One of Those Nights

I didn't think it would happen again, but I guess it is appropriate now since I have strep throat. It has been about 3 and a half years since my insomnia was this bad. I remember laying down at 10pm and not being able to sleep. Around 2 or 3, I gave up and went outside my dorm room in Chapman Hall at Olivet and reading half of "Eragon". I eventually went back inside the room and sat on one of the pink flowery cushioned chairs me and my roommate picked up from an elderly woman and I finally fell asleep (sometime around 7 or 8 am). My roommate was awake for classes before I fell asleep. I missed a bio test that day which almost caused me to fail a class in my first semester at college (I pulled off a C-).

At least this time, it is before classes but I am definitely not making it to work. It is 3:45am and I am jammmin' to Collective Soul and praying my throat feels better.

Custom Bass build (part II)

My Shopping Cart:

The old Ibanez bass had passive pickups that sounded pretty poor. The electronics were junk as two of the pots just sounded like static when turned up at all. The third pot was for volume but only started to work at 75%. The bridge was not a terrible bridge, but looked awful and so got scrapped.

Pickups:

I definitely wanted to use active pickups to allow more control over the sound (although I do like the clean sound of passives). Because I am using the old Ibanez as a reference, I will need to get a PJ set to fit in the same routing pattern (and hopefully match the sweet spot). My choice is going to the EMG PJ set. There are a few reasons these were chosen. First, because of price and the outstanding user reviews. Also, (explained later) I will be getting a EMG preamp to match the pickups. Additionally, the pickups are internally shielded so there will be less interference.

http://www.emginc.com/products/category/24

Electronics:

As stated before, I am going to use EMG electronics to match the pickups. I am going to use the EMG BTS System. This will give me balance control over the pickups, master volume, and bass and treble controls. I was originally going to use a set that would give me two additional mid tone controls but decided not to as the price was about $90 more. Besides, the BTS System has a jumper that controls what frequency the treble knob controls, giving me a little more flexibility if I want to change mid tones.

http://www.emginc.com/products/index/138

Bridge:

I was not sure where I wanted to go with a bridge until I visited Hipshot Products online. I became very interested in a transtone bridge which allows the two (or more or less) bass strings to be set through the body for longer sustain while leaving the treble strings connected to the bridge for that punchy treble sound. The bridge I am going with is the Hipshot Supertone Bass Bridge. This bridge has adjustments in all three axis which will give me plenty of room to set the intonation and get the strings set for the neck.

http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=264

Custom Bass build (part I)

I have been wanting to build my own bass guitar for a long while now. While I have never done anything like this, I have a some experience in woodworking and electronics and have been doing a lot of research.

Recently, a friend of mine gave me an old Ibanez starter kit bass. While the bass did not sound or look like anything special, the action was great and the neck was fairly straight. I decided for now, to use the Ibanez neck and build my own body with new hardware, electronics, and pickups. I started by researching everything from where to buy body blanks and other parts to different types of pickups and wiring diagrams.

Because I have no experience in getting the right intonation and finding the 'sweet' spot for the pickups, I am using the old Ibanez body as a reference for my bridge and pickups. I am working on a CAD design for my new body that will be cut out of alder (wanted to use koa, but it is a little expensive for my first bass build) on a CNC 5 axis mill. This will make it easy to rout the entire bass and then I can finish forming the edges and top.

For now the goal is:

• Strip the old Ibanez bass of all parts and electronics
• Build a new body using the Ibanez as a reference
• Buy new electronics, pickups, and a bridge for the bass
• Use the existing Ibanez neck and machines

part II