lex_luthier

It's the right type of pot (Audio taper)

If you have 'push-on' knobs you want a 'Split shaft pot', if it has a small 'grub screw' in the side of the knob then you want a 'Solid shaft pot'

500k pots are good for volume & tone pots
250k pots can be used as tone pots

[quote name='Pyrolator' post='113433' date='Jan 4 2008, 11:31 AM']Hi All

Just bought a Vester bass in natural Bubinga - do I have to wax or treat this or anything?

please help!!!

Pyrolator[/quote]


Is there any finish on the bass at all?

[url="http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/"]http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/[/url]

I've stuff through these guys before as they have a tonewood section, just enter guitar body blank or give 'em a call.

[quote name='lwtait' post='69703' date='Oct 4 2007, 09:08 PM']cool bass, I especially like the lefty neck, it looks great!

how did you relic the body? it looks very realistic to me.[/quote]


It was a poly finish bass so it wouldn't relic like nitro (as on actual old basses) so I just tried to recreate the kind of weathering and damage you'd get on this type of body.

I ran a heat gun on full heat over the whole body (if you don't stay in one place too long it doesn't bubble up) and let it cool down, I did this 4 or 5 times which cracked the lacquer finish in areas and brings the grain out.

Then I chipped and dented it with a set of keys on a chain, I did this quite heavily in the usual wear areas.

then I put on the pick guard and hardware on, scratched it all with the keys then rubbed it all over with brown shoe polish which I rubbed off the excess ( It looks like the kind of dirt and grime you get collecting around the pickguard and stuff and also made the grain in the exposed wood look dirty)

Its not meant to be a genuine looking relic I just always wanted a f*$ked up old bass that I could chuck around on stage.

I've always been so heavy handed when I play on stage I need the action quite high anyway.

[quote name='peted' post='68810' date='Oct 2 2007, 09:00 PM']That does look great. I really like it. I'd like to know if the pickups are anything special too?[/quote]

No just stock, non-brand jazz pickups off ebay, I wanted cream ones and didn't want to spend too much on them cause they were 'reliced-up' too.

In fact at the last band practice they started to pickup the female singer from a band in another practice room!!!!!!!!!!!!

I put this bass together from a body and hardware I bought from Ebay and a left-handed Encore P-bass neck I part exchanged with a mate of mine.

I 'reliced' the body and hardware (and the beer-label sticker), sanded the back of the neck to get rid of the high gloss and wired it up with a Artec passive tone eq pot.

It's perfect for gigging with coz I don't care if it gets damaged.

The action's high to accomodate the fret buzz probs I had and it works for me coz I really hammer the strings on stage (causing many blisters!!!)

Also put a piece of walnut-veneered mdf on as a 'ramp' where I play coz when I rooted my thumb on the 'skinny' pickup I kept falling off and when rooted on the string above the one I was playing it used to keep falling through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Basically it's a rough piece of crap but I love the old girl !!!

Do it yourself, that way you can do as much as you wanna do.

I did a relic-type job on a bass I put together from parts, its a jazz body with a left handed Encore P-bass neck.

I ran over the body with a heat gun a couple of times with cracked the laquer (it was polyeurothane) and raised the grain, dented and dinged it with a chain with my keys on and then rubbed it down with brown shoe polish (with imitates the dirt and grease that collects around pick guard and any nook and crannies.

It's alot of fun !!!!!!

But if you've spent alot of money you've got too [b]DEFINATELY[/b] want it reliced!!!!

Is your jack socket loose?

What type of jack socket is it? Barrel or skeletal type?

You could use the hole and buy some Artec Mini switch:

[url="http://www.artecsound.com/gallary.html#ELECTRIC"]http://www.artecsound.com/gallary.html#ELECTRIC[/url] (At bottom of page)

Tey've got some cool effects and you can get some from Axes R Us:

[url="http://www.axesrus.com/axeknobs.htm"]http://www.axesrus.com/axeknobs.htm[/url] (About half way down the page)

If its got humbucker(s) you can do some passive mods:

[url="http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.1wiringdiagrams.humbuckerwiringmods/"]http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/...ckerwiringmods/[/url]

What pickups and electronics has it got?

This might help:

[url="http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/serpar.php"]http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/serpar.php[/url]

This is the standard wiring for a volume pot:

[url="http://alexplorer.net/guitar/mods/hotpot.jpg"]http://alexplorer.net/guitar/mods/hotpot.jpg[/url]

[b]Left[/b] - To Ground (Lug is soldered to pot casing and pickup earth is soldered to that)
[b]Centre[/b] - Pickup In (Hot)
[b]Right[/b] - Output to Jack Socket

[b]Hot[/b]- You can either connect the pots together Right to Right then Jack socket Hot (series) or Both pots to Jack socket Hot (parallel)

[b]Earth[/b]- Connect Left to Left then Jack socket earth

You could try Dan at DM Guitars (Essex)

From what I've seen he's abit of a 'daddy' in guitar finishing:

[url="http://www.dm-guitars.co.uk/"]http://www.dm-guitars.co.uk/[/url]

No, never tried it, let me know if it works.

I once read that you can check which fret is buzzing with a multi-meter, it was done something like this:

[url="http://schrammguitars.com/buzz.html"]http://schrammguitars.com/buzz.html[/url]

If you are going to do it yourself you may find it helps to heat the fret by placing a soldering iron on the fret then nipping it out with a pair of electric clippers, these help to pull the fret up aswell as pressing on the fretboard, therefore minimizing chips.

I Here is a good site to show you how to get the frets out properly:

[url="http://www.frets.com/FRETSPAGES/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Frets/D35Refret/D35refret1.html"]http://www.frets.com/FRETSPAGES/Luthier/Te...D35refret1.html[/url]

If there aren't any luthiers in your area who could do it why don't your look for a car refinishing or furniture company? I reckon either should be able to help you out

Hi there,

Just wanted to let anyone who might be interested know that my website is back online.

[url="http://www.freewebs.com/mule-basses/"]http://www.freewebs.com/mule-basses/[/url]

Its still under construction so please bear with me.

Thank you for the kind comments about the bass.

Regards,
Bob.

P.S To Thumb4Bob, yes it is a solid wenge neck (Seriously hard timber, gonna have to do some tool sharpening real soon!!!)

Hey man,

Thats shaping up really well.

How much bigger is the neck than the neck pocket?

Hi there,

Thank you to CrazyKiwi for the nice comment.

To Thumb4bob, you can always contact me through basschat.

I've been checking in every now and again to check the build threads (I didn't even know Ste had posted this up until Robbie from RIM Basses sent me a message through Myspace)

I've got pictures of the build that I've been sending to Ste but I'm not sure if its ok to post them up (having read the forum rules) I'm just building basses for people as a hobby (and a bit of pocket money) nowadays.