Major bass mod project

Ultimate Garage Band · #1 April 17th, 2006

Great, I just dumped a diet coke on my keyboard.

This'll be an interesting post.

Anyway, I've got a customer that dreams of having a 3 pickup bass so I've got his Cort P bass copy and I'm dropping 2 soapbar passive pickups in it. One next to the bridge, outside of the pickguard, and one next to the neck, inside the pickguard. He'll still have his stock split coil in the middle. (pause to mop up more diet Coke from under keys....) I'll then install a stock Strat 5 way switch giving him standard Strat pickup selector wiring, and he'll have a master volume and a master tone. I have to route both cavities for the new soapbar pickups and I've spent at an hour today working on a routing template I'm making from 3/16" plexiglass. The radius of the router bit isn't as tight as the rounded edges on the pickups so the test route cavity is just a hair too short. I clamped a steel straight edge next to one end and left about 1/32" of plexi showing then used a hand file to get it flush with the steel. Another test route will be in order but I'm out of test stock here at the office. (another pause to mop up diet Coke) I hope to be able to route the pup cavities on Wednesday.

allthumbs · #2 April 17th, 2006

Sounds cool. Not the coke.LOL

737blues · #3 April 17th, 2006

UGB, when they say things go better with Coke, I don't think they mean computer and guitar thingies ......

Ultimate Garage Band · #4 April 18th, 2006

Ok, so a test rout revealed that I still needed to tweak the template some more, so I did that. Another test rout and it's fine. So I went ahead and routed the bridge position today and now I have to stop and clean up before this afternoon's lessons start. I hope I can get the neck position done tomorrow, drill/rout wire holes/channels, and get to putting this thing together. I have yet to come up w/a doable solution to cut the slot in the pickguard for the stock Strat 5 way selector switch.

chuckswood2001 · #5 April 18th, 2006

Hi UGB

any chance of some pic's of this project, would be interesting seeing what ur doin and how ur doin it, that pickguard might be fun, thin plastic is hard to work with, likes to chip when ur cutting it, good luck

chuck

Ultimate Garage Band · #6 April 18th, 2006

I'll snap some.

Next day....

Here you can see the template and the bridge rout and in the other pic you can see where the other soapbar is going to go.

Ultimate Garage Band · #7 April 19th, 2006

Today I was able to cut the pickup hole in the pickguard, rout the cavity for the neck pickup, rout the wire channel for the neck pickup to the control cavity, and shield both cavities and the channel with aluminum shielding tape. I need to buy an extra long drill bit to drill the wire hole for the bridge pickup. I thought I had one but it's a masonry bit.

chuckswood2001 · #8 April 19th, 2006

thanks UGB

the pic's are good, nice work, sort of messed up the design in the pickguard didn't it. good luck with the rest of it, and thanks for posting this project, ur post teach and help us with info we can use

chuck

Ultimate Garage Band · #9 April 19th, 2006

that's just some sticker on the pickguard. The owner will probably take it off when he gets it back.

Ultimate Garage Band · #10 April 20th, 2006

Ok, I've got the pickups placed but nothing wired yet. I'm debating about the 5 way blade switch he orignally wanted. Truth be told, it's a bit crowded in the control cavity. I'm considering using a 6 way rotary instead.

Ultimate Garage Band · #11 April 21st, 2006

Pretty much done at this point. Everything works except he told me the tone pot was "messed up" when he brought it in and I can't get it to do anything. Doesn't matter what way you turn it the sound is the same, so I'll pop a new tone pot in there and see what happens. I need to add some star washers below the pots so they don't spin on the pickguard, I have a bit more shielding to add since I had to rout for the switch, but I'm out of shielding. I'll probably have him bring it back. There's a pickguard hole that stripped out I'll fix and that should be it. Here's some pics. The knobs aren't on but you get the idea.

chuckswood2001 · #12 April 21st, 2006

nice job UGB

what did u use to cut slot for switch, looks real good, i been thinking about building one up, will take some time, dont know what i want to build yet, i like to tinker with things, im gathering parts to build a 100watt amp now, just because i like to do it myself, always have been that wat, been into electronics and just about every other hobby u can think of all my life, thanks for the info and the pic's

chuck

Ultimate Garage Band · #13 April 21st, 2006

I bought a 1/8" router bit for about $3 for my router. I measured and clamped a board onto the pickguard to act as a fence for my router and then I placed 2 other clamps on the pickguard to only permit the router to travel the length I needed for the slot.

chuckswood2001 · #14 April 21st, 2006

good idea UGB, i've used that method myself, its been a long time since i did wood working, my back wont let me stand up to the saws for long periods of time anymore so i gave it up a few years back

chuck