itu

Practically every pickup can be driven through a preamp or by themselves. EMG is a good exception of this rule (except their HZ series!). Many preamps are 0 dB amps, so the signal is the same with or without the pre when eq is set flat. But if you crank the eq, you naturally get more output. Remember: the gain of your amp is your friend. A preamp costs £20 - £300. I do not think that the assembling will cost a fortune. After all it is pretty staightforward: few wires, pots, some screwing or tinning, batteries in and the system is ready.

Top of the line: John East. With full active mixer and all. Nearly everything else is practically less with passive mixing and volume. Yes JE costs quite some but if the instrument fits you like a glove, the preamp is after all reasonably priced. 1 to 2 effects boxes cost the same or even more. Another road is to reduce most moving parts under the hood and do the adjustments from the amp or a floorboard. That is somewhat tricky but doable. Yes, I have done that. Preamps are not automatically flat just like the amps tend to have sound of their own. If your current preamp is not working well flat, try to tweak the adjustments from end to another. You may find something reasonable. You can also adjust the pickups closer or further away from the strings to tweak the sound. Try to keep notes about what you have done, so you can get back when in need.

I put a Mixpot to my Modulus Quantum and the change was substantial. If I want to change a two pickup bass somehow, active mixing is the thing. Eq is nice to have but mixing (and a low pass filter) seems to be my road to happiness.

Me too. I have done some experiments on a metal thread in a wood. If the thread is big in diameter, or long enough, metal type works surprisingly well. Thread insert is naturally a good step towards the big diameter thread. Your method of two thread inserts is nice. I would put a big washer in between because it stops the insert flush. Yes, I know, my hands are less trained, and I think the Wal neck is curved at that particular place. The owner of the Wal will be happy. Keep up the excellent work.

The Bourns blend pot (type MN) has half tracks. In the middle both pickups are full on. Active mixers do not necessarily need special pots as the pots are not directly in the signal route.

I forgot Meridian Funk-u-lator.

MTD, Warwick broadneck, Overwater Custom, Modulus Graphite wideneck (up to 21.5 mm)... yes, there are possibilities but they also tend to cost quite a lot. I have a Modulus Genesis 5 and the neck is just wonderful.

As @Hellzero said, strings are one part of the sound. If you use (or at least try) roundwounds, nickel gives more middle.

These do not have to be the all time top units, but something else to consider: Mad Professor - Snow white Autowah Onkart Gromt - Funky Fellow Subdecay - Prometheus DLX Emma Electronic - DiscumBOBulator Iron Ether - Xerograph (Deluxe) Some more: https://www.guitarpedalx.com/news/gpx-blog/9-of-the-best-envelope-filter-pedals-for-your-consideration https://www.guitarpedalx.com/news/gpx-blog/12-of-the-best-envelope-filter-pedals---2018-edition

Omnilooper https://schalltechnik04.de/en/home

One thing we haven't covered well is the plywood vs. wood in speaker cabinets. Baltic birch is one very good material in plywood and cabinets: stable and stiff. Last time I saw a wood cabinet, was my friend's Mesa/Boogie g-word amp. Is any bass amp company using wood?

Some bassic sounds, like slower two octave scale up and down. It's downright boring, but something that could be repeated everywhere might tell more about the effects than those funny slap fiestas.

Non-loading preamps are EMG BTS/BTC, John East, and Audere. You can buy a separate mixer from Noll, called Mixpot. Practically all others have high-impedance (passive) mixing. Usually only the tone tweaking circuitry is low impedance (active). Bourns has very functional blend pots, 250k / 500k MN, but as their type implies, they are high impedance.

SS is a bit like dough to work. Some steels are OK but may rust because of the sweat. Brass is nice, aluminium pretty easy, too.

3 way takes some time to adjust (pickup heights), but then it is quick to use. Balance pots can be found from Bourns. Models: 250k and 500k MN.

Magnetic field is not very "sharp" within a bass pickup context. Bigger issue is if the balance between strings is not even. It is not a bad thing to have pickup poles right under the strings, but some tolerance is usually accepted before the sound is affected.

WHAT? Loudest was the G3. Satriani, Vai, Fripp, Sheehan. I had a Nokia phone with a loudness meter (kind of). The top levels were around 126 dB. Me and my friends left after maybe 25 minutes. It was a disaster.

I had a bartolini MBDE pickup in my Quantum 5. It was a three coil pickup, the third was a dummy coil for single coil sound.

You probably intentionally forget that the instrument consists of a body and a neck. Yes, the topic is about bodies, but the body needs the neck before it becomes an instrument. A long stick in a slab and you have a system of resonances. A trem makes things complicated. The strings are not connected to the body very well, because of the trem construction, especially with those floating ones. ...and is nearly the same as phenolic resin. Resin and some paper. Fretboard material.

Everybody's talking about the wood, but not about the shape. This is a bit strange as every shape has characteristic resonance. You can start studying this from the very basic acoustic books like Rossing's The science of sound.

Pots may be dry, so some deoxit could solve some popping. Is there an FX loop? A cable would give a hint, whether the loop is defective - and would need that deoxit, too.

I like all self made stuff here, be it a kit or a whole instrument. And I would say that there are at least few who can build everything from scratch. On the effects side there are also few very capable wizards I love to follow. Any project is a good project. Keep up the good work!

Graphic pedal units tend to be pretty rough. The difference between a g-word and a bass unit is small. If you need a cheap tool, consider Artec, they also have a parametric that might be an option here.

Exactly, dear @Stub Mandrel Actually I was thinking about ten pics, but...