JohnH89

Wago connectors from any good electrical supply shop . Or screwfix . I use them for testing mostly and would always solder a permanent connection . I'm sure they would be alright as a permanent solution.

Yeah . Pretty much that . Need to swap ground and feed on one lipstick 👍

They need a bit of work if you are going to do it yourself . Need to alter wiring on one lipstick to get humbucking effect . I reckon it's worth a go . Need something off the wall to go with the 3d printing .

How about a pair of lipsticks wired as a humbucker ?

Telecaster neck pickup has 6 polepieces under the metal can . The lipstick pickup is essentially a bar magnet wrapped in wire , encased in a tube . Used by Danelectro amongst others . They can be picked up from ebay or similar for £10-£15 . They punch way above their weight to my ears . The hotrail one below it is a strat style pickup and also can be had relatively cheaply . The EMG comes in several flavours , mostly active but they do passive as well . They do run to about £100 though . 

Went through a lot of these boards building a small amp powered by an 18v drill battery . TDA8932 and TPA3118 . Every TPA3118 board that I bought let out the magic smoke , except for one . Bought from various suppliers but all defective . Settled on the TDA8932 . 100% reliable so far . Caveat emptor .

Single lipstick pickup in the P bass position ? You may well be surprised how good they sound .

A cheap strat sized rail humbucker ? blew me away when I tried it on a bass mounted up near the neck .

Or maybe an EMG active soapbar ?

Bog standard poly caps is where you need to be . Don't buy in to the whole mojo tone cap thing Rob . Snake oil salesmen . Paper in oil capacitors died out about the time of Marconi for good reason . 

Did you volume/volume/tone ? If not I would like to see the wiring diagram as that may be your hum problem if not wired right . I have a noisy power supply on my bench which I will sort out one day . I use a home made 40W amp that runs off a drill battery to test . Took that up to island in Scotland last week and between use with the bass , and as a bluetooth speaker , a 2mAh battery lasted over 8 hours . 

Loving the JP pickup configuration . Not one I've seen before . Is it wired with two volumes or volume and blend ? Hum without the bass plugged in can't really be blamed on the bass . You will get hum with the J pickup soloed if you are in an RF noisy environment . I suspect that your problem may be with the control plate wiring as it is of suspect quality . If you need any assistance with either the setup or wiring debugging , let me know either here or via DM . 

Astounding progress in such a short time Rob . I will be interested on peoples thoughts after your bass bash this weekend . 

7 minutes ago, rwillett said:

A number of printer issues has slowed down printing the outside components but it's progressing.

 

Big shoutout to @JohnH89 who has been exceptionally helpful as I struggle through some of the setup. He's been utterly brilliant.

 

The neck is still being setup, am printing another neck shim to try and get things in the right place. I'm also doing the three remaining components, bottom left (control panel), top right and top middle. These aren't that important but give you somewhere to rest your hand

 

 

In deference to @tauzero I have added three strap buttons to the bottom of the bass as well. One in the middle and one either side. I can easily blank any of them off.

 

 

Added in two pickups, these are what I had to hand, though I can use Thunderbird pickups, jazz pickups or probably most others. Not soldered them yet as I need a control panel and thats still printing.

 

I might just have it done for the bass bash.

 

Rob

Glad to see its all coming together mate . I am now back in the land of the internet so will be able to offer (un)helpful comments where appropriate . Its nice to see the neck and hardware in its new incarnation . Keep up the good work .

Somewhere near a P bass position will work for a single pickup . A few mm , or even cm will not hurt . Nearer neck will be darker , nearer bridge will have more treble . There really is no right or wrong . Just get them in and play it and see . Its amazing how much can be done with minor eq changes and right hand position .

57 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

I popped fresh batteries in to give it another go and I dunno what it is, maybe the choice of EQ points for the active preamp but it just doesn’t work for me.

 

Even in passive mode anything other than full tone goes from really bright to mud almost instantly.

 

Of all my basses it’s the one I really struggle to get a range of sounds I like from. I do love the one sound I can get out of it with everything on though. 

TBF , I Iove a thick dubby sound . The 734a works for me for any songs I play . It really is the go to bass for me . It will do pretty anything that I want it to do . 

1 hour ago, MrDinsdale said:

Interesting, the 1024x was darker?

 

Currently torn between the 424x/1024x as I love the metal control plate.

 

I love my 734A but the preamp is a waste of space. Perhaps I can try and swap bodies with a 434 😂

The preamp is far from a waste of space IMO . And its not a lot of space to be fair . You can flick a switch and run it passive . Not sure what is to be gained by a body swap 🤔

Great work dude . The offer of the headless neck is still there when/if you get round to it . The idea that you can make such a thing of beauty , but reckon that a neck would be a step to far is alien to me , but  everyone has their areas of expertise i suppose . I wouldn't have a scooby where to even start with 3D printing . 

No need to be too wary of chinese necks . Who is the seller ? . I've bought a couple over the years and after a bit of finishing they have been fine . Both of the last two have had fingerboards removed and replaced with homemade fretless ones . I do think that you may be a bit tight for 18mm spacing with that neck but would not hurt to have a measure .

To be fair , I wouldn't leave until I've been paid . I'm not easy to say no to , and can be a proper pain in the arse if necessary . 😁

I had them make a slab P bass body some years ago out of baseball bat ash . It weighs a ton , which I expected and have no problem with . Great work from them and a lovely piece of wood . All perfectly as specced and playing it still with a DIY fretless neck conversion . Go for it 😁

Lemmy ! How very dare you .  😁 . Not a bass player as much as  rhythm guitarist who played the bass . Legend

Looking good . Just an idea for you . Lose the choc blocks and get yourself some wago connectors from screwfix or the like . So much quicker and easier if you are changing things around

12 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I beg to disagree.  

Dave

I have to disagree with your disagreement . 😆

I know what I agree on . Can't speak for the rest of you .......😁

Shim at bridge end of neck pocket . Business card or similar . 1/2 in or so wide and full width of pocket . Don't be led down the rabbit hole of full pocket shims , angled shims or horror stories of ski jump necks . Seriously , this has been done for years by major manufacturers with no ill effects . 

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Is there are a particular make/model of Irish bouzouki you'd recommend for someone starting out? It's something I've been thinking about getting too, so was interested when this thread popped up!

McNeela or Ozark will get you in the ballpark . Decent instruments .

Personally I'd go for the Irish bouzouki . Longer scale length sounds better to my ear . Both are beautiful sounding instruments . The only place I can think of to try them out would be a branch of Hobgoblin music . I don't know if you have one reasonably local . 

Please take his tools away .