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Thread: Electric Bass Guitar Build

  1. #136
    Quote Originally Posted by george wilson View Post
    The gold plating on my Gretsch copy is fine,but my fingers do not make corrosion. I made it in the late 80's or early 90's. Anyway,it was before the new Japanese Gretsches came out. Their necks are too small anyway.
    Do you store it in the case? Just curious. I have a theory. You know how plastic out gases? I'm thinking especially celluloid. My theory is that the plastic out gassing is responsible for at least some of the corrosion I see on guitars. I'm guessing at that because I've noticed that a lot of "player" guitars, even very old ones that don't look like they've ever been cleaned, seem to do better than guitars that seem to live in their case all the time.

  2. #137
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    I leave it on a stand. Agreed about the out gassing. When I made Queen Elizabeth's box,I had to be very careful to choose a fabric that would not out gas,and damage the silver saffron pot inside.

    Some years ago I saw a Gibson L5 that had been kept in a case. It's metal parts looked terrible,and put me off of buying it.

  3. #138
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    As a sailor, I should have thought about patina on brass... or copper. Hmmmm...

    I went to Woodcraft today and picked up a block of Gaboon ebony. All they had was a turner's block but it was pitch black. I'll slice a piece off and see if I can come up with something aesthetically pleasing.

  4. #139
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    For whatever it's worth: The best ebony is judged by how small its pores are.

    Old Chickering piano keys used the finest grade of Gaboon ebony.

    They used to girdle an ebony tree many years before they cut it down,to let the tree dry out some and reduce the already heavy weight. They had to tie the logs onto lighter logs to make them able to float down the river.

    I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to get parts plated with Titanium nitride? It is a most beautiful 24 Kt. gold color,and it is incredibly hard. They coat milling machine cutters with it. It's harder than carbide. About 80 Rockwell C scale. High speed steel is about 63,for comparison. Carbide is about 70 RC. By now,there are several titanium based coatings in use in the machining industry. In several different colors.

    Those "gold" emblems that you now see on some brands of cars are titanium nitride(TIN). It isn't a plating process as far as I know.It's a vapor deposition process. Totally impervious to oxidation and wearing off.
    Last edited by george wilson; 08-29-2014 at 11:40 AM.

  5. #140
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    The ebony is encased in a very heavy coat of wax. I tried using an old plane to shave it off but it kept getting clogged. On another thread I asked how to extricate the wood from the wax and they suggested a card scraper and either mineral spirits or turpentine, depending on what kind of wax it is. Once I free the wood from the wax, I'll know just how good the wood is. From what I was able to remove with the plane, it looks very black with very tight pores. I don't know when I'll be able to get to it though. My free time has shrunk considerably as I'm finishing all the projects around the house that haven't been 100% completed. It's taking a toll on this old body... but the house looks great!

  6. #141
    When you get to Florida just set the ebony out in the sun for a few minutes!

  7. #142
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    I scrape the wax off first with an old plane blade, then with a card scraper. Using the card scraper first, clogs the burr.
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  8. #143
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    I hope the ebony is dry,and does not start cracking when it is freed from the wax. I am suspicious of wax encased wood. If it does,PM me and I'll send you a nice piece of dry ebony.

  9. #144
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    George, I wish we lived closer. I could show you. I've done my best with the photos I've taken. I hope this is close enough to emulate real world stuff.

    This is the shavings from the Gaboon ebony block I have:


    I've never seen wood this black but I'm pretty new to this.

    This is about where I'm thinking the bridge pickup should go. The ebony you see is a bit over 1/4" thick.



    If the maple was ebony...


    So what do you think?

  10. #145
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    A silly question,but do you think the treble pickup will come out too tall to have the strings be able to lie decently close to the fingerboard? Are you going to use 2 layers of wood there? Both the ebony and the maple? The bass pickup looks taller than the fingerboard too.

    I have a vintage Gretsch single cutaway Country Gentleman which I don't see how could have ever been used to play high notes at all: The bass pickup was way too high. I had to chisel away about 1/8" of wood under the pickup to get it low enough to clear the fingerboard. That was the 2nd vintage Gretsch guitar I have had that never could have been played. The 2nd one was an Anniversary model which had a bridge that was impossibly too tall. The guitar was in mint condition because it was never played. I cut the bridge to properly fit the curve of the arch top,and then it was fine. Gretsch quality control truly was VERY BAD. I don't know how neither of these old guitars never were returned to the dealer,or at least repaired.

    I'll tell you what I thinks looks cool; In one of my books,there is a picture of a TELE bass. I'd think a guitar made to look like it would be very nice. Can't think of the name of the book now,but it is in some musician's collection,I think. It has a Tele neck,but a Strat body. The edges of the body are not round like a Strat. They are barely rounded,like a Tele body. The pick guard is cool,too. Things would have to be altered to make the pick guard accommodate guitar pickup positions,rather than bass pickup positions.
    Last edited by george wilson; 09-02-2014 at 9:12 AM.

  11. #146
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    In the wacky world of Rickenbacker engineering, there seems to exist a set of priorities that defies common sense engineering. One of the complaints Ric bass owners have made is the engineering on the treble pickup does not allow the pickup to be raised high enough to suit many tastes. The solution Ric bass owners have come up with it grinding down the heads of the four corner screws protruding from the top of the pickup cover.


    If you look at my pictures of the treble pickup and compare it to the pickup installed with a pickguard, you'll see the pickup cover is partially under the pickguard. And when owners tried to raise it high enough to suit their tastes, the four corner screws hit the underside of the pickguard and they opted to grind down the heads.

    In the design process, I'm trying to figure out what the minimum distance between the pickup and bottom of strings will be. Then I can make the ebony cover in such a way as to allow for unimpeded pickup height settings. The same for the bass pickup. This has been an issue from the start, as I haven't yet found those measurements.

  12. #147
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    I have not paid much attention to basses in general,or Rickys in particular. But,that is an ENORMOUS treble pickup!!!

    Why does it have to be so large when Fender made out with a normal size one? I am mostly an acoustic builder.

  13. #148
    Quote Originally Posted by george wilson View Post
    Why does it have to be so large when Fender made out with a normal size one?.
    Because Ric did everything wrong they could possibly do wrong. They didn't even use hardened truss rods. You have to be VERY careful on vintage Rics, up to about the 80s or 90s I believe. To make the adjustment, you have to manually bend the neck backwards to relieve the tension on the truss rod, and then adjust it. If you don't, the trussrod snaps. The entire design, from beginning to end, is an ill conceived monstrosity, IMHO.

    I can't really account for their popularity, anymore than I can account for the popularity of Danelectro....another producer of fine, mass produced monstrosities.

    LOL.

    But as an answer to the question, they're strange like they are because they were basically winging it and got into guitar building from their experience building lap steel strings. I don't know this, and I've never researched it, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that their guitar and bass pickups shared an awful lot of similarities with their lap steel pickups, and thus ended up with a strange mounting scheme and size that doesn't quite make sense for conventional guitars. I believe the Fender bridge pickup has a similar pedigree, and possibly that's why it's shaped so much differently than any other pickup on the planet.

  14. #149
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    It does defy logic. Still there is a sound from a Ricky bass that is unlike other basses. I think you are on the mark on the steel guitar pedigree. They had the bridge pickup guards on them for years. I don't know anyone who didn't take that off first thing.

    I have a Danelectro Baritone guitar. No truss rod, cheap hardware, lipstick pickups, plywood body with glued fabric edgebanding. A bit of an object lesson in how not to do things. Still you can get some very interesting sounds from it.
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  15. #150
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    The NEW Dabnelectros are sort of fun. They sound sort of like a "supercharged tele" if you turn the treble pickup down to the bass setting,and leave the bass pickup on normal,playing with both pickups on. I can't properly explain the sound right now.

    The new ones have a proper truss rod. They are still a cheap guitar,though they are made better than the old ones. I think their frets have no tangs,and they are glued on. MUCH better finish than the old ones,which looked like they were finished with a spray can.

    The old guitars always had warped necks. They had the peculiar "hour glass" shaped bars of metal in their necks. Made of some hard alloy. They never worked. And the new ones at least do not have that piece of cloth glued around the edge,to hide the white pine interior glued up blocks.

    I bought one because I liked the sound I've mentioned above. And,I got it cheap from a friend's music store.
    Last edited by george wilson; 09-04-2014 at 10:19 AM.

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