Not very photogenic this week, unfortunately. Like civil engineering, most of my work is out of sight. I installed more conduit runs for the 12/24 volt circuits. All I have for images are places where conduit now sticks up through the floor:

...and where it branches off and disappears under the bottom wrap.

I worked on this until Sunday morning, when my solvent cement ran out...literally. I gathered up the materials into a plastic bag after completing work at one location under the house. Unfortunately the solvent cement container was not closed all the way, and the contents leaked out into the bag. As I had quit for lunch, I did not discover this until an hour later.

So much for that part of the project this weekend.

I switched to a new project this afternoon--building a set of steps for my front door from scrap lumber. Momcat was repairing her own front steps, and this served as my inspiration.

I've been making do with a ladder all this time. I fell off that ladder once already, and I'd rather not have it happen again.

In the evenings, I've been continuing with my bass upgrade. Here is the internals with the ground wires soldered in.

...and with the wiring complete except for the pickups.

I soldered new shielded wire onto the pickups...

Everything internal soldered together, and the pickups installed.

Installation complete!


I am pleased with the sonic results. The noise is greatly reduced, although with the treble full up on the amp, I can now hear my computer performing operations. But killing the treble gets rid of that sound.

I have a lot more control of the sound of the bass right at my fingertips now. The tone control works now--it didn't at all with the old internals. And the series/parallel switch works largely as advertised. The series setting was supposed to give a midrange boost. Well, it does favor midrange at the expense of the high end, but I cannot discern any cost to the bottom for having the switch set to series. This is a good thing, actually, because you want the bottom strong on a bass. Essentially what it does is extends the range of the tone pot. With the switch set to series and the tone dialed all the way to the left, I get a super muffled, low-end-only sound. Me likey!

Jasmine says, "love me, or Else!"

Labels: San Pedro homestead