Rexel Matador

7 hours ago, durhamboy said:

Gotta love that softly triangular knob, it's so good I might have to use it as "inspiration" for some similar efforts. 

Thanks! I was a little apprehensive about evoking the sign of the plectrum on a bass build, but it works.

15 minutes ago, pete.young said:

My guess would be that the big one on the outside is the sleeve, the shortest of the other two is the tip and the other one is the ring, for either stereo or for switching on an active circuit. One way to check is with a multimeter, have you got access to one? If you plug a lead into it, you can check continuity between the tip on the free end of the lead and the tags on the socket.

Thanks! I do have a multimeter, and I thought there might be a multimeter based solution, I just didn't know what to look for!

So just to make sure I've understood correctly - once I've identified which one is the tip, can I just wire it as a normal mono jack and leave the ring with nothing attached?

Finally started on the neck. Not much to see yet, but the joint seems solid. The blank is nice and long so I've given myself plenty of potential headstock area to play with. I have a cool idea for it but it's rather ambitious - we'll see.

I ordered a mono one, but it has three terminals. Can I use it as a mono jack? The seller's post also has a picture of one with four terminals, which would lead me to believe that that is the stereo option. Some googling suggests to me that there is a sleeve (the big one on the outside, I assume), a tip, and an aux terminal for switching. Of the latter two, how do I know which is which (one is longer than the other)?

Thanks!

Just an idea I had...

I'm currently building my fourth bass. It's generally going very well given the short time I've been doing it and I'm sure if I continue to hone my craft and amass better equipment I'll one day produce something someone might like to buy.

In the meantime, though, I'm just making them for myself, which is all well and good, but surely the real challenge is making something to fulfil someone else's needs. As a consumer, I'm very forgiving of my own shortcomings!

So I was just wondering - if there's anyone else out there at a similar stage, i.e. able to handbuild a serviceable bass but not feeling ready (or perhaps even willing) to go into business with it. If so, perhaps we could come up with an arrangement where we build an instrument for each other? In theory it wouldn't be limited to two people - an even number could pair off and an odd number could just go round in a circle.

Obviously there would need to be further discussion to hammer out all the details, expectations, etc, but I just wanted to put it out there and see what people think. It may well have been done before on here - I wasn't sure how to word a search for something similar!

I know there are more dedicate builder's forums out there, and I might try there in due course, but I've found the community here very encouraging and it's as good a place as any to start.

4 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I generally would, simply because then the bottom of the slot is going to be the nut height so you can be sure where it's going to be regardless of the string.  Having said that, for a tryout for a string gauge that you might not stick with, initially I would probably leave the slot alone unless it was sitting so high that you can't judge if it's a keeper or not.

Many thanks Andy, that's a great idea 👍

Thanks for the encouragement so far everyone. It always spurs me on!

String/bridge question: the band I'm currently playing with tunes to drop B flat (I had no say in this - it was locked in before I joined - but here we are 🤣) so from low to high, Bb, F, Bb, Eb. So - this means that my "B" string is a semitone lower than standard and the other three are a semitone higher than standard. Consequently an off the peg Beefy Slinky set gives me very uneven string tension and I'm going to experiment with a custom set, including a ridiculous .140 B string. Come on, get to the point... ok... should I be filing the slot in the saddle to accommodate it because otherwise it will be connecting with the saddle in two places (the sides of the slot, rather than sitting in it). Some saddles have v shaped slots and some are threaded, so maybe it doesn't matter. Thoughts?

Ok, we basically have a body. It's very rough around the edges (literally) right now, but it's nice to have reached a milestone of sorts. I still have another pickup to build, not to mention a neck. This build has barely begun!

Coming along. The offset body necessitated asymmetrical f-holes and I need to do a fair old bit of shaping to get them looking right. I pretty much messed up by not setting the lower one a bit further back towards the bridge end, but it comes pretty much up to where the control cavity starts so we're stuck with it. I'm not massively happy with them, but I'm not taking the top off and starting again, so I'll work with what I've got and get them looking as nice as I can

But the grain on this top is better than I could have hoped for. It almost feels like a shame to add pickups and a bridge and that

Short scale necks tend to be a bit thinner at the heel, would that be a possibility? I guess if it already has holes for bridge screws that would be an issue as they wouldn't be in the right place.

16 minutes ago, DanOwens said:

2 looks more metal! 

I agree - kind of Giger-ish! Admittedly F-holes are not the most metal thing to add to a bass, but I figure Lemmy's had a nice carved walnut body and what's more metal than Lemmy? Even if he did play strictly "Rock n' Roll".

Which should I go for? Or none of the above?

Top in place. It's looking a bit rough right now but I can already tell it'll look lovely once it's finished. Progress has very slow, so, even though there's loads left to do, it's nice to see it beginning to look like an actual bass body. I still have to cut the soundholes before the back goes on. I probably should have done it before gluing it on but I still haven't decided exactly what they should look like.

A channel to connect the two pickup cavities - made with drill and chisel because I couldn't be bothered to get the router out, but it'll be hidden under the top and serves its purpose just fine.

And the top (or back, I haven't decided yet) joint drying - more soon...

A maple layer that will serve as "binding" once the walnut top is glued on and rounded over:

I would go with black I think, but then will you be able to get a black switch?

This bass is only going to have one control knob. I bought a maple one as I figured it would look nice with the pickups, but it's really small and would just look weird and sad sitting there on it's own.

So I decided to make one:

It's not finished yet, so will be a bit shinier, but I think it'll go nicely with the pickup covers.

I've also done a bit more on the body but there's nothing to see yet. The top and back are waiting for me at the post office, so I'll make some real progress soon. I haven't even started on the neck, but I've got some fun time-consuming plans for that too 😆

3 hours ago, Jimothey said:

Building pedals is just as addictive as building basses I’ve built this one and I’ve got another 3 in the pipeline!!........😬

Where do I go to learn? I only really use overdrive, but I'd love to make my own one day!

Tube Driver - brilliant 🤣

Re printing in colour - I quite like it in monochrome - looks kind of punky.

Damn you basschat - now I really want to build a pedal in addition to everything else!

12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

You scrape, rather than cut.

Interesting! I'll give it a try

Beautiful! What do all those switches do?

46 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Scalpel.

I don't understand how you'd cut a round bottomed slot with a scalpel - what am I missing?

14 minutes ago, Bassalarky said:

You could try starting off with a needle file and use old strings (as files) to get the final fit and finish. Works surprisingly well if you take it slow with the needle file and just use the pointy bit at the end for the smaller slots.

That's pretty much my current method, but as I've done a few now I think it's probably time to make the investment!

I'm starting to regret the offset body shape because I'm really itching to go multiscale - it would be great for the absurdly low bottom string in the new metal band - but don't want to have one of the little bridges practically hanging off the back. Oh well, I guess that just means I'll have to build another one 😀

Apologies that this update is just a general musing as opposed to evidence of some actual work! More pictures soon, I swear.