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Stingray 4


Fishman

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I had a spare neck so rather than sell it I had a new body made – I have all the parts except a bridge which will probably be a Hipshot Kickass

Spec as follows:

Swamp Ash body will be oiled black – not sure how best to do this yet, will consult here and test on some scrap wood

Pickups: Delano MC 4 HE/M2 and Delano JC 4 HE/M2

Preamp: ACG 01 (John East)

Scratchplate: White Pearloid, with matching cavity control cover

Watch this space (but don't hold your breath!) – hopefully all done by early Summer

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Edited by Fishman
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Well, the Hipshot Kickass bridge arrived, but unfortunately won't be kicking any donkey on this bass – it almost sticks off the end of the body with the E string meeting the saddle at approx 70mm from the lower edge of the pickup. See the new body next to Stingray 1 below.

I will be using a Schaller 2000 which has a much smaller footprint – I have one on a jazz bass and it does everything it should. 

@Unknown_User not sure if it will be oil – more likely to be dye or stain – I'm still doing lots of youtube research etc

@fleabag If I lose my nerve on the black dye thing, blonde would be the next option, tru-oil or similar

Weirdly, the basschat grammar police have substituted (a-s-s) for donkey above –  it can't be edited!

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Edited by Fishman
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  • 4 months later...

I realise that a build diary without images is not worth much, so here are some progress pics

I bought a neck plate from Taiwan via eBay and very nice it is too and I finally took the plunge and drilled some holes for the bridge, control pots and pick guard

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that a pick guard screw protrudes into the control cavity – I plan to put a small dowel plug here for the screw to go in to – also, the body maker has drilled one of the neck plate holes about 2mm off

Now it's advice time – what's the best approach for positioning the battery in the control cavity? Maybe I'll go 18v if there's room – is it worth it though?

The preamp is an ACG-01

I'm still testing black dye/stain which is being dealt with in the repair/tech section

 

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Edited by Fishman
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Nice. I love the close placement of the pickups. 

I would also say keep it blonde, per Fleabag, and enough with the black hardware already.

You could always go with those wee washer things, and scrub the neck plate. That could look nice.

Whatever you do, the force is strong with this one!

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4 hours ago, songofthewind said:

PS, may I ask who made the body for you?

The body was made by GSP basses over on thefretboard.com – it's very, very good apart from that neck plate hole which is a smidgen out

The pick guard was from my other Stingray that was routed for the J pickup by Paul Herman (now Wal) via Charlie Chandler's a few years back – quality job as one would expect – that Stingray will have P+J pickups once I've finished this

The ACG-01 preamp was in my other Stingray for ages before replacing it with an East Uni-pre – I'm looking forward to using the ACG-01 again

I'm afraid it's gonna be black though!

Edited by Fishman
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6 hours ago, songofthewind said:

At least it’s got a tort guard, so that’s something I s’pose.

My opinion is leave it natural and throw the tort pickguard where it should be in the bin and put a black one on instead..........😜

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  • 6 months later...

OK, time for a long overdue update…

I can report that the Fiebings black leather dye is blacker than a black hole and I would recommend it over other brands that I've tested, which all had some degree of show-through resulting in a dark brown colour

A couple of coats was all that it needed, even one coat was very black, with no show-through

Once dry it showed up my poor sanding – lots of tiny scratches across the grain etc – I've sanded it now from 300 through to 1200 and arrived at this driftwood appearance – it's quite appealing and now I've got used to it, but will almost certainly go again with the black, possibly grain-filling with pewter rub'n'buff.

One thing about the driftwood look that I like is that when I inevitably smack it on the edge of a drum kit I won't be too bothered as the ding won't show in the same way as on a pristine black finish.

The Haussel pickups are looking the part – single coil at the neck – a mini-switch will be fitted to allow a few pickup blend options.

 

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Edited by Fishman
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  • 1 month later...

I may rename this as the slowest build ever, but I see that thread title has already been taken – I've been waiting for the return of my ACG-01 preamp from the repairman for ages now and have bought a replacement to get things moving – once that's arrived it's final sand and re-dye, then lift off.

I snagged a minty, cheap used Schaller 2000 bridge from Reverb and have nicked the chrome bits and put them on the black bridge – idea stolen from the Simms Lionheart basses.

Not long now!

 

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  • 6 months later...

Some progress!!! 😲

After the hold up with the neck screw alignment I enlisted the help of a local luthier to plug and drill the holes in the correct place and fit some cup washers – now I can get the finish sorted and get the thing together – full steam ahead!

 

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  • 1 month later...

It's time to make a pick guard – I've ordered a few different sheets of A4 veneer to make something laminated – each sheet is 0.6mm, so 4 sheets should do the trick

The next step will be to scan this and make a paper template, fine tune that, then make something out of thin MDF, then onto the veneer

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Edited by Fishman
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On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2021 at 07:10, Fishman said:

It's time to make a pick guard – I've ordered a few different sheets of A4 veneer to make something laminated – each sheet is 0.6mm, so 4 sheets should do the trick

The next step will be to scan this and make a paper template, fine tune that, then make something out of thin MDF, then onto the veneer

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I have done custom pickguards by just cutting the outline and don't worry about pickup and neck cavity just yet.

Then I tape in position and drill a hole through the pickup holes and neck pocket while taped to the body. This is to allow router cutter  to plunge thru. . Then use the routs as template guides. Youll need a cutter with the bearing on the bottom.

Still a good idea to make a mdf template of the outline, especially if you are trying different colours. But the above method makes for perfect aligned edges!

Edited by Chopthebass
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