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A Bass Called Zero - Exotic Woods


ragman

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This is my newest project. For the first time i designed the whole intrument from my own personal taste. Furthermore i only use exotic/nice woods.

Here you can see the top wood-spalted maple on the walnut body:

korpus1.jpg

Here is the back of the guitar. The electronics-cover will be made in "continious wood" style.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589162.jpg/korpus2.jpg

The neck is build of three pieces of flamed maple:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589178.jpg/hals1.jpg

I saw the head angle with a japanese saw.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589194.jpg/hals2.jpg

Here in coarse stage:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589210.jpg/hals3.jpg

And here ist the german sheep dog loaning his name.

Zero:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/315895...kstatthund1.jpg

Greets from germany :D

Ben

Edited by ragman
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Sweet design! :D Sort of reminiscent of a Carl Thompson, but still very original. I love the woods, this is gonna be one to keep an eye on. Make sure you give us more progress photos!

Is it going to be fretted/fretless? How many strings? What electronics?

Also, on an off topic note, I am assuming based on your pup's name that you are a fellow Nightmare Before Christmas fan. I am going to be building a guitar for my girl soon that is going to have either Jack's head, or maybe his whole bust on the 11-13th fret. :D

Edit: I can't quite tell what I am looking at in the first pic. I see the wood with the bass outline drawn on it, and then behind that is a picture of a bass? Or a drawing (very nice if it is!)?

Edited by Bassisgreat
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Hi,

thank you for your comments and that you remind me of the pic rules. Now you can use the links. :D

Of course i know that these woods come from america. The walnut for example is called "amerikanischer Nussbaum". But i also know, that your(american) guitars are made of quite normal woods, too. I never saw a spalted maple top on a gibson or fender. I think the word "exotic" does not say something about the origin in this context. I use it for quite unusual and beautiful.

The electronics will be made by myself. It will be an active circuit and i thought about some onboard effects, like an autowah or an tremolo. I will use some very good pickups called Rough Crystals.

It will be an four string, fretted bass.

Some explanations to the first picture: In the front you can see the wood, in the back there is a mirror with a paper body on it. This is a printing of an photoshop made design.

Greets

Ben

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an active circuit and i thought about some onboard effects, like an autowah or an tremolo.

danm you are making me jealous, i am thinking of doing something like that for a guitar i wanna make (gibson nighthawk landmark series)

maybe an onboard premap so i can get some headphones and run around like a mad jimmy page :D

hope this thing goes as good as it looks

:D

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But i also know, that your(american) guitars are made of quite normal woods, too. I never saw a spalted maple top on a gibson or fender. I think the word "exotic" does not say something about the origin in this context.

Nice to see you around again Ben. Nice wood selectionyou got there I must add. I know that Gibson and Fender don't mass produce guitars with this type of wood, but I think it is because spalt is not one of the easiest of woods to work with, especialy if you get a very soft one. I think that it is most suited for flat top guitars and basses, unless you got a nice solid piece or a lot of patience to make a nice carve on it.

Keep us posted on the progress, and those dozukis are great, I don't own one yet but haved use them, for the flexibility of the blade they cut great and stay straight on the cutting line.

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Ahh, Maiden, you beat me to it! I have a dozuki on order right now from Woodworkers supply. Love em' and this will be the first I own.

Back to the thread. It does look to me like the woods you have chosen compliment each other nicely. Keep us posted, this could be a beautifull instrument!

Good Luck.

Nate Robinson

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello again,

because i had to do some practical courses i could not work on my project :D .

But today i had some time do shape the neck. Here you can see the newest photos:

I used the same wood as for the body. The shape is my own design, at least i do not know the design - perhaps there is a company who made it before...The fretboard is ebony.

kopf_front_klein.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836...seite_klein.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836...tlich_klein.jpg

The whole neck:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836..._ganz_klein.jpg

I hope next week i can shape the body. You will get the photos soon...

Greets :D

Ben

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  • 6 months later...

It ´s been awhile since I started this bass-project, but finally I have finished the bass. I sprayed very many aerosol-cans on this bass, because the lacquer soaks into the spalted maple very much. Well here you can see the body after a few clear coats:

body1

But here you can see a little mistake, I drilled through the body, because that spalted maple has a very soft consistence:

body2

Ok, I did not want to accept this and had to find a solution by making a sunburst finish. It became a deep blackburst, but I like it very much:

lackierung3.jpg

Another view on it:

body4

The headstock got the same finish and my brand logo:

head1

head2

Thank you for you interest and tell me how do you like this finish.

Ben

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For future reference... you can get some slow setting clear epoxy (I use Devcon 2-ton 30 minute). It HAS to be the slow setting kind, cause if it sets fast it'll just sit on top, you want the epoxy to soak down into the spalt. Then you sand that back off and the spalt is rock hard and will take a finish without sucking it up like you described.

Chris

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  • 1 month later...

OK, I am back with the final result. I sanded the whole body, so that I could take epoxy-resin and stabilize the wood with it, it works great, thank you for that hint. Furthermore I made a new sunburst with a two-component-lacquer. Well i am so happy to post the new result. Here are the pictures:

fertig_wallpaper.jpg

body-front

body-front2

back

body_back

Because you cant see the pictures from the past, here is a link to a short documentation of "zero".

docu

Thank you for your interest.

regards

ben

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