The Last Bass Outpost

I've sent one bass off for finishing.  This one will be vintage white as I'm not that happy with scraps I used to piece it together.  Will have a matching headstock on a maple board.



The full hollow body will go in next.  It's almost finished.  Got the mahogany neck glued in, turned out nice.

While doing up the recent bass bodies, I got really weary of clamping the bodies up with a gazillion clamps and doing it twice, once for the front and again for the back.  So, I built a press for doing the bodies and developed a method, ala Gibson, using 1/4" wood pins to align the top and bottom wood to the sides/center block piece.  Then, I can just make a sandwich of the 3 pieces, put it in the press, tighten things down and we're done.  I could even fit two sandwiches in the press at once if I had to.  This is going to be a lot easier on down the road.  I thought about building this a couple years ago and just never got around to it.  It will be handy for numerous gluing projects.

I used the threaded rods so I can adjust the height for thicker projects.  I don't have any in mind right now, but you never know!

OK, the jack on my Kubicki has been acting up.  The problem with the though-body jacks is their enclosed case.  You can't tighten up the plug clip when it gets stretched.  I like using them, but they do wear out.  Of course, I decided to check it out and several fun things appear.  First, the electronics, ala NASA, are crammed into the cavity with zero tolerance.  I had to remove all of the circuitry guts just to get at the bottom of the jack.  The guess what, one of the jack wires broke off the circuit board (a tad brittle after 20+ years).  Not a big deal, just annoying.

So, I ordered a new through-body stereo jack.  It needed it anyway.  When it arrives, I'll be back asking for pointers on wiring my first ever stereo jack.  I'll probably go with new wires for the jack to circuit board run.

The biggest pisser about this is I was going to take it to practice tomorrow.  Oh well! 

I can't remember where or when I got this TR cover.  Anyone know what TB it might have come from?  It's a little larger than the new ones.  Getting old is a pain in the rear!

Well, after considering another RIC and looking at the neck issue (thanks to everyone here who gave me pointers on vintage and contemporary 4003/1 necks), I decided I still wanted one in my collection.  So, while at the HOG today I asked what they had and low and behold, they had a FireGlo and JetGlo.  I decided what the heck, I do miss my first RIC, a Fireglo.  So, here she is.  And, very beautiful with the walnut wings on the headstock and the dark/light streaks on the fret board.  Very cool bass.  While the neck is still a little bit much for me, the electronics on RICs are fantastic IMHO.

Well, I hated the results I was getting with hand finishing.  So, I stopped trying that and finally decided to bite the bullet and build a portable spray booth for indoors.  The weather here sucks from November to March and that's just too much time to lose for building and finishing.  My barn is too big to heat and I like being in the house during the winter months anyway.  So, I built a 36" x 32" box, 24" deep.  I'm trying a 1300 cfm blower, in reverse, for my air removal source.  I'll install a removable high efficiency furnace filter under it before use.  Total cost thus far is about $50 in MDF and pieces from my scrap pile.  $85 for the blower and that's about it except for some wood screws and glue.  If this blower doesn't do it, I might opt to convert a used dust removal blower.  We'll see.  I don't know why I didn't try this sooner.  I have 2 basement windows, so there will be no problem venting to the outside.  Should be able to test in out in a few days.

Is it really as good as some folks say it is?  My experience with a new tube amp turned out unsatisfying.  I ended up with a woofing indistinct sound.  Would this be the case with the amp too or do the "clean gain" and "resonance" controls help eliminate some of the woofiness?