caitlin

13 minutes ago, rmorris said:

So do you get the same problem with the 5 string if you power with batteries.

(If you haven't tried it with batteries - then do it 🙂

Thanks for reading the topic

ah, yes, I should have mentioned that I'd tried two leads. Good shout, that's one way to lose an earth if the shield has failed on the wire.

I have three active basses (I blame this forum in many ways) two JHS 'Vintage' 4 strings, and a 5 string that I built from a kit, guess which one is being weird.

I have a Zoom B1x 4, which generally I've used on batteries, but it can also eat 5V up its USB socket. The Manual carefully ALWAYS mentions powering it with batteries, either the internal AAs or 'A USB Powerpack' so NOT from a wall wart. So I'm using a wall wart.

With nothing plugged in, it's quiet, but with JUST a cable plugged in there's a hum, no complaints there I just attached an aerial.

Plugging either of the professionally built basses makes the hum go away, totally silent, I assume shunting it to ground but what do I know?

The 5 though quietly sings to itself and the quality of the hum changes with the treble and bass controls. Notably it doesn't matter what ways I wave the bass around the hum doesn't change, it's not coming through the air, it's coming up the wire.

I've shielded the cavity with copper tape which beeps out with a multimeter but it's made no difference to the hum.

If the preamp (ARTEC BE2) is unpowered the hum DOES stop and interestingly if I disconnect the pickups the hum is unchanged (i was going to carry on and shield the pickup cavities, but this suggests I'd get no benefit)

Does this suggest that the preamp is unable to reject the hum from the stomp box or am I likely to be able to wire my way out of this?

Obviously I shouldn't use the zoom guy from a crap power supply, but this has me intrigued.

I've smashed the BE2 in with extreme violence, Forstner bits and chiseling a plenty, here's where we stand as of now:

I had some trepidation about plugging it in, I checked as many things as I could think of with my multimeter and then whacked it into my zoom pedal on batteries as a sacrificial object that could make noise. I can hear it doing a balance between pickups, I can hear it doing a bass boost and cut and a treble boost and cut which to be honest is more than I could hear the original electronics doing.

That cavity is tight as anything and I have to admit that the board and jack socket are an interference fit, the saving grace is that it's an earth that's rubbing against the earth of the board so there's no electrical risk there.

I am underwhelmed with the sound, I expected it to be night and day, but there it is. I guess the pickups are potentially at a price point but it's not a lively responsive instrument at present, and the other day when this was gutted and I went back to my 4 string, I was stunned by how much more articulate and dynamic that one sounds in comparison.

Of course I did get to play a friends' very modern Ibanez a month or three back and I found that almost unmanageable, by which i mean it really laid my crappy fingers out plain.

I'll give this setup some time, and prod it a bit, perhaps muck about with pickup heights but it's interesting how this experience is going.

What fun.

Aw flip, I thought my socket was a stereo one, but its not, the third pin is connected to the barrel, but never to the sleeve of the jack, there's no switch closing taking place. A stereo socket becomes ordered and should hopefully land with the other junk on Thursday. Back to working on the motorbike for a bit then.

The BE2 is HERE. I'm started soldering JST tails to it so I don't need to mod the plug and fail nature of the existing electrics.

Still need to work out how the hell the wiring on the socket works, it is a three pin dooble but i'm going to need to shove leads in and out of it to understand which bit is the 'switch' and how that goes between plus and ground in any case.

The BE2, with a little violence, slides into the existing holes, but since some move cavity needs to come out to allow the battery to fit I've got some forstner and some wood chisel in the post. Should be able to get this hammered in by the weekend for much grin and more drive and hopefully a lower noise floor into the bargain..

Shoulda stuck to drums.

ha looks like none plays it there. meh. back to the thinking about it.

Well, I knew changing to 5 strings was a paradigm shift and not playing the B string was the lamest thing any 5 string wannabee

could do. It's *fun* re-working out fingerings for songs but damn, some are confusing.

I have a stupid book with I Wish in it but it LIES and has it written for 4 string in E when the real song is in E flat, right. So I'm tuned B E A D G and I'm starting the first riff at fret 11 of the E string (which is obv Eb), does that sound mental? It's dropped the 'shape' of the pattern into a scale box shape I understand and the pitches seem sensible but I can't help wondering where the 'best' place to phrase it is. Better go look at some videos and peel my eyes for the bassist.

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

Looks great, well done.

I have a used SE 3A if you want to give that a go. I think it works but might have a crackly pot. I don't want anything for it but you might need to find some black stacked knobs for a couple of the pots. I think Axes'R'Us  have them.

SE 3A has volume, blend, bass/treble and para EQ, last two are stacked pots.

That's an astonishingly kind offer, however I looked at those very options and think the boards might be too tall to fit in this cavity which is why I leaned towards the BE2 which is horizontal. As it goes, I've a BE2 in the mail so I'll give you a shout if that doesn't show up or doesn't fit. Thanks.

2 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Just get a set if welding cleaning files

 

Hah, wonderful!  Having looked up what they are; if I have to do this again that's a decent shout, also useful if I expand from TIG to MIG in the future

How much does intonation vary on different strings? Obviously this is still settling in, and i have few clues, but my saddles are currently really far back, in fact the B is out of travel, but I adjusted the truss rod and now the 12th fret is a bit flat so the saddles will need to move forward for a couple of strings.

The B is really clanky and buzzes a bit, but higher action would be insane, it's already like trying to crush a railway sleeper, my left hand *hurts*

I've reworked two of the songs I like to play to use the low B and it's nice not needing to change hand position but there are a few more fret to fret+4 reaches than in the 4 string positions, so it's an interesting trade off between three fret and 4 fret reaches and staying in one position.

I've not been gigging for a while but I do remember that during a verse I would forget how the chorus goes, but strangely enough just before the chorus turns up the knowledge would seem to *arrive*.

Of course I get a bit of a cheat, there's loads of places on a drum kit you can hide some notes about 'how that tricky one goes'

Nut slotting files are £150 on that guitar shop from the bloke with tattoos on his head so the £3.80 draper files I've just slotted mine with are totally fine, right? The B E A and D strings didn't want to drop into the slots in the nut, so i've mashed them carefully wider whilst trying not to make them any deeper. I still think the action is pretty high on this, but I'll try other things before filing the slots deeper since there's no undoing that. I'm planning to swap the nut out at some point but I may as well learn as much as i can with this one first.

I measured it and it looks like a BE2 will fit, ho hum, I wonder if it'd be worth the cash.

It sounds 'good' and it's fun playing an uppy down the neck song in all one position but the wiring is mince, the tone knobs do NOTHING and it's pretty hissy. So I think sod all that and lets get an active EQ for it, I don't know if the ARTEC BE2 fits or not, so it's time to do some measuring, I guess.

COME AT ME!

Now the infinite job of setting it up, it's sharp at the 12th fret, the arc over the fretboard is lousy, the drop from the B to the E is 100 feet and I've never done a neck relief in my life ever. BUT that it's nominally together and makes a sound out of the sound holes is the biggest squee I've done in a long time. it really is the look I was thinking of as well. super clean, really sharp.

10 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Exciting times.

As long as the noise wasnt a constant Ab, in which case it might have just been mains hum.

Zoom pedal on batteries that would be some TERRIBLE induction, were it mains

I actually punched the electrics in and put the pickup close to my other bass and it MADE BASS NOISE!

So I've lemonned the fretboard to celebrate.

Oh heck, I wonder how stable this will actually turn out to be.

Bad form, sorry. I didn't realise they were online.

https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/IB-5.pdf

Gonna see if this will work for my junk.

@SpondonBassed don't suppose you still have the wiring diagram from your pitbull destructions do you? this kit has plug and play wiring and what's been shipped doesn't match what's in my instructions and my instructions look super vague, omitting the bridge earth entirely for example. I'm going to look up some options, they're bog standard basic humbuck pickups with two wires each only.

53 minutes ago, Richard R said:

I meant this stuff you referred to earlier.

https://www.stardustcolors.co.uk/pearls-special-effect-paint/781-pearlized-clearcoat-spray.html#/845-colours-multicolored_turquoise_blue_purple

But you have so much gloss just on the appliance white, that it looks very cool as it is.

Oh yeh, right. Sorry. I originally called it dust because you can buy it as a literal packet of glitter than you stir into a paint mix for a gun. I forgot that I'd described it that way when i switched to a premix can idea.

I didn't realise that this appliance white is actually a functional top coat, I guess it's a pigmented top coat itself. It doesn't *require* a lacquer like a metallic or pearl paint would.

I don't know how much better I'll get this by cutting back and polishing because I didn't do enough prep at the wood and primer stages because of a lack of clue and a lack of sanding supplies ultimately. But yeh, it does look 'passable' and I'll be happy enough playing it in my music room regardless so who needs to mind? Thanks for saying it looks cool, it's making me happy.

Just now, Richard R said:

Is that the dust paint? Looks very good!

 

I don't know what you mean, it's the appliance white out of a rattle can, pre any cut back and polish

A mockup, of sorts.

This paint is still super soft, really will need weeks before i can do anything serious.

going to skip the fancy top coat and just get this playing. it looks nice with the black white contrast. I can always get neon strings if i think it's looking weak.