This project started with my Grandson and and I building a ukulele from a kit. OK for a while but it is a teenage thing - onward and upward, he bought a "Cherrystone" DIY bass kit from Amazon. We managed to put it together, no real problems. It only had a volume and a tone control, a sort of treble cut, not really good enough.
I found on, AliExpress, a bass guitar preamp kit. So the pickguard had to come off and holes drilled for the five variable resistance pots and a rotary on/off switch to be fitted. Space also had then to be carved in the body for the amplifier module and the pots.
A trial assembly produced lots of HUM
. All the pot leads were coloured and photographed ,unsoldered and copper braiding used to cover the wires. The braiding was joined at one end only to a common earth point (shades of solving DIY CNC wiring problems!) No HUM
.
More carving of the back of the body to fit the nine volt battery box and the deed was done.
He is now a happy bunny with a real cool guitar and has learned some soldering and woodworking skills.
I have put a 30 seconds video up on YouTube if you want to hear it play and no that is not me!
Ian
