The Bass Vault

Well my dad and I got our hands on a router from a friend of ours, so we spent today messing around with it learning how to use it.  We've made a body out of pine to get practice on everything we have to do on it.  We cut out the shape, and routed around the edges of the body to make them rounded.  We did a practice routing of the neck pocket on some scrap, and I think we'll rout it out on the pine body later tonight. I have pictures of the process, but I don't know how to get permission to upload them here. Anyone know how?

We are getting the alder for the body plained tomorrow, then we'll be gluing the bloodwood front and back to it.  Once the blank for the body is ready with the bloodwood-alder-bloodwood sandwich, we will cut out the shape of the body just like we did with the pine.  One thing I have been thinking about is the pickup placement on the body.  How exact do I have to be with the placement of the pickups?  My plan right now is to just place the pickups on the body where they seem to go in pictures like this http://www.guitartechcraig.com/images/squire_pj3.jpg.  I have a picture of my layout, but I don't know how to upload it here.  Also, how deep do I route for the pickups?  I'm not sure if you have any experience with these pickups, but I'm guessing it doesn't change too much from pickup to pickup.  I want to design the templates for routing the pickups, and I think I'm just going to trace their shape then make it a quarter of an inch bigger to make it fit with the router.  Do I need to do anything different?

Also, in the instructions for the EMG PJ pickups I got, it says they don't require a bridge ground.

http://www.emginc.com/downloads/wiringdiagrams/PJ_models.pdf 

Thanks in advance,

John 

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John-Miller

Keep in mind the tones you're going for when you locate the pickups.  Nearer the bridge will have a brassier/growlier sound since there are more harmonic vibrations down at the end, and the amount the string vibrates is much tighter at the bridge (and nut) than elsewhere.  For the neck pickup... well, if you want to get a tone similar to the Fenders go to Guitar Center with a ruler and measure from the last fret to the center of each pickup, write that length and the fret you measured from and you should be close to right on when you transfer those measurements to your bass.  That can be done with whatever tonally pleasing bass you can get your hands on though, so long as it has similar pickups

 And yes, never take active (battery powered) pickups to a bridge ground.

 

And yes, never take active (battery powered) pickups to a bridge ground.

.......what happens, is it a shocking experience or damaged gear time?

 John Miller..........I think we are all waiting to see pix and hear a sound clip.........wish I had the same ambition!

 jpw

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Greetings from Myrtle Beach!

Ok thanks for the help again.  My dad and I glued the bloodwood and alder together yesterday, and cut out the body from it tonight.  I have to say it looks great.   If I can figure out how to upload pictures on the forums, I'll put them up of the body.  I think for the pickups, I'll put the P bass pickup close to the same position it is in on my fender p bass.  I'll put the Jazz pickup close to the bridge, just like other basses.  I'm still not sure how deep to route for the pickups, and how much the height is determined just by tightening or loosening the screws.  Sorry John, but I think a sound clip is still quite a ways away, but I'll be sure to put one up when I can.  Here is a rough list of things we still have to do.  (Quite a bit)

-Practice all the routing for pickups, neck pocket, and control cavity on pine body

-Route the real body

-Finish the body, varnish or whatever we decide to do to it 

-Install the neck on the real body, by putting it in the neck pocket, and screwing it in. Anything specific I have to do here?

-Install the hardware.  The tuning pegs, pickups and control knobs, strap buttons, bridge, and string it up..?

I'm sure I'm missing huge steps, but I'll come across those when the time comes.  Do I have to do something other than bolt the neck on, screw in the bridge, and install the tuners to make sure the tension from the strings doesn't break the bass somehow?  I just know there are many many many pounds of force from the strings, and that that can be a problem.

 

-John 

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John-Miller

I think this might work to show off a few pictures of the bass so far.

Unfortunately, the neck isn't actually attached yet.  We are trying to decide if we should add a bloodwood veneer to the headstock like in the picture on the left.  It would be really hard to do, so we probably won't. 

 

 

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John-Miller

Wow thats a lot of clamps. I would say it is looking good so far but I have no clue of what im looking at lol Keep us updated I cant wait to see more

I'm glad you like the pictures, I really think it turned out nicely.

We've gotten to the point where routing for the pickups, neck, and control cavity is the biggest problem.   We've designed templates for the neck and pickups that fit very well.  The neck pocket, at its most loose point is roughly a little less than 1/16 an inch from the neck.  Everywhere else around the neck, the pocket fits with virtually no gap.

The question I have about the pickups is about adjusting the height.  I know on my two basses, and most others, the pickup height is adjusted by tightening or loosening the screws on the pickups.  I assume this works because there is something springy behind the pickups.  Is there a common thing to put behind them to allow the height adjustment?  The information with the EMG pickups says you can put a scrap of the packing foam for support behind them, but is that springy enough to change the height of the pickups when the screws are loosened?  I drew out the control cavity on the back of the body by placing the knobs on the front in the positions I'll have them, and tracing those spots and the the curve they make onto the back.  The cavity follows that curve and I'm going to leave space for a possible EQ system later on.  Is there a minimum distance I should start the cavity away from the edge of the body?

Thanks in advance,

-John 

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John-Miller

Wow, you’ve gotten a lot done!! I would say a ¼” from the edge of the body is a safe distance for the control cavity, especially if your input jack is going to be on the side of the body. For pickup “springiness” I like to use surgical tubing. You can usually find it at most hardware stores but you can order springs from all parts and places like that but I really like the tubing alternative. For the depth of the pickups I think I went 5/8” in, but I would say a little more than half the thickness of the pickup is plenty because the pickup is never low enough to be flush in the body and you have to have room for the wires. As for grounding active pickups, nothing bad will happen if you do, I personally ground mine because I always install an active/passive switch on my basses and when you run them passive you tend to get a hum. Also routing a ¼” around the pickups is NOT a good idea. That is way too much space around the pickup. 1/16” is a lot better, but I just made my templates to the exact shape of the pickup and if they fit too tight, just take a dremmel tool and sand out the edges a bit. For your neck pocket make it as tight as possible, since you have your neck done just keep doing practice routes until you get one that fits nice and snug. Also, make the holes in the body so that the screws slide through it and only screw into the body itself. If you’re using standard neck screws you should use a size 18 drill bit for the body and size 22 for the neck. Just double check your screws aren’t too long and go through the top of the fretboard!!!! I’ve seen it happen before. But the whole point for the screws only screwing into the neck and not the body is because you want the body to act like an anchor to the neck so that over time if you take your neck on and off you never have to worry about stripping the threads or anything like that and you’ll always have a nice tight grip.

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BassHead for life

Man, this is a great project, and is looking really nice thus far. I just have a couple of comments. First off, applying veneer to the headstock really wouldn't be that difficult at all. I've done a bit of veneer work on some of my speakers. I usually get it from Certainly Wood.

Just trace your headstock onto a piece of veneer, and cut the veneer about a 1/4" outside your trace. Apply a good wood glue to the veneer and headstock using a glue roller, allow to tack, and mate the pieces. I sometimes use an iron on low to mif steam setting to help flatten the veneer. Once it's firmly bonded, use a beveled flush trim veneer bit in your router, and you're done.

My other comment is that if you're going to be building more basses, a CNC router table might be a good investment. I'm in the process of building one myself for use in building speaker cabinets (and eventually basses too, I'm sure). Commercial tables start at around $8k, but I've been able to get everything to build mine, including the software, for about $1200. You can find the plans at Solsylva.com. All parts can be easily sourced online or at your local hardware store, and no metalworking equipment is required to build it.

One of the major advantages of CNC routing is that you can do your layout work in autocad or any other drafting program, so you can get the tolerances extremely precise. Once you've got your layout established, the control software can read the .DXF file and generate the machine code to produce the part. You can even use CutViewer to simulate the machining process so you can verify the accuracy of the code and see the finished work. And another benefit is that one of the software packages even allows you to generate 3-axis machine code from an image. It gets the x and y-axis data from the shape, and derives the z-axis (depth) from the contrast between light and dark. (Thus, this works best with monochrome images, or images with very good contrast.)

 And lastly, the 1/4" tolerance around the profile of your pickups is actually required in your template, presuming you are using a 1/4" guide bushing in your router, as opposed to using a flush trim bit with a guide bearing.

For work like this, using a drafting program might vastly simplify the process. For example, to create a 1/4" offset in autocad, you simply click on your shape, type offset, 0.25, and then click outside the shape, and voila! You could use this to generate very precise plans that you could then print and use as templates.

The project is looking really nice though, and I look forward to seeing the finished product! 

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Satisfying Man's Most Bass Desire

Ok so I know I haven't posted anything on this forum for awhile, and you may have thought I gave up.  You would be wrong!  I haven't posted, because I have been very busy working on the bass.  And now I am glad to same we have finished it up.  Apart from missing a stringer retainer and strap locks (which are on the way), it is all put together.  I love the way it sounds and looks.  The EMGs are great pickups.  The action is a little high and intonation a little off, but I'll be taking it into the local guitar shop soon to get it set up properly.  I also haven't made the grooves in the bridge saddles yet, I think I'll let the guitar shop people do that.  Will that lower the action at all?  Thank you all so much for your help and support, I couldn't have done it without you guys.  I'll try to upload a sound clip when I can.

 

Thank you!!! 

 

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John-Miller

Congrats John. You've made a fine looking bass there.  Cool headstock too.  I'm predicting that some day we'll be seeing John Miller basses hanging beside Fodera's, Sadowsky's, Ken Smith's, etc in the finest music stores.

 Be proud man, you've made a great axe.

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www.shanehendrickson.com
http://www.myspace.com/shane_hendrickson

John,

Your talent is remarkable.  The fit looks perfect at the neck pocket.  The wood match is beautiful.

We want sound clips!!

Peace,

jpw 

 

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Greetings from Myrtle Beach!

gotta say that bass does look mighty fine. great job man

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BassHead for life

I think the hardest thing is the wires. The neck I think is pretty Easy to get on just buy A ruler and make shure that you take your time and use a space gage! Safes lifes!!!

Thats pretty cool, it is a good looking bass.