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Thread: Electric Bass Guitar Build

  1. #61
    You can find the mounting hardware on some of the sites that I sent you, or you can get them on e-bay too.

  2. #62
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    I found some of the parts John but then I discovered how RIC installs their pickups.

    I've been spending the better part of the last couple days taking the parts I have and drawing them up in CAD and seeing how they will fit. And I've been finding everything I can that shows how RIC fits the parts together. I think I have it figured out and I'm pretty sure Rickenbacker started out with a design they liked, added a bunch of chrome and then called in Rube Goldberg to engineer the rest.

    I don't have the neck pickup cover yet but it's looking like there's no way I'll be able to mount it flush on the body. The pickup will end up too close to the strings. It looks like they rout out a cavity large enough to fit the entire cover, and then some, and then use the pickguard to keep it in place. I'm not planning on using a pickguard so I'd have to recess the cover a bit and that would look hackish. One of the drawings I did is below. You can see the bottom of the neck cover is below the top of the guitar body. The pickup dimensions are all taken form the actual pickups. It's looking like I'll take pickguard material and use it as a pickup surround. I wanted to do wood but the SO wants PG material.

    The bridge pickup cover is still in development. Not sure how the PG material will play into that.
    I also drew up the dual-rod truss rod and inserted it in the 33.25" scale, 20-fret fretboard. If I place the spoke wheel just below the end of the fretboard, the top part of it will protrude from the headstock, and ruin every router bit I have in trying to shape it. So I did some moving things around, extending the fretboard and adding a fret. The further along I get, the farther I drift from a RIC. But I'm fine with that.

  3. #63
    Just so you know, I'm not a big fan of how Ric does anything. Until recently, their truss rods were unhardened mild steel and had a habit of just snapping at the threads. Other than being in the right place at the right time, Rics have very little going for them. I would say to get the pickup placement right, but mount them however is most convenient. It would be difficult to engineer ANYTHING on a Ric any worse than the original.

    IMHO, of course.

  4. #64
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    Well I agree completely with your humble opinion. I'd say it's more fact than opinion. Someone said there's a three year wait on RICs. The only I see that happening is if they created the demand by keeping the supply low.

    I saw this picture on Talk Bass:

    When I saw how cleanly the body wings broke off the thru-neck all I could think was a bad glue job.

    Their pots are 330k. I have no idea how that will work with the humbuckers, I just ordered their wiring harness and am keeping my fingers crossed. Everything about this guitar is weird. Somehow they got some guitar stars to play their instruments and they have ridden the wave ever since. It's amazing to me something so poorly built has such rabid fans. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

    This will be my last RIC anything and most likely my last thru neck, unless someone pays me to make one. But I have had a lot of fun and learned a lot re-designing everything. And if I succeed in taking the images in my mind are creating them in the real world, I think this will be a pretty nice bass.

  5. #65
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    I got the wiring harness direct from Rickenbacker today. It was supposed to be new. When I took it out of the baggie I got this film all over my hands. When I was in my early 20's, I worked in a factory and I knew this film as something that formed on parts that had been sitting untouched for a very long time.
    If I was a detective, I'd say this wiring harness was sitting in a production line bin that had been shut down many years ago. Or maybe Rickenbacker sells the junk they don't use as new.

    On a more important front, I created drawings for the control cavity. I had to wing it. But it worked.

    I took the above template and, before I cut out the cavity, I used the center marks to locate where the pots and switch were then drilled them through. Then I took a jigsaw and cut out the cavity and finished it on the spindle sander.




    My SO loves purple. Those knobs have purple abalone in the centers. We're looking at trying to find a sheet of purple abalone to incorporate into the pickup trims. Talk about a needle in a haystack!
    Attached Images Attached Images

  6. #66
    Give someone like http://www.dukeofpearl.com/ a call. Tell them what you want and see if they'll hand select a sheet with lots of purple in it for you. Be aware that shell, even laminated shell, is NOT cheap. Good Abalone is very wasteful to cut, and it's difficult to work with. Only the very outside of the shell has the fantastic figure. Take off a couple of thousands leveling, the figure disappears into ugly, dull swirls.

  7. #67
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    I agree Rickenbackers are very much hit and miss. I had a 330-12 that needed constant tweaking. The twelve tuners had interferenace problems. The nut was sharp (easily fixed). The truss rods were a pain and the bridge was difficult to get execellent intonation without an after market replacement. The fretboard edge needed rounding / relief.

    My friend had a six string 620 that was a dream (though he still keeps trying to buy my Ibanez prototype neck-through). I played a 4001 Ricky bass in the eighties. It was a fine instrument. Maybe I got lucky?
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  8. #68
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    Thanks John. Looks better than a lot of what we've seen so far.

    I didn't know how easy it is to lose the luster of abalone. When you picture things in your mind it isn't always easy to make it happen. But if we went with sheets, I think we'll be okay. The mental images are changing as I see what's out there but right now I'm thinking dark ebony, maybe Gaboon, on the perimeter and abalone on the interior, right up to the pickup. My SO wants gold in there too but I have no idea how to make that work.

    I spent most of the morning and a bit into the afternoon making and fine tuning templates for the cover and control cavity recess to accept the cover.

    I cut the recess just shy of the thickness of the cover.


    Once the cover fit into place, I sanded it flush then trimmed around the perimeter so it just falls out. Gotta leave enough room for the finish buildup.

    I can't tell you how much time I spent trying to get the grain to match...and when I fit in in place, it's all wrong! I was going to create a thread here to see if anyone had any foolproof way of doing that but figured I had enough of a brain to do it without bothering others.

    I had the grain lines matched up from the sides and the piece was resawn off the same piece as the body half. But for some reason the grain didn't match. I think what happened is the piece I used for the cover was cut from the top. By the time the grain got to the bottom, it lost continuity. That piece of koa has a lot of grain flow going on. When I did the resaw, I was planning on the standard RIC pickguard.


    I drilled and countersunk for #4 x 5/8" flat head brass screws and installed the cover. A little mineral spirits shows the grain "dysfunction." Bummer. I was really planning on hiding the cover in the grain. Oh well...

  9. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Coloccia View Post
    Give someone like http://www.dukeofpearl.com/ a call. Tell them what you want and see if they'll hand select a sheet with lots of purple in it for you. Be aware that shell, even laminated shell, is NOT cheap. Good Abalone is very wasteful to cut, and it's difficult to work with. Only the very outside of the shell has the fantastic figure. Take off a couple of thousands leveling, the figure disappears into ugly, dull swirls.
    I scored a lot of raw red and green abalone at a garage sale around here. When I get home, I'll look to see if I have any purple. It seems unlikely though, so don't wait on me. I have a wet ring saw and a wet belt sander to flatten. I think buying prepared pearl and abalone is easier but sometimes you learn more doing it yourself (including ways to ruin things-DAMHIKT).
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  10. #70
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    Thank you Shawn! From what I've seen, I doubt you'll find purple in your collection but I appreciate the thought. We've got a line on some possibilities so we should be okay.

    Last night the rear cover non-matching grain was really bothering me so I went back down into the shop and took a hard look at everything. I laid out the body half and resaw cutoff in bookmatch style. I may not have gotten it perfect, but it was pretty close. Then I took the cover, flipped it and put it in place and it looks like it came from a different part of the stock.



    I guess I never had a chance. It amazes me there could be so much of a change in grain in so little thickness.

  11. #71
    I think it looks pretty good, Julie.

  12. #72
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    I got a little more done on the bass today. I was having the hardest time getting drawings to match with what I had but finally fixed the problems.
    Today it just seemed right to rout for the truss rod by hand. It's kind of therapeutic.


    Chopping out for the truss rod spoke wheel.


    I had to leave the truss rod 1'8" proud for the fretboard spacer.


    Fingers crossed this whole thing works.


    After I trimmed the neck on the bandsaw, I secured it to the 3/4" routing template with turner's tape.


    The spacer in place. I'll still have to plane it down to 1/8".


    Things are shaping up!

  13. #73
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    Next up is routing out for the 1/8" x 3/8" carbon fiber neck rods. I decided to run them parallel to the outside of the neck instead of the center. I was thinking an "A" configuration is better than a parallel one for side-to-side stability. Though I don't know if that even matters.

    I didn't have an 1/8" router bit so I took out the Veritas router plane. When I bought it I also bought all the irons.


    After I cut to about 1/8" deep, I did a test fit on the carbon fiber rod. It wouldn't fit. When I took out a L-N 1/8" chisel to clean out the groove, the chisel was wider than the groove. I checked the width of the iron and it measured 0.115". The L-N chisel was 0.125" and the rod varied from 0.123" to a bit over 0.124". I checked the rest of the Veritas irons and all of them were off. All were made in Taiwan. I bought the Veritas router plane over the L-N router plane because the Veritas had a fence. The prices were close to the same. Buyers remorse sets in.

    I couldn't find a 1/8" router bit locally so I placed an order with Routerbitworld. They shipped the same day so the wait won't be too bad. In the meantime, I set up for neck profiling.


    Initially I was going to use a piece of 3/4" MDF for the router support. When I placed it over the jig, I realized I'd be routing blind. Then I remembered I had some 1/4" Plexiglas left over and found a piece that would work.


    I'll remove the Plexiglas piece on the bottom of the router, use it to drill the holes in the plate and attach the plate to the router.


    The plan is to allow the router to be moved on to the top of the platform to make the transition from fretboard to neck. I'll use a 1/2" round bit to create the transition. On the Fender-type guitars, I used the spindle sander to do this but because of the angled head on the bass, I didn't see that as an option. I'll get a piece of scrap to test the jig first.




    Since I couldn't see the marks at the nut, I measured down to the bridge and used that to locate the neck in the proper place.


  14. #74
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    Julie you made me go check my Veritas router plane and my 1/8" cutter is under also. Wonder if they stuck in a metric blade for 1/8"

    Ron

  15. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Lindner View Post
    Julie you made me go check my Veritas router plane and my 1/8" cutter is under also. Wonder if they stuck in a metric blade for 1/8"

    Ron
    I hadn't even thought about that Ron. On their website they list their 3mm blade and have "(1/8")" next to it. Maybe they don't think the difference between 0.115" and 0.125" matters but it sure messed me up. There's no way I wanted to sand down carbon fiber! And the fence on the router plane is a bit too iffy to trust it to hold firm enough to shave 0.01".

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