bass pup upgrade; gsr200 std to bill lawrence p46 & j45L

 after finishing the rewire, i decided to test my factory pup values, & they were lower than the reported factory numbers (p_6k, j_4.5k vs p_8-10k, j_7-9k). as the last ditch effort to get rid of muddy underwater tone, i decided to just replace them, & put on new a500k minipots & a new 223j orange drop tone cap for good measure.

apparently theres like 3 fucking options on the planet for bass pup replacement, all practically the same & overpriced. i found this brand called Bill Lawrence, who advertise as having transparent tone, which would be ideal, for $150 for the set.

apparently they dont measure their pups by ohms  they use inductance, which im not able to measure, but for posterity, these were p_8k & j_24k.

the j pup didnt fit, straight away with the problems.

i had to shave off the ends with an orbital sander to fit. i very nearly obliterated the plastic housing off the end, but managed not to. 

theyre incrediby tall, & with the bend of the exiting wires (3/8") included, theres basically no adjustment at all. the pups are the height of the pup cavity, so the wires make it impossible to site flush in the cavity, & they end up about as high as id personally possibly want them by default.

i didnt use the crappy shorter silver flathead coarse thread screws that came with them. i used the original longer black philips fine thread screws. they didnt come with springs for adjustment, & theyre too tall for springs to work correctly anyway, since the pups bottom out early in adjustment.

i ended up putting together custom foam pads, which was a total pain & still wasnt as uniform as id like, but good enough.

they didnt come with foam either, & i couldnt use the factory foam since the bl pups are way taller.

they come with a fuck ton of wires, which i guess is to cover all bases (might be easier to just offer different configurations since theyre apparently made to order anyway).

the p has: 1st half; white (hot), black/blue (ground), red (connects to 2nd halfs'green). 2nd half; white (hot), black/blue (ground), green (connects to 1st halfs' red).

the j has: white (hot), black/blue (ground).

the bundle of wires had a hard time fitting through the routing hole to the pot cavity, so i had to connect the red/green in the pup cavity.

instead of connecting the grounds with a dozen solder joints to the pot cases, i soldered each pups' grounds to a single bus lead, then soldered that single lead to one of my new ring terminal ground lugs. perfect continuity all over.

the final result was a bit underwhelming, but i did notice an ouput boost. my tone pot still seems like a fucking placebo knob, but the volume knobs feel like they have a better handle on the tone control than before. i think i was just getting 80% neck with the factory pups all the time.

Refresh/Update GSR200 bass wiring

 i got this bass ages ago in a trade for some mac recording gear i won in a raffle but couldnt use.

id never really opened the pot cavity, but when i did, i ignored it because it was such a mess. there were burns on the wires, & the wires were a birdnest. 

i had to do alot of research to make sure the wiring was actually correct, then i could move forward.

i found that my jack was reversed, ie: on common jacks or american/european jacks, its standard to make the longest lug the chassis ground, but apparently on this one, the longest lug contacts the ring on a cable, which i only realized because i was testing with a stereo cable. since its only played through a mono cable, it couldve gone unnoticed otherwise. the signal was sort of quiet, & my battery was always low (around 7.1v), & that would explain it. 

the shielding paint in the pot cavity was also terrible, with sporadic continuity at best. i hadnt set out to, but i decided to go ahead with a copper tape upgrade.. then while at it i decided to do the pickup cavities (grounded to the pot cavity) & adding a bus ground to the battery compartment wall to contact the factory foiled plastic lid (grounded to the pot cavity).

i replaced the jacketed signal wire with nice new tinned copper jacket wire, taco folded in bobbin tape. i trimmed a ton of excess from the single lead wires. i also removed the case grounds & added ground lug ring terminals to the volumes & tone pots to solder the grounds to.

i decided to ground the bridge bus wire to the pot cavity wall with just a piece of copper tape over the splayed wire end, & also added a piece of copper tape over the wire end sitting under the bridge to expand the contact area, which was a total success.

im really satisfied with the immediate & complete continuity at every ground point in every combination with themselves.

i ended up only switching the long & middle jack lug wires (battery neg to longest lug [ring] & phat eq ground to middle lug [chassis]). 

what a fucking improvement.

custom cut Black Tusq bass nut

 ive used this artificial bone material before for my acoustic guitar bridge saddle & nut, & my electric guitar nut, but i still forgot how labor intensive it actually is. its also more nerve wracking the closer you are to finishing, 1 mistake, like cutting the slots too deep or making the bottom lopsided, & its ruined!

i always start by cutting it to width with a hair to spare (the general rule for all the steps involved).

ive used a razor blade & coping blade before, but this time i used a dremel with a diamond wheel.

a nice wood block is the essential work station, & i used 220 + 150 grit sandpaper, just dry, the Tusq is literally a solid block of lubricant so no wetting is necessary.

after cleaning up the rough cut, its time to measure the original nut. there was nothing wrong with my height, so i just copied it 1:1, though i always round the shoulder, as opposed to the sharp angle on the factory nuts.

just a pencil works great to mark the Tusq. there is some mind fuckery to be wary of: you cant just trace the thing, since the front & back are different, so overlaying them really is only useful for width & slot spacing. 

i started by marking the highest edge & sanding that flat, then marking the opposite lowest side & sanding at an angle to meet that.

after getting the top plane roughed in, i start the string slots with a sharp file. then comes the necessary tedium, using the actual gauge strings to cut the actual slots. i use old cutoffs to avoid bending or marring new strings.

i find the easiest way is to lay the string flat & hold the Tusq. i cut my slots until about 1/4 or 1/5 of the given string is left protruding from the top plane, that is to say, the slot will contain a little over half the string thickness.

once the slots are roughed in, refinement can begin. even though you cant compare the nut as a whole very easily, you can compare each individual slot.

i measured the height of the original nut, from fretboard to the top of each string (since the strings are too low to see any measurement on the ruler underneath the string). then i did a handful of test fittings with the new nut, comparing the string height, making absolutely sure i didnt overdo it.

after that, its all about patience & finesse. i decided to leave the new nut about 1mm tall, to leave room for breaking in/tuning several times. once you find that the slots are as deep as you are comfortable with, if its still too tall, you can sand the bottom, keeping it flat on the sandpaper on the wood block.

i used just a tiny smear of original titebond woodglue in the corner of the fretboard/neck to tack the nut in place, keeping it easy to knock loose if necessary but secure for string changes.

next, im gonna take care of the bass wiring.