This time around, I wanted to stick with a normal Precision Bass setup for the bass build: one pickup, one volume knob, one tone control. There will be no active electronics for the signal path although I did have the body routed for a 9-volt battery box as a just-in-case convention. The battery box wires are routed into the control cavity and looped together with the ends taped.
Thankfully, I had the funds to order the neck and the hardware pertaining to the body on the same day. I placed the orders separately so that the hardware could ship immediately and I could work on soldering the electronics together. The neck hardware was ordered separately and came in later. Almost all of the pieces are in black:
Gotoh 201 bridge
More mass than a standard Fender bridge and featuring singular deep saddles. Fender's traditional bridge saddles always seemed like an afterthought to me, as if someone at the factory said, "Hey, we've got some exposed threaded rod over here, why don't we make use of it for a bass bridge and save some money?" Much less chance of knocking it out of position now when I'm going aggro on the strings.
I'm actually quite excited about the look and function of this bridge.
Round Top Knobs (2x)
Now that I have these I'm having second thoughts, but they're the easiest pieces of hardware to swap and the least of my concerns.
Standard Strap Buttons
I only bought these for the screws. I will install Dunlop strap locks on the bass as I've done with all of my guitars, but use the larger screws by grinding the outside of the heads off with a Dremel tool. I showed this process in an earlier post.
Switchcraft Mono Jack
CTS 250K Potentiometers (2x) / .047 μF Ceramic Disc Capacitor
I lost interest in diving into the details over which combination of pots and caps sound best, so I simply went with what was shown on a wiring diagram provided with the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickup.
Wiring Kit
Enough wire for an experienced tech who knows exactly what they're doing. For an inexperienced hobbyist, barely enough wire.
Non-Tremolo Bridge Screws (set of 6) / Pickguard Screws (set of 12)
I still have some pickguard screws left over from the Big Riff build, but I needed more.
Single Battery Box
Copper Shielding Tape (2" x 24")
Vintage Round String Retainer
Ordered two of these by accident. No big deal.
Neck Plate / Neck Plate Pad / Neck Screws
The neck plate pad, made from a flexible plastic, protects the finish on the body from the metal of the neck plate. Great idea.
Schaller BML Tuners
By the time I could order these, Warmoth's website showed that they were out of stock. I called to ask if they could email me when more sets of black BMLs come in from Germany. The man I talked to on the phone said, "Can I put you on hold for a second? Let me take a look." In a minute he got back to me and told me he found the last remaining set in their warehouse. Warmoth's A+ customer service shines through again!
Neck hardware came just in time for Christmas, but no neck yet.
A word about the pots: I measured the maximum resistance values in the two that I purchased and neither reach the full 250K-ohm rating. One reads 240K and the other a somewhat startling 223K:
Should I be upset about this?
If we're talking in terms of electronics tolerances, then the 240K pot deviates within 5 percent of its intended rating, which seems acceptable to me, but the 223K pot falls at the 11 percent mark. I'm not sure what CTS or the guitar tech community deems as within tolerance, or how much of a difference this actually makes in the overall sound of the guitar, but this just didn't sit right with me. I kept both anyway and attempted to wire everything together... Well, what happened will be the subject of the next post.
In "Rivière" by Deftones, the way the distorted bass comes in without the drums at the first chorus just gets to me. Brilliant.
R.I.P. Chi Cheng.
