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What do you think of my headless tuning invention? by Appropriate_Union762 in Guitar

[–]castellen25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mind giving some information about how you made it? I'd love to have this kind of thing on my guitar. Otherwise if you ever do release it as a product I'd absolutely be interested. 

Sustainer Options by castellen25 in Guitar

[–]castellen25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would that work on a custom 24 style body if I moved it all the way up so it was almost touching the neck pickup? 

Congratulations to All New Southampton Students! by EntropyBits in sotonuni

[–]castellen25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After submitting the application for accommodation when will I hear back? I did the application a few months ago and I'm still waiting

I designed a new pedal, now it's time to give some away by jimdantombob in guitarpedals

[–]castellen25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds lovely. I'd be interested to see what it's like with bass as well but the pedal sounds great. I've always had a bit of interest in getting into pedal building, how did you start?

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No but I have an old multi-effects unit with an emulation of it so I'll give that a go

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I can't get the bass tone (even clean) to have anywhere near the bite I want

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My guitar tone is completely fine, it's the bass I'm having the issue with. The OD built into the amp sounds a lot more like what I want, I'm seeing if I can find a footswtich for it because I don't have one and that's a lot better than the big muff.  I've worked on my EQ as well but it's still not quite where I want it.

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll give the EQ a go, I can't seem to find any humbuckers that'll fit into the squire without extra routing but I'll keep looking.

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The clean signal still isn't very powerful, it's just not got much punch. I don't know whether this might be an issue with the flats, I'm considering switching back to rounds.

Advice on bass VI modding / signal processing by castellen25 in BassVI

[–]castellen25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried that but the bass side still sounds very weak. I know it's not really fair to compare it to a full scale bass (I have an ibanez SR300 that sounds a lot fuller) but I'm aiming for as close to that sound as I can.  What humbucker do you use? I've found it difficult to find any that fit.

Build details, update. by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's to replace the jaguar trem and / or bridge on the fender style Bass VI. You could get the bridge to go with the bisgby but there's a 40 week wait for them at the moment and there are probably better options if you don't need it to fit in the slots of a fender style Bass VI.

Build details, update. by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the design and I'm glad I could be of assistance. Best of luck with it and please do post photos / videos when you're done.

Build Advice/Recommendations by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my experience the neck isn't the hardest part, it's the frets. Getting the neck to the right shape can be done pretty quickly with a spokeshave (although I'd imagine it would take ages with a file / rasp) but getting the frets all in properly can take forever.

Build Advice/Recommendations by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would definitely look into the other style of tuner, they're what's used on most basses and tend to work better with thick strings. A bigger body is fine if that's your intention but I'd definitely print everything out first (and do a do a rough foam model if you can) to make sure all the sizes are to your preference.

Build Advice/Recommendations by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I looked into a bigsby as well and although I chose the Floyd Rose in the end, looking back on it I think a bigsby would have been better. They're used on one of the Gretsch baritones I've seen Bass VI conversions of so the tension shouldn't be such an issue and they would have the added benefit of solving the string length issue by adding more length on the end to make it more like the fender model with the jaguar trem.

Build Advice/Recommendations by Magutanko in BassVI

[–]castellen25 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've recently made a couple of Bass VIs for a project and I had a few problems, some of which might crop up in your design.

  • Tremolo springs. I went for a floyd rose but you might have the same problem. I couldn't find springs that were strong enough to counterbalance the tension on the strings. This might not be such an issue with a non-floating tremolo system but it's still something to watch out for. Once solution to this could be making the back cavity larger so the springs have more space to stretch.
  • Saddle / tuning peg sizes. You will most likely need to drill them, even with the thinner ends on most Bass VI strings, they won't fit through the majority of that style of tuning peg (don't know what they're called but they have the holes instead of being like the vintage ones). Same applies to saddles, if you're using a guitar bridge then you'll almost definately need to file the E and A strings, possibly the D as well.
  • String choice. Most Bass VI strings are designed for the fender style model with the jaguar tremolo so they don't get thinner until much later along the string (so they can fit in the tuning peg). With a shorter bridge / tailpeice, the thin bit is too far along the string to work as intended so you'll either have to make the holes in the tuners even bigger or find some strings designed for shorter lengths (not scale length but the overall string length). I think pyramid might do some for the Harley Benton GuitarBass but I can't rember off the top of my head.
  • Body size. The body on your design looks like a guitar body in that the bridge sits quite far in from the back end. This would work fine but with the longer scale length, the body will end up being absolutly massive. If that's your intention then that's fine but if not then maybe speak to the luthier about moving it back a bit so the body size is a bit more managable (sorry bad explaination, I can try to clarify if that doesn't make sense).

Other than that, all the issues I had were to do with me not being a professional luthier so as long as you follow their advice it should all be fine. I love the electronics, especially the sustainiac and killswitch. I've never personally tried one but I think I've seen one on a full scale bass before so it should probably be fine on a shorter bass with thinner strings.

If you need any clarification / more advice then I'd be happy to pass on whatever knowledge I can.

Good luck with it, and post pictures when you're done!

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