Jon Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 I thought I'd share one of my current projects with you guys. Most of this is taken from my blog here. I'm tired of the weight of my Ibanez SR406 body - It's made from solid maple and is horribly balanced. I figure I'll just rebuild the body and replace each piece of the overall bass one at a time. Since I have a fair amount of basswood, I decided to use that for this project. Since it's damn light, I think it'll deem itself worthy. Not to mention the tone is very nice. I'll top it off with some nice jagged grain Padauk with a Wenge accent line for a nice contrast between the lighter colored Basswood and orange Padauk. The total weight should be less than 3.5 pounds, although I am aiming for 3. Jagged grain Padauk top Gluing the body together Chambers cleaned up Left veneer glued and shaped to the body Right veneer ready to be glued Right veneer gluing (as it stands now) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Very nice Jon, the quality of your work is getting better all the time. I wish I had as much time and money to build as fast as you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travismoore Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Looking good! Cant wait to see it finished and with that padauk top on =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Thanks! Yes, I have a good amount of time to build. But I have my girlfriend to thank for that, as she has been away at college for the past 5 months. Wood is pretty cheap compared to the hardware, pickups, and pre-amps though. So that's the main reason I don't have a completely custom bass completed yet. Although when I get that pickup from you, I'll be close. I think this one will be a pretty cool bass a year or two down the road when I have switched everything out with more high-end stuff. Ohh, wait till you guys see the knobs I'm making for this bass. Looking good! Cant wait to see it finished and with that padauk top on =) I'm very eager to see it as well. I've had this top sitting around a good while, as I was planning on doing an early Yamaha TRB 6-string copy using it. But I just don't have the wood or extra time for a 100% custom project (specifically a neck-thru in this case). One thing I'm excited about on this project is that I'll be doing the roundover by hand, as well as a carve to really get that accent line showing through-out the edges. One more fun fact is that the top isn't wide enough for this bass, by about 3/4" total. So it will definitely have an extreme carve on the widest left and right area of the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Although when I get that pickup from you, I'll be close. It won't be too long I swear! I'm still waiting on flatwork material. Your pickup should be ready along with the BP tribute one in less than a week or two. I only do my roundovers by hand. I don't like the look of radius bits on those types of basses i.e. multi-laminate ones. Nothing wrong with a roundover bit on a Fender copy. The coolest part is playing around with the radius to make those accent lines sharper in some areas and less in other. It turns me on baby!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted December 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Neat new updates to the forums, I'm liking them! The right veneer glued on nice and tight. I have shaped it to size so I can glue a part of the top. Here is the Padauk top cut to size. After the veneer was cut to size, I sanded the veneer flat with a rubber block and 80 grit sanded paper. After I got it nice and flat, I wiped everything down with Naptha to get wood dust off. Definitely not something you want in the glue! Then I glued the left Padauk piece on. I should probably glue the tops together, but I don't have the clamps to do that yet. Soon enough! Here is how I glue the top. I use a thin piece of wood with double-stick tape on it to line the top against it so it doesn't slide around. And here's an above view shot. And the woods I'll be using for the knobs (5 knobs total). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goat Posted December 24, 2006 Report Share Posted December 24, 2006 Very Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted December 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2006 Very Nice! Thanks! So as it stands now, the left top is glued on and shaped to the body. I need to clean up the glue so I can fit the other top on tightly, so I haven't glued that side on yet. Also, this is just an example fingerboard, as I'll be using my SR406 neck with this body. But I may use this fingerboard on this bass in the future. No oils, chemicals, or shellec. Just the beautiful wood showing. Body is sanded to 120, fingerboard is sanded to 220. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.