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sandy_r
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Everything posted by sandy_r
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Lol - it used to be called The Washboard ...now it's the Fretless Boingy Bass the accolades just keep on rolling in! 😉
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Wow - all that on a Sinclair ...respect! Using one of those as a dev platform must have taken years off your life!!! *thinks* i'm sure i remember seeing a Spectrum in the loft...
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Thanks ...but not as cool as programming and selling games for Spectrums (Spectra?!?) at age 17! I'm sure there is a Speccy emulator somewhere on which you could still run your game
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Thanks, it was a steep learning curve, both making and learning how to play a bass (another school-friend in the band having to tell me the notes to play, initially). We all just follow our passions, i guess I've recorded a short audio clip - i notice on playback i've helpfully included some noise as well (low-output pickup, high-gain, etc) i've tried to even the level in places, but the Tone should be flat EQ throughout [Edit: replaced with a less noisy clip...] This was recorded earlier via a Palmer Bass Preamp, with all EQ flat and effects off... SR-BassPickup-Tflat-PBP.mp3
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...final round of photos added near top of thread - apologies, not great quality - running out of steam... Thanks all, for your interest, kind words, memories and inspiration Slainthe!
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You're a credit to BC, Rob! If i can get my brain in gear, i'll try to reverse-engineer the pickup case (= actually measure it for the first time) - i suspect that you'll be off and running with the pillar drill before i can produce some semblence of clarity re. the spec (that double-sided tape fixture seems the sensible way to go) ...and the labourer is worthy of his hire, so payment - or a donation to something - is a must! Many thanks Now - get that pillar drill and start reaming metal!!!
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..more photos compressed & added near top of thread - will have to take a full-length photo of the bass with new plate veneer and post later...
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Phew - work multiplies! - I admire your stamina! I don't think i could hack the endurance aspect now I think you're right about the bridge, although it's more of a string separater there are obviously large lateral forces for them to have shed bits over time I don't remember considering pickup surrounds before - looking at my pickup er, 'design' i see that the whole thing is very rounded and tapered towards the top, so the gap around it changes by, say, 1 to 3/16" as the pickup height is adjusted (hence the existing gap around it in the scratchplate) I think that a surround plate would need to allow the same range of gap, just vertically displaced somewhat, so i think a surround may just be re-locating the original issue it was intended to fix? It's definitely one of the areas of the bass which i'd do differently now (the other main ones being the neck/body fixing method, and the steel 'rebar' truss-rod!) I'm following your 3D-printed bass thread with much interest, and willing you through each new hurdle - i hope you manage to solve the 'backbone' flexing issue quickly (ideally, without needing a pillar drill)
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Oh that was a tragedy! These projects were our 'rites of passage' into the world of music - they were labours of love. I bet there are a good few stories out there, like yours and mine. Don't lose that photo!!!
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Man, that's very kind! My future is a bit uncertain at the moment, hence my rush to get these 2 unfinished projects ** completed and written up (** this and the CNC PCB for the Sinsonido) Could i take a conditional rain-check on that offer? (And i must pay!) Spookily, i had been thinking a little while back, before current developments, about the possibility of commissioning you to 3D print a replacement bridge (original is something like PVA or flexible nylon) for my Aria Sinsonido - i am very conscious, however, that you have more than enough on your plate with your own projects at present
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Woah - ease up on an old duffer, please! 😥 Apologies, i only realised i hadn't compressed the image files until i was about to load them - then got interrupted by a phone call The TBC placeholders are for photos of the rest of the bass - but i need to go and lie down for a day or two first! 😉
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So - here it is, in all its ... er, glory - built like a tank - unfortunately the similarity doesn't end there... If i had a 3/8" steel bar rammed up my spine, maybe i'd be as upright after all these years 'Do not use until converted' - a little injoke there, to me, from my student self My 55+ year DIY bass case, also in better shape than me now That's all, folks
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. 2 biggest regrets in the build: gluing & screwing the neck joint (as well as using a horizontal Dove-Joint ...overkill, or what?!?), although i'd never seen any professional (solid) guitars close-up to know any different; thinking that 3/8" steel bar was a good idea for a truss-rod - it works, but mostly by gravitational-pull
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For some obscure reason, i always preferred the 2x2 basic headstock style (shop only had LH machine heads, so i had to ease open the gears on two of them, flip the winders, and cut the covers a new one!)
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So, as a long-overdue, and final gift to the 'Washboard' (expertly named by an old skinny-stringer friend, with whom i used to jam in my student days), i decided i should finally finish this 55+ year old 'project' by covering its modesty with something hopefully more appealing than formica I sourced a couple of sheets of 0.6mm mahogany veneer which i'd have to glue together to cover the full area of the perspex scratchplate The edges needed to be cut to fit and, while i managed to do a successful 'overlap-and-cut', i wasn't so successful at taping and folding the joint to glue it - maybe the veneer was too thin for this approach? ...maybe i'm just making excuses! Anyway i finally found a way to get glue (mostly) on one edge of a veneer sheet and press the 2 sheets together - it worked out ok A couple of coats of water-based varnish, and a bit of sanding, later, i was able to find an area which seemed to be the best match for the grain on the body of the bass, and i traced round the outline of the scratchplate and its cutouts. I cut out the outline with some mean-looking scissors and the cutouts with a craft blade. For days before, i had nightmares about possibly cracking the veneer while cutting, but the varnish was my friend After a little bit of trimming, i loaded the veneer and hardware onto the perspex and finally… took a breath The Washboard just has a few battle-scars now - but hey, after half-a-century, who hasn't? Veneer in place And, finally, sporting a 3D-printed pickup plate, kindly donated by Rob @rwillett of this parish...
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Over half-a-century ago, in my financially-challenged teens and never having seen a professionally-made bass, i made my own for about £12 I bought a couple of bits of unplaned mahogany (one for the body, one for the neck&head), a strip of ramin for fretboard, some fretwire, and the cheapest set of machine-heads and strings you could buy (at Bell's Instruments, Tolworth) Couldn't afford a decent pickup, so i bought 4 alnico ¼" rod magnets and raided an old solenoid for wire to wind them as individual poles Scratchplate was some off-white kitchen formica sheet, 'truss-rod' was ⅜ steel bar, threaded at one end (what was i thinking?!? I'd never seen a truss-rod) Didn't have a workshop, or any fancy tools, so on an old outdoor workbench, armed with a couple of saws, files, and chisels, a mallet, a bench-plane, an electric drill, a screwdriver or two ...and a misguided sense of not knowing what i didn't know, i set to To cut a longer story shorter, i actually completed it miracle #1 - it looked almost like my exercise book cover design; miracle #2 - it sounded like i imagined a bass might; SR-BassPickup-Tflat-PBP.mp3 And now, miracle #3 - it looks like it's going to outlive me We've been through a lot of musical adventures together, and a few years ago i treated it to a fretless board and a new bridge, courtesy of a local Luthier I had long ago replaced its rather fetching 60s kitchen-vibe formica scratchplate with a DIY transparent perspex one - the only problem being that everyone could see my bodged attempts at routing the control and pickup cavities Temporarily (for *cough* number of years), i hid the routs using black masking tape on the underside of the perspex. It looked… er, funky
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Thanks Richard, yes agreed, the layout shouldn't make a difference - no high frequencies or extreme impedances involved - more likely that variation in component values could be noticeable An ad hoc comparison** of the new PCB with a recording of its vero prototype suggests that the new PCB has a slightly more 'bassy' profile - suits me! (** based on phrases of notes played, low A to mid D, Tone at 12 o'clock for both) Red - New PCB __________ Green - Vero prototype
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Completed CNC milled PCB installed in bass (Aria Sinsonido); JFET inserted in socket; battery connected, current drain measured as 1.2mA; wires from 2x electret bridge mics and switching jack loaded into connectors; control cavity shielding extended under control cover, grounded to jack ...time to try it out - annnddddd .... Silence! Ok, who put all these switches and controls on a preamp?!? Eventually, 3 brain cells later... phew, it works! For absolutely no technical reason, it sounds better than the vero protoype (will try and post some audio clips, in due course)
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...Next Month: Free Bridge ? 😉
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PCB populated & soldered; soldered-joint continuity checked ok; control looms made ...next stop - installation, power-check and circuit test (*can't find nail-biting emoji*)
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Will you be contacting Status before visiting Badlands? Would be good for you to know how close/far your bass current drain is from average before you get any possible costs from someone looking at it If there is some kind of fault with the jack power switching, then it must be intermittent - the jack switch was operating ok (ie. it was open) when you measured the current between Ring and Shield lugs, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to get a current reading through the meter (which is acting like the jack plug) Anyway, hope all goes well, let us know how you get on
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+1 on stray or accidental connections - another possibility to rule out is that a component or solder joint(s)) on the active-pre board could touch the shielding in the controls cavity and cause some intermittent discharge to ground Nicely done on the current readings (better meter? ...that's what Dads are for!! 😉) Current drains between 0.8-1.5mA should give you over 450 hours usage from a 550mAh PP3 (like Duracell), so either your bass pre goes into overdrive in a live playing situation, or the pre isn't getting switched off properly when you unplug the lead (eg. faulty jack, as per recent Badlands experience) Hope they can sort it for you (relatively cheaply!)
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Hah - smart move, Status - which version bass do you have? [Edit - actually the info on their site implies that all use TRS jack socket switching, so....] You should be able to get the mA reading across the ring & shield of the bass jack socket (without a lead inserted): leave the batteries correctly installed in their compartments; remove wiring coverplate; do not plug instrument jack cable into bass jack socket; select DC mA range on meter (or DC A if meter autoranges?)**; hold black meter probe onto metal of jack shield (nearest to plug entry end) solder lug ; hold red meter probe onto metal of jack ring (middle) solder lug; read mA drain on battery by bass control circuit (changing range if necessary to get valid display) [** If your meter has a suitable DC mA range (and with the red meter cable in the socket marked mA, if necessary, otherwise red cable in usual red socket)]
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I would try & find out a ballpark value for the expected (nominal) current drain first of all [either from owner(s) of similar version/age bass, or from Status], so you can then select an appropriate current range on your meter, if necessary If your meter has a suitable DC mA range (and with the red meter cable in the socket marked mA, if necessary, otherwise red cable in usual red socket): disconnect battery from its connector clip and reconnect with just the negative terminal of the battery connected to the usual connector on the clip; plug instrument jack cable into bass jack socket; select DC mA range on meter (or DC A if meter autoranges?); hold black meter probe to unoccupied positive connector on battery clip; hold red meter probe on battery positive connector; read mA drain on battery by bass control circuit (changing range if necessary to get valid display) HTH
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Mysterious Mesa amp(s) problem, I'd appreciate some help
sandy_r replied to Beedster's topic in Amps and Cabs
Following up on my earlier posts re: adapting the newer 7-way footswitch cable to the existing Mesa 5-way socket... This DIY cable is freely available - no cost, no postage cost (in UK) - to @Beedster, or whoever, to test the footswitch/DIN cable for correct connections to the M-Pulse 5-way socket Once the pin connections for the 4 switches relevant to the Mesa (with 5-way socket) have been confirned, a short 5-way to 7-way adaptor cable can be made to allow the later footswitch to be used with the earlier M-Pulse I have other projects of my own which i'm trying to complete, so first come, first served on this free offer!
