First time assemble J bass help

[Bassjacker]

So decided to do a j bass build in summer and I was wondering if there was anything wrong with the build? Also how hard would a kahler tremelo bridge be to install (bass) as I'm not to keen on hipshot tremelo as it eats a massive chunk of the bass.

Also quilted maple....how do you get it looking a whiter look (not a white dye) for the wood in general rather than the yellowy and tan looking finishes?

Model: J Bass®
Scale: 34 in.
Chambered: Yes
Orientation: Right handed
Wood:
Core: Maple
Front Laminate: Quilt Maple
Control Cavity: Rear Rout
Pickup Rout: J Bass® (Neck, 3 5/8") - J Bass® (Bridge, 3 3/4")
Control Rout:
Volume 1 (JBass)
Volume 2 (JBass)
Tone (JBass)
Bridge Type: Tremolo
Bridge Rout: Hipshot 4-String Tremolo
Jack Rout: 1/2" (13mm) Side Jack Hole
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt
Contours:
Contoured Heel
Forearm Contour
Tummy Cut

Style: J Bass®
Construction: Super Bass
Scale: 34 in.
Neck Wood:
Shaft Wood: Wenge
Fingerboard Wood: Ebony
Stiffening Rods: Graphite Rods
Orientation: Right Handed
Nut Width: 1 1/2"
Back Shape: Slim Taper
Radius: Straight 10"
# of Frets: 21
Fret Size: SS6100 (Stainless)
Tuner Ream: BML
Inlays:
Inlays: Cream Face Dots
Side Dots: White Side Dots
Pre-Cut Installed String Nut: GraphTech Black TUSQ XL - Standard Nut
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt

So I was just wondering if this build would be fine and if there are any tips and tricks I could be given for a first time assemble. I know my ways around setups and such not so much around assemblings. Finally, push pull active passive switch, how hard are they to install?

Sorry its a long questionful post but I thought better in one than spread out.

 

[stubhead]

Well, the routing is profound. Either you know how to route precisely & error-free already, or you don't. If you don't know how but the plan is to buy a router, you better get that FIRST and tear up a whole truckload of pine, oak, the kitchen table, bathroom door etc. between now & then. I would actually strongly, strongly advise against that. There is a tragic parade of those... “things”... that show up on Ebay,

“Well the pickgourd'll cover it up prietyy good and you just glue some toothpicks in the holls to fex them I'm jost two buzy right now. LOL!”

LOL my ass, do not fudge up a $300 board. It's a skill, add it on later. There's several pips on this board who can do, just have Warmoth ship the body to them and bang they can do it. But you already know somebody who's got a vast amount of experience and the right tools, you just don't know it. Or maybe you do, a friend of your father, a friend of... some other old pips, you're sure to know some old people somewhere. --That weird neighbor that makes all the buzzing noise at 3am? 

(check for blood spatter or too much bleachy spell, glowing red eyes etc., natch). 

Go to the artsy summer festival and find the old guy with a table piled up with the wooden pulltoys – there's a router-festooned one at every one of them things, unless... it's ALL THE SAME GUY! AIEEEE! ETC!


There's a number of all-clear finishing sprays; I don't know know that end well, I'm a resolute wipe-on guy. But check on ReRanch, Delft (sp?),
http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/clear-protective-finishes/wipe-ons/minwax-wipe-on-poly etc. etc.

At this time I have to preach the gospel, so –

BUY DAN ERLEWINE'S “COMPLETE GUITAR REPAIR V.3” RIGHT NOW.

Just do. It will save you thousands of dollar over the years, it'll alert you if some so-called “guitar tech” is trying to snow you & he's planning to run right back to his hole and look up what he just claimed he knew how to do and look it up in DAN ERLEWINE'S “COMPLETE GUITAR REPAIR V.3” himself. Mostly for now, after you read ALL the parts about what you need, it will give you a good understanding of what you do know, what you don't know, maybe transfer credits from other finishing, electronics, and making your brain get really, really tiny.

A great setup IS accurate within a thousandth of an inch to what was intended. i.e if I want my “A” string to come off the nut with a height of .016” clearance over the 1st fret, it needs to be between 0.015” and 0.017”. If you got 'em, go compare a 0.015” string to a 0.017” string. See?  :glasses9: I sure can't, at the tender age of 56 I can't see for shit anymore  - so I just have magnification stuff all over the place. Which brings up – got tools? They help. Ya the crusty ol' guy pulls his well-worn buckknife outta his pocket and says all squinty crusty-style

“This here is all you really need, kid.”

Ever see him do it?

O.K. Now.

A) any board is going to pick up some color when finished – just wet some board with water, naptha, any old thing. It's going to do that, it just does. People DO bleach wood... pretty harmless, pretty easy, you just have to get ALL the bleach off after or woo, boy, is your finish gonna be weird. I just googled

guitar made out of holly jimmy page cow skulls

to get to this guy:
http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Cow-Skull_Guitars_and_a_Builder_Named_Boaz

He made Jimmy Page a guitar out of holly, because it's the whitest. I don't remember, but he might've yakked beach? Just chase “wood + bleach” around for a while, you might get something. Woodworking is just woodworking, the "mo-jo"-headed "mo-_ons" can get pretty confused about that (x-tra credit fill-in-the-blank, that)

B) I would absolutely put a full depth neck on it. They're not even that big to begin with, and the neck is the HEART of the sound. ESPECIALLY on bass. Learn to play it, that's all. Actually, I'd put a real 1.6875" P-neck onnit too. But I have this quaint thing about trying to sound good.

C) Warmoth automatically puts steel bars in them (no charge), and they work better than graphite. No, no, NO dead spots on the D string. Yippee. Graphite bars are if you're terrified of “neck dive.” “Neck Dive” is something that happens if you like to take both hands off your instrument and dance around with your hands in the air. This is probably the wrong forum for that.

Seriously, neck dive happens to SG-shaped basses, with maybe five or six real elephant-ear tuners (I hate dinky bass tuners). So keep your hand on the neck where it belongs. This is another one of those things desperate writers invent when they finally, irrevocably, totally ran the friggin' craptalk “MOJO” well bone-dry. Hey, let's all go pee in the well so they can start up again! Yay!... it's like “string separation.” What in the hell IS string separation? If your strings are separating, I think you need some new strings.

D) Active/passive switch? Is there a preamp creeping in there, somewhere?? It's OK, I just don't... it's a whole 'nother world, that's all.

E) All of the above!*

F) We NEVER tolerate long posts! You will be hornswoggled at dawn!

G) Say, did I remember to mention -

MY CAT SAVED MY BOY!



Or, he would have. He COULD have - little kid's gotta work on his scheduling better, man needs his beauty sleep ya know? Arf! Arf! Arf! Aw shuddup already!




*(Irresistable...)

 

[Cagey]

Not all bleaches are the same. The kind that whitens wood is actually a two-part process. There's an article on it here you might want to read.

Stubby's right about the router - you can do one helluva lotta serious damage in a hurry if you're not comfy with one. Be sure to practice a LOT, or get someone else to do it. Fortunately, the routing needed for a Kahler is not as extensive as it is for other styles of bridge. I did one on a Tele last year for a gentleman in England and it came out well.

 

[Bassjacker]

Didn't expect to get such an informative response! Thank you a lot.

I much like the person mentioned live in England and I have a friend who has built guitars and acoustics so I have faith in him that he could rout out a pocket for the kahler bridge and I think he mentioned he has a frame (dunno the correct named) that allows precise routing.

The reason I was thinking about push pull active passive switch is because I wanted to get the most out of pickups (active), however there is the simplicity that keeps dragging me back to passive pickups and just use the amp for eq.

Now the reason I wanted a slim neck was because my hand isn't to big and wanted to move about the bass easily (not in terms of speed but finger placement without stretching).

Anyways any more tips that could help me, feel free for any input 

 

[stubhead]

Put the tips of your left-hand fingers and thumb all together and point them at your face. You don't have to press hard or anything, but keeping the tip of your middle finger and the tip of your thumb together, move your index and little fingers away from the thumb and middle finger. Still all pointing at you, they should be kind of bent at the first knuckle, looking like the way your fingers would be shaped on a guitar/bass. Keep them all pointing at you, keep trying to spread your index and little fingers apart, and - start moving your thumb and middle finger apart from each other.

:hello2: :blob7: :hello2:
​

And backwards - just spread your hand wide flat open, as far as you can, staring at your palm. Keeping your fingers spread wide open - slowly bring the tips of your middle finger and thumb together. A thin neck to reach stuff better?

:cool01: :cool01: :cool01:​

 

[Bassjacker]

I have an unusual bass grip as I didn't take lessons every and learnt from scratch. I tend to play Les Claypool kinda stuff involving lots of flamenco strumming etc but did used to play RHCP before hand. I goof about with my first bass which is a 3/4 length ashton joey bass which has a slim taper neck thus why I wanted a slim taper.

 

[Bassjacker]

I have been considering a non tremelo bass bridge but was wondering what bass bridges are out their that are really good but not really heard of.

I want to make a bass that no company could recreate.