Wishbass refin/rebuild

[Myke]

I actually quite like the look of that

[Grangur]

I'm about to order the push-pull pot for the tone and series/parallel.

The volume is 500K. I usually use 250k, but I believe 500K pots should be used with twin-coil pups. Can anyone advise on if I should stick with a 500K, or a 250K for the tone?

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1387908588' post='2317150']
I've played ACG's with a zero radius (as in flat) fret-board. it's probably the way I'll go when I do mine, very nice feel to play
[/quote]
Thanks for that Billy. Today I've also been sanding the fingerboard - flat. I'm told the 20" block went in the post today. But I'll give "flat" a go. Actually I recon the fb on my LTD ESP is pretty flat too. I like it.

[blablas]

It's starting to look like something nice now all the ugly paint is gone.

[ambient]

Wonder why it was painted black ?

I've always been quite intrigued about these.

[Grangur]

Under the black, tar-like exterior I found there were a few flaws. As you can see in the pic here, there are 2 screw holes either side of the pup. I recon someone put a cover over the pup.



Also, to the right of the pup hole here, you can see a line below the purpleheart. This is almost like a woodworm trail. There are a few of these. If it was woodworm, then I think it's dead, but it leaves a mark all the same.

In one or 2 other places there have been other gaps and a few checks in the timber. (Checks - this is splitting due to movement in the wood as it's seasoned and dries out) This shows poor wood selection, but I don't think it'll continue to move much now or there would have been splits in the black paint.


To deal with this I glued the sharp ends of cocktail sticks into the screw-holes. Knocked the sticks down into the holes and painted the tops with PVA glue. To get a perfect colour match to fill the holes I used saw dust from the body wood. To get this I got a blade from a Stanley knife and scraped this across the body and it creates fine sawdust; perfect for pushing into the hole. I repeated this and you can see the result in the above picture. You can still see a slight blemish, but it's better than a hole.

I've also stared working on the gap you can see to the bottom left of the shot. It's a gap between the woods. I'm filling the worst with cocktail sticks and shaved down sticks, then filling with PVA and sawdust in the same way as above. On bigger splits its a bit of a drag repeating it until it's full, but I'm not paying by the hour, so it's ok. When I bought the bass the big one on the bottom was filled with wax wood filler, but I'm a pedantic sod and I don't recon it's hard enough. So I dug it out and I'm filling it my way. I'm aiming to do the wood check on the right in the same way. No sticks on that one, but glue and sawdust.

Incidentally; the check looks far worse in the pic than it really is. It still has some black cr@p in there making it look bad.

Edited December 28, 2013 by Grangur

[Grangur]

I've been thinking about the amount of grey in the wood. I was wondering if this is truely paint or is it the nature of the wood?

Looking at wishbass.com I see he uses Poplar wood for some basses. So I looked this up:
[indent]
[url="http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-color-appearance/"][b]Color/Appearance:[/b][/url] Heartwood is light cream to yellowish brown, with occasional streaks of gray or green. Sapwood is pale yellow to white, not always clearly demarcated from the heartwood. Can also be seen in mineral stained colors ranging from dark purple to red, green, or yellow, sometimes referred to as [url="http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/rainbow-poplar/"]Rainbow Poplar[/url]. Colors tend to darken upon exposure to light.[/indent][indent]
[b][url="http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-grain-texture/"]Grain/Texture:[/url] [/b]Poplar typically has a straight, uniform grain, with a medium texture. Low natural luster.[/indent][indent]
[url="http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/hardwood-anatomy/"][b]Endgrain:[/b][/url] Diffuse-porous; small pores in no specific arrangement; solitary and radial multiples of 2-3; tyloses occasionally present; growth rings distinct due to marginal parenchyma and noded rays; rays not visible without lens; parenchyma banded (marginal).[/indent][indent]
[b][url="http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-durability/"]Rot Resistance:[/url] [/b]Heartwood is rated as being moderately durable to non-durable; susceptible to insect attack.[/indent]

This would also explain the yellow colour in the wood on the back, and the worm holes in the timber that are found in about 3-4 places.


BTW, there was some discussion about playability of these and getting above the 12th fret. I've found this is very playable beyond the 21st fret, never mind the 12th

[BassBus]

This is why these build diaries are so useful. Doing a great job.

[Grangur]

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1388268353' post='2320316']
This is why these build diaries are so useful. Doing a great job.
[/quote] Pleased to think this may have helped.

Quick update: I've picked out the hole some more and stuck the sticks in there.
I've been scraping at the check and it's really insignificant.


More filling tomorrow to make it up some more...

[Billy Apple]

Looking good! Yup, you get woodworm holes in Wishbass wood. He uses reclaimed and found wood for that authentic rustic patina!

Have you checked the Wishbass re-fins at Dave's Bass Place?

[url="http://www.davesbassplace.com/DavesBassPlace/Refinishing.html"]http://www.davesbassplace.com/DavesBassPlace/Refinishing.html[/url]

[Grangur]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1388269525' post='2320336']
Looking good! Yup, you get woodworm holes in Wishbass wood. He uses reclaimed and found wood for that authentic rustic patina!

Have you checked the Wishbass re-fins at Dave's Bass Place?

[url="http://www.davesbassplace.com/DavesBassPlace/Refinishing.html"]http://www.davesbass...efinishing.html[/url]
[/quote]
I've seen him on Youtube, but not been to the web site before. Thanks for that. Reading what he says I'm probably on track

Seeing what he's done on "The Claw" he's used a humbucker pup in series/parallel/split-mode. I've not seen a diagram for all of that. So I've started looking.
Does anyone have one by any chance, please?

Or does anyone have any views on split mode Vs series/parallel ?

Edited December 29, 2013 by Grangur

[ambient]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1388269525' post='2320336']
Looking good! Yup, you get woodworm holes in Wishbass wood. He uses reclaimed and found wood for that authentic rustic patina!

Have you checked the Wishbass re-fins at Dave's Bass Place?

[url="http://www.davesbassplace.com/DavesBassPlace/Refinishing.html"]http://www.davesbass...efinishing.html[/url]
[/quote]

Some very cool looking instruments there !

I like his attitude too, "if you think I'm wrong, buy something else" .

You're never wrong with an opinion, it's yours, it's not wrong just possibly different to someone else's.

Edited December 29, 2013 by ambient

[Grangur]

Well a couple of days have gone by and I've mainly been waiting for ordered goodies to get here.

In the meantime I've been sanding planing and scraping to get the finish and shaping better. The observant may have noticed a pregnant bulge on the bottom/back end of the bass where the strap button goes. I've re-shaped this some more.


I've also been working on the "lobe" that goes down the top edge of the neck. It had some movement in the wood that meant that some of the wood was flaking a bit. I could tell this by taping the wood and where the surrounding wood was solid, some sections sounded with a higher pitched "ticking" noise. I dealt with this wish some planing, getting rid of the looser flaky parts, then I got a bristle brush and pva glue and wiggled it into any visible cracks in the wood grain. After leaving this to dry I sanded it some more.

Sorting the above flaky bit I've reduced the thickness of the lobe from the rear. For the sake of some more balance and to make this look more intentional, I've also taken some shavings off of the front.

Most basses also have a thinner body at the top edge, where the forearm rests; taking off the harsh edge from cutting in as you play. So I've shaped mine too, planing a few mil from the front. I've not gone too mad as I can always take more off later if I want.

New Years Eve and one item arrived; the neck sanding block!! Wow!! good stuff! The one I ordered is 20" radius.
Almost straight away I cracked on, sanding the neck with course paper to start and finished with fine.



I've never done this before, but I guessed that to get the neck good and even I needed to do long, strokes the full length of the neck. It seemed to work and the neck now seems pretty straight and consistent in the curve.

The block was Suppiled by Brian Watson, a luthier in Halifax. He's a site - www.watsonbasses.co.uk. His basses look good. I like the touch of the LED that warns you that the battery is going flat..

So far I've been using mostly 80 grain sandpaper - quite course. At this point I've now got the bass down to the sort of shape I want and it's getting more solid. At this point I then went over the bass with medium paper - 150grit.. It's beginning to feel smooth.

[Grangur]

Today some more goodies arrived!


Ferrules for the through-body stringing. Through-stringing is a standard feature of the Wishbass. It appeared to me that the studs on the ends of the strings could dig into the wood in the holes, so I put a stop to this with using ferrules. The instructions well you to use an 8mm drill for this. I did this, but if I did it again I think I'd find a slightly bigger bit. 8.5 or 9mm could have been better, or some imperial sized thing along those lines.

Also, as you can see the pots and knobs came too... with a free gift of a pick!! WOW, my cup runneth over!!

All I need now is to learn to play with a pick.

I've also been shaving the head-stock some more too. The shape wasn't very big on symmetry and the edges sharp, so these have been planed and shaped.

Well we're getting there. All I'm waiting for now is the cylinder jack socket for mounting through the edge, then I'll have everything for the electrics.
Then next week I'll be down in Kent. I'll go to wood place there and get the ebony for the nut and bridge. (And look into the cost/availability of a purpleheart FB; that's probably "Wishbass 1314 Phase II" but don't tell Mrs G!!)

Tonight I'll probably solder the elects together, or strip down the Christmas tree.. wait for the next exciting episode of Wishbass 1314 to find out!!

[Grangur]

Hi again guys,
I've been working on the bass again after some trauma on the home-front. Mrs G's Dad died, so we got held up a bit.

Hey, ho, on we go...

So I kept sanding, finishing off with 320 grit paper, and eventually I applied Lemon Oil all over the bass. It got about 4 coats of oil. Then 2 coats of bees wax. It now feels really smooth even if there are one or 2 marks. The marks used to bug me initially, but if I were to sand forever I don't think they'd go all together. Things like the marks where it had been fitted with a pup cover will always be there. There are a few checks in the wood. None are catchy, but they wont get worse now, but I came to the conclusion that it's all part of the character of the piece.

You'll recall the original bridge and nut were like lumps of grey concrete. Well I went and bought a piece of ebony and cut out 2 pieces and got to work shaping them.

Using the old stone bridge, the intonation of the strings was set by placing the bridge under the strings at a jaunty angle. I was going to do this again, simply shaping the top of the ebony in the same way as before, just with a bit more style (I hope). That was until on another thread here I saw a Letts bass for sale and noticed an ingenious twist in the top of the bridge. Using the twist the bridge could stay almost straight on the bass. The twist in the top meant that the line gave the angle for the intonation.

So I got to work, first with a Stanley blade, then a Dremel 3000, (Newly acquired, thanks to the lovely Mrs G)

Using a small sanding drum attachment on the Dremel I shaped it after drawing a pencil line on the top of the wood from one corner to the other.



Finishing it off by hand with fine paper I got it to a smooth finish.



The slots in the old bridge, for the string spacing were vaguely 20mm apart. I did the new ones 19mm apart and started off with small needle files. Carefully I filed to try to get the spacings just right for the strings. I took ages, getting nowhere fast. I moved on to sandpaper, wrapped round a hacksaw blade.... slowly it went on.

[size=4]I took a break and went on to the nut. Again I measured the spacings. 12mm in this case. I started again with needle files, bought Ebony especially for this project... Ebony is a hard wood this calls for tough measures.[/size]

Out came the Dremel again. This time with a sanding blade and I cut the slots in no time. I can't say hand on heart that the depth is 0.0000anything, but this depth can be fine-tuned later.



Finally putting the bass together, the twist in the wood does a fine job of the intonation and it feels better than I expected in the playing. It's actually straighter than it looks in these pics, I think. Or maybe I'll go check that in a few minutes.

Those with good eyesight will see I've gone for putting a barrel jack in the side. I saw somewhere that someone had stood on a lead in a Wishbass and the jack had ripped the front-face out. Wanting to avoid this I thought the barrel jack was a good route. So I added a tone pot to fill the hole on the front.

The drill I used for the jack hole in the side is a neat piece of kit. It is a [url="http://www.screwfix.com/p/disston-multi-angle-drill-bit-12mm/32343"]multi-directional drill bit[/url]. So it also works as a router for the course routing of the inside to get the elects compartment bigger for access to the jack securing on the inside. I finished this off using a Dremel 565. Which was recommended to me by our own Hamfist.

Ferules added to the rear.


If anyone's still reading, many thanks and I hope some of this may be useful to someone.

On a closing note... the neck has no truss rod. When putting a straight-edge against the neck to check the relief with no strings. The neck has a slight hump. When the strings are attached, the relief is about 1.5mm. It's more than I would choose, but the mwaa is fine and it plays well. The action is good, and playing up the neck a short way is like having a ramp installed.

Yep, it's a keeper I recon.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Grangur

[BassBus]

That's an impressive job you've done there Rich. Be interesting to hear what it sounds like. I know, none of us are ever happy. Looks great.

[bengreen49]

Really nice job there. Like a different bass.

[Truckstop]

Looks great! Good job! Personally I think I'd re-shape the lower horn to be a bit more traditional but yeah, looks lovely! The ferrules are a nice touch that I don't think many people would have thought of; nice touch.

Truckstop

[Billy Apple]

Looks great

[Grangur]

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1389629949' post='2336300']
That's an impressive job you've done there Rich. Be interesting to hear what it sounds like. I know, none of us are ever happy. Looks great.
[/quote]
Many thanks Graham. I'm busy practising for now. Once I get my fingers going again I'll post a soundcloud link.

The problem with building basses is it takes your time that should be used for practice. (See the note to self in my sig - it should incude bass-building too.)

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1389643545' post='2336524']
Looks great! Good job! Personally I think I'd re-shape the lower horn to be a bit more traditional but yeah, looks lovely! The ferrules are a nice touch that I don't think many people would have thought of; nice touch.

Truckstop
[/quote]
Thanks Truckstop. Actually I like the strange bottom "horn". It makes a good carry handle if nothing else and it curves well for playing when sitting down.

Thanks to everyone else for you kind comments too.

Rich

[discreet]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1389646114' post='2336583']
...Actually I like the strange bottom "horn".
[/quote]

Too much information!

Good job, btw.

[Roland Rock]

You've done a great job there - look great

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Dunno how I took so long to find this!

Great job and oddly appealing!

[Grangur]

I've been playing this bass a few times and it's growing on me. I don't see it as a bass for playing down the "Dog & Duck", but as I don't play there, or anywhere else for that matter as I'm a noob and not very good.

The other night I did play it on the strap. It weighs 9lb and after 2 hours of loving it I took it off only to find I've slipped a disc in my shoulders. As a result I've not played anything much in the past few days, but I did pick the Wishbass up today and tried out recording on Reaper for the first time.

So guys here you are, warts and all, here's an embarrassing clip to give you a sneak into the sound of the bass. It's with the tone cranked wide open and plugged straight into the Focusrite.

https://soundcloud.com/grangur/wishbass-test

As a result of the shoulders I'm taking a revision on the Wishbass. It's not exactly over heavy, but I've come to the conclusion it's pulling my shoulders forward too much. So I think it's going under the Dremel to under-go some reshaping.

The re-shape will include some shaving of the centre of the "saddle" part of the top, and some shaving of the area under the neck near the lower horn. In the meantime I'll be recording some more and will try to get a better recording.

Cheers

Rich