from the strings.

I'm a panelbeater so it's always whatever we're using at work. At the moment we're using Farecla G360 super fast compound followed by Farecla G360 super fast finish using a mini polisher. I was surprised how easily it polished up. I filed the cutout out then sanded it with P180, 320, 500, then 800 wet n dry, 1000w&d, 1500w&d and finally 3000w&d, then the polishes. Seems a bit laboured but it only took thirty seconds or so of each grade.

I was just typing a post in the recent ramp thread as I've now made my ramp which I mentioned in said thread, and I thought I'd do a very small build thread instead as it was a bit overkill for a reply to the ramp thread. My Rickenbacker 4005 copy has a massive gap under the strings due to it's design, the toaster pickups on Rickenbackers are mounted straight on the surface with no routing meaning the strings have to sit really high compared to a conventionally designed bass. This feels very odd when going for the occasional pop or when playing octaves with thumb and forefinger. Also the pickups are so far apart that neither one is really suitable as a thumbrest for my normal playing style, and the huge string to body gap make it weird to play resting my thumb on the body. So I've made a clear Plexiglass ramp to act as a full length thumbrest and to make the string to body clearance more like every other bass I've played, so it isn't a ramp as such. I just bought a rectangle of Plexiglass cut to my measurements on ebay for £6.50 and cut the strange shape in to the top right corner. This is for a weird quirk of mine where I always seem to rest my thumb on a pickup but hook my little finger down the side of it, I don't know why but I feel comfortable that way so I cut this chamfered bit to accommodate my pinky. The edges and corners were rounded of and then all polished up and it really is crystal clear. I'm hoping that under stage lights it will virtually disappear rather than trying to make a wood one that will never match the colour and grain of the top. The lower edge butts against the scratchplate to hide the edge and the top edge looks darker in these photos because of light refraction, or lack of light. I've fixed it with two screws under the strings which I don't think are out of place with the scratchplate and tug bar screws. I was going to use clear doubled sided tape but it looked odd and would collect dirt, this way I can remove to clean any dust that may get underneath. So there you go, a clear ramp/thumbrest/faux top thingymajiggy. 🙂

Thanks for that, I thought using the 4ohm would be best and possibly give more power if using both cabs. The plan, sort of, is to build a flip top combo with the amp and one driver, but if I've got another driver kicking about then I may as well make a second, matching extension cabinet. All this is relatively pointless as they won't get used in either band I'm in at the moment. One band I use EB and go direct through the PA with a floor monitor and the second band I solely use DB through my PJB rig and can't see valve driven 15s being much good for that. It's purely for fun and I need to do something with this gear that has very little resale value, so I may as well make something cool. If it behaves at rehearsal and sounds good then it's game on. 🙂

I know it's easy to unplug the lead but at a gig once sound checked, and between sets, I'd rather just flick a switch and leave everything connected. I'm fairly OCD with the routing of my cables so no risk of anyone tripping over them. It's fairly irrelevant for me anyway because at the moment I either gig my passive Rick or my Variax which is powered up the cable, but just saying.

One more question. Is there any real world gains to plugging both 15s (piggy backed in parallel) into the 4ohm out, over plugging them individually into the pair of 8ohm outs? Will using them in the 4ohm out pull more power out of the amp?

Or a passive bass. 🤔

I've given the amp a good clean up inside and had a look around to see if anything obvious was amiss. Now as I said I'm no amp tech but I couldn't see any obvious issues, burnt terminals or boards, swollen components or anything like that, and I know you can't tell much like that but it worked when it went into storage years ago and has been dry and warm indoors, the trunk it was in is beside the fireplace with a woodburner in, so I've dug out my old cabs with the celestion speakers in and given it a low volume test at home. The speakers are old Rola Celestion G15-150 8ohm, this is a guitar speaker but I used to use a pair of them for the bottom end of my bi-amped rig, basically they were used as subwoofers and that rig sounded amazing and was seriously loud, size and weight stopped me using it. I know they weren't handling full range as I'm asking of them now but surely the bottom end is the end that would've killed them if bass was going to? Anyway I'm going to take it all to rehearsal this week and try it at volume. The 15's are both in separate cabs and I can't remember if I wired the sockets to join them in parallel or series so the easiest way I'm guessing is to plug them both into the amp separately, each into one of the 8ohm outs on the back, I assume I can plug two cabs in at once. I might only need one but I'll take them both in case. (EDIT) I was having a dumb moment, they must be in parallel to give 4ohm, there's no reason I'd have wanted 16ohm, for a moment of stupidness I though 8 or 4 but obviously it would be 16 or 4. At home I tryed it with a P bass with flats and one of the Celestions and it really sounded quiet nice, a valve pre would obviously improve it but it was warm and vintage with plenty of thump, I was a bit surprised actually as I though it might be a bit quiet and middy but no. I banged through 'Get Ready' by The Temptations and it sounded bang on, until Mrs. Maude reprimanded me 😁 If it behaves at volume and sounds nice then I'll get it checked over properly and replace anything it needs.

To be honest I'd rather have a little mini toggle to turn it on and off.

The jack plug joins two connections to complete the active circuit acting like an 'on' switch, so yes it will drain the battery. This is on most active basses, there might be some with a fancy circuit that prevents this but I don't know.

But he did tell me what band his mate plays in, so I'm going track him down to let him know if he doesn't get on with it to get hold of me. Back to gigging every week after this weekend for the rest of the year so I can concentrate on playing rather than eyeing up basses 😁

He's only gone and sold it to his mate. Nevermind.

I would guess the neck should be more stable as that's what it's designed to do in shingles, it stops them expanding and contracting with heat and moisture to limit splitting.

Let's bring it into this century with a funky up to date name. All this burst this and burst that is so twentieth century. How about 'Colon Squeeze' or 'Evacuation Splash'.

As far as I'm aware it's the same process that is done to cedar shingles for roofing to make them more stable and weather resistant.

I feel the same about Vibraslap.

Well if it gets better then it will be fantastic in a few months, it sounds mightily impressive already. 👍

Tell him to stop bloody hitting it. 😯😆 It sounds lovely. Will the sound change as it all settles in so to speak, or are they pretty stable as soon as they're built?

He's declined my offer as he's got an old mate looking at it next week and has given him first refusal. I've said I'm happy to give him £600 if his mate doesn't want it so we'll just have to wait and see now.

This is true and I didn't think of that. My Club bass doesn't 'feel' as short as it actually is on a strap. Sat down it's not an issue though.

Hofner Ignition series Club bass or Violin bass. Slim neck, short scale, very light, very good useable range of tones and between £250 & £300 new. Both available in black or sunburst.