The Guitar Weasel

My rattles on my Stentor rockabilly 1950 can all be traced to the Noddy in Toytown end pin assembly - made pf plastic and Chinesium alloy (Chinesium being that fascinating metal produced only in China that seems to have the tensile properties of Emmental cheese) which I must get around to replacing at some point. I found gaffer tape to be my friend till I get round to it.

I think the secret is breaking things down into manageable chunks. 'Today I'll get the neck heel cleaned up' for example ... that means you don't overload yourself. I'm learning tons of stuff for this project. In the past for guitar and electric bass building I've always used urea formaldehyde resin glues like Cascamite (or the two pack version Cascaphen) or Aliphatic resin: the good old standby Titebond. For this project I will be using proper hide glue ... the learning curve may be steep. This sub £30 Amazon wax pot however makes a great glue kettle ... I've been lucky with this one ... the thermostat and the scale around the temperature knob actually agree, and 62c is actually 62c - or about 145 degrees F - the perfect heat for hide glue.

Looks like our basses had the attention of similar 'repairers'. I think someone has stacked up your neck heel to try and increase the overstand but that looks like a different evolutionary stage to the 'bodger with a bottle' and an unhealthy liking for the white stuff! I discovered from a luthier friend of mine that Isopropyl alcohol has a de-polymerising effect on PVA adhesive and returns it to semi gloopy white bogey state that is pretty easy to just scrape off. It also has an effect on hide glue and shellac varnish, so care needs to be taken you don't get it were it orta not be got 😁 I had to accept that there might be a tiny bit of delamination in the extreme ends of the plywood sides where they meet the neck pocket as I had to use a fair bit of alcohol to get under the joint- actually the damage was miniscule (considering I probably used a half a teacup full of Isopropyl), and a bit of hot hide glue rubbed in there when I re line the cheeks of the neck pocket will sort that fine. Good luck with yours ... any technical help I can provide just hit me up. 😄

So about 9 months ago I became a double bass player - I bought a second hand Stentor '1950' bass in a very fetching blonde - and was lucky enough to get a spot in an established rockabilly band within four months of starting to play. That's not some prodigy genius, that's hours and hours of practise and 40+ years as a guitarist. All in the garden was rosy ... well, I kept looking at eBay adverts for double basses - not sure why - I mean one 'musical wardrobe of doom' in ones lounge is a big enough statement 😁 Luckily my wife thinks upright basses are lovely bits of furniture as well. These other basses I looked at were all fixer-uppers, as I am fairly handy - owning a guitar pickup company helps ... as does a father and grandfather who were engineers. However they all were a bit pricey considering they were unknown quantities two or three hundred quid is a lot to shell out for something with no bridge, a fallen soundpost and poorly done neck repairs ... so I kept my hand away from the bidding button. Then late one evening I saw it - bass shaped standing by some wheelie bins in the pic - no idea what size 3/4 or whatever and £49 with no bids ... er ...and no scroll and peg box either!!! So for fifty quid it came home with me ... Well, I determined it was old 3/4 (but quite dainty and slim compared to my Stentor) plywood ... Czechoslovakian ... I think, not valuable in the least (especially wrecked) with a painted (and thoroughly manky) fingerboard. A perfect candidate for fixing up. My first thought was to graft on a scroll and pegbox, but the guitar builder in me reckoned it was probably easier - and a more sound job long term - to replace the whole neck. I know - I'm a certifiable loony - but after I copped a look through the unoccupied end pin hole and one look at the two honking great wood screws holding the neck (as well as god knows what glue) I thought 'no ... that there neck has got to come off, and if it's going to come off I'll replace it with a new one - and fit an ebony board - So here are a couple more views before I started . .. ... nope the flame on the neck (like that on the body) is painted on. Normally if this were a guitar I'd have used hot water to soften the glue and with palate knives and wiggling I'd have removed the neck intact. The fly on the ointment here are those two big screws ... so butchery was needed sadly. Plenty of measuring up first ... This is where I planned to get the ball rolling by removing the neck along the dotted line My Japanese Ryoba saw made fast work of the sad bit ... and left this As soon as I saw evidence of PVA bodging adhesive I went for isopropyl alcahol rather than hot water to start freeing up the bits of neck I'd sectioned out (being careful to avoid where I thought the screws were. and there she blows and it's bloody HUGE - the plan had been to wind it backwards into the body ... but it was so loose it just fell in. Lots more dribbled alcohol (sounds like my weekends) and the other one put in an appearance Messy ... but we can fix that. Extraneous holes to fill with properly cut wood plugs (not dowels) and loads of claggy white glue and hide glue to clear up. I measured the heel block depth and cut a plug for the central slot/hole from a part salvaged from the old neck heel ... and will cut two more for the old screw holes. So for those that are interested ... I have ordered a neck and fingerboard from China maple/ebony ... it'll be interesting to check out the quality ... I bought some tuners for my Stentor and they were amazing for the price. I made a dummy neck 'plug' so I can re build the sides of the neck pocket against a 100% square sided former. and this plug will be used in drilling for the neck bolts ... yes this bass will sport a bolt on neck More soon.

Unfortunate for me that double bass strings can run to the price of a whole cheaper bass guitar! Over £200 is pretty common. Ordering them online you are generally at the mercy of whichever bunch of losers they pick as carriers.

For those who frequent Fretboard Forum I've also started a thread there under the same title - I really want to see if I can use google algorithms to draw EVRi into a dialogue or a statement on their performance - I may take a crack at my MP about this.

As a guitarist and also double bass player – and like lots of folks I use eBay for some purchases. I’m also ‘trade’ and own a guitar pickup winding company – so I have loads of experience with various courier companies. I had bad experiences with Hermes before it became EVRi , but as eBay pushes its partnership with EVRi, one can’t really avoid having this company used to send purchases from eBay sellers. I NEVER use EVRi for any personal selling on eBay or indeed in my capacity as a business owner: preferring Royal Mail or at a push DPD for my business parcels. I did however need a new set of double bass strings – and as anyone who plays double bass will know these are not cheap. I was delighted to find an ‘opened but not used’ set of quite hard to find strings on eBay and proceeded to order them. After longer than the estimated delivery time I got a notification from EVRi that my parcel had been delivered. Ironically I was doing Jury service at the time but my wife was home to collect any mail. Not unexpectedly for EVRi my parcel hadn’t been delivered when I returned from a difficult day in court – neither had the doorbell been rung – my wife was listening out for it. I was provided with a ‘proof of delivery’ photograph’ which actually only showed a hand holding my parcel held in front of my next door neighbours firmly closed front door! That – to my mind - is not any ‘proof of delivery. I visited my neighbour, and they had had no mail left with them that day. So we have a delivery driver at best not bothering to even try to deliver parcels correctly and ensure their safety, and at worst a criminal driver who is faking delivery pictures and keeping other folks goods. Now I realise these delivery drivers are under-paid, rushed and over worked, but it is for EVRi to sort its house out: pay drivers properly, ensure their honesty and competence, and deliver proper service for the money they get both for their service and from their lucrative deal with eBay. I realise that it’s not just EVRi, our whole courier industry is generally poor. The courier industry’s fast expansion and lack of proper recourse and regulation has turned the industry into the ‘Wild West’ where companies like EVRi can make huge profits while short changing both their customers and their employees. Will I get my money back for my strings? Who knows. What I will do is take this as a catalyst to approach others in my industry and get them to boycott couriers that don’t clean up their act. To possibly start a petition to the UK parliament to try and get tougher controls on these companies. To ensure they don’t try to hide behind chat bots and convoluted complaints procedures to escape their duties to give value and security in their services with respect to goods entrusted to them that we have paid for!. Please share this on social media if you can, this industry needs to be cleaned up.

I generally rewind anything up to 20 Rick bass pickups a year, from sixties to early to 2000s ... and my Rick inspired prototypes have taken elements from a mixture of eras, for example: the screw adjustable pole pieces combined with the more modern wind. The harder higher carbon steel screw poles give a different and more toppy character.

Having rewound a lot of Rick pickups I've found (by actually measuring the wire diameter) that contrary to what Rickenbacker have maintained, the 8k ones were wound with 43awg wire which roughly gives you 8000 turns. They now use finer 44awg wire ... and because of the higher resistance per foot of the finer gauge, the 8000 turns gives you 13.5k. Exactly the same power, because it's turns that equal volume, not resistance. The 44awg wire just gives you more mid punch.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Ricks: I'm primarily a guitar player ... so I've never had to live with one on a day to day basis for playing. My experience comes from playing one occasionally, and in spending 40 years repairing instruments and six years rewinding numerous Rick pickups. I adore the look, and the mid range growl and clang, but ergonomically as a player I couldn't use one all the time. The Issue I see over and over again are dead Rick pickups, ones that have mysteriously just stopped working. When I rewound my first Rick bass pickup I discovered the design fault that leads to failure. Dead centre of the image is a sawn off brass screw that is driven through the bobbin and .... The super delicate 44awg wire is soldered directly to that screw ... no insolation, no strain relief. If the screw gets loose ... which the original soldering can make it ... it twists and breaks the wire. The simple fix is a short insulated 'pig tail' that has the core wire soldered to that ... a kink is put in the wire to allow for a bit of movement ... and the whole shooting mach is taped before winding. Problem solved ... but why oh why can't Rickenbacker do something about it themselves?

That looks really cool.

Jason (Lollar) made a replacement 'horseshoe' pickup ... which Rickenbacker no longer make, and the patent had expired on ... yet he got busted. You can see why us pickup makers treat the company like a handgrenade with the pin out!

Yes but if a pickup maker like me says it (probably three times) mirror or no ... then the lawyers from the 'Company Which Must Not Be Named' come and jump all over him with hobnail boots.

That's on my 'to do' list 🙂

Then it's done exactly what I wanted it to do ... No doubt with a bit of creative EQ you could tip it either way, which makes for a good take on versatility. On a solid bass you might have more clang than thump, but considering there is no other body or neck design element in common with a ... er Californian bass, or a an equal pickup positioning ... I think I nailed the design brief 🙂

Yep, blues harmonica player here too 🙂

If you are at the Birmingham guitar show in February Bridgehouse ... bring it to our stand and demo it 🙂

Mudbucker covers are pretty much impossible to get ... I'd do a version if I could get those. Perhaps a custom made ebony cover or similar would do the job. I'm an engineer not a woodworker mind ...

Sadly no ... I started to be more of a guitar player than a bass player, so I sold it to the bass player of my band at the time ... he used it for years. It's still out there somewhere. It's easily recognisable: a fretless Thunderbird bass with a ebony board and a Model 1 DiMarzio Mudbucker in the neck position and a split P Bass in the bridge. Pretty unique.

looks bloody gorgeous! The all black hardware, and slightly brutal looking pickup, contrasts brilliantly with the wood grain and antique look. Me like ... lots!

Careful putting in the screws, the bobbin is pretty full so watch the driver on the tape covering the coil.

I built my first bass back in 1978(it was a set neck Thunderbird copy) out of an old mahogany hardware shop counter! I love the idea of recycling wood.

Should have said about foam ... I have loads here ... If you are short I'll post you some.

Glad the pickup came 🙂 And thought I'd better come and say hi ... after all, I've been bass player in a few bands too, have owned everything from a 63 Precision to a BC Rich Mockingbird bass, and build and repair nearly as many bass pickups as guitar ones. Plus my business partner's a bass player, and is always trying to get me to design and wind more bass stuff ... he'll be flipping his fingers in delight. 🙂

Well hello chaps, I thought I'd better say hello and explain Bridgehouse's pickup as I'm the person who designed and wound it :-) My business involves a hell of a lot of pickup rewinds (as well as building new pickups), and the most common bass pickup to need my ministrations is that 'certain classic California-made' bass we are discussing. It's always had me thinking that it's kinda an object lesson in how to break the mould in bass pickup design ... because it's actually built pretty much the opposite way to the way you'd expect to produce bass tones. It's thin bobbin and super fine wire combined with relatively low output is really poles apart from the tall bobbin, thicker wired P Bass and J Bass. There are plenty of guitar pickups that use the squat bobbin approach: the P90 and the Jazzmaster are two notable ones, and they instantly sound different to taller bobbin pickups like Strat ones. My instant thought was to replicate the tones Bridgehouse was looking for (without tons of extra EQ) a 51 P Bass bobbin was too tall and would accentuate too much treble over mids. So I fired up the laser cutter and produced a custom bobbin of exactly the same winding area as the ... um ... Californian bass, and sat it atop a ceramic magnet ... filling it to 14k with 44awg wire. As a finishing touch I added adjustable dome head steel poles. Now does it sound exactly like the original? I popped it briefly into my bass pickup test guitar (a P Bass partscaster with a dirty big central rout) and gave it a little go ... I ended up with a big smile. Not an exact ringer, but a lot closer than I've ever got with a Precision and no EQ. I'll leave it to Bridgehouse to do some sound samples ... but I'm pleased I proved a bit of a concept, at least to myself.