Project Sheehan P-bass..How to's (Not an Attitude)
 

My Project Sheehan P-bass is complete.

List of parts

Fender Precision Bass
DiMarzio Split P pickup
White Plastic sheet
White plastic strips
Humbucking Guitar Pickup with 12.5k DC resistance
250k potentiometer
2 DPDT switches
1/4" female jack
Dremel tool
Router

To start at the beginning. First I made the neck pickup cover. The dimentions are 9mm x 5.3mm. I cut this out of the sheet plastic. I next took 1/4" strips of white plastic strips and glued them under the sheet to make the sides of the cover. When that all dried, I sanded it smooth and made rounded edges on it.

Next, I took the cover and placed it on the pickguard and used it to make a drawing of where I'd need to cut the hole for it. I used the Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut out the hole in the pickguard.

Once that was done, it was off to the body. I put the pickguard on the body and traced the hole I just cut on to the body. I then started routing the body and extra control cavity.

That being done, it was off to making the neck pickup. The Will Power neck pickup has 12.5k ohms of DC resistance and ceramic magnets. I found a guitar pickup with the same specs in my parts drawer. I first seperated the coils, found a bigger ceramic magnet, and drilled the coil mounting holes in the baseplate of the humbucker. I mounted all that on there and put two steel bars across all the polepieces to make the response more even (pic 3). I then soldered the wires to the pickup.

Moving on from that, I then mounted the pickup in the cavity I just routed by screwing the pickup right to the bottom of the cavity. I also mounted the Split P pickup in it's cavity, and screwed the neck pickup cover right to the body.

Now for the wiring. The controls are V/V/T, a tone switch for the neck pickup, and a stereo/mono switch.

To scallop the fretboard, I mounted a small drum sander to the Dremel.

From there, it was on to final assembly and setup.

Here are the Pics.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture026.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture027.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture028.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture030.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture031.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture032.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture033.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture034.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture035.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/jpwinters/Gear%201/Picture036.jpg[/IMG]

looks cool. how does it sound and play?

[QUOTE=British Kid]looks cool. how does it sound and play?[/QUOTE]

Almost exactly like my Yamaha Attitude Limited. It's a bit brighter, but not bad at all. With the tone switch, it's an awesome replication of Sheehan's earlier days with Talas.

very nice :thumb: i like the maroon

how did you (know how to and) scallop the frets?

If you don't mind me asking, how much did this cost? I'm very interested in doing something similar.

Nice work, what kind of Pbass did you use MIM? Also did you scallop the same frets as the attitude.


Ps. Please take your photos with natural light, the bass looks awesome but would look even better with some better lighting.

[QUOTE=blizzard]Nice work, what kind of Pbass did you use MIM? Also did you scallop the same frets as the attitude.


Ps. Please take your photos with natural light, the bass looks awesome but would look even better with some better lighting.[/QUOTE]
The Attitude has 21 frets with 5 scalloped, but the origianl P bass had only 4 scalloped.

recordings??

Wow....WOW.


Could you write a larger article on what you did with the guitar pup, it sounds really interesting.

So you can sell/trade trade the Attitude now? :lol:

I kid. That is really cool.

Whenever I see a scalloped fretboard, I think of this... [img]http://www.shredaholic.com/images/m4448307-3012.jpg[/img]
Not something I think JP would do. :)

[QUOTE=darrell]Whenever I see a scalloped fretboard, I think of this... [img]http://www.shredaholic.com/images/m4448307-3012.jpg[/img]
Not something I think JP would do. :)[/QUOTE]

Not something i would hope to think that any bassist would do.

please excuse my ignorance but what's the point of scalloping?

The only thing I don't like is the look of the scalloping, it looks very mechinacally done, not very human looking. The start of the scalloping should also line up with all the other starts.

Just my opinion

[QUOTE=darrell]Whenever I see a scalloped fretboard, I think of this... [img]http://www.shredaholic.com/images/m4448307-3012.jpg[/img]
Not something I think JP would do. :)[/QUOTE]

:lol:

Now that's what I call scalloping!

that was cool! nice job!

I approve. That looks quite cool!

I'm curious about the scalloping. When you play fretted bass you never really push the strings all the way down to the wood, especially where the frets are close together, right? So what's the purpose :confused:

[QUOTE=SoM]I'm curious about the scalloping. When you play fretted bass you never really push the strings all the way down to the wood, especially where the frets are close together, right? So what's the purpose :confused:[/QUOTE]

So you can really get your finger under a string to bend it without the wood of the fretboard to get in the way.

I like how you used a guitar pickup. Very interesting.

How do you wire the neck pup to the tone switch?

the scallopwned pic lives on!

edit: in my opinion your scallops don't look very polished - smooth them out a bit?

Scallops are supposed to allow you to play with a lighter touch allowing you to play faster, as well as offering greater vibrato and bending control.

Wow, that looks nice man. What a great project bass! :thumb:

So, you had to route that cavity for the neck pickup, correct? It looks really good. Did you just keep the original finish, all scratched up as-is, or do you plan doing something with that too? :)

Damn that looks nice. It makes me wanna mod my bass like that!!!

Hi, i'm building too a sheehan p-bass, could you give me a wiring diagram?
Thanks so much

[QUOTE=zubast;15767485]Hi, i'm building too a sheehan p-bass, could you give me a wiring diagram?
Thanks so much[/QUOTE]

Has it occurred to you that brain damage is a condition that shouldn't be left untreated?

can't see the pics