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SG Bass build

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Well the neck finally arrived, beautiful piece of work,nice figuring in the zircote board and perfect fret work.
Jobs still to do, tuning keys obviously, still yet to decide on a drop tuner, useful but i don't really use one very often. I will most likley go for Hipshot Ultralites.

Get a bras nut made, i had one but its for a slotted nut so time to get one made up

Get the pickup surrounds gold platted to match

Fit the Audere pre amp, i went for a 4 band model in the end and volume balance on two separate pots, EQ consisting of treble and bass with upper and lower mids on concentric pots. The idea is grab the knob for bass or treble and fine tune with the mids hopefully splitting the upper and lower mids between the bass and treble pots will make sense in use. The other interesting feature of these preamps is the Z-Mode switch which changes the impedance load on the pickups,

"Flip the switch while playing to get the best sound for your performance:

• High Z-Mode is the sound you'd get when pickup(s) are directly connected to the input of a tube amp, i.e. no tone or volume controls. This very high impedance load produces a bright, lively and aggressive sound.
• Mid Z-Mode is the traditional and most popular active bass sound, offering solid bass line support.
• Low Z-Mode is a new sound for the Bass. Deep and driving with unusually low noise and distortion levels."






I have to admit i chickened out on the ACG filter based pre, sorry. It would have been interesting but i was worried about getting a sound quickly and more importantly a slight bump on stage sending me off in radical directions. The Audere pre's are relatively unknown so there is a bit of a testing service going on here to make up for the lack of bottle. :huh:

Thats about it really still need to shield the main cavity, find some gold bridge screws but really its just finishing off and setting it up when the next lot of bass funds arrive.
The first thing i did after fitting the neck is check it on the strap, WOW it feels great i never really noticed while finishing the body but its tiny ! I was not a great fan of the sg body shape but that's just changed it just shrinks in my hands very nice. :huh:
Balance is.............Perfect! i located the strap button on the end of the neck block ( will post a picture to explain) and the famous SG dive is thankfully just a myth, admittedly that was without tuning keys but the preamp, knobs and battery should redress the balance.

I wish i had the money and time to finish it off now, it,s a bit of a tease hanging on the wall at the moment! :) Edited by steve-norris
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paul, the Rising Star

paul, the

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I'm officially Freakin' jealous!

I love the goldness/brassyness, would love to get my hands on it.

Will you put gold keys on?
What's the body made of?
Will you give us a total figure whence fin'?


n1,

green-eyed paul.

Edited by paul, the
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[quote name='paul, the' post='14288' date='Jun 8 2007, 05:18 PM']I'm officially Freakin' jealous!

I love the goldness/brassyness, would love to get my hands on it.

Will you put gold keys on?
thats the plan, cloverleaf hipshots with maybe a d-tuner on the E
What's the body made of?
woods are body- walnut
neck-rosewood
fingerboard-Ziricote

Will you give us a total figure whence fin'?
That's a hard one, i think it will be in the region of £700-800, sounds a lot, but the neck was over £200, the same for a set of darkstars, hipshots around £100 etc. Building up basses is not a way to save money but a very pleasurable way to get a unique instrument. This project started with the Darkstars, the body turned up on ebay for £85 +postage and the rest is as they say history, I was expecting a neck heavy bass but i feels great. I have to admit the SG would not have been my first choice but i love it, its really compact and ergonomic, it may be because i am used to my surfcaster semi.

green-eyed paul.[/quote]

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[quote name='alexclaber' post='17198' date='Jun 13 2007, 08:51 PM']Darkstars AND an Audere! Nothing looking like a Gibson will have ever been so mud free!

Alex[/quote]

Well the neck pickup is fairly close to the neck so i should get plenty of bottom end especially with the low Z mode ,engaged but as you point out it should be usable unlike Gibson mud ( that said there have been some amazing 'muddy' bass lines recorded on Gibson's.

With this i just wanted something a little diffrent, i really wanted to try the acg preamp but was worried it would mask the true character of the woods and pickups, may be something for my next one ( thinking of a thinline tele with maple neck)
As for the gold hardware not normally my thing either but thought i would give it a go, before the neck was on i thought i had made a big mistake, somehow it just comes together now, just to finish it off and be a total tart i have got a set of Maxima Gold Plated flat wounds :) sorry just couldn't resist

Edited by steve-norris
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The preamp arived today, very well made and packaged , clear instructions and even a little micro screw driver included for adjustments, photos and install review to follow soon as.

Edited by steve-norris
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neepheid Grand Master

neepheid

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This is looking the business. Love EB-0/3/4 style basses. You said somewhere else that you had perfect balance, could you put up a photo of where you placed the strap button, the neck dive is the only thing I'd change about my Epi EB-3.

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Quick progress update, prepmp fitted, I added the spiral wrap to the wire bunches as i thought it was a bit messy, that aside very well made and some of the best fitting instruction i have seen.
Tuning keys fitted, schaller as the hipshot ones i needed would have been around a month wait and at this stage that would have been far too long. Seem like nice bits of kit and importantly only 0.1 of an ounce heavier than ultralites.

knobs for the preamp were a pain to source, i really wanted slightly more retro looking ones but these seemed impossible to get hold of. Controls are volume (front bottom with blend above it) stack knobs are bass and lower mids on the bottom and treble and upper mids on the top. The little switch is the Z-mode switch.

Jobs still to do, earth the bridge, (and replace the bridge screws with gold ones) Get a nut made, set it up and fit the truss rod cover, it remains to be seen but i may need some pickup spacers to raise the pickups up, may get away with it as they have adjustable poles.

Edited by steve-norris
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EdwardHimself Proficient

EdwardHimself

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[quote name='neepheid' post='26917' date='Jul 4 2007, 12:17 PM']It was my first bass and I do indeed like my cherry red mud generator :)[/quote]

it was nearly my first bass actually but i thought to myself "well do i really want to blow all my money on a short scale bass with 1 pickup?" I wasn't saying it's a bad bass it's just you hear people say "i've heard nothing but good things about this bass" well it's pretty much the opposite with the SG bass :huh:

Edited by EdwardHimself
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quick pic update, tempory nut fitted ( truss rod not tightened so i will spend a week bringing the strings and rod up to tension)

looking good?

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neepheid Grand Master

neepheid

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[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='28016' date='Jul 6 2007, 05:42 PM']it was nearly my first bass actually but i thought to myself "well do i really want to blow all my money on a short scale bass with 1 pickup?" I wasn't saying it's a bad bass it's just you hear people say "i've heard nothing but good things about this bass" well it's pretty much the opposite with the SG bass :)[/quote]

An Epi EB-3 is 34" scale and has 2 pickups - 1 large humbucker (neck) and 1 mini humbucker (bridge). 3 way selector and vol/tone for each pup.

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paul, the Rising Star

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[quote name='neepheid' post='28167' date='Jul 7 2007, 12:58 AM']An Epi EB-3 is 34" scale and has 2 pickups - 1 large humbucker (neck) and 1 mini humbucker (bridge). 3 way selector and vol/tone for each pup.[/quote]

What wood is the body made of?

I'm still looking for a half-decent, long-scale, mahogany made EB-0 copy. Although I've been deterred by the modern Epi basses, bar the Jack Cassidy.

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EdwardHimself Proficient

EdwardHimself

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[quote name='neepheid' post='28167' date='Jul 7 2007, 12:58 AM']An Epi EB-3 is 34" scale and has 2 pickups - 1 large humbucker (neck) and 1 mini humbucker (bridge). 3 way selector and vol/tone for each pup.[/quote]

I meant the eb0, this is my first bass were talking about!

Edited by EdwardHimself
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neepheid Grand Master

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[quote name='paul, the' post='28181' date='Jul 7 2007, 05:48 AM']What wood is the body made of?

I'm still looking for a half-decent, long-scale, mahogany made EB-0 copy. Although I've been deterred by the modern Epi basses, bar the Jack Cassidy.[/quote]

An Epi EB-3 is made of mahogany

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paul, the Rising Star

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[quote name='neepheid' post='28378' date='Jul 7 2007, 07:23 PM']An Epi EB-3 is made of mahogany[/quote]

Oh right...wow.... that's impressive, I assumed they skimped and varnished. Well done Epiphone.


and I meant the EB-3, never used to get those mixed up.


So why do some not like it, I bet with a few upgrades it would sound a stunner.


Matt, just to clarify: Do you have a long scale EB-3 style bass with a Mahogany body?

If you do, I'm feeling jealous.


paul.

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neepheid Grand Master

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[quote name='paul, the' post='28492' date='Jul 8 2007, 03:36 AM']Oh right...wow.... that's impressive, I assumed they skimped and varnished. Well done Epiphone.
and I meant the EB-3, never used to get those mixed up.
So why do some not like it, I bet with a few upgrades it would sound a stunner.
Matt, just to clarify: Do you have a long scale EB-3 style bass with a Mahogany body?

If you do, I'm feeling jealous.
paul.[/quote]

Neck dive is a big issue for some, and there's not much in the way of tonal flexibility.

Yes, I do own a long scale EB-3 style bass with a mahogany body. Set neck too.

I'm off work on Monday, I might do a photoshoot. I think it's about time I made a porn post.

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