Modding my Jazz Bass... 99% done. [march 23rd]

[Gordon]

I've got a made in Japan '62RI that feels great. I can't say it's fantastic, as it's been badly set up by me when I got it, waiting for my guitar tech to take a look at. But I've been procrastinating, and no other than me has seen it yet other than in pictures... And I need to satisfy my thirst of modding my gear. There are some features I like, some I don't, anyway; it's time to have *my* Jazz Bass. So far, it's a regular 3TS, tortoise guard and rosewood fingerboard one; soon, it'll have a black guard (torn between bakelite and b/cream/b), pickup chrome cover, slightly modified electronics, a Badass bridge (which I already got), and an Allparts maple B&B neck.

But first: where can I find a non-stock '62RI pickguard, without having to send mine? No maker seems to have the tracing (I haven't mailed them to be sure, though). (waiting for Pickguardian to answer me, then I assume I'll send him mine to duplicate) Pickguard sent: it'll ne a blacl/cream/black replica of mine, with an added Mustang 3-way switch, because of my custom wiring.

Then second: except the material itself, what is the difference between a bakelite guard and a normal black one? In the way it looks, I mean.

And third: as I want a somewhat peculiar wiring, I'm looking forward to know if this works. This one works, it's my final choice.

Thanks.


------------------------ PARTS NEEDED ------------------------

- Badass II bridge (I already have)
- Allparts neck (done)
- 70's decal (done)
- Pickguard (done)
- Pickup chrome cover (done)
- Various electronics (partly done) (done)
- '62 control plate (done)
- Half-round strings (done)

------------------------ ASSEMBLING ------------------------

I'm starting from this:



To this:

(some early soldering, waiting for the rest to come)

(last part of pre-soldering, and started the mounting)

(decal applied...)

(... And drowned under some clear coats, and the bushings are in too)

(electronic done and assembled)

(bridge, tuners and neck installed, a luthier will install the nut and set it up)

(assembling process pictures are yet to come)

[the older brother]

I don't think the cover will fit over the Badass bridge. It's too big...

[the older brother]

I think you should go with a B/C/B pickguard - not a one ply.

Just my 2 cents...

[Gordon]

I don't think the cover will fit over the Badass bridge. It's too big...

It won't. That why I didn't say it'll have a bridge  cover.


And the morning started with my new Allparts neck.

(clickey)

The wood is ace (look at the head!), the poly finish is very thin (look at the fingerboard closeup!), and the work on thebinding and inlays is flawless (look at the fingerboard closeup a second time!). Some tiny bubbles in the clear coat, but nothing worth to really rant about, and frets ends might need to be filed a bit (like most aftermarket necks). All in all a very nice neck, and rather cheap ($270 shipped to France, no extra custom/taxes, and the sale of my 'old' neck will reduce the money spent even more).

[the older brother]

Did you go with dguitarparts?

[Gordon]

Did you go with dguitarparts?

Yes, thanks for the tip by the way (that's the second time I owe you one in a few days ). The thing was *really* well packaged, fast shipping, and easy to communicate with, they're really good.

[ugly casanova]

that neck looks awesome! 

[Gordon]

I think you should go with a B/C/B pickguard - not a one ply.

Just my 2 cents...

I've asked Pickguardian's Tony (he once made me a great custom Squier '51 guard), that's the material I've finally chose.

[Gordon]

Just ordered most of the parts I could get from GPR (minus the cover screws, which were out of stock, and which I will mercylessly replace with absolutely non-genuine nor correct screws). And a jack, though I had a few already, but forgot about them.

I confess I partly managed/desired to get into this mod because I had some pots and switches, left from former projects, that I wanted to re-use.

[the older brother]

Just ordered most of the parts I could get from GPR (minus the cover screws, which were out of stock, and which I will mercylessly replace with absolutely non-genuine nor correct screws). And a jack, though I had a few already, but forgot about them.

I confess I partly managed/desired to get into this mod because I had some pots and switches, left from former projects, that I wanted to re-use.

You don't need specific cover screws - the head on those are the same (and it's the same thread size) as ordinary pickguard screws. Pick guard screws are a bit shorter than the one on the GPR site (wich looks like thumb rest screws IMO), but will do perfect.

[Gordon]

Thanks.

Electronic question, now: I want to have a on/off switch for each pickup, then a general volume (push/pull for series/parallel) and a general tone (push/pull for phase changing). I've looked on Seymour Duncan's site, mixed up the wiring, and came to this:



The volume/tone part isn't shown, but it's very basic, and causes no problem, let's focus on the rest.

For the on/off switches, it's correct (I think), the phase reversal too. For the series/parallel (which is from here), is this correct? It's a lot of wiring, and it's not really complicated, but mixing up various diagrams makes me wonder... Also, from SD's site (see above), how are shown the push/pull pots? I assume it's bottom up, like this:



Thanks.

[Gordon]

(Obviously, if the pickups are in series, the neck on/off switch becomes a general on/off switch... It's not a mistake. )

[Gordon]

I also thought of using a Mustang switch as a pickup selector, but if I see how to work out the phase reversing push/pull, I have no clue how I could have the series/parallel one. :-\

http://www.enregistrersous.com/images2/ ... 172721.gif
Other schematics in the works, see below.

[Gordon]

I think I nailed it:

http://www.enregistrersous.com/images2/ ... 224908.gif

Does anyone notice something wrong, here? There's one case: when there's the bridge pickup alone, aand pickups are in parallel position, there's twice the same signal (doesn't change anything). And I think there's something weird, in neck pickup only, series position with bridge pickup out of phase: there's no ground connection... What would that change?

Other schematics in the works, see below.

[Gordon]

'Problem' solved by cutting the left-side jumper wire on the selector. The second issue still has to be worked around, though.

Other schematics in the works, see below.