Baseplate source and problems.....

[LtKojak]

I have read on this 3d that are brass made and not nickel... Busted axe have short legs baseplates at 4,5 $

The Long-legged 49.2mm was the culprit, not the others.

HTH,

[LtKojak]

Busted axe have short legs baseplates at 4,5 $

Yes, but only 50mm and 52mm, not 49.2mm, I'm afraid...

[Marco78]

The Long-legged 49.2mm was the culprit, not the others.

HTH,

ok thanks!!

[Jim Shine]

I have been digging around for some baseplates myself. I found this place Discount Guitar and Bass Parts, has the Allparts bases listed for $7.50 each, the best price I have found so far. I inquired to see if that price is current and am waiting for a reply.

These arrived. The price is good and now they should be stocked.

[the great waldo]

These arrived. The price is good and now they should be stocked.

Hi Jim

I do´nt know where you got the price of $ 7.5 from! this is what I found PU 6915-001

Cheers

Andrew

[Jim Shine]

They must have just changed it. It was $7.50 on the site as recent as Tuesday the 11th. They only charged me $7.50 each when i placed my order last week.

[Jim Shine]

I saw last week that Mojo had baseplates back in stock, so I bought one. I can't tell if anything has changed, but I can say it is not the same part as the Allparts. Is there something I should try to age it with so see if the issue has been fixed? I hope its fixed because materials aside, I like shape of Mojos more than Allparts.

[copperheadroads]

I saw last week that Mojo had baseplates back in stock, so I bought one. I can't tell if anything has changed, but I can say it is not the same part as the Allparts. Is there something I should try to age it with so see if the issue has been fixed? I hope its fixed because materials aside, I like shape of Mojos more than Allparts.

Keep up informed how this turns out ,If in fact they are like they were before the change in alloy

[CRU JONES]

The Long-legged 49.2mm was the culprit, not the others.

HTH,

I am not sure that it is only the 49.2mm. I have used 49.2mm, 50mm, and the 53mm. They all are different alloys as of some time last spring. The alloy change seemed to coincide with an increase in dented and scratched units. The "new" alloy is harder as well as having the qualities others have noted like: "yellowing" and "spotting" upon contact with water. I don't think brass sounds "terrible"... So I use them as I might use brass. That being said, I lament the loss of the source for very reasonably priced nickel silver.

Eddy Currents will reduce the inductance of a coil, as Joe Gwinn pointed out. So you can sort your baseplates by connecting your inductance meter to a coil and observing a relative drop in inductance upon placing the coil on the baseplate.

Eddy current testing is used in non-destructive testing of metals. More information can be found by researching "NDT of metal"... or something of that sort

Cheers,
Ethan

[Possum]

Dunk in a mix of ferric and water, if they turn a horrible dark brown color, its the same weird alloy. No, brass isn't a terrible alloy, but its bad for neck pickups if you're looking for clarity. Use the LCR meter and set your coils on an AllParts baseplate and read AC resistance at 1khz then set on the Mojo plates, if it goes up the alloy is more brass than not. They are probably the same cheesy alloy I bet.....use them where they work best and don't try to relic them.

[CRU JONES]

Thanks Possum, for pointing this out in the first place! I first noticed because I polish my baseplates and these were taking infinity to polish... Then they were reacting with my polishing compound (turning yellow ). I remember a faint light bulb going off in my head that maybe they were different, but did not think about it again until I saw your first post about this

Maybe to be a little less vague in what I mean by "brass is not horrible" (for those that may be stuck with some of these plates.) I think brass works nicely for humbuckers with double row of slugs and other designs where poles don't protrude through the base plate.

For those who have gone on to bend their own, I am remembering a post by Joe Gwinn recommending possibly to try stainless steel baseplates. Stainless steel may be even less electrically conductive than nickel silver. Probably a pretty cool idea

cheers,
Ethan

[Possum]

You can't solder to stainless though, not with electrical solder. Yeah brass has its uses for sure. Mojo baseplates would be good for bridge pickups probably, but customers wouldn't like the look for what I'm doing.

[CRU JONES]

You can't solder to stainless though, not with electrical solder. Yeah brass has its uses for sure. Mojo baseplates would be good for bridge pickups probably, but customers wouldn't like the look for what I'm doing.

Oh yeah, good point! Good thing I didn't take myself up on that idea

[David Schwab]

You can't solder to stainless though, not with electrical solder.

Just stick a piece of copper shielding tape on it and solder to that.

[Possum]

I wouldn't trust that to last for the long term though, and you wouldn't have strain relief, a solid anchor point for the cable, might not even give you a solid connection....