It's that time again... (bass content)

[raito]

It's time to build again! A bass this time.

As those of you keeping score may remember, I bought a used Squier Standard Precision Bass some time ago. And complained about it. The Guitar Center picture was incorrect. The bass has a Jazz bridge pickup as well as a P-Bass pickup. This also means it has an additional pot and the jack in on the edge.

I'd been going for that Jamerson vibe, and this wasn't going to get me there.

When Guitarfetish moved, I bought a sunburst body and a rosewood paddle neck. I also bought a paisley body, and maple neck, and a left-handed rosewood tele neck for other projects. The total cost was less than a nundred dollars. Not bad. I also acquired a few other parts.

But I need to clean off the basement shelf that this stuff is on so I can put other stuff there to clean out half the basement before we finish it.

This also meant getting the rest of the parts. I have most of them. I definitely need a bridge and strings. I think I need a string tree and matching screws for the thumb rest (only came with 1, sigh). And knobs. I'm only going to put 2 strap buttons on, though.

I'm using this as a parts list:

Fender Precision Bass Guitar >> Vintage Guitar and Bass

www.vintageguitarandbass.com

Here's the parts:

Aaaand, we immediately have a small problem. The shield and the pickguard agree with each other. The pickguard and body do not. Pickguard imperfection is in the plastic still on the guard.

I could move the pickguard back a touch to cover the routes, but then we have quite the butt crack (note that the neck and body don't quite agree, either). I could just ignore this and be ugly, or I could route the neck pocket a little more. Any other ideas? What do you think of the options?

 

[Killing Floor]

Let's Go! P with tortoise and sunburst. Can't go wrong.

 

[mtglick]

Couple notes if you need help. Before you do anything to the neck pocket, measure the scale length. First check the neck from nut to 12th fret, then double that #. Fender standard is 34", should hit at around that. If the distance from the nut to the bridge location is long (or you can move the bridge back without leaving holes showing, which seems like it's possible given the pics), route the neck pocket toward the bridge and correct the pg at the same time. IIf the distance is basically correct, but the pg is interfering with the pickups or bridge and not covering the pocket anyway, make or buy a new pg. If the length is short (so you have to move the neck AWAY from the bridge, line up the bridge end of the pg, find a piece of scrap lumber that you can use to fill the gap at the heel, set it flush with the pg, and use either a piece of scrap pg material that matches your pickups, OR a piece of leather, to entirely cover the gap. Like the heel end of an SG with that trapezoid between the neck pup and the heel. Done this before, and on your sunburst, a piece of tooled leather cut to a decorative shape would look kind of cool anyway. It's a custom build. Customize!

 

[raito]

All right, I got something done!

There's 2 (broadly) kinds of people in the world. Clean-desk people and messy-desk people. Clean desk people spend their time a little bit at a time as they go along. Messy desk people spend their time in larger chunks right before they need something.

So before I started this morning, I had to finish cleaning off the whiteboard on the card table I'm using for assembly. Had to put a couple things away, then clean the board itself, then put the board away (for some value of away). Then ended up in the garage removing some hardware from the doors on some wooden boxes that no longer serve their purpose. But the plywood is nice and flat and I can always use that. Back to the basement.

As you can see I got a bridge and knobs. I might still need a string tree, but I think I have it all.

You might be able to see that the curve at the end of the neck has a smaller radius than the body or the pickguard (or the shield). The 3 of those match perfectly.
First thing to do is to temporarily mount the pots and jack so I can see if just shifting things around a bit will work OK.

Just one hitch -- the pickguard has some foil over the holes.

Fortunately, the Xacto is within reach and the foil cuts nice and easy.

The pots screw on as does the jack, and they fit in the route. This is with the pickguard and shield lined up with the neck route. You can see the crack.

 

[raito]

You can also see that the tip of the pickguard and shield is a little more forward than we might like.

So we move everything back and cover the crack.

The tip looks better.

And the pocket didn't move much at all. Sloppy pic as I wasn't using both hands to hold everything in place.

This hole might be a problem. Or I might be able to nudge it a touch. We'll see.

 

[raito]

My current plan is to drill the 3 holes closest to the neck pocket so I can screw that part down. I'll then mark the rest of the holes. This will keep the pickguard in place while I mark the new line of the pocket.
Tried to use a pencil to mark holes, didn't work. Couldn't find my nice scriber in the garage. So I grabbed a 16ga harness needle. That worked. Here's the result.

Using the holes as a reference, I dropped in the pickups, to see if I needed any adjustment there.

Nope, they fit.

@mtglick

I can definitely move the bridge a bit -- the body isn't drilled for it. But it also appears as though there's enough adjustment at the canonical placement. Scale on the neck is fine. I also have a Squier P-Bass and compared both the neck pocket and the butt of the new neck. It's the new neck that's the problem in this case. So I'll adjust the neck pocket and flatten the curve at the end of neck a bit and all should be well enough. The pickups will sit in the right spot.

Next up is to have to set up to drill those 3 holes. And it appears as though I'll have to ream out the neck holes in the body. They're a bit tight.

 

[raito]

It sure feels like I'm busy. Or maybe it's just busywork.

My drill press (and other stuff) is a Shopsmith. While it'll do most things (large panels are a problem), it takes a fair bit of time to change the setups. It was set up for bandsaw and table saw. Naturally, I have a table saw project waiting for me, so do that first. Then unmount the band saw, take off the table saw stuff, flip the table on its side, mount the drill chuck, then stand the whole thing on its end. Simple, right?

This proves to be a bigger ritual than normal. I get the table saw back on (because I'd been bandsawing). Move the motor off the bandsaw mount to the table. But the table won't drop down. I lose some skin moving the motor back, barking it on the power takeoff for the bandsaw. Turns out everything is full of sawdust. Remove the table extensions and fence, remove the table, grab the chip brush from the lathe and clean the table's 'threads'. Still won't go on and move. The 'threads' (more like splines) on the carriage are also full of sawdust. Try a couple things, unsuccessfully, then bring out the big (air) guns. Turn the compressor on. Do some gymnastics getting to the drawer in the tool chest with the air stuff. That table saw project is in front of it. Fortunately, I'll be able to move it after I do my cuts today. Go inside while pressure builds because my fingers are cold from handling all that metal. Blow out the splines, put everything back together. I even remember hook up the dust collection both electrically and practically.

Get the table saw cuts done. Using the dust collection. Now the table saw project just requires a battery recharge and change of venue to get to the next step. Battery charge for the nailer, and change of venue because its too cold to glue in the garage.

In my professional world, this is what's called 'shaving yaks'. Look it up.

Than I left for a week for a convention. That piles up some work for me, not just from the convention itself, but stuff that didn't get done while I was away. Fortunately, most of that is positive stuff, indeed. It's not every day an Olympic and World Cup gold medalist recommends the camp you were sending your child to.

The week after the convention was just nutso. Managed to score 2 coaching interviews for this week for positions in the spring. And because a former coaching teammate of mine is moving to DC that left his spot in the Olympic Development Program Open. He gave me a good reference and I started there last Sunday. Naturally, the pay is about a third of what I'm used to, but I'm retired from regular work and not getting SS as I'm too young. So that part is nice. I also had to buy some coaching attire without team/club/school logos and fill out a bunch of mal-formed forms. If you're going to give me PDF forms, make them the latest ones and have fields for everything. Doesn't do me any good to have to fill in a date in a place without a field to put it in.

There was also a meeting with the city about an athletic complex (although they were nice, the real answer is 'you do all the work, we'll take all the credit'). It also turns out that the course I wanted to host was also the idea from a coach at the other high school. I've been working the back end, asking the licensing body what we must supply. And asking the school district ('we won't host, but you can rent the field for $150 an hour'). He's been working the front end, asking the local pro team to host (there answer there was 'we have our own stuff, don't try to dilute it'). The guy at the licensing org. left last Friday and he was a good contact for me. So I still have to find an instructor.

I also had to go through so-called 'modern' systems to get some transcripts shipped around. Fortunately, that's all been worked out.

Now things have simmered down just a bit, so back to the bass!

Next let's figure out how big those screw holes are. Pickguard screws are #4. This means a major diameter of 0.112 inches, according to Machinery's Handbook. You'd think that a proper diameter hole would be part of the chart, but it isn't. Let's get some actual measurements. On-line charts show a 1/16" hole for soft woods. Of course, my measurements differ. The screws that came with the pickguard are .120 and the minor diameter is close to .090.

But I'm not going to drill those holes yet. Why? Because my bandsaw is on that same Shopsmith and the neck is a paddle-head. I don't want to have to convert twice. Fortunately, the search turned up a TDPRI thread with a pdf.

But there's a problem with this $25 neck. Oh say it isn't so. This picture is taken with a backlight. See that there's no way to line everything up. So I improvise. I put on the template so that the line of the bass side meets the end. The holes weren't going to line up anyway, and this way everything fits.

But I don't make the cuts today. It's snowing and I have to stand in the driveway to use the bandsaw.

 

[crazydave911]

It sure feels like I'm busy. Or maybe it's just busywork.

My drill press (and other stuff) is a Shopsmith. While it'll do most things (large panels are a problem), it takes a fair bit of time to change the setups. It was set up for bandsaw and table saw. Naturally, I have a table saw project waiting for me, so do that first. Then unmount the band saw, take off the table saw stuff, flip the table on its side, mount the drill chuck, then stand the whole thing on its end. Simple, right?

This proves to be a bigger ritual than normal. I get the table saw back on (because I'd been bandsawing). Move the motor off the bandsaw mount to the table. But the table won't drop down. I lose some skin moving the motor back, barking it on the power takeoff for the bandsaw. Turns out everything is full of sawdust. Remove the table extensions and fence, remove the table, grab the chip brush from the lathe and clean the table's 'threads'. Still won't go on and move. The 'threads' (more like splines) on the carriage are also full of sawdust. Try a couple things, unsuccessfully, then bring out the big (air) guns. Turn the compressor on. Do some gymnastics getting to the drawer in the tool chest with the air stuff. That table saw project is in front of it. Fortunately, I'll be able to move it after I do my cuts today. Go inside while pressure builds because my fingers are cold from handling all that metal. Blow out the splines, put everything back together. I even remember hook up the dust collection both electrically and practically.

Get the table saw cuts done. Using the dust collection. Now the table saw project just requires a battery recharge and change of venue to get to the next step. Battery charge for the nailer, and change of venue because its too cold to glue in the garage.

In my professional world, this is what's called 'shaving yaks'. Look it up.

Than I left for a week for a convention. That piles up some work for me, not just from the convention itself, but stuff that didn't get done while I was away. Fortunately, most of that is positive stuff, indeed. It's not every day an Olympic and World Cup gold medalist recommends the camp you were sending your child to.

The week after the convention was just nutso. Managed to score 2 coaching interviews for this week for positions in the spring. And because a former coaching teammate of mine is moving to DC that left his spot in the Olympic Development Program Open. He gave me a good reference and I started there last Sunday. Naturally, the pay is about a third of what I'm used to, but I'm retired from regular work and not getting SS as I'm too young. So that part is nice. I also had to buy some coaching attire without team/club/school logos and fill out a bunch of mal-formed forms. If you're going to give me PDF forms, make them the latest ones and have fields for everything. Doesn't do me any good to have to fill in a date in a place without a field to put it in.

There was also a meeting with the city about an athletic complex (although they were nice, the real answer is 'you do all the work, we'll take all the credit'). It also turns out that the course I wanted to host was also the idea from a coach at the other high school. I've been working the back end, asking the licensing body what we must supply. And asking the school district ('we won't host, but you can rent the field for $150 an hour'). He's been working the front end, asking the local pro team to host (there answer there was 'we have our own stuff, don't try to dilute it'). The guy at the licensing org. left last Friday and he was a good contact for me. So I still have to find an instructor.

I also had to go through so-called 'modern' systems to get some transcripts shipped around. Fortunately, that's all been worked out.

Now things have simmered down just a bit, so back to the bass!

Next let's figure out how big those screw holes are. Pickguard screws are #4. This means a major diameter of 0.112 inches, according to Machinery's Handbook. You'd think that a proper diameter hole would be part of the chart, but it isn't. Let's get some actual measurements. On-line charts show a 1/16" hole for soft woods. Of course, my measurements differ. The screws that came with the pickguard are .120 and the minor diameter is close to .090.

But I'm not going to drill those holes yet. Why? Because my bandsaw is on that same Shopsmith and the neck is a paddle-head. I don't want to have to convert twice. Fortunately, the search turned up a TDPRI thread with a pdf.
View attachment 1077186
But there's a problem with this $25 neck. Oh say it isn't so. This picture is taken with a backlight. See that there's no way to line everything up. So I improvise. I put on the template so that the line of the bass side meets the end. The holes weren't going to line up anyway, and this way everything fits.
View attachment 1077187
But I don't make the cuts today. It's snowing and I have to stand in the driveway to use the bandsaw.

So been there done that