ped

Updated pic with fretless neck attached

Maybe I need an angry parent to make me learn properly! RE the pickup surround - I talked to Tim at Gig.Ink https://gig.ink - despite offering a super cool range of designs, he was more than happy to do me a simple boring white rectangle. He sent 1:1 templates to test and we're all set. The bass looks quite cool with a surround around the bridge, too - so at a later date I might do that, or get surround(s) in other colours, maybe.

I think the lines are in the wrong place on mine

Yeah me too, at least this way I can use the bridge as an excuse

OK - the fretless neck is adjusted and the action/intonation is set. It plays beautifully - amazingly the intonation is pretty spot on - I can't get it exact because of the shared saddle arrangement, but the new Albridge will sort that. However, I will install that last, if I need to - I quite like the original bridge, so given the inaccuracy of my fretting, it might not need to be perfect. We'll wait and see. Along with the wiring harness, one other job is to correct the slight slant of the neck pickup. There's room under the pickguard to move the pickup by a few degrees, but doing so will necessitate cutting the scratchplate a little to make it fit. What I'd like to do is fit a bezel around the neck pickup, using w/b/w pickguard material in a rectangle, to go around the J pickup and hide the gaps left by the old position. I wondered if anyone on BC has the skills/time to make this, otherwise I could try a pickguard website (I have used tinyTone before with great results) It just wants to be like this, around a dimarzio J pickup

I sometimes wonder myself!

Precisely, so I can’t solo a pickup to check if just one cancels the hum. But from looking online it seems as though they definitely do.

Yeah that’s the sort of thing I was thinking of but then I saw a used version of the Soul Mate which seems to offer a similar set of features plus some useful additions. I really like FKY audio stuff (Had the Meridian Funk-u-lator made by the same guy but for Meridian guitars) so I’ll check out some more demos of it.

The original neck. It sounds like I should leave the truss rod alone when storing this, correct?

Fretless neck is here. Bolted on (first time I’ve done that) and tuned up. It’ll need time to settle but it sounds brilliant! I’ll leave it for a day or two as currently there’s a bit of back bow so once the strings add some force the other way it’ll either be right or need some truss rod adjustment. The fit and finish of the ebony board replacement is great, I think it’ll come up really nicely with some epoxy.

I'm going to have a fretless bass again soon, so I'm thinking about my pedalboard setup. My current pedalboard contains the following: Filter - OD - Fuzz - Bassballs - Comp - LPF Occasionally I put an octaver in the loop of the filter. Thing is, apart from the comp and LPF I probably wouldn't use many of these with fretless, but I don't really want to make a second board and have to bring both. I don't want to bring several extra pedals to put before or after my pedalboard either. Ideally, an all in one fretless pedal would work well, that I can bypass for fretted but switch in things as required. I've been toying with the idea of a multi fx, from the Zoom Multistomp through to a Helix, but those options are either possibly under or overkill! In my search I found this Trex 'Soul Mate Acoustic' The selection of effects are exactly what I'd like on fretless. Reverb, chorus, looper, comp, para EQ... this could happily go between my fretless bass and my pedalboard. It seems as though it would be great for bass - the para EQ frequency centres make sense and none of the effects are necessarily ones which would rob low end. What do you reckon?

If you haven’t seen it in ‘build diaries’ I’m about to turn this modified Musicmaster into a lovely fretless.

I’m not 100% sure but I might be right in thinking these dimarzio pickups are hum cancelling? I can’t solo either pickup to check but I think I read somewhere that this is the case - a happy accident if so, particularly as I’ll likely favour the bridge pickup for fretless. Can anyone confirm?

Musicmaster arrived today (amazing service from Rich Tone Music, Sheffield). Plugged it in, and it’s a blast! The weird electronics mean I get both pickups only but at least I know they both work. It has a really rich growly sound and it feels great. Neck is straight, possibly one or two high frets but no major issues. I can get the action very low and even the janky bridge allows near enough intonation. It’s a bit heavier than the Mustang but still light. The finish is really very yellow indeed which is lovely in person, more yellow than I expected but quite faithful to the pictures on the listing. The cream pickups look lovely against the body and I can see why the dimarzios are so well regarded. The finish seems to be a polyester coat although it must be quite thin as it’s worn away in places. It definitely fees and looks more like poly. Being ‘72 I think that checks out. It’s clear that the bass has been loved and thoughtfully modified thus far. It’s definitely been played and loved, and even though I’ll be making a few changes I don’t feel like I’m rescuing a basket case. Looking forward to the next step - fretless neck comes tomorrow, so I’ll put that on and give it a go although without pickup pan it won’t be ideal, but enough to give me an idea of the final sound. I have the new bridge on the way from the USA and still thinking about the wiring. Early Sept I’ll pass it on to my luthier and get cracking. In short, I’m relieved that the bass is ok. Much better than expected and I’m super excited to see how this ends up!! Not sure what sort of strap to get for it, as I have a wide RightOn strap for the mustang which matches perfectly. Maybe the same in black with a yellow stripe. I’ll also need a spare clip for the Backbeat. Then another pedalboard. Yellow stage clothes. The list goes on…

Take a crime number and bye 🙋🏻‍♂️

I ended up getting the Albridge linked in the first post as they messaged back and said they had one ready to send. The Halon guy is away from today for a few weeks so even though I’m not in a rush I went for the Albridge which worked out about the same price.

Where did you get these?

Ah I see you mentioned 17.5mm.

Brilliant, I will drop you a line if things don't go tits up before we get to the logo stage!

TC Electronic Spectradrive? Love the comp, never tried the drive

If the same as my 'Stang they're 6mm push fit, I think. I don't necessarily mind using different knobs of the same style, or adding a third. I have some the same type which fit with a set screw which might work depending on the pots required. I'm just wondering were a third one would go - I'd like to keep the front mounted jack, and I'm not sure where else would fit with the existing routing, or where there might be space. Maybe a third in line with the others before the neck pickup, though it would be quite close - not a problem for my playing style but can't tell if there'd be room until I have the bits in hand.... For everyone else, I'm toying with the idea of a bland, tone, and varitone control with two different caps which would be quite tasty on a fretless. I think @devinebass has a similar arrangement on his Lull Jazz, using a push/pull to switch between the two, which is a good idea.

I’m talking to Steve at Chapel Guitars http://www.chapelguitars.com (found via the recommended luthiers thread here). He’s made the potentially fatal error of accepting the challenge!

Some gut shots: Plenty of wiggle room to adjust the neck pickup. I’m talking to BC legend @KiOgon about a loom, probably balance/tone (maybe a varitone style selector somewhere, tbc. I want to use the original knobs and I’m allergic to stacked ones)

I think I got lucky with the neck on my Mustang; it’s perfect and the fretwork is impeccable and it’s solid as a rock. I’m not sure if Musicmasker necks are basically the same or not? Of course for a fretless the neck needs to be spot on so hopefully the more modern Japanese neck will be fairly decent

Oh I need to save too!! I’m not sure yet - probably if everything goes to plan.