Roadstar Frankenbass

[paulo]

More to change, so once it's done I'll get more pics and specs!

[superheavydeathmetal]

That looks great, man! Did you use any specific method for determining exactly where to place the humbucker?

[paulo]

That looks great, man! Did you use any specific method for determining exactly where to place the humbucker?

Thanks Conley!
At first I just placed a rule to make sure it would be aligned to the P pickup, then I had to place the pickup and make sure the poles would be in the right place.
Once I figured out where I wanted it to be, I put blue tape all around and went from there slowly
If that was a more expensive body, i wouldn't bother touching it but I got lucky with this one!
I also had to leave some room to adjust the truss rod with an allen wrench... but it seems it wasn't enough as I already took a little paint off the pickup when adjusting the truss rod...
It's good to have a sharpie handy!
I still have to figure out how to wire this thing.

[superheavydeathmetal]

Cool, man. I understand some people get pretty scientific with pickup placement, especially with single-coils (the pole pieces have to be right under the node of the fourth harmonic...). Maybe it doesn't matter as much with humbuckers.

[paulo]

Cool, man. I understand some people get pretty scientific with pickup placement, especially with single-coils (the pole pieces have to be right under the node of the fourth harmonic...). Maybe it doesn't matter as much with humbuckers.

Honestly I have no idea but gave it a shot!

[zecacosta]

Hey Paulo, how are you? Long time no pest you

Hummmmm... so many choices...
With all that pickup power you could go vintage B.C. Rich (multiple single switches) or a Fender-ish solution - a Strat-style single 5-position switch...

Both solutions would require additional drilling/routing and a pretty confusing wiring... specially if you get fancy with the humbucker (single/serial/parallel)

What do you have in mind?

Zeca

[paulo]

Hey Paulo, how are you? Long time no pest you

Hummmmm... so many choices...
With all that pickup power you could go vintage B.C. Rich (multiple single switches) or a Fender-ish solution - a Strat-style single 5-position switch...

Both solutions would require additional drilling/routing and a pretty confusing wiring... specially if you get fancy with the humbucker (single/serial/parallel)

What do you have in mind?

Zeca

Hey Zeca, good to see you here!
It's been a long time indeed!
Honestly I would like to get the most out of it...
Of course I won't be doing the wiring myself but I have to figure out and get parts ready!
Any suggestions are very welcome everyone!

[Jeroen]

I would personally go for the Billy Sheehan approach, and use the humbucker with its own volume pot to blend in more low end thunder in any pickup setting. This would probably also be the easiest to wire up, because it only takes a third volume knob. If you sacrifice the tone knob, or replace one pot with a stacked pot, you won't have any routing to do other than a wire channel to the control cavity.

[paulo]

I would personally go for the Billy Sheehan approach, and use the humbucker with its own volume pot to blend in more low end thunder in any pickup setting. This would probably also be the easiest to wire up, because it only takes a third volume knob. If you sacrifice the tone knob, or replace one pot with a stacked pot, you won't have any routing to do other than a wire channel to the control cavity.

Adding a stacked pot seems like a good idea, thanks Jeroen!

[pjmuck]

I would personally go for the Billy Sheehan approach, and use the humbucker with its own volume pot to blend in more low end thunder in any pickup setting. This would probably also be the easiest to wire up, because it only takes a third volume knob. If you sacrifice the tone knob, or replace one pot with a stacked pot, you won't have any routing to do other than a wire channel to the control cavity.

That's what i did with my Tele bass with an added P PUP. 1 knob is stacked and controls volume of P PUP + a master tone for both. I rarely use the neck humbucker alone, but dial it in slowly with the P PUP and lookout. Makes a guitarist cower behind his amp.

Paulo, what humbucker did you go with?

[paulo]

That’s a Dimarzio Will Power.
I’ve also got a set of Dimarzio P+J coming this week.

[paulo]

This one is finally done.
I had Gordon from Talkbass put this harness together with a 5 way switch.
H---H/P---P---PJ---J.
I use it mostly in the H/P position.

[Matt R.]

That’s killer

[LefThanDed]

24 DiMarzio hex polepieces... Impressive!

[donahue]

That is so awesome!!!!! Good grief that turned out cool! I love it! How does the P/HB sound together? Thunderous? 2 more questions: Can we get a pic of the whole bass, headstock too? When can I take delivery?

[paulo]

I deleted the full pic so I had to post it again.

The H/P sounds really good together, full bodied would be a good description!

[tim]

Looks really fun! Nice clean work, too.

[paulo]

Thanks Tim!

[andrew]

That's very cool!

[sblueplanet]

Looks great! Kudos to you