Activating a handmade bass

[tauzero]

Some time ago, I bought a handmade 6-string headless bass off Ebay after somebody mentioned it in the marketplace. It had generic Chinese pickups in it, with two volume controls with pull to switch between serial and parallel coils on each and one rotary switch to select bridge, neck, or both. As someone slightly unkindly remarked, the knobs looked as if they belonged on a cooker rather than a bass.

 

 

After getting an Ibanez EHB1265 with upgraded Aguilar DCB pickups, and having seen a pair of DCBs the right size for this bass in the marketplace, I decided to upgrade it with the DCBs and an Aguilar OBP2 with stacked bass and treble (just hoping that the OBP2 isn't too overwhelming). This allowed me to keep the three-knob setup.

 

The pickup holes were marginally undersized for the Aguilars so I had to do some filing to get them in.

 

 

 

Obviously I didn't want to start drilling other holes in the front so I was rather constrained by the positions of the holes already drilled. This did present a problem as the position of the barrel jack socket would interfere with the bass/treble pot, so I took a different approach. My initial thought was to put the jack socket on a plate mounted on the outside like a Les Paul, but the flat section of the perimeter was too narrow and I didn't want to start carving flat bits out. So instead I got an oval metal jack mounting plate and bent it to match the inside of the control cavity, then enlarged the jack socket hole slightly and mounted the plate on the inside.

 

Next stage was wiring everything up. I wired up the tone control to the OBP-2 (ran the wires for the tone control through some heat shrink to try and keep things neat), then the volume control, and finally wired the blend control, jack socket, and PP3 battery holder in. Initially the volume control didn't work - that was because I'd connected the grey pickup wires to the volume pot body and the black wires to ground, but the two weren't connected. A short bridging wire on the volume pot sorted that out.

 

There was just room for the 9V battery holder - I didn't want to put the battery in loose. Volume is at the top, blend to the left of the battery, OBP2 is nect to the jack socket, the oval plate holding the jack socket is visible, and the stacked bass/treble pot is the other side of the jack socket. As can be seen, there's not a lot of room.

 

 

The last remaining piece of the puzzle was the rear cover, which I wanted to change to magnetic closing. The control cavity has a very narrow margin which wasn't very satisfactory as the screws that were holding the cover on were barely gripping and they were also really tiny. I took a couple of short lengths of wood and glued neodymium magnets to them, then glued them in position inside the control cavity. Then I glued a matching pair of magnets to the cover, and all was well.

 

 

 

 

[lidl e]

I liked the cooker knobs!

[BigRedX]

9 hours ago, tauzero said:

As someone slightly unkindly remarked, the knobs looked as if they belonged on a cooker rather than a bass.

 

Stick those knobs on a boutique effects pedal and people will be raving about their looks.

[fretmeister]

Those knobs look exactly like the ones on Darkglass amps and pedals.

 

 

 

 

I had them on a Sandberg bass until I put an EMG preamp in it and I needed stacked knobs. I thought they looked cool.

[Owen]

Monster!

[TheGreek]

I remember this bass - I think that I posted the original thread. I still think that it is a cracking looking Bass - with the right elements I'm sure it'll be a peach.

Reading the list of parts and the work you have done I expect this to be an absolute corker.

Following with interest. 

[tauzero]

2 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I remember this bass - I think that I posted the original thread. I still think that it is a cracking looking Bass - with the right elements I'm sure it'll be a peach.

Reading the list of parts and the work you have done I expect this to be an absolute corker.

Following with interest. 

 

Yes, it's all your fault. 😁

[tauzero]

I should add that I went overboard and also fitted a Roland GK-3B pickup.