MoonBassAlpha has been created and now it has got to stand up to being used. I have taken the opportunity to take some some higher resolution images before it gets scratched and bashed!
The ash (light wood either side of the neck) has really come to life now that the oil / wax finish has been applied. The grain figuring is quite pleasing. The controls in the upper cutaway are for the fboard LEDs, whilst the lower cutaway has two volume knobs and a pickup selector switch. The switch is a special 4 pole on-on-on variety that allows the coils in each pickup to be connected in series, parallel or use only a single coil. This gives a good range of tonal flexibility.
The side you see when you're playing it...
...and the side you see when you're lying on the floor.
The walnut stripe sandwiched between the ash front and back offers a nice contrasting warm colour.
The back looks nice too. The red of the padauk is quite striking, and the grain of the wenge shows up with what looks like alternating black / milk chocolate stripes. The back of the neck looks a little bulky, but there are a lot of wires that are routed around the trussrod and into the upper horn at that point.
Although difficult to see all of them here, the copper plates used as control covers were polished for me by Ace. Good work, but then you should see his car...
This one reminds me that at an early stage I dismissed the constraints imposed by a stand. I wanted the guitar to look how I wanted it to look when it was being played, rather than make it terribly sensible when it is resting. The downside is that although it is perched on the stand for the photos, it really needs its own stand built. If I sneeze it will probably fall off.
The front of the headstock has a hole in it...
...and so does the back. I am glad that the trussrod adjustment is done at the body end - it leaves the headstock less cluttered.
I had to take a few shots without the flash so that the fboard animation could be seen. Here's a few, but the pacman in particular doesn't come out too well on longer exposure times as it is moving! It does show the idea though.
Sound wise the guitar has a good solid bottom end, helped by the dense woods and slightly thicker-than-normal neck profile. The pickup switch and volumes allow several tone combinations. I really like the single pickup coil sound which comes through very clean. The humbucking switch positions give more depth to the sound with the series position having a really fat sound.
I am really pleased with the bass, but there are a couple of things I didn't get quite right.
1. Sharp internal angles are very difficult to sand and oil/wax, so they look a little rough in places.
2. Stoning the fboard is a skill that I don't think I have mastered yet. The fboard is reasonable, but still slightly wavy, causing some fret buzz in places. The string action is around 2.5-3.0mm so it can't be that bad.
3. The circuitry that drives the LEDs can be heard! It is only faint, and with the rest of the band doing their job it would never be heard, but for recording purposes it is best to leave the animation off. I reckon it looks the biz, so I'm still happy to put up with it.
Next up is to rebuild my bass amp - the power amp is fine, but the signal stages are showing signs of wear. I think that it was too complicated last time, so its time to rethink what is needed in the way of signal crunching controls. At least this shouldn't cause any splinters.
Don't worry - there are other mad people out there building weird things in their garages.
3 comments:
A very nice piece of work.
I have found that using a long straight-edge (preferably machined)that is able to cover the entire fretboard, shows exactly what is happening. A 12 inch ruler will tend to follow the 'roller coaster' undulations.
Adjust the truss rod to give a straight neck, then only remove fret material where it is high.
Stoning is a crude method that removes too much from the frets.
I hope this is helpful.
Forgot to say, you have to use a bright sunny background, and look carefully for the high spots. Ordinairy indoor lighting is not good enough.
Regarding the use of a zero fret, this should not be higher than the other frets. Imagine that you bar across all the strings at the first fret (capo or fingers). You have in effect created a 'zero' fret ! Now would you raise that fret to stop buzzing ? No, because if the neck was adjusted correctly and frets levelled, the string would have enough clearance to vibrate. The same is true of a real zero fret.
Thanks Guv! I'll have to give it a go. I want to let it settle down for a few months first, then hopefully any movement will have stabilised. I can probably borrow a 24" steel ruler from work and spend some time attending to each high fret.
I hear what you're saying about the zero fret. I hadn't thought about it like that, but it does make sense. Maybe next time...
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