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sblueplanet

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A little bit of modding on the HB shorty P.

Replaced the stock pickup with a Seymour Duncan Quarter pounder, also replaced the chrome pickguard screws with black ones for a nice visual contrast.
Fixed the vague tuners with a little pencil lead in the nut grooves.

Even though the pickup cost me more than the complete bass itself, I think it was some well spent money.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I Like the short scale Harley Benton PB so much I decided I want one with Jazz single coils, can not be bought so I had to convert a P version.
Bought me a second one and started converting it, below is the final result.


details:






It was a fun little project to do, the end result is exactly what I had in mind, sound wise and looks wise.


The twins.

At the same time I made the mint green pickguard for this one I made one for the older P one as well (I could get two from one rough pickguard plate).

Edited by blablas
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  • 2 weeks later...

This is my leftie. Built it in my dad's garage back in 1985. Never replaced it as cannot find anything better without me spending ££££. Brazilian mahogany with maple and spruce top (don't laugh it was all I could afford and didn't Leo Fender use pine when he started!?!?). Has a Kent Armstrong handwround pickup as originally used in early Status S2 basses. Guess you can see my inspiration for the shape. Bass sounds fine with great clarity from the pickup. Quite toppy but poor at slapping, although this may just be because of my paucity at changing strings!

Always tempted to rip out the pickup and put it into a MIM bass or something to see the results and if this outshines my bass. But I just don't have the heart and I just keep playing the bass I built when I was a teenager :-).

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  • 2 weeks later...

If Epiphone can't deliver, well... I can. Started out as a regular mid nineties cherry Epiphone Rivoli I. A lefty friend of mine wanted one, so I refurbished in a pelham blue-ish color, and the wiring and pickguard of an EB2D. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNg2L18E5w"]Sounds humongous[/url], and is I think a unique piece. Many manly tears were shed when trying to pry in the wiring harness (big CTS potmeters with the long shaft, many wires, small F hole)...

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One more. :shok: [size=1](somehow I can't hold back)[/size]

Harley Benton B30 NT Acoustic Bass Series 'Deko'

Sold for decoration only..... We'll see about that. :P
It came with a hump between fret 10 and 17 and had quiet a few sharp fret ends, the bridge saddle seemed to be too low, it was truly unplayable.

First thing I did was level out the hump in the fretboard by leveling the frets, it's alive and plays (the hump was not that high but rather long).
Next step was Removing the sharp fret ends and giving all the frets one final level session, after that I crowned and polished them.
Also put a shim (half a millimeter thick) under the bridge saddle, as I already suspected it was set up too low, while I was busy working on the bass I gave the nut some tweaking as well.
Another thing I needed to do was tightening all the tuner screws and nuts, they were all loose.

Put a set of D'addario ETB92 Nylon Tape Wound strings and a 'de afwerking' thumbrest on it and gave it a final setup.
The action is a little under two millimeters at the 12th fret, precisely what I like.

Given the fact I bought this bass as a 'Deko' for only 45 euros I can't really complain it needed some TLC.

Edited by blablas
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  • 4 weeks later...

Been doodling with my standard(ish) PB-Shorty.
Finally came to the conclusion I don't really like this bass without a bridge pickup. I had an old (unbranded) bridge position J style dual coil pickup floating around in my parts box, decided to put this one in. The controls are volume/balance/tone and a series/parallel switch for the bridge pickup.

Now that I can dial in the bite of a bridge pickup it sounds exactly the way I want it to.
The only thing still wrong is that this old pickup is seriously microphonic, a DiMarzio DP148 is on it's way to solve this problem.
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  • 1 month later...

Finished my latest DIY project.
[IMG]http://s20.postimg.org/xd3uxgj4t/mk4_4.jpg[/IMG]
[URL='http://basschat.co.uk/topic/240945-de-afwerking-mk4-4-blablas-has-that-building-itch-again/page__view__findpost__p__2813127']More detail pictures[/URL] & [URL='http://basschat.co.uk/topic/240945-de-afwerking-mk4-4-blablas-has-that-building-itch-again/']Full build diary[/URL]. (both on BassChat in the Build Diaries section)

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[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1441321006' post='2858010']
A compilation picture of all my DIY builds.

Finally made one, wanting to that for weeks already. :)
[/quote]

blablas you naughty boy :D you will scare away all others with your craftsmanship. Hell, I feel so useless after seeing all your awesome work, seriously! I struggle even to do a simple bass set-up and look you :P

I was looking at buying a good book on building a bass or a guitar. Do you have any in particular you can suggest? (I'm seriously asking) I see some on Amazon but not sure which one to get.

Thanks!

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There are supposed to be several good books on building guitars/basses.
However, I've never read a single one of them, I'm coming from an background of engineering and metal manufacturing for a living, I just started building them and used my common sense and metal working skills and tools, and of course the understanding of the underlying technical principles of what makes a guitar work.

EDIT:
[url="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/best-bass-guitar-building-book.305141/"]Here[/url] is a link to what some people are advising over on TalkBass.

Edited by blablas
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[quote name='MrFingers' timestamp='1424349364' post='2695382']
If Epiphone can't deliver, well... I can. Started out as a regular mid nineties cherry Epiphone Rivoli I. A lefty friend of mine wanted one, so I refurbished in a pelham blue-ish color, and the wiring and pickguard of an EB2D. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNg2L18E5w"]Sounds humongous[/url], and is I think a unique piece. Many manly tears were shed when trying to pry in the wiring harness (big CTS potmeters with the long shaft, many wires, small F hole)...


[/quote]
Why's it strung right handed?

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