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Finished! It's a bass, Jim...


Andyjr1515

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I think this is what you might call Work In Progress :D

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But why is that middle switch not fixed in place?

Ah...there's a bit of a story to that.  What happens when you don't know your own strength?  Well, to fix toggle switches like this, I use a socket without a handle.  Because of how they are made, you can't tighten them up in the same way as you can potentiometers.  And so I'm careful.

But clearly not so nearly careful as I thought 9_9

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An email has gone to Martin at SimS confessing my sins and to order a replacement ;)

 

In the meantime, even with the inability to switch the options on that middle pickup, I could plug it in to make sure I'd got the basic wiring right.  And it is VERY promising :)

 

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19 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

I don’t know why two strap buttons like this isn’t more widespread.  Makes so much sense.  Had it on my Hohner Jack (maybe it’s just a headless thing?)

In theory it's a smart idea, but then you can't replace them with locking strap buttons because the button with the strap attached to it will be taller/longer than the other, and your instrument is no longer stable when resting on them.

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No word yet from Martin at SimS about the replacement switch (I'll ring them later) but it actually won't hold anything up at the moment - I can still do most of the remaining stuff up to and including finishing the wiring, fitting the Status strings and doing the set up. 

So I'm expecting full LED gloriousness later today for the neck and bridge pickups which can be tested fully.  For the middle pickup, I will just need to fit the new switch when it arrives and solder the three wires to it (ground, hot out and battery).

I'll leave the hatch fixing decision until the replacement switch is in, but that should be pretty much the last thing on the build list :)

 

 

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One of the jobs today was sorting the earth on the bridge.  Nowadays, I use the shielding copper foil and use the drill-hole to hide the solder joint with the earth cable.  I find this a much more certain way of getting a good earth contact without the danger of the bridge being lifted off the body by the splayed wires of the more traditional way of doing it.

I solder the earth wire to a strip of sticky-backed copper first:

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I then just feed the wire through the drilled hole, peel off the backing paper and stick it in place:

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Lastly, after sanding the paint off the back of the bridge block, fix that and then do the all-important electrical continuity check:

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As I outlined in a previous post, the head block connects the other three strings to earth via this string saddle.

I heard from Martin and have a set of switches on the way - I've ordered all three as they will have been overstressed the same amount as the one that failed (and, actually, while I was plugging and unplugging cables, a second one did the same thing).  I gave him a call on a couple of things I wanted to check and came away wiser on two other things:

-  I'm an engineer (by qualification though, clearly, not by skill ;) ).  But I hadn't thought through "If you pop a nut on the switch shaft before you put the spring washer and switch in, then the outside nut is tightening up against the inside nut and so there's no stress on the shaft to switch joint and you can tighten up as much as you like".  I think the fact that I hadn't thought that through confirms that you should never walk over a bridge that I've designed... :lol:

-  For many two pickup sets, the bridge is more powerful than the neck.  For a guitar 3-pickup arrangement, the middle pickup is usually the same lower power than the neck.  But it is also reverse polarity and reverse wound so that it humbucks with both the bridge and the neck pickup.  So one of my question marks was how was this going to work with the Superquads, where I have a bridge and two identical neck pickups.  Martin clarified - the Superquad bridge pickup is exactly the same power as the neck pickup.  Therefore, to get the 'reverse polarity reverse wound' effect, then to put the bridge in the middle.  So the bridge, middle, neck pickups will actually be neck, bridge, neck Superquads

 

Finally, he confirmed that this - to his knowledge - is the first triple Superquad bass in the world :party:  Might be worth entering it into the US-based NoTreble ezine's 'Bass of the Week' comp - it would be pleasing to win that for the fifth time (he says with all due modesty ;) )  xD

 

Edited by Andyjr1515
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OK - good progress this morning.  Martin at SimS sent me the new switches at super-quick time - and they're in - and they all work :)

I still have to pop the front strap button on, put the fixing screws on the back hatch (yup - magnets aren't going to cut the mustard ;) ) and do the final pickup height adjustment but, basically, it's done :)

 

This is why it will need screws - the hatch actually stays shut (see below) but it would only want the wires to 'relax' a smidgen and it would pop a magnet hatch right off:

9dIWvVol.jpg

 

Here are some shots to be getting on with:

O1t3wYBl.jpg

 

Here, the hatch is just pushed on and stays there fine even without magnets...but after, say, changing the battery, it only needs one of the 47 wires to shift a bit and even with magnets, it would be off

 TUx1Zp5l.jpg

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By the way - although the LEDs light up as soon as the jack is plugged in (there is no option with the SimS switches for them to be turned off) the pickups don't actually need the battery to work.  So if you wanted to me a little less colourful, you can just take the battery out and it will still play just as well.

As always, thanks for the tremendous support along the way, folks.  I always means a lot :)

 

 

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Utterly superb, and for me - out of all of your creations Andy - this is now my No1 favourite👍🏼

I love a headless anyway, but the skill and design that went into this just edge it for me as your best. That control cavity is amazing too 😳

I just hope we get some sound clips because the variation from those pups is gonna be incredible😎

As usual, an awesome, and brilliantly catalogued build diary from one of Basschats favourite gurus 🤩

Fantastic, loved it all the way from the start - thanks for taking the time to share it on here 😉

Well done indeed Sir.

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

👌🏼

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8 minutes ago, BassTool said:

Do you sign it in the cavity?

You'll need a fine pen...🤭

Good point - I forgot to mention that.  There will be a label on the back of the cover.  But that's not the change ;)

 

 

Edited by Andyjr1515
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