First Warmoth Build

[JSmith]

Hello all, new guy here. Finally took the plunge after years of debating and started my first Warmoth build.

Little about me. Been playing bass for over 13 years, guitar/bass for about 10 years before that. I play Warwicks but wanted to get back to a J bodied bass and thought it would be fun to build my own.

Here's the project basics: 5-string J bass

Warmoth deluxe J bass body, swamp ash, gloss black, standard J pup config
Warmoth 4+1 J neck, maple/maple, black side and face dots, white Tusq nut
Silver pearl pickguard
Schaller BML tuners, chrome
Seymour Duncan AJB-5 pups bridge and neck
Schaller 496 bridge, chrome

Not going run a pre-amp in this bass so the controls will be standard vol/vol/tone.

Currently waiting for the neck and body to arrive but I did get started wiring the control plate and assembling that. Please excuse my horrible soldering job. Still learning.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Jumble Jumble]

It's a pretty neat soldering job. Only thing I'd say is you've got a lot of solder on the backs of the pots. Try to aim for less - believe it or not, this wire is fully and securely soldered to the back of the pot.

 

[JSmith]

Thanks Jumble Jumble. Yours looks great! I had trouble getting the solder to set on the pots. I don't think I was getting it hot enough at first. Either that or should have waited and picked up some flux first. You think it will cause me trouble down the road or just looks unsightly?

 

[Jumble Jumble]

It'll probably be fine.

Here are some hints:

1. Use sandpaper or a wire brush to rough up the backs of the pots (you can see I've done that in the picture I posted).
2. Tin the back of the pot before you solder to it - basically, melt some solder on to the back of it and spread it around.

Here's a video I made ages ago that very few people have ever watched.

[flash=800,450]http://www.youtube.com/v/xKD-1Mu0srE?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]

 

[loversmoon]

thats a great vid. thanks for sharing it. I think when learning the key is a good hot iron. I had trouble getting it to stick to the pots as well. I found out the iron wasnt getting hot enough.

 

[JSmith]

It'll probably be fine.

Here are some hints:

1. Use sandpaper or a wire brush to rough up the backs of the pots (you can see I've done that in the picture I posted).
2. Tin the back of the pot before you solder to it - basically, melt some solder on to the back of it and spread it around.

I did sandpaper before I started and cleaned the surface as well as attempted to tin but I think I had my iron too cold which led to a nice blobby mess. Thanks for the vid!

 

[JSmith]

thats a great vid. thanks for sharing it. I think when learning the key is a good hot iron. I had trouble getting it to stick to the pots as well. I found out the iron wasnt getting hot enough.

I think I did the same.

 

[loversmoon]

double check it before you string it up to make sure you have no ground issues. sometimes when you try to solder with a cold iron you get a bad ground from a cold solder joint.

 

[JSmith]

Will do! Thanks for the tip!

I'm excited to get this project rolling. Staring at a box of hardware and still waiting for the body and neck is killing me.

 

[Cagey]

I don't solder to pots. Ground lugs are the way to go, for a variety of reasons. There's a thread here you might want to review.

Here's a clip from another thread, where you can sorta see the lugs in use...

Avoiding the use of unnecessarily large capacitors is always a good start. Contrary to popular belief, there's no sonic advantage to them. This shows the volume pot with a treble bleed (.001µf) on the left, and the tone control (.022µf) on the right. You can also see where I've used ground lugs, rather than trying to solder to pots that aren't interested in being soldered to. (click image to enlarge)

Here's another image of a lug being used...

The bare wire leading off there is a bit of bus wire that'll get tied to a shield or something somewhere so the pot body is grounded.

The lugs are quite inexpensive - they cost more to ship than to buy. A set of 8...

...from here is only $2.49, but shipping is $591 (or so). If you're smart, you'll PM me an address and I'll mail you a batch for nothing. I've got a million of 'em.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

They're good, yes. They also lead to some very neat wiring, I find. Takes a bit more time, though, than just jamming it on the back of the pot. So it depends how anxious I am to get playing, which one I do.

Of course, when you look at that Tele plate above, it's fairly obvious that it wasn't really a problem soldering to the pot anyway. No point solving a problem that you haven't got.

 

[Cagey]

Time, I got. Dead or short-lived pots, I hate. I also hate wiring things, so I'm only willing to do it once, and that begrudgingly. There's no question you can get away with the jerry-rigging method the OEMs use, but they're sorta set up for it with the proper soldering stations that let them get away with it in such a way as to stay just out of the range of warranty work. Myself, if I have to do it a couple/few times a month, the extra cost and effort required to do it right isn't an issue.

Not that your examples of how to do it the traditional way aren't exemplary - they are. But, nobody does it that way. They tend more toward the ruinous, where the pot internals get heated up to 700°F or so and the plastic resistor strip gets nearly destroyed.

 

[JSmith]

Checked my e-mail and saw some tracking numbers. Body, neck, and rest of the hardware is on its way!

 

[TK4261]

Checked my e-mail and saw some tracking numbers. Body, neck, and rest of the hardware is on its way!

Very Cool! How long did they take to ship from the time you ordered them?
I ordered a G4 shortscale body and neck a month ago and I'm hoping I dont have to wait 8-10 weeks.. :icon_biggrin:

 

[JSmith]

Checked my e-mail and saw some tracking numbers. Body, neck, and rest of the hardware is on its way!

Very Cool! How long did they take to ship from the time you ordered them?
I ordered a G4 shortscale body and neck a month ago and I'm hoping I dont have to wait 8-10 weeks.. :icon_biggrin:

It took almost 8 weeks from when I placed the order until I got tracking numbers. Seems to be the average for most orders from what I read. Hang in there!

 

[Steve_Karl]

Here's an other source for lugs:
http://www.talonix.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=10815

10 with shipping cost me $6.92

 

[JSmith]

Body and neck arrived today. All I can say is beautiful! Extremely well made. Had one hiccup with the pickguard but spoke with a Josh on the phone and he helped get everything sorted out. Very impressed so far! Time to get to work.

 

[TK4261]

Body and neck arrived today. All I can say is beautiful!

Cool! Where are the pics? I'd like to see  :icon_biggrin:

 

[JSmith]

Build is going well. I realized I made a mistake in wiring the control plate and had the hot pickup lead mis-matched with the negative battery lead on the output jack. Also I learned a valuable lesson. I burnt up the control pots with my less than satisfactory soldering job. I have very weak output on the bridge pup and the neck pup crackles when turning up the pot. So I have new CTS pots on the way AND ground lugs this time around. Otherwise, the bass was silent with no hum or hiss. I'm still waiting for the replacement pickguard but once that arrives I can attach that and then the control plate. For now it is fully setup and plays beautifully! Sounds very alive even acoustically.

Here are the pics of the build so far:

 

[JSmith]

Project is finished! Made a few changes down the line. Ended up going with EMG pickups and passive controls. I still have the Seymour pups which will be used in a future project along with a Seymour 3 band EQ but that's a conversation for another day.

I learned a lot on this first build what to think about during the planning phase and what to avoid doing during the build phase. I'm extremely happy with the bass and it feels, sounds, and plays beautifully!

Here's the remainder of the build pics plus the final instrument. Please excuse the camera phone quality.