Moonshine Custom: Builds, projects and ramblings...

moonshinegtrs · July 10, 2018, 06:41:23 AM

Since I have have been put on "vacation" by another bass forum, I have decided that it is time to expand my horizons. I've been here for a bit but haven't posted much. Looks like that's going to change...

I am going to start with an ongoing project that is one of my personal basses, a double cutaway with a bot on 31" scale neck and a swamp ash body; this is the fourth pickup swap. So far it has had a: Peavey T40 (blade) (sounded killer, very aggressive). Hammond Darkstar ( my favorite so far... Fat, creamy, thick... why did I take it out?), an OEM Ovation Magnum neck pickup (HUGE! 4 separate coils... I thought it would kill. I was so wrong. What an odd sound..).

To fit the Ovation pickup I had to route a really big hole. I really didn't think about to at the time but it came back to haunt me when the Magnum pickup sounded nothing like I had thought it would, not even sure how to describe how it sounded... Hollow is the only thing that comes to mind, no mids and hardly any bottom... Major Bummer.

The bass ended up in a gig bag; I loved this bass, it weighs under 6 lbs!!! It feels like an old pair of jeans... It used to sound Killer.

I've been thinking about what to put into this bass next; I had sold the Darkstar but I had several other options, I was mainly looking at a pair of (Gibson) Thunderbird pickups or Bartolini soapbars (mainly to fill the enormous hole on the bass).

I have been slammed (very thankful) but with the end of Summer NAMM I took a week long break to clean the shop and take care of some repairs that have been waiting. I also decide to take a look at this bass. Awhile back I purchased a pair of single coil Paul Reed Smith bass pickups. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with them at the time; they looked cool and I was sure I could use them at some point (the Grainger bass uses these as a humbucker which what I am using these as). They both registered above 7.60k.

At first I was going to install them as a standard humbucker (side by side) but then I thought about separating them and installing a ramp in between them; I'm hoping it will give them a slight tonal variety but I'm expecting to use them wired together in series, originally I was going to wire the bass that way only, but after thinking it over I decided to add a mini toggle for coil selection (or series/parallel/single coil).

Here is the cavity (canyon? Man, that pickup took up a lot of real estate!), I have already added a piece of ash to fill the original route for the T40 pickup. The depth of the route for the Ovation Magnum pickup is perfect for the single coils but O am going to add wood to close up the surrounding space.

Next I'm using a forstner bit to remove material on the treble side of the route, then I cleaned it up with a router.

Here is the route with wood added and cleaned up.

Finally I added a piece of ash to split the route.

Next I will be making a pickup ring to cover the now filled route...

Moonshine

4stringer77 · July 10, 2018, 12:57:25 PM

Ha, the "other bass forum" is a little more tightly wound up. The LBO tends to give you a little more leeway with a more manageable group of members in terms of size. Glad we can get to see how this build develops.

Alanko · July 10, 2018, 05:10:21 PM

No shit! Another Forum gave me a month's unpaid leave for suggesting that "y'all need Jesus" isn't the best suggestion to give to a suicidal young man. This is what happens when too many sanctimonious Praise 'n' Worship guys rule the roost.

moonshinegtrs · July 10, 2018, 07:28:06 PM

Here is how it looks now...

I had already matched a piece of ash (as close as possible) to the body so I could use it as a pickup ring. Now that I had the pickup cavities I could now cut out the pickup routes on the ring.

Next is final shaping and sanding...

Moonshine

Dave W · July 10, 2018, 10:11:57 PM

Good job filling that rout.With the ring it looks like you planned it that way.

Are the PRS pickups the same ones from their 80s basses? I liked the tone of those.

moonshinegtrs · July 11, 2018, 04:59:43 AM

Yes. these are from the earlier model. I've had them for awhile.

Honestly I had forgot about them until I rummaged through my miscellaneous pickup box looking for something different to use...

Great sounding pickups.

moonshinegtrs · July 13, 2018, 05:21:46 AM

While I had the bass apart I cleaned up the fret ends and dressed the frets.

I wanted to make a ramp to go in between the pickups, at first I was going to use rosewood tom match the fretboard but I decided that ebony would be better (matches the pickups). on a side note I have a lifetime supply of small pieces of ebony; it came from my previous life working at a major manufacturer of musical instruments, I would cut up pieces of pieces of ebony that I found in the dumpster and put them in my lunch box (only if it was in the trash to be thrown away). I ended up with hundreds of pieces of beautiful black ebony.

Moonshine

moonshinegtrs · July 13, 2018, 05:24:23 AM

Next I cut/sanded the ramp down tom match the radius of the pickup...

Once sanded I used double stick tape to temporarily mount the ramp (I will use screws to permanently mount it).

Reassembly then a set up and it was ready to go (I put a set of D'addario XL's on it).

I'm totally digging it. Everything I was expecting and more.

Moonshine

Dave W · July 13, 2018, 09:11:34 AM

That works very well. Are you going to stain the ebony jet black or leave it as is?

Pilgrim · July 13, 2018, 09:41:19 AM

Wow! One of the nicest pickup retrofits I have seen, and the ebony is a great accent as well.

Granny Gremlin · July 13, 2018, 09:57:24 AM

I like it! Got a bit of a Ibanez ATK vibe but wood vs metal.

moonshinegtrs · July 13, 2018, 05:11:58 PM

"That works very well. Are you going to stain the ebony jet black or leave it as is?"

Thanks. I am leaving it as is.

"Wow! One of the nicest pickup retrofits I have seen, and the ebony is a great accent as well."

"I like it! Got a bit of a Ibanez ATK vibe but wood vs metal."

Thanks!

Here are pics of the previous incarnations...

Basvarken · July 16, 2018, 02:04:23 AM

Cool project!

And those pickups look really interesting. Wonder how they sound.
If you can find the time, please make a video or soundclip, so we can hear it.

Christine · July 28, 2018, 07:24:25 AM

I always find it amusing when people get given the vacation, I always end up thinking why I haven't been given my marching orders yet with some of the stuff I come out with.

That's a very neat solution with the pickups, I like the ramp too

Moonshine Custom: Builds, projects and ramblings...

Christine