rwillett

Had to play with making my own pickguard this morning. Mixed results. I printed out a template to use a Dremel table router. Pretty normal stuff and I thought that this would be ideal (famous last words). I even marked it to make sure what was top and bottom never underestimate my ability to cock things up. I then put masking tape on both sides of my pick guard material to protect it and drew around my template to get a rough idea to cut out something bigger which I could then route down. The masking tape was useful as it allowed me to mark the outline. Put it on the Dremel table router and then created a massive mess. A Dremel on this particular material creates tiny particles that are nightmare to get off your clothes. This was a rough cut to give me a piece of material for routing around. The pickguard material was around 400mm wide and too unwieldy to handle. Once it was cut down, I used two sided tape to hold the template down and then used the template to route around. Simple idea BUT the top of the router bit was rotating so fast it was melting into the PETG template and so it was difficult to get a straight edge. What would have been better would have been a bearing on the top so that router bit rotated but the template didn't melt. A 3d printed template is easy but not the right solution. I don't know what the right solution is at the moment.... Anyway, I took a file to the pickguard to level it out and get it looking better. Not that happy with it, Its better than the previous orange pickguard but its not at the quality I would like. Also its rather square so might put some significant radii on the corners. The other option is to get a black pearl pickguard. Suggestions welcome as to what to do. I put the new pickguard on the guitar as it was better than that what I had, so its temporary until I work it out. I also took the opportunity to put the strap buttons on, take the ferrules off the back to clean that up, replace the solver screws with black ones to hide them. I then plugged it into an amp and had a play. Its not been set up properly, but it sounds pretty good. A lot warmer than my Telecaster, but put some significant gain on it and it breaks up nicely.

Pmed rob

Thats useful to know. Thx. Should turn up Mon or Tues next week along with the Cioks.

I also print stuff for astrophotography. Tube rings and holders for Raspberry Pi's. If you are interested ping me and I'll send you a link. I did make a Crayford focussor but it wouldn't take the weight with a camera so went with Starlight Instruments for my TMB, Brandon and Borg. Rob

Apologies, I thought I'd replied and said I'd looked at Mach 3 and for some reason it wasn't an option. I have a feeling that it didn't work with the controller hardware I had. Rob

I'm pretty certain that I have never printed anything in green. White - Loads, Red- Loads, Black - Loads, Orange - a small amount, mainly because Prusa Orange is 2-3x the price of other filaments, Blue - a Little. I do have a roll each of light blue and yellow filament under the desk, but thankfully no green. Not a colour that anybody has ever asked me to use. The blue and yellow were going to be for Ukrainian flag project that somebody asked for and decided not to go ahead with. Rob

Damm, I hadn't thought of the colour scheme. I'll check with my Feng Shui guru, she's on speed dial, and see if I need to move the house walls or something, perhaps put a candle on the 3rd and 6th stairs to accommodate this. If need be, I'll cancel the order, black, red and green together is a bit dodgy as you say. Appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Rob

@jimbobothy I've ordered the DC7 but the Crux is another £70 and for the cost of a current doubler I'll try that first I've also printed a pole so I can attach an iPad to the pedalboard. The pole is too high and it wobbles if the iPad is at the top, so putting it at the bottom is better. I'll reprint the pole and make it smaller. That's the nice thing about 3d printing, you can easily test out ideas, if they don't work, discard it and design something else. Using the 2040 aluminium extrusion allows easy ways to attach things like this. Its a great test bed. The white box below is going to be an Electro Harmonix Tri Parallel Mixer which should arrive next week along with the DC7. I wanted to check size, placement and spacing for cables as it has side input and output. I do note the small space between the tuner and Mod Dwarf Mmmm......

HI, I've ordered a Tri Parallel Mixer, I printed out the footprint to see if it fits, that's the white block, and it seems to be fine. It has input and outputs on the side so that needs to be taken into account. I also printed out some ideas of attaching an iPad to the pedal board. That's the red pole on the left, a left wing pole?, there's a joke in there somewhere I wasn't sure how high I could put the iPad but the wobble and vibration when it's at the top of the pole is too much so I'll print a smaller version with a 5cm pole. I'll probably control the iPad using a Bluetooth foot switch.

This is better than a soap opera.

Sorry, I was referring to Jon Shukar. I'm easily confused (as my t'other half tells me).

A friend went to one the Saturday clinics he runs and said he was great to work with. He didn't have a Shuker (which look utterly amazing, there's a black bass there that Hotblack Desiato would have) but it was no issue at all. Just my halfpenny worth. Rob

@LukeFRC Thats very kind of you.

Have ordered the Cioks DC7. I think it'll do everything I need. Hope so at the price 😁 I can't find those colour coordinated cables that @LukeFRC talks about so any pointers welcomed. Thanks Rob

I could print a miniature one I suppose...

They look great, but t'other half will probably rip my nuts off if I buy one

@LukeFRC I vaguely remember it. I recall I was more interested in your little effects box that made strange noises I looked at the things I have to do: Such as printing a few more guitars and basses. I want to go back and redo the crap job I did with some early ones and the next big one is a headless and active Thunderbird bass. Sorting out the pickup winder which is still sitting on my desk, powered up but needs significant code development. I might do that over the Xmas break. Learning how to use a router to make pickguards and importantly keep all my fingers. Setting up a few guitars I've already printed. Sorting out the pedal board and PSU and mixer. I still need to work all week to pay the household bills and keep my family, and especially my 18 year old daughter, in the manner they'd like to become accustomed to. So in the end I decided to just buy the Yamaha monitor and put this cabinet build on my backlog as I have no time left. If you come to the next bass bash in May 2025, please bring it again and I'll have a play. Hopefully by then I may have done the points 1-5. Thanks Rob

One Cioks DC7 3d printed, (may not be 100% working ) to see how it would fit under the pedalboard. It's in white PETG as that was on the printer. As the cables for the DC7 come out of the side, it needs quite a lot of space left to right. Looks like it would fit though. I would need to design a mounting bracket for it. the DC7 comes with a miserly two screw holes on one side only. It has an optional "grip" bracket but thats for Pedaltrain boards, clearly this is not. Easiest to make two simple U shaped brackets (a very rectangular U shape in reality) and screw into the extrusions. Thats the nice thing about extrusions, no drilling, no tapping, a simple M5 bolt and associated t-nut I still might look at the Harley Benton as that has the cables coming out the front as that might be neater. The Cioks does look very good kit. Rob

Thanks all, I'll check them out. Rob

Ah! It does sound like Cioks have this sort of thing worked out which is nice.

I like the idea of a matched jazz and precision basses. Didn;t think of it like that I'll ask her tonight. If I'm not on Basschat later, you'll know why. Might take you up on the Cioks offer. Let me dig more into them first though. Thanks very much. for the offer. Would they convert from -ve centre tip to +ve? Thanks Rob

Got all of that apart from the capacitor. In some respects Its easier to replace the lot than just the switch Thanks Rob

@LukeFRC I normally take that policy, buy once and cry at the price and never cry again vs keep buying cheaper ones and regret not buying the good quality one. I tried that technique on t'other half and suggested I buy a 59 Bassman and matching Precision. Oddly enough she didn't understand the logic. I think that you re right re the ISO 10 from Thomann. Whether I use the ISO10 or get a Cioks, I then need to work out a cable current doubler with +ve centre tip. Why is everything so similar yet so different 😢 Thanks Rob

Looked at Cioks and thought wow, thats expensive stuff. I can get away with 1A at 12V so that might make it easier. There's a reasonable amount of space under the pedalboard, not sure if I can split the power in that small a space. but that might work. Also cable doubling might work as well. I might give Cioks another look and see if looks like it might a solution, otherwise I'll probably go with the Vitoos Ad10s-sv4 (if I can find one). The view seems to be that the 450mA 12V ports aren't actually limited and so if you aren't drawing too much current, it can supply more. 12V is a pain for pedals Thanks for the input. Rob