finish and build-out
no clicks
Here are some pictures of the bass with a coat of watco gloss wipe-on poly. I used an entire can of water-based brushing
varnish, and went through two expensive brushes before switching to a wipe-on finish. Whenever the brush ran over
a surface inconsistency (any curve in the bass body) it would run too much varnish onto the bass. It was impossible
to get a level surface with the brush. Wiping worked better, but there are still little air bubbles and traces of
dust.
the corners of the battery box plate were sanded round, battery boxes installed, and ferrules hammered in with a
wood hammer under cloth (btw I upgraded the bridge from a Gotoh to a solid machined brass Hipshot model)
the control cavity was shielded with copper tape, i didn't realize how sharp the tape was and cut my fingers, just when
i was getting excited to finally play the bass, solder was put wherever copper tape overlapped in order to ensure ground
continuity
pickups were screwed in with surgical tubing on the screws to provide spring-back, the wires from the pickups and the
battery boxes (total numbering 12) were just barely squeezed into the 1/4" hole leading to the control cavity
wiring complete, the OBP-3 was really fun to wire, however, directions from Allparts for the stereo jack did not
agree with Aguilar wiring diagrams, and Aguilar wiring diagrams didn't agree with diagrams from Stew Mac for their
dual concentric blend pot
control cavity cover on, 2 nine-volt batteries installed, all that's needed are strings
it was strung up with a beautiful set of Maxima strings, Maxima strings are 24-karat gold plated, they stopped making them
a while ago, but production has started back up under a new company, Optima, I got two new old-stock sets of Maxima's on Ebay,
the bass sounds awesome, it's light, comfortable, and looks pretty, there are some things left to do: find appropriate knobs, maybe design and implement logo,
and maybe get a pro photographer to take some pictures
the bass is made of 14 pieces of wood, has 38 wires, 53 holes, and uses 35 screws
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