(Log in to disable ads.)

Insight: pickup position is one of the very few things that can't be tweaked with a screwdriver or allen key after the build is finished

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
    Wizard wrote: Insight: pickup position is one of the very few things that can't be tweaked with a screwdriver or allen key after the build is finished

    Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
    good point.

    Here is a pic of some of the positions on the test rig:


    At the end of the day, towards neck- boomier, towards bridge- thinner, and it's more or less personal preference beyond that. I found that going closer to the neck than the P bass position started losing definition, and passively the stingray position was too thin. With the preamp however, I was able to dial a bit of thump in, so I'll be placing the pickup centred at the Stingray position, which is pretty close to where it was on the Cort Curbow this came out of:



    I've just picked up a piece of Oregon Pine at Country Woods, so I hope to be routing the body in the next few weeks.
      6 days later
      Very nice.
      Very fine grained for Oregon.
        18 days later
        Thanks Peter,

        This thread has come in useful along with this one on talk bass : (https://www.talkbass.com/threads/dr-dimentos-ongoing-p-pup-experiment.127322/page-4 to help me contemplate if the Pbass pup in the hofner is kinda the ballpark for a pbass.

        It's roughly in between the placement of a pbass and a p/j bass - which I'm happy to leave as is. Interesting Dr Dimentos comes to the same basic conclusion : closer to warm = warmer, closer to bridge = brighter/clearer.

        Did you get around to the 'bronco' experiment?. There's one hanging around the gear junkie - the pup sounds pretty good to my lofi ears. There's a thuddyness to the E string, while the rest sound fairly bright. It kinda reminds me of a vintage pbass in a way?

          3 years later

          So I sent drawings off this afternoon to a laser cutting fabricator to do this..

          The solid timber thing hasn't worked out over the last few years, so I'm going to try a danelectro-style supawood and spraypaint body, possibly with an f-hole- will see how I like the look once I get all the parts back. More news soon, hopefully...

            Looking good..
            am I'm reading correctly? you are going Supawood?
            why lasercut, and not CNC routed?

            Tuckstir yes, humble MDF. And I’m going with laser cutting because this guy has been responsive and has good pricing- i approached a few guys over the last 3 years about CNC milling but for various reasons they never came back with anything.

            Luckily Fender designs are so modular that it will be easy to replace the body if this one doesn’t work out

              Haha ok.. was wondering why you wanted to smoke out a factory..
              ?
              next time give me a shout
              we Have A CNC router which we mostly use to cut Polycarb Windows

              Fender designs been a bolt on.. as long as you keep the brigde position relative to the neck pocket.. you could make any design..
              MMMMM fretlest Flaming flying V with F-holes. ?

              Tuckstir
              thanks, that's an interesting offer. Where are you based? I'd much rather have something in real wood.

                Tuckstir Awesome! I'm on the East Rand too. Let me see what I can source in terms of timber and then we can chat further. I've got a 'dumb' 2d set of drawings, presumably it will take a bit of work to turn that into gcode for milling. Let me think the design through and I'll be in touch.

                  Tuckstir cool, I think I might be on track with timber- how big is the working bed for your CNC?
                  Would like to take this discussion offline but unless I'm missing something we can't do PMs here. My email address is my user name @gmail.com

                    24 days later

                    Just an update- I have sent drawings to @Tuckstir, who has already routed the raw lumber straight on both edges, and I will be gluing up the body blank this weekend to get it milled out- with a bit of luck I'll be playing fretless by the end of the month!

                    here are some action shots of stage 1 the side milling,
                    We took of 1mm per side

                    a month later

                    ...and I'll be picking up the completed body from @Tuckstir tomorrow - a bit of shaping (belly cut, forearm contour and roundovers) and some Danish Oil and it will be ready to assemble ?