LukeFRC Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 PART 1 So a build thread - and more a bolt parts together than a carving wood type build thread... So I've got a few really really nice basses and pretty much no GAS. A few months back I did a trade with mark_ir, and while at his studio I got to play his old Stingray bass, it was a 1977 pre-eb thing, in root beer or whatever the brown colour is. And it was amazing - such a "musical" instrument. I loved it. And a stingray is one of the few classic types of basses that I've never really tried... Had P basses, Had Jazzes, and sold them as they sound great but never my bass tone live Tried a rick long enough to know it wasn't for me. But a stingray's always that other bass that someone else has but I've never had the chance to play with. Well I built a fretless once with a musicman pup in the right position on an old Vox standard body... but I also used ronseal diamond hard to coat the fretboard and it went hard enough I couldn't sand the radius back in so it wasn't very playable. So lets make a stingray! (coming up in part 2 - Luke gets some bits randomly off gumtree and instantly regrets it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumple Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Sounds interesting, I look forward to this build developing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Me too...and don't forget the photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]part 2 - Luke gets some bits randomly off gumtree and instantly regrets [/font][/color] [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]So you know when you see something on gumtree for like £50 and you kinda go for it as it's a small enough amount of money that you're not weighing it up massively.... well I cycled up to this guys to see this bass was undecided.... and then went home he rang me and I went for it....[/color][/font] [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]Now the sensible thing would have been to buy a OLP for about £150 or so. Or even a USA made Musicman Sub bass cost £300-400 secondhand. [/color][/font] [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]Why sensible? Cos you get a playable bass... what i picked up was defiantly a project....[/color][/font] So what is it.... It's a solid ash body painted with some black stuff... it's sunk into the grain too. Home made pickguard maple neck with... odd dot markers, very flat radius and lifting frets a jack socket and a pot that's some kind of tone control a black bridge of some kind a bone nut he cut himself and tuners scavenged off another bass - made for a smaller hole... oh and the good thing is there's a Bartolini MMC pickup in there. You can see where I've taken the thing apart. Oh and I forgot to meantion... the fella made it all himself, leeds school of music (college of music ? the one which churns out brilliant musicians anyway) used to do a instrument building course. He was a drummer and had done it and made a guitar and a bass. This is the bass. So I got this, and with dead strings it didn't sound awful and after a day wondered why I had bought it. It's been made by this fella - I could rebuild it and it be amazing.... or I could spend ages on it and realise he hadn't paid any attention in his classes and all I've bought is firewood (and Bart pickup) who knows... Coming up in part 3 - the one where luke improvises to strip the body.... [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"][/color][/font] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 That's more like it Now that's what I call a REAL project I will follow with great interest... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubis Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Me too, made a couple of stingray style basses myself, the build blogs are on here if you're interested (or bored!) I think I have a spare Stingray/Sabre clone preamp at home made by our very own Tommo Richards, its yours if you want it (and I can find it) Best of luck with this project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share Posted August 8, 2015 so... this is progressing - and I'm taking lots of photos - but think I might sit and upload them all later as the lacquer is curing rather than now. Just one thing in the update.... I have no idea how good the wood bits of this are - we could be looking at a dog or something better.... so my aim has to be to make this as cheaply as possible... with the exception of tuners where a nice set of schallers are worth investing in.... £50 Body, neck, pickup £9 Paint £30 tuners and a pot (thanks Jimryan) £15 bridge £3 Screws, Bolts and inserts £3 control plate and knobs £5 ish -2x pcb £7 electronic bits and pots £15 scratchplate so the whole thing will come in at around £150. One of the downsides of doing it on a budget is that I'm not buying tools to do things.... so while a sensible person would have got a router for the control cavity, or at least visited my mate Graham-with-the-tools, muggins here hand chiseled out the cavity.... anyway info to follow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Part 3. The one where I Improvise to strip the body.... So paint stripper... is rubbish - it hardly ever seems to do ouwt. And I have fundamental problems with the idea that sanding is the best way to get a finish off a bass body - you've got something finished relatively well and painted, and to get the paint off you're going to take heavy grit paper and rub the thing for hours - taking off the original paint - oh and that smooth finish to the wood - and possibly re shaping bits of it... and suddenly the whole thing gets a bit wobbly... anyway heat gun is the way forward - easy stripping of paint Except I don't own one. If you turn your head sideways and see the world differently... a gas hob is a little bit like a heat gun isn't it? Even got a fume extractor built in! So that's how I stripped, with a scraper and holding it upside down over the cooker! It got a wee bit singed on the edges but that doesn't matter. If Earnie ball can do roasted maple necks - I call this griddled ash body - improves the tone 13.224% This is what I ended up with. The red patch is a wee bit of paint I stuck on and wiped off. Its 3 bits of ash - two halts and a random bit on the corner. Grain wasn't sealed so it's still stained with the paint finish - that and the random corner mean we're going for a solid finish. coming up ... Part 4 ... why this is taking so long and finish quandaries... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Part 4 why this is taking so long and what I'm trying to do. In april we bought a house. I've always had wee projects and things on the go, then I got married and moved into a tiny little flat and couldn't - I missed that part of my life, the tinkering side of me. Anyway this bass was bought and sat there for ages - I could sink loads of money on this and find out the woodwork isn't great - or it could bolt together into the greatest thing ever - I have no way of knowing. So it's got to be cheap. and then we lifted our hallway carpet and found and are restoring this... ... early victorian floor... anyway - what finish? I spent ages over this, swatch books, a Photoshop file where I could retint them. I loved Jim Ryan's blue glitter finish and would like a sparkly bass. I would;t mind a british racing green bass. Sparkles would be good.... argh so much indecision! Apart from my indecision with glitter finishes I've had one idea in my head from the start.... There's a busker on Glasgow's Byres Road who plays a very old shell pink jazz master - its one of the sexiest old things I've ever seen. It looks amazing. It's got tort guard and the rosewood fb and this aged yellowed battered shell pink flesh tone finish. Now ideally I would build a jaguar bass and do that in those colours... but I don't have a jaguar bass. So I decided on the shell pink. More aged fender tone than the light pink sweetshop pink the stingray classics used for a short period. Oh and a matching headstock - just because. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Part 5 - Thoughts on construction. What makes a good bass? I have no idea. I've bought cheap things and they have been amazing, and played expensive things and they have been awful. I've played basses that felt alive and reverberant, and others designed to decouple that resonance and sounded great. I can buy a load of pre made parts from a supplier and put them together - or I could buy essentially the same parts put together by someone else.... and sometimes theres a massive difference - and sometimes you can build something brilliant. One thing I have always found to be important is how tight the neck is bolted on.... and stealing an idea from far far highly skilled luthiers based a few miles from me (Alpher) I wanted to use bolts on the neck. Body on the workbench... Threaded insert ready to thready.... Drill depth gauge bigger holes drilled and inserts installed.... and the neck bolted on as tight as a tight thing There was a wee lip on them inserts but a wee bit of work with a chisel in the neck pocket and it's super flat good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Lining up the bridge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 holes drilled for the bridge and marking out the control plate caverty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Now the sensible person would drive 2 miles to see his mate who owns a couple of routers and use a machine to cut the wood away. Me, being an idiot and impatient, set about it with a drill and a wood chisel! and slightly out of focus but it ended up okay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 after a bit of sanding to finish it off nicely... we're ready to start painting. Now I'm doing this on the cheap - and I had a couple of cans of Molotow paint in the shed so rather than shell out loads for sanding sealer and undercoat and then car paints... I'm going to spray the leftover cans on as a grain filler/basecoat - sand it back flat - then do a white coat, pink coat and clear top coat - cost me £9 to paint the thing.... not bad! hmmm pussy pink colour! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 So the pussy pink went on.. and I didn't have much of that - so i turned to this blue colour I had leftover. Both the pinked and the blue were from our wedding decorations. and then sand the thing back Messy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 and a nice smooth finish all around! white goes on bit more and the pink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allighatt0r Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Whoa! Super jealous of your floor. I thought for a moment you were going to copy the floor pattern onto the bass... Making some awesome progress, I'm enjoying this build a lot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 (edited) Looks good so far. I love the neck dots Also, please tell more about your Vox Standard fretless. I've been wondering about doing something similar for a bit. Edited August 29, 2015 by alyctes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 [quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1440680769' post='2852913'] Whoa! Super jealous of your floor. I thought for a moment you were going to copy the floor pattern onto the bass... Making some awesome progress, I'm enjoying this build a lot [/quote] Just got back from my my holidays.... yeah the floor is awesome - fantastic surprise find in the house - intreaged what else we're going to find down the years! [quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1440847197' post='2854287'] I quite liked the rubbed blue/pink look! Like Herbie Flowers' bass! [/quote] yeah it looked quite nice - unfortunately the blue is the nastiest colour known to man! [quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1440850956' post='2854334'] Looks good so far. I love the neck dots Also, please tell more about your Vox Standard fretless. I've been wondering about doing something similar for a bit. [/quote] Really or sticky out tongue you don't love them? they are the oddest thing ever visually. I dunno they might look ok. Otherwise stick on blocks? hmmm The vox standard body was a pile of poo butchers block hard maple thing that weighed a ton. Some cheap peavey neck took the frets out (easy) glued in laminated maple into the slots - easy. Read about Jaco epoxy on his neck - I used Ronseal diamond hard floor varnish - it was diamond hard like it said and wouldn't sand back to put the radius back in .... so the thing was ugly, heavy and more or less unplayable. Fun project I think I gave it away after a year of gathering dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 Update.... Sanded back the pink, rub through on several places so second coat on. May need to get second can of clear coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Watching with interest and waiting impatiently for next great shots By the way - just re read the whole thread and....stripping it over the gas stove! There's an innovative man after my own heart Great Victorian floor too.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 [quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1442472218' post='2867134'] Watching with interest and waiting impatiently for next great shots By the way - just re read the whole thread and....stripping it over the gas stove! There's an innovative man after my own heart Great Victorian floor too.... [/quote] cheers man! Next update coming.... Everyone thinks I was a bit mad to use the gas hob - in my mind it's not the most stupid idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 So lets start with a pile of stuff.... Resistance is futile! Note the supplier labled the 2.2m resistors wrong - still it's pretty impressive that you order individual resistors at 3p each or something and someone labels them for you! I like this supplier! chip and resistors.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 and the caps... now a note - I can throw together a circuit board but don't know all the ins and outs of electronics... If you look at Passinwind's version of the stingray preamp it's stuffed full of the nice wima metal film caps - the ones that look like little boxes - the current mm preamp and things like the stinger copy you can buy use electrolytic caps - the ones that look like gasometers. I've uses tantalum in the polarised ones as thats what the original early preamp used - on paper they're not as "good" - but I think when we're talking about circuits in music in a bass preamp "good" isn't always the thing to aim for. I had a hellborg preamp into a power amp into a ACME B2 - possibly one of the most clean and accurate rigs ever! So little compression of anything, big signal and such a crazily well engineered cab. (comparing it with barefaced big baby for example and one comes out as a great bass cab and one as a great hifi speaker! there are downsides to acme stuff though and for bass duties if I were buying again at full price the barefaced BB2 is where the money might go... but ACME stuff is stunningly good) anyway I digress - clean is good - but I've now got a Mesa Walkabout - and all that warmth and fatness is great and sounds right for bass. So I'm trying to recreate the sound and feel of the 1977 ray I played... and I love the way this circuit is designed too - pickup straight into the preamp and the volume on the output amp stage of the chip. very good. here it is fully stuffed. It needs the wires and things added to the pot but I'm going to wait till the body is dry to do that so I can position everything properly inside the control cavity with minimal wiring runs. One thing that I did realise is though my Bart pup is awesome... it's not going to sound vintage stingray... anyone wanna swap for something more vintage sounding? I can add money. (or anyone wanna buy mine so I can buy old horse murphy's stingray pup?) * * advert is placed in sales forum and dues were paid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 On the subject of the finish... 3 layers of pink went on, then sand back and went up through the grades and polished it to have a bit of a shine to it. The last bass I tried to finish in this paint I didn't sand the colour coat enough thinking it wouldn't matter cos of the top coat - what happened is that you could see the sanding marks on the colour coat though the top coat. not this time. I got a couple of tiny patches of rub through on the bottom cut and one on one of the horns. and just below the pickup. I'm going to leave it as... it's good enough.... I've finished the can of paint... and if I really didn't want I would have bought two cans of colour and gone on thicker! I was pretty pleased how the colour coat polished up, the top clear coat adds that extra level of shine. Just need to leave it a couple of weeks to harden fully now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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