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New year, new build


Rexel Matador

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I haven't forgotten the build diary I started for the Matt Freeman body, but I haven't found the right bit of wood so it's on the back burner for now. I'm going to do something much more interesting in the meantime.

This bass is going to be made mostly of walnut, with a maple fretboard and some other maple detailing. 4 string, 34" scale - I'll be using it for Drop Bb tuning in the metal band I've just joined, with Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky strings. It'll have through body stringing and a similar open headstock to my last build.

I'm going semi hollow again but with a more modern "f-hole" style the last one. The body will be single cut, which I know is not great for balance, but I've wanted a tele-ish bass for a while and I'm determined to give it a go. The neck will be pretty slinky and I'll try and make the headstock/tuners nice and light to mitigate it.

I'm going to use two jazz pickups wired in series, out of curiosity more than anything else - probably wired to just a single volume pot - this bass will not be required to do a whole lot in the way of of subtlety.

But the most exciting part for me is that I'll be making the pickups myself this time. I cobbled together a P-Bass pickup a few weeks ago, totally winging it and using a power drill for the winding, and was very surprised to find that a: it works and b: it pretty much sounds like a P-Bass pickup, albeit not an amazing one. I had no way to accurately count the turns, so did it by eye, but have since discovered an app for my phone that can count the turns by sensing a magnet stuck to the chuck of the drill as it passes. What amazing times we live in!

There's not much to see except a rough drawing for now, but I have most of the wood so will start in earnest this weekend.

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I repurposed an old breakfast tray that was lying around to make a template. I would be perfectly happy to just cut shapes out freehand but I don't have a bandsaw and the jigsaw tends to not be able to stay fully vertical if the wood is too thick, so a template and a router is the only way for now. I suppose it means I can replicate body shapes easily if I ever go into mass production!

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So this is the bulk of the body. it's actually only about 28mm thick, but there will be about 6mm of back and 10-ish of top taking the whole thing up to a fairly normal thickness. The shaded parts will be cut out - note the amendment where I remembered there needed to be somewhere for the strap button to screw in.

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I only managed the upper one today. Aside from the control cavity, the cuts don't need to be any tidier than that because they will be hidden from view for the rest of time. I am toying with the idea of some kind of bracing but I suspect that with the top and back plates in place it will be plenty strong enough.

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Well, this build has slowed to a crawl because I decided to make custom pickup covers. It seemed a shame to use cheap black plastic in the middle of all the lovely wood.

One down...

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...and now I have to do the whole process all over again. I really should have made them at the same time, but I wasn't entirely convinced it would come together!

Edited by Rexel Matador
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13 hours ago, Rexel Matador said:

Well, this build has slowed to a crawl because I decided to make custom pickup covers. It seemed a shame to use cheap black plastic in the middle of all the lovely wood.

One down...

20200108_201315.thumb.jpg.b1ec4c14a50f85c6a8f8938bcea70b2b.jpg

...and now I have to do the whole process all over again. I really should have made them at the same time, but I wasn't entirely convinced it would come together!

My Y fronts just exploded at the sight of that! 😜

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Back on the horse at my makeshift winding station

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There's a neodymium magnet stuck to the chuck of the drill and the phone counts it every time it goes past. The beer is a necessary part of the process - it's every bit as captivating as it looks 😆

Edited by Rexel Matador
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Wax potted, taped up and ready to go. Now I just need to finish the second one and the bass to put them in. I used thin MDF for the flatwork which proved a little flimsy, as you can see from the big ugly rip on the top of the bobbin, but it serves its purpose and will never see the light of day, so I'm not too bothered for now.

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I’m about to start building a pickup winder but I’m going down the route of 12v motor with a PWM speed controller, LCD counter and a on off on switch to control the direction, I’m going to do a build diary on it when it’s complete 

Looks like you’ve done a lovely neat job of the winding!! just out if interest are you using 42awg or 44awg wire and where did you get it from?.............😀

Edited by Jimothey
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9 hours ago, Jimothey said:

I’m about to start building a pickup winder but I’m going down the route of 12v motor with a PWM speed controller, LCD counter and a on off on switch to control the direction, I’m going to do a build diary on it when it’s complete 

Looks like you’ve done a lovely neat job of the winding!! just out if interest are you using 42awg or 44awg wire and where did you get it from?.............😀

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/42AWG-ENAMELLED-COPPER-GUITAR-PICKUP-WIRE-MAGNET-WIRE-COIL-WIRE-250G/371205210150?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

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IIRC Fenders 60’s Jazz pickups were around the 7k range so I think they should sound really nice!!

Have you used magnetised poles or you going to have a Alnico or ceramic magnet on the bottom?

I’m going to wind the pickups for my Barncaster Bass and I’m looking to aim for around the 6-7k range (hopefully it will sound nice and vintagey) I’m going to use ABS bobbins as I’ve got 2 sets of split coils that are dead, I’m thinking of doing them with black hex head set screws as the pole pieces with neodymium discs underneath??......😀

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2 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

IIRC Fenders 60’s Jazz pickups were around the 7k range so I think they should sound really nice!!

Have you used magnetised poles or you going to have a Alnico or ceramic magnet on the bottom?

I’m going to wind the pickups for my Barncaster Bass and I’m looking to aim for around the 6-7k range (hopefully it will sound nice and vintagey) I’m going to use ABS bobbins as I’ve got 2 sets of split coils that are dead, I’m thinking of doing them with black hex head set screws as the pole pieces with neodymium discs underneath??......😀

Magnetised poles - also from ebay. Just used a compass to check the polarity and stuck them in. I'm still trying to figure this whole pickup business out. When the magnet and the pole pieces are separate entities, is the pole piece just a bit of non-magnetised metal that's in contact with the appropriate pole of the magnet?

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18 minutes ago, Rexel Matador said:

Magnetised poles - also from ebay. Just used a compass to check the polarity and stuck them in. I'm still trying to figure this whole pickup business out. When the magnet and the pole pieces are separate entities, is the pole piece just a bit of non-magnetised metal that's in contact with the appropriate pole of the magnet?

Generally the way I’m going to do it are considered as cheaper quality pickups but yeah the pole pieces are magnetised by the magnets on the bottom which the benefits of the way I’m doing it is it’s really easy to change the type and strength of the magnets which will change the tone of the pickup (if it doesn’t sound as you hoped it would)

I watched a lot of Dylan talks tone videos on YouTube and he explains how pickups work what affects the tone (believe it or not the resistance of the pickup is a very small part of how it will sound??) 

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28 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

(believe it or not the resistance of the pickup is a very small part of how it will sound??) 

Yeah, I've read that in a few places - seems counterintuitive but then again I have pretty much zero understanding of the physics involved so who am I to question it!

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42 minutes ago, Rexel Matador said:

Yeah, I've read that in a few places - seems counterintuitive but then again I have pretty much zero understanding of the physics involved so who am I to question it!

Likewise.  Resistance does affect the volume, though.  6.8 ohms sounds very respectable for a home wound :)

You will, in any event, need to allow the pickup to sit as high in the cover as you can because the wood thickness, although sonically invisible, nevertheless still forms part of the string to pole gap.  In one of the covers I did, I had to scoop more out of the insides to be able to raise the pup a touch more to prevent the top of the cover being too close to the string.

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