rwillett

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 😩

Of course the other option I'd have for the 4r5e would be to log into whatever IT systems I could find with their name and destroy their credit history, burn their online identity to the ground, subscribe them to the most godawful websites specialising in adult orientated gardening sites, cancel every credit card they have, update their spotify lists with Blackpink, remove them from the local polls and update their medical record to mention genital herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Apart from that, how was the jam... I've never done a jam session, I'd love to do one, but I'm fairly sure, I'd be a complete plonker and fail miserably, or if somebody was being too cocky and a complete 4r5e, would go postal on them (more likely I'd slink away hoping the ground would swallow me up whole).

@peterjam You are most welcome. We haven't set a start time or an end time. We have the village hall for the whole day and from the previous evening (Fri) if we want it. Mentally I have a 10:00 to circa 17:00 timescale for the day, but there's nothing to stop people turning up at 07:00 and leaving at 20:00. We will need to be a little sensitive with noise after around 18:00 though as I have no idea what the sound proofing is like in the hall, suspect it's minimal I live 50m from the hall, and will have keys so if people want to arrive early, its no big deal. That's the village hall on the left from my office window .... Clapham is not a bustling metropolis with five sushi cafes within walking distance, we have a pub, a community run village shop and a cafe and thats it. We do have 10m sheep and fabulous views of the dals though. If people wanted to, we can arrange an evening of pizzas and playing, there are a few very good pizza joints a few miles away. Settle has options for more takeaways and is seven miles away. Thanks Rob

I know. I promised myself a 62 bass on the understanding that I'd never find one I liked. However that 62 Black one is utterly gorgeous. I keep looking at it and trying to find a form of words that I can tell the CFO as to why I've spent circa £30K on a battered piece of painted and scratched wood. Normally I'm good with words, this time I'm struggling.

This is a very dangerous thread to follow.

There's a world out there that I know nothing about. That article is from before I was even born

Damm it's a 62. That's annoying. Really shouldn't have clicked that link.

My knowledge of cutting aluminum is zero so assumed I needed cutting fluid. I wasn't sure so tried it. Might now stop using it and will see what happens. My experience at BAE was helping the project management team. My knowledge of building nuclear attack submarines and how to speed delivery up is a little limited, IBM sold me in as an expert and so I had to bullshit rather a lot. Thankfully I got E-Coli and escaped before I was discovered. Somewhat extreme I know but it was worth it not to go back to Barrow.

Now that the mule has a 12mm aluminium backbone in, that has moved the neck into a far, far better position and it suddenly feels better to play, even if it does have tug ship cables for strings. Some lighter strings are on order as well as some more aluminium. If that doesn't work, steel starts to become the option. Am starting to think about mounting pickups and best practises. 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. 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. I can't find anything that indicates what best practise is. If anybody has views (and can explain why they have views) on whats good, I'm happy to listen. It might well be that suspending them from the pickguard allows them to resonate or some other reason I know nothing of. Once I have finished my guitar pickup winder, on hold as I need to get this bass done, I will replace whatever that goes in with something else, or I might do a three way pickup set. Just got a few five way Fender type switches off eBay for 0.99p and might try to use a multi-coil option Any help or direction welcomed. Rob

Depends on the time of the works event. The M6 is 20 mins away and from there, the world is your oyster. Going the opther way is painful as the road to the M1 is slow and has lots of tractors in the way. Failing that, I can write you a sick note. Rob

We'll survive and make something work for us...

Not sure I need something that sucks quite as well, unclear as to how A&E comes into this....?

Just checked and the village hall is booked for this for the day. We have the whole hall. Whether we have enough people to fill it, thats adifferent story Rob

Definite enough that I can offer you a free room....

I'm looking forward to hearing the tone differences as well - One day ... Next steps are: 1. Order some lighter strings. The E string is 3mm thick, my fender Jazz is 2.75mm, my Ibanez short scale 2.4mm and my fender Mustang 2.4mm. 3mm is 0.11in according my calculator. A set of Rotosound lightweights are 0.03in, 0.05in, 0.065 and 0.08in. https://www.rotosound.com/product/rs66la/ No idea of the tension that I have on the current strings but it feels a lot, mind you, my gut feelings have been rubbish so far. 0.08/0.11 = 72% of the thickness which is quite a lot. 2. Order some 3mm aluminium so that I can make a 15mm backbone from the 12mm and the 3mm. I'm wondering if two plates making 15mm sounds different to 1x15mm, 3. Order some 15mm aluminium to check if that works much better. 4. Check on 7000 series grade aluminium. Anything that has "aerospace" attached to it will not be cheap, even if I am. 5. Readjust my pillar drill so I can clean the workstop. Swarf and cuuting fluid is horrible, already used the "kitchen" dustpan and brush and the CFO was not happy with what I brought back, so a new dustpan needed now <sigh>. 6. Check on steel plate as the next step if I can't get aluminium to stop bending. Rob

Yep. Does anyone have any contacts with various shops such as Promenade Music that might be interested in coming along. I can definitely offer cake now 😊