rwillett

I'm reaching out to the community here for some help on what I think should be an easy answer and I'm struggling to find it. I'm 3d printing a bass guitar (build documented here) I'm wanting to put mounting holes in the base of the guitar for mounting pickups. Theer are other types of mounting systems already in play on the printed guitar, but I want to have mounting holes for putting in Fender Jazz pickups, specifically the in line pickups, not the split ones as they require a very wide gap which I can't put into the guitar (easily). So I thought that the Fender jazz pickups would be as standard as anything and that all the people who make jazz pickups would adhere to the standard, e.g. holes are a certain width apart and a certain size, so that it's easy to replace one pickup with another. However searching for "fender jazz pickup dimensions" and checking Images show an range of different dimensions for what I thought would be standard. I know that the bridge and the neck pickups are different lengths as the strings widen as they get to the bridge but there's a plethora of widths and lengthes. The one dimension I couldn't find was a fender website with the dimensions on. Specifically what I'm after are the four holes that mount the pickup to the body. Not that interested in the width of the pickup itself, its the body mounting holes. Any pointers to what would be "standard" or "official" dimensions greatfully received. Thanks Rob

I've been tweaking various bits to try and make sure it's tunable and that I don't fix into the design, things that are wrong. I've printed a few neck pockets, adjusted the height slightly so that when I follow the tuning guide that @SamIAm posted three pages earlier. The bass plays well in the lower frets but I still feel the strings are too high when I get to the dusty end of the neck. However I discovered that small changes in the truss rod do work, so I'm a lot happier. I feel that I might be getting to the stage where I'm tweaking for tweaking sake and not actually progressing the build. I have all the bits printed now and am focussing on the pickups and mounting them. I spent a few days messing around with body mounting the pickups but the height limitations of the pickup area means this is hard. I'm playing with a few mm here and there. This is due to three simple measurements, the aluminium backbone 15mm, the printed central spine, 10mm, and the maximum depth of the body 44mm. This gives me a depth 19mm, plus the height from the top of the body to the strings, in which to mount a pickup. Its hard work to design a pickup that connects to the body securely but also has enough movement to lower and raise as needed. So I'm now going back to mounting it on the pickguard and will (possibly) use some lightweight foam to dampen it. I may well steal the design from my six string to do all of this This means I'm now into getting the control panel fitted using a Squier set of pots and pickups just to get things going. I have other ideas for the control panel, but I want to get it going first before the mad ideas come into play. So things to do now: 1. Design a functional pickguard for the body. 2. Design a functional pickguard for the control panel. This means I'm going to have to glue things together <shock horror>. 3. Put the low tension strings on to replace the tug boat strings. Thanks Rob

I have told you that you need to buy it (whatever 'it' is), is that enough justification? Or you can try: 1. It's cheaper on the electricity bill. 2. It's helping you hit your net zero target and you are actually helping the polar bears. 3. The firmware is end of life and is no longer supported leaving you open to cyber attack. 4. The current company has gone out of business and so the product is no longer supported. 5. The EU has stated there are radiation issues and so it's safer to change it. 6. It's reached the end of the depreciation business cycle and so is no longer cost effective to keep, so changing it actually saves you money. 7. The transformer has a certain live span, it's no longer made and it's cheaper to replace the whole unit rather than just get a new transformer. I have used all of these at one time or another. As I run my own business, point 6 is regularly used Hope this helps Rob

Keeping you away from my kit, though I have quite a few people I'd like you to meet....

I brought this for my daughter for her GCSE maths as my venerable HP-41 LED RPN calculator was deemed too complicated for her. The HP41 took a man to the moon... Anyway I brought this one from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multi-Function-Scientific-Calculator-Stationary-Calculations-Black/dp/B0BG5VKDG3?th=1 but it had two keys upside down. Amazon told me to keep it and gave me my money back, thats how good it is Just taken it apart and put the keys the right way up and somehow it still works. My daughter now has a pink calculator and so this is no longer needed. As I collect old HP calculators, HP11, HP12, HP15, HP16C (now thats a proper programmers calculator) HP41s and so on and so on, I'm embarrassed to have this near my HP's in case they stop working in shock. Anybody wants it, it's free, it works well, it seems to do loads of stuff but it's not RPN, doesn't have HP on the front and has an two line LCD display. I'll even post it for free. Rob

For a brand new synth to be knackered from the factory is rubbish. Definite QC issues. I would suspect its been outsourced to China, built on a standard production line along with lots of other synths from different manufacturers, flashed with the Argon ROM, put a manufacturer specific case around it and boxed up. There's an awful lot of generic stuff and badge engineering that goes on. I'd try once more and then give up, three's a charm and all that (no idea what that really means TBH). Rob

"If it wasn't for bad luck, you'd have no luck at all..." You appear to have a super power, attracting bad luck. Hopefully next one is better, very poor from the vendor here. I won't say "good luck" as it appears to be pointless Rob

Find the most recent list of people and kit, copy it and add your name to the bottom

We can write you a sick note, a police arrest report, doctors appointment or any other docs you need to come.

I was up in Kendal today trying to buy some rugby boots, failed miserably unless I wanted white (WHITE!!!) boots. You might be the closest person to Clapham (apart from me). Let me know if you need any help. We go to Kendal regularly, so happy to pick up a few basses in advance. You might even get them back Please add yourself to the list.

If you wish to offer a few ACG's to me as a religous observance, that's absolutely fine by me. I take all denominations.

<sigh> Yes they do take away coffee, I also have a proper coffee machine. We lived in London for 30 years and so good coffee was a necessity for us We had to sell one of the kids to buy the machine, but it was worth it, I'm sure shes very happy where ever she is

We might need additional power to the village hall. I'll speak to some of the local weed growers and see if we can divert some

Pics or it never happened 😊

Tasteful

Here's the base with just the holes for attachments and in cross section The square holes are the recesses for nuts. The ones in pairs in the middle attach the aluminium backbone. There's a lot as there's a lot of stress and at the end of the day, this is 3d printed. The square holes on the edges are the possible mounting holes for pickups AND at the back for the bridge adapter. I have never used them as the six string had suspended pickups and at the moment, the bass guitar has suspended pickups or it will when I find the all of the pickups The rectileaner holes with an access hole are used as mounting holes to attach the sides of the guitar which are then glued. This is a quick and easy way to ensure that the pieces exactly align. 0.5mm out is easily noticable. This gets it down to 0.1mm (or better). Just had a quick look for 10mmx10mm extruded ally and found this dutch site https://www.makerbeam.com/makerbeam-900mm-1p-clear-makerbeam.html 20mmx20mm is far too big and I simply have no space. 10mmx10mm might work, but would require some significant thinking and re design work. Even 10x10mm would be difficult to hide, but if I didn't hide it and made it a feature that might be interesting. However after saying all that, a Lloyds type building where all the plumbing is on show outside comes to mind. Perhaps thats the style for headless bass version...? Highly functional, open spaces, very adapatable? I'm going to let that thought simmer for a few weeks. Rob

Thanks for the info. I have considered a sliding rail and rejected it as unwieldy at least for me to make. I didn't think of 2020 ally extrusion though, I thought of metal rods. What I did do instead, is embed a load of nuts in the middle of the guitar that I can easily screw pickups into using a mounting mechanism I have yet to design but am confident I can 😉 The pillars that mount/support the pickguard can also be set anywhere so I could put pickups anywhere from the bridge to the neck. Three pickups would also be feasible. So I can use hanging from pickguard and/or bolting to body both at the same time if needed. I'm.trying the hanging method first but will ponder on a movable sledge as well Thanks Rob

A busy early evening with 410mm x 80mm x 15mm of aluminium, a 3.5mm drill, a 4.5mm drill, a countersink, a pillar drill, some cutting fluid and some wire wool has produced this. I'm rather pleased and smug, so clearly something is going to go wrong now This is the new backbone, 15mm vs 12mm, same width and 10mm longer. Weighs 1.2Kg which is more than I thought.This puts the body weight around 2.4Kg without electrics and bridge, so I'm in the right weight area. The surface scratching between the second and thrird rows of holes can't be seen when I look at it. Odd. This may get anodised or may not. I was fooling about with anodising some years ago, and I do have a rather nice 30A PSU I could use, but not yet This backbone is now on the mule and it doesn't bend very much. Possibly 0.2mm but not even sure about that. Given I'm using tug boat cables for strings, I'm happy. I have a set of low tension strings to go on as well but for the moment I'll stick with what I have. Now I can get on with setting the dammed thing up and not worry about flex. I can also get on with printing the rest of the body thats been on hold until I knew the backbone height. Everything is linked together and as I change one thing, something else gets changed as well.

Yep, sounds about right.

I hated the place. If you weren't 3rd or 4th generation there, you couldn't do anything. I'd arrange meetings to try and work out what to do and how to improve things, and they'd tell me to F'off to my face and go back to reading a book. They kept using the name Vickers rather than BAE. When each sub was in the last few years of a build, work would slow down until the next contract was awarded. Each sub was built one at a time and took circa 11 years. I absolutely loathed the place. The train journey from Lancaster was lovely, but as it pulled into Barrow, my heart would sink. My only regret was not catching E-Coli earlier. I almost died but it was worth it.

Ooohh, harsh, but fair...

Its' a lot easier hanging it rather than bolting down. I'm going to try that first and see what it sounds like. I can make a sledge but thats more complex and I still have to make the pickguard to fit. This is the first print draft of the case to check for fit, are the spring lugs right, does the pickup fit snugly. There's a little bit of play of the pickup inside the case, but a thin 1mm foam layer will fix that, the top of the pickup case looks great, but would benefit from a chamfer on the edges. Can't find my springs to see if they fit on the wider lugs though I think the neck and bridge versions are different sizes as the strings are slightly wider at the end. I think this is the bridge pickup, but since I can't find the otehr one, probably run away with the springs, not 100% sure. Rob

Currently I'm planning to hang the pickup from the pickguard with foam undeneath to dampen it. The foam is optional. This is rather overengineered as I think it through. This is a case that a pickup goes in, so the smaller lugs hold it in place, the larger lugs screw through the pickguard into a captive m2.5 nut in the large lugs. A spring goes between the large lug and the pickguard a la Stratocaster. And here it is cross section

Does anybody have any views on mounting pickups to the body or pickguard? Am about to design something to hold the pickups and I think I have two options, I can mount the pickups downwards on the body of the guitar. I considered this in the design and have a large number of embedded nuts into which I can design a sledge to hold the pickups in exactly the right place. I can easily put the sledge and pickups in any position and move it around OR I can design a basket to hold the pickups and mount them to the pickguard, this is how I did my six string. So I hang them (shooting is far too good for them). I notice that most of the bass pickups have quite stiff foam on the bottom, sometime along with springs, so I am assuming that mounting them to the body is the preferred method. I have no preference to be honest. As vertical space is limited, I would probably remove the foam and design a slightly more complex adapter that is more adjustable, I can suspend othem or fix them. Ant guidance welcomed. Thanks Rob

I aspire to be that good 😩