3below

Little progress to report, waiting for ebony fretboard(s) to arrive and having a dental extraction 5 days ago I have been less than 100%. Normal progress should be resumed soon.

Trumpet then Sax orchestral stuff in my youth. Result was/is discipline, listen / watch to what is going on outside the music, wait your turn, tune up rapidly (silently on bass), sight reading (when I get it back up to speed), scales and keys, listening to what is going on with the music. Wish I had learned piano/keys and could sing. When asked "do you want to do some vocals?" my reply is "only if you want to finish the band off".

Does all the copper foil make it any good for metal?

An interesting solution, what problem is it solving? The scratch plate (if you envisage having one) construction should be trivial based on progress so far:)

The second bass of this type (I also confess to having built a 3 string version for mrs 3below). Aiming for fretless, 30.75" scale length and hopefully 7lb or thereabouts. Routing done before assembly this time, makes life much easier. Only 3 new mistakes so far, none of which are show stoppers. Chose to rout the preamp recess much more deeply in this version, then decided I did not like it. Sorted by inserting some wood strips and re-routing. I routed the the inner hole after the outer recess, it would have been much easier to do the inner through hole first. Routed a small clearance slot for the preamp cable on the inside at the wrong end. There are now two cable clearance slots. The above shows a rough idea of where this is going. I will use an extension bar at the back to move the strap anchor to a suitable place, not going for the 1lb of lead this time. A year ago I bought some katalox fretboards (harder than ebony and far cheaper). Tried planing this today with the electric hand planer. Not good, it cracks easily and the planer pulls divots out even at 0.25mm depth. Will get the Scheppach planer/thicknesser on it next which will do 0.1mm. Being idle I started to glue the box up without using my dowel jig. I had forgotten the joys of wrangling butt joints and wet titebond.

Built from unobtanium, however I still reckon I can manage it, lol.🏋️‍♂️

I can wear it, 3.5 hr set (which I used to do, seriously..) no problem, man up chaps. Seems a bargain with the band 'yes' included as well.

The look is completed by wearing crocs.

I just need to go and lie down, I am at a loss for words.

Machine head arrangement. I must get out and have a life.

I am surprised at the choice available (I am just out of touch) https://producerhive.com/buyer-guides/bass-guitars/best-12-string-bass-guitars/

And on the other sliding scale £ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> £££££££

Car detailing stripes, silver, 0.5mm If a) I did not have too many basses and b) lived nearer Newcastle these days - Chopwell / High Spen as a young child, the bass would be very tempting. I had noticed it was local to you For greater reality, It might be possible to fabricate an aluminium block to fit at the bridge and black plastic block at the neck with holes drilled at the right string spacing with stiff silver colour wires to replicate the extra strings (but below the business of real playing). Fix this onto the body with double sided tape. The grid in the image below, held flat on the body, at the correct sizes etc., gives the idea. (you will however, not need the microwave source and detector, happy? memories from teaching physics lol). The silver detailing tape could continue the effect on the fretboard. It might have to be done in four parts, bridge to pickup - grid, over pickup - detail tape, pickup to neck - grid, fretboard - detail tape. With lights, loud music and an audience under the influence, 80% should be good enough.

If it can be done with fx then appearance is somewhat easier imo. A dc bass e.g Gibson, or this https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/468542-antoria-new-yorker-short-scale-bass-£250/, Fabricate a cosmetic headstock plate (2mm aluminium, black scratch-plate plastic?) that is the correct Hamer V shape and length, held down by the machine head ferrules and add some faux tuner heads to make up the other eight. Just another left field thought.

Left field way ahead with donor: start with a used Chowny swb-1 since this is close to the Hamer shape. Have a suitable person e.g. @Andyjr1515 or @Jabba_the_gut construct a suitable neck, fit this and and reshape the body if required. The Chowny provides a set of pickups and nice fairly lightweight bass machines. Neck dive might still be an issue unless you go for the strap extension bar. Whether this is more cost effective than a full custom build is another question.

As above ^. Also, look at the keys sideways on, there is a small screw holding the key onto the gear shaft etc. Is this screw missing? This can cause the gear shaft to exit out of the machine head as in your picture. If so I am sure there are many spare ones available on BC.

For 9v just get some wire e.g. from a broken mains cable, strip the ends and twist them. Fold back one end on each wire and poke the folded ends in the appropriate holes. Press the other ends on the 9V battery. For anything serious look up multimeter leads in the well known online shopping site.

Any regular CTS, Alpha etc pot will do. Measure the pot diameter from the outside then buy a long shaft one, use a combination of pot nuts / washers as spacers if it is a little too long. G&L freight prices to the UK are eye watering, I had thought of the 2nd pickup mod to my L1505 but the cost was just too much.

What is up with the volume control? As far as I can find out: 250K logarithmic / audio. https://www.bassesbyleo.com/gl_bbe_wiring_diagrams.html. This thread might be useful https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/309919-gl-spare-parts-looking-for-a-uk-supplier/ and this https://g-l-online-store.myshopify.com/products/split-shaft-potentiometer-tribute-series-bass. If it is not just the squirt of contact cleaner fix, I would desolder it and get the pot out to measure the shaft diameter and length. Useful hint: cover the body with card / cloth / masking tape, blobs of hot solder produce interesting results. No need to ask me how I know......

To encourage you, this, as built by my own bodging does not have neck dive, weighs in at 7.9lb (less now that the neck has a reduced profile) , 30.9" scale. Strap button is at about the 17th fret. It does have a 1Lb block of lead at the bridge end to stop neck dive. On the next one I am going to use an aluminium strap button extension bar behind the neck for the upper strap horn, rather than adding weight. A shorter scale length as @Jabba_the_gut uses in his builds would (obviously) help offset the increased machine head masses. Body elongation (as you hint at with reduced neck length) will also help. This bass has 13.5mm string spacing, playable with a plectrum, at the limit for me with fingerstyle. String spacing with 12 strings will be an interesting set of compromises.

Schmelzende Stompboxen - what a great name for a band

Rigel http://www.rigelinstruments.com/publish/abg.shtml and very nice they look and sound in the various youtube vids. I like db, I owned and played a db for about 20 years, I miss my db. I do not miss transporting it and now have an EUB. I can see the attraction of something in between e.g. http://www.claessenscustombasses.be/ or at the other end Rob Allen basses.

^ This. The heat and fumes are quite something even when done outside in the fresh air. This was just using CA to stop some small cracks in a domestic repair, not a major @Andyjr1515 type process.

I think we should be told, unless it is a matter of national security . Apols on thread derailment, however if I ever build a super extra long plus scale bass, the large body upper horn will show every finishing defect, so we need to know

Even when I take time, considerable care and effort then look, feel and think I have 'perfection', the gremlins intervene and create some new defects that require more work. I admire and envy those who have the skill and determination to get super high quality finishes. You know who you are