Electric Bass Timbers

[FrankenWashie]

Not a bass but an interesting material choice.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/72001/ma ... ard-guitar

That is absolutely the coolest thing i have ever seen. I am awestruck.

[old_picker]

Dont discount Australian Ash which works well as a bass body. Resonant hard and some boards are light if you scoot through a rack. If you get a dense board and chamber it with a fancy top you will have a great sounding bass as long as you have decent pickups. i have also used Fiji mahogany to build solid basses and the tone is awesome. Both timbers cheap and plentiful

[slowlearner]

When you say Australian Ash, do you mean Vic Ash? Or is there another species?

[Mat]

I've got a question for wiring,

I have my music man humbucker pup, and I want to wire it to a series/parallel switch. I'm using a mini switch that has 6 pins, I'm assuming they are earth, +, and negative.

How do you wire the switch? I have four wires coming out of the pickup and am stumped. Google has no diagrams I understand, hoping someone could explain it in english.

Thanks

[Dekka]

Ser.Par HB.png (50.21 KiB) Viewed 37389 times

[Dekka]

I should have mentioned that this sketch just shows the "concept" of how you can go about it but the colours may not be right for the Musicman pup.

Nordstrand pickups has a schematic for a different switch (on/on/on) that might be worth while. http://nordstrandpickups.com/wp-content ... gram-1.pdf

[garryalb]

Hi Mat,

If your pickup is the Duncan musicman you can use the diagrams on Duncan's site as colour codes are the same through their range. Other pickup makers use different colour codes so won't be suitable. Your switch needs to be double pole, double throw, on / on, the on / on should be stamped on the side.

Garry.

[garryalb]

Just had a look, for a Duncan the wiring shown above will work except the green and bare shield wire go to earth and the black is hot.

Garry.

[Mat]

Thanks Dekka and Garry,

That diagram is understandable. The pick up actually has wires missing so I had to solder new ones so colour isn't correct anyways.

Do people feel there is a noticeable sonic difference with parallel vs series? I was thinking maybe I should do the switch to have single coil and humbucker split.

It's been fun building this guitar with a complete free reign on what I can do.

[garryalb]

Hi Mat,

It is important that you establish the start and end of each coil to have the pickup working in phase and as a humbucker. The series / parallel sounds are both humbucking and very different with the series option being much more powerful. Splitting will cancel one coil and introduce single coil noise but still a popular sound. Do you have an analogue multi meter?

Garry.

[soulman]

Coming along nice Mat.
I'm in the throw's of building a five string.
So much to choose from Eltronically
Ross

[Mat]

My Brother in Law is a sparky with all the toys and he is going to take some readings for me when I get around to it. I've decided to go the series/parallel route due to the noise cancelling factor.

I was going to use poly for the finish but after finishing a timber gift box in shellac I used that instead and built it up to a nice lustre. I'm not sure how shellac will wear over time, however with the popularity of road worn/vintage gear it might just fit it!

[kiwigeo]

I'm not sure how shellac will wear over time, however with the popularity of road worn/vintage gear it might just fit it!

Normal shellac may not last too well but hard shellac is more durable.

[Mat]

Hi Martin,

I've been looking at the internet (all of the internets!) about applying oil finishes over shellac with no great success. Do you have any thoughts on danish/scandinavian/tung oil over shellac? Everyone has opinions, however, none really apply to guitars. I'm wondering how a sweaty forearm does to a finish.

[slowlearner]

Oil finishes require more cleaning than a regular finish. They will end up feeling 'tacky' if you don't. But then cleaning them is not hard work. Some baby wipes do the trick pretty easily. If you're happy to do that you can oil finish til the cows come home. Me personally I've been using Tru-oil and a similar mix for a few years now. I didn't like Danish oil myself. Super flat with no gloss at all.

BTW, Bill Paulin told me a while back that once a tru-oil finish is dried you can shellac over the top of it. So if you don't like the oil, just let it dry and go over the top.

[kiwigeo]

Hi Martin,

I've been looking at the internet (all of the internets!) about applying oil finishes over shellac with no great success. Do you have any thoughts on danish/scandinavian/tung oil over shellac? Everyone has opinions, however, none really apply to guitars. I'm wondering how a sweaty forearm does to a finish.

Mat,

I dont have much experience with oil finishes as I only french polish my instruments. Normal shellac is actually alot more durable than you'd think. Some of my early instruments are still wearing well despite being used by working musicians. My later builds are french polished with hard shellac....

[Mat]

I sanded off the shellac and decided to stain the top. The result is much nicer.

[slowlearner]

That looks FANTASTIC! Well done.

[old_picker]

Congratulations on your bass builds - they look bonzer and I bet they both will sound super.

When you say Australian Ash, do you mean Vic Ash? Or is there another species?

look sorry to hark back to this question when the basses are almost finished. Vic Ash I have used for both necks and bodies. Very nice resonant timbers which are easy to work and make very nice guitars and basses.


Going back to the discussion on tone I am going to stick me neck out. I have found in guitars made from harder resonant timbers have a wider tonal response. The softer woods such as basswood [linden], kauri [agathis] and hoop pine lack a little bite or perhaps have a bit more of a push in the mid range. Well may the acoustic builders have a cackle over this but it is what I have found in the 70 or so electric guitars and basses I have built or assembled over the past few years.

A lot of it is in the pickups sure but using the same pickups build after build you do notice slight differences from guitar to guitar. The lighter hardwood bodies always sound best to my ears. The softer woods tend to be more mellow in tone and lack some sustain.

Also I have found that good compression in the neck to body joint of a screw on neck produces a superior tone. I use longer harder screws and a heavy stainless plate. With a soft body you can not get decent compression without the plate collapsing into the wood. A client of mine bought me a solid guitar using cedar for the body which was built by a very well known electric builder from NSW. It sounded crap. I built a chambered mahogany body capped with curly alpine ash and bolted the neck, pickups bridge etc onto the new body and the difference was quite remarkable.

[Mat]

Here is the bass body with wiring done.

It does have a slight buzz so I'll have to double check my shielding. With shielding how shielded is shielded? If I have a small gap here and there will it buzz or could it just be the wiring?

Can't wait to hook it up to a decent bass amp and see what comes out of it.

[old_picker]

did you ground the bridge?
get the earth and hot reversed at the jack?
regardless of the shielding you should get negligible buzz with that type of pickup.

the shielding should be uninterrupted and continuous in the cavity, cover and the pickup route - the cavity cover should be shielded and earthed by a copper strip into the cavity walls - all should be earthed to the back of a pot or the jack -

nice bass

[garryalb]

Hi Mat,

Looking good, great job with the stain.

You had said in a previous post that the pickup wiring was missing. Did you fit shielded wire or run an earth from the copper shield in the pickup itself? All sections of your shielding need to be earthed. Does the buzz disappear when you touch earth (body held near playing position)?

Looking forward to the results and the rosewood bass.

Garry.

[Mat]

Hi,

So I have shielded everything, the pickup cavity, the control cavity, and control cavity cover. The CTS pots I'm using have a little tab that touches the shielding so i'm assuming that is earthed out.
I doubled checked the wiring on the jack and reversed the wires just to make sure and that had no effect.

As for the pickup wires, I used "normal" wire from the pickup to the mini switch. This might be my problem.
I'm going to rewire it all today and will purchase some shielded wire. Should it all be shielded wire throughout the whole bass or will the shielding in the cavities do the job?

I'll let you know how I go and thank you again for the pointers and knowledge.

[garryalb]

Hi Mat,

Shielded wire is not needed if all the cavities and wire paths are shielded. The Duncan music man pickup has copper shielding underneath and maybe inside the box, this needs to be connected to earth. Your control cavity should be joined to earth via the pot case but you will need to run a wire from the pickup route shielding to earth. Just fitting the strings can make a difference (with a string earth under the bridge). You have missing shielding if the buzz disappears when you touch earth (body held near playing position) if not you have another problem.

Garry.

[Mat]

I worked it out!

I had the pickup wired wrong to the mini switch. Being that I didn't know which side of the pickup was which I have the + & - hooked up incorrectly so it was effectively making hum. This was of course after I rewired the pickup with shielded wire and added more shielding to everything. Needless to say once i reversed the wires everything went silent and only sweet bass noises come out.

And here she is finished. I'd like to thank everyone again for this input on timber selection, finishing options and electronic knowledge. I'll be starting my next bass sometime this coming week. So I'm sure I'll have more questions.