carlsim

+1 for this… slurry and buff will look great and protect!

Try and find someone with a laser cutter! Makes for a much nicer edge and finish. Scan in your old scratchplate, create a vector image and boom! Perfect every time!

Add a bit of heat to the fret before you do it, helps to loosen any glue that may have been used. Also, make sure you use some flat edge end cutters... tease them out very slowly and carefully and you will minimise your tear out. You will probably get some, however minimal. When you sand, save the dust and feed it into any missing bits and add some CA glue. Will help to disguise any tears in the wood. If you can, keep the tears there and glue them back down. IMO, makes for a much neater job.

Hi everyone… I’m quite a seasoned player, 25 plus years of function gigs, theatre stuff and reading and it is only recent that I have started using fx. I love synths and do a lot of production work on synths for someone who runs a audio production company - new gigs means I need to produce a cool 80s synth bass sound and not being a live keys player, I’m trying to achieve that on bass. so, I start researching and found this: a great sound… I notice it’s listed as produced on a B3. So I do a bit reading and find out that an Zoom Cdr70 can do it… so I buy one and struggle to get anywhere near this. so I buy a B3… and still I struggle. I understand synthesis in detail. But I cannot get anywhere near this sound. tracking doesn’t seem to work well when I play, is it a gain thing? im running the b3 on the fx loop of my Radial bassbone. Has anyone with a B3 been able to get near this sound? if so… what are the settings? I quite like the rest of it but I really want a decent synth bass. Is there a technique thing I need to embrace? I get it is going to be more monophonic, but I just can’t get anywhere near this. can anyone help? Or offer some advice as to what I should be looking at? I’m trying not to spend loads of dosh but, if needs must! having said that… if a b3 is used in this video, what am I doing wrong? i have messaged the person in the video but had no reply… any advice is most welcome. I have listed the 70cdr and B3 for sale in the classified due to frustration, but would definitely keep one if I can get there with this! cheers in advance for any help… carl.

Cheers! Plus it’s just a matter of swapping back the scratch plate to return it to normal which is handy.

A slight amendment, I like the circuit showing so cut a shape of copper tape to shape around the circuit and rest of the cavity. Looks a bit more interesting this way I think. it’s not perfect but a lot better in my view! Maybe add an led strip a bit later!

Ooh!! I like the LED idea... I didn't mind the circuit showing, it was the parallel / series switch I didn't like. Will have another think!

so... a temporary solution which I don't find too insulting... basically copper shielding tape stuck on the underside of the clear plate. I precut a nice curve in one piece to give it some shape. Will do for now until I consider a better option and have the time to look at a picture of the wood stuck on the underside or something...

I like that idea. Might give that one a whirl! Perhaps not the Pacman or Star Wars route though!🤣🤣

So... this is how it turned out. I'm not sure how I feel about the control cavity to be honest... Thoughts anyone? Luckily my work has a laser cutter so the clear plate cost me £1.30... just the price of the perspex. So I can make more if needed. Maybe I should start up a sideline?? I like the clear plate allowing the quilted top to show through, but the control cavity.... not so sure. I wondered if there was something I could put underneath / on top of the cavity maybe? Any ideas anyone?

Completely with you - although I hadn't thought about the headstock from that perspective! I have probably just devalued mine! 🤪 Stock strings are a bit naff... I need to change my fretted one when get the chance.... I put some EB flats on my fretless - it sings! I with you about the Preamp and pups... mine is nice and quiet and I don't think £200 is worth it just to add the VTC...

It's a funny thing, when I first started playing, i got involved with a local jazz big band playing DB and electric on some numbers. It was a lot of reading dots which was a great learning curve and I did notice that with big bands, arrangement - due to the transposing nature of brass and woodwind instruments, you tend to find yourself reading flat keys a heck of a lot more than sharp keys. That's not to say that ALL big band arrangements are in flat keys, but arrangers definitely seem to prefer flat keys when writing for big bands... that's my experience anyway! Now, 30 years down the line of reading gigs, function, theatre work etc. I always seem at ease when I see a flat key signature but pucker up a little when I see 5 sharps! 5 flats.... no worries, 5 sharps... concentrate!! It's not so much of a tone thing, but maybe you get used to hearing your instrument more in certain keys so maybe it becomes more familiar to you? I certainly feel happier playing wise and sound wise when I see flats rather than sharps.... Just my opinion of course!

Yeah my atelier z jazz has a clear plate and clear control cover, exactly as the pic… luckily, my work has a laser cutter so gonna have a go at making one myself by scanning in and vectorising the image… hopefully if the scan is accurate, it will match up perfectly!

Yeah, I saw the separate VTC option - I'm not sure if I fancy that!

Clear plate is the obvious idea... it just struck me! Any other ideas...??

I have recently acquired a Sterling Ray35 (big SR5 fan, had plenty over the years) and this new has a particularly nice quilted top - see pic! It has also been routed nicely around the pup so that just leaves the control cavity to cover if I wanted to leave the scratchplate off. Any ideas? A chrome cover? Would need to get this made... or maybe a thin aluminum sheet or something which is then powder coated? I'm open to ideas... a black 3 ply small cover would probably look a bit naff... something quite statement-ey?? Anyone else done this? 4 string players are lucky, they can just take the plate off. 5s need a bit more thought....