First build: Warmoth Bass6

[Sovereign_13]

This is going to be the build thread that kind of stems from the "unboxing" thread here:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=29189.0

Unfortunately, this first post is going to be less than thrilling.  I was out of town last week for work, and I haven't ordered or received any more parts.  Lacking anything else to do, I did a mock-up of the pickguard with the parts I already have.

Apologies for the bad phone picture (and lighting).  I'm experimenting with where in my apartment gives me decent lighting.  When it gets nicer out I may be able to head outside with my wife's very nice camera.

Overall plan for this build (as of right now):

• 
  Body:
  • Warmoth Bass6 finished by Warmoth in gloss Daphne Blue
  • Matte black pickguard (shown above)
  • Q-parts chrome/black knobs
  
  Neck:
  • Warmoth Bass6 neck in roasted maple with pau ferro fretboard
  • Stainless 6105 frets
  • Gotoh Kluson-style staggered locking tuners (chrome)
  • Graphtech TUSQ nut (white)
  • Cream face dots/black side dots (still undecided about face dots)
  
  Electronics:
  • GFS Li'l Killer single-coil-sized humbuckers
  • Strat-style 5-way switch
  • Series/parallel switching
  • 500k pots with push-pull tone knob for "bass strangle" feature
    
  
  That pretty much covers it for now.  I'll have the electronics and pickups in a few weeks, so I should be able to post some wiring pictures in the near future.
  
  Also, I'm having a weird issue with the DPDT switches.  The middle one is loose, even though the screws are threaded all the way in.  Does anyone have any remedies/suggestions for that?

 

[Cagey]

Check to see if the switch body is moving when you jiggle the operator. It may be that the switch is mounted firmly, but the internals of the switch are loose. It's not too unusual with slide switches, as there often aren't any springs involved, they hold position by detent. It's usually not a problem unless you get vibration from it while playing, but even then you'd probably only hear it acoustically.

 

[Re-Pete]

Hmmm a 5 way switch & three slide switches.... what do you have in plan?  :icon_scratch:

 

[Sovereign_13]

Cagey - there is a little play in the actuator, but most of it is the body of the switch moving (the others have a slight amount of play in the actuator as well, but the body is secure).  It's as though the countersinks in the plate are too deep (or the holes are too big) for the plate to be fully clamped between the switch body and the screw head.  Maybe some tiny lock washers would work - I'll have to look and see if we have any that small.

Re-Pete - the 5-way switch is for normal pickup selection.  The slide switches will be series/parallel switching for each pickup.

 

[Sovereign_13]

A quick update - a #4 flat washer and split lock washer on each screw (between the plate and the switch body) has fixed the problem.  It seems the plate is too thin to accommodate the entirety of the countersink, so the bottom of the screw heads poke through the holes.  As a result, you don't really get a good clamping of the plate between the screw head and the switch body.  A little extra thickness and some spring force lock the switch in place very nicely.

 

[Cagey]

That's good. Glad you identified the problem. Now we'll all know for the next one.

 

[amigarobbo]

:icon_scratch:

I'm thinking of building a fretless Bass 6 with a sustaniac pickup, very early days of planning, with no promices that I'll actually get around to doing it, but do you think there's enough space in the top horn control panel to fit a 9v battery?

 

[amigarobbo]

Also what bridge are you thinking of?

I'm thinking of wider staytrem sort of thing, the intonation can be a little problematic on some of the new re-issues, getting the fat E far enough back enough,  :icon_scratch:

maybe with a hardtail plate?

https://store.factionguitars.com/collections/bass-vi-plates/products/bass-vi-hardtail-plate

 

[Sovereign_13]

I don't have the body yet, but I know there's enough space to fit a 5-way switch.  Based on some quick Google-fu of 9V and switch dimensions, I think you'll be okay.  The picture on Warmoth's website looks like it's a pretty substantial route; I'd bet you could lay one on its thin side in there.

If you're more than a few months away from that build, I can test-fit a 9V in when I get the body, but that probably won't be until September-ish, I'm guessing.  Sounds like an interesting project for sure.

As for bridges, I was planning on using the "traditional" Modified Mustang bridge with Jazzmaster trem.  I may go hardtail in the future, not sure yet.  The issue with the StayTrem, in my mind, is that it's set at 9.75" radius.  The Warmoth Bass6 is a 10" radius neck, and that radius flattens as you get to the tailpiece.  I don't have access to the type of tools I would want to install a different bridge style, so I figured I'd just use what Warmoth offers as standard.  I imagine they wouldn't offer routes for a bridge that doesn't work as standard...?

 

[amigarobbo]

I was thinking the 9.5"/10" wouldn't be that far out, hmm..  :icon_scratch:

 

[Sovereign_13]

And it might not be.  It's a straight 10" radius, and the half-inch probably isn't noticeable.  But on the off-chance it might be, I'm hedging my bets.  I'd rather be able to adjust the radius if need be.  Eventually, I might put a Mastery in there, but a $400 bridge/tailpiece combo isn't in the budget right now.

Sorry, it's a 9.5" radius, if I recall correctly.  I'm getting my fretboard radii (7.25/9.5") confused with my scale lengths (25.5/24.75).

 

[amigarobbo]

I wish I was good enough at math(s) to work out what difference 9.5" to 10" would actually be, in terms of the middle strings being too high, probably so tiny, it would be irrelevant.  :icon_scratch:

But do YOU have the mad geometric skillz to work it out?

 

[Cagey]

Without doing any cipherin', just picture a circle 19" in diameter, then picture one 20" in diameter. Cut a 2" edge piece out of both of them, and see if you can see the difference in the curve between the two.

Or, look at a 9.5" and 10" radius gauge gettin' cozy...

 

[amigarobbo]

No, it's not that simple because, at the nut it's 10" but 9.5" at the bridge, so the angles will taper, as the strings get closer together, first fret will be almost 10", but at the 24th fret it will be somewhat closer to 9.5", but only at the bridge itself will be be perfectly 9.5".

:icon_scratch:

:icon_scratch:

:icon_scratch:

A 9.5" bridge would be fine wouldn't it?

 

[Cagey]

You're clearly doing too many drugs and I'm not sure I wanna talk to you any more  :laughing7:

 

[Sovereign_13]

I'm sure I could figure it out on paper, but I have access to AutoDesk Inventor, so I'll mock up a model and take measurements that way.  :icon_biggrin:  Stay tuned - results to come.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Alright, so after fiddling around with this for entirely too long, I have come to the conclusion that 9.5" vs 10" on a 30"-scale neck isn't worth worrying about.  Less even than Cagey's gauges would suggest.  The thing is that, since the string spacing and fretboard get wider as you move toward the neck, the frets "move away" from the strings at almost the rate that the strings "drop" due to the decreasing radius.

It doesn't completely negate the string "drop" as you get closer to the bridge, but the 24th fret itself is only 3/4 of the way along the scale length.  By my modeling, if I start with 0.023" of action at the nut, I have .022" of action at fret 1 and 0.02" of action at fret 24 on the outside strings.  That's a loss of 3 thou over the length of the fretboard. I think it's safe to say "fugheddaboudit" if you want to go for a Staytrem bridge.  In fact, knowing that, I might go for one myself.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Whew, it's been awhile since I updated this thread.  Unfortunately, not a whole lot of progress in the past *checks date* month and a half?  You all must've thought it abandoned!

It's not, I promise, just life playing keep-away with my time.  I did manage to get orders in to Mouser (for pots and caps and bits for other projects) and StewMac (for shims, shielded wire, polishing papers, and four-conductor pickup wire so I can modify the pickups a bit).  Next up will be actual, honest-to-your-deity-of-choice wood pieces from Warmoth.  Of course, then I have to wait 4-6 weeks for delivery...and then I have to get the thing built...

So maybe I'll have this all put together by the end of the year.  Hopefully.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[rgand]

Whew, it's been awhile since I updated this thread.  Unfortunately, not a whole lot of progress in the past *checks date* month and a half?  You all must've thought it abandoned!

It's not, I promise, just life playing keep-away with my time.  I did manage to get orders in to Mouser (for pots and caps and bits for other projects) and StewMac (for shims, shielded wire, polishing papers, and four-conductor pickup wire so I can modify the pickups a bit).  Next up will be actual, honest-to-your-deity-of-choice wood pieces from Warmoth.  Of course, then I have to wait 4-6 weeks for delivery...and then I have to get the thing built...

So maybe I'll have this all put together by the end of the year.  Hopefully.  :icon_biggrin:

No problem, you're right on time. I started ordering parts for my current build in May last year. It's almost finished, now.  :laughing11:

 

[Cagey]

Some things require a tight focus, which is not always available.