Single Cut Bass Body for a P bass neck

[Andyjr1515]

A quick update on a 'small' project that a member of the Basschat forum challenged me with.

"Do you think it's possible to make a single cut bass body to fit a P-bass neck?"

I had a think about it.  

Why had no-one done it before?

Could it be because the neck, being fully curvy carved up to the normal heel position of 15th/16th fret, would have to be 'cradled' in the carve of the upper single cut horn which will meet the neck at the 12th fret?

Could it be because the neck angle would become immovable after that delicate carve otherwise there would be a gap between the body and the neck join?

Could it be because most builders have much better things to do with their time than to try to solve a problem that, frankly, has no purpose other than satisfy an individual player's curiosity?

I pondered the above for a few minutes.  "Yes - I reckon"    

What could possibly go wrong?

[Andyjr1515]

There were a few other requests:

Could there be a pickup cover and could it be purpleheart?

Could there be a purpleheart control plate and a circuit that would allow two choices of tone pot and three choices of coil selection for the single Armstrong custom humbucker being ordered?

Could he send me the neck for me to use?

But could the neck and headstock be dyed purple to match the purpleheart?

Could I use an old gold bridge and tuners?

I pondered for a few more minutes.  "Hmmm...don't see why not..."

[ScottR]

You may have gotten yourself into quite a (purple) pickle here, Andy.

The first thing that came to my mind was why not make this with a normal P-Bass neck pocket and carve the bass side lobe to fit around the neck with a small gap of separation everywhere besides the sole and the pocket. Sort of like a floating gun stock.

The second thing I thought was you are going to have fun finding a purple dye that turns brown at the same rate as purple heart...

SR

[Mr Natural]

53 minutes ago, ScottR said:

The second thing I thought was you are going to have fun finding a purple dye that turns brown at the same rate as purple heart...

SR

+1- that is probably impossible.

plus- getting the shade of purple correct the first time is darn near nuts as depending on when you sand/how long you let the purpleheart sit- the purple can fade enough (or after sanding) become more brilliant and matching it - well- good luck. 

[mistermikev]

I'm just a jr here so... what if you dyed the purpleheart AND neck with a darker purple?  man this sounds like a cool project.  I immediately thought perhaps the upper bout would only touch the neck just at the fretboard.  Can't wait to see some pics!

[Andyjr1515]

Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight...   And yes - you are probably all correct.  I'll do a quick update of the salient stages.

First - while I was waiting for the actual neck to arrive, I took the neck off my Squier Jaguar bass (actually, correction...seeing the photos below I remember now that I used an old Fender-style electric guitar neck to test the principle) and had a look at what the carve is doing.  And the answer is, 'quite a lot!' :

 

This was my first pondering sketch:

On the positive side, I judged that the heel area could be pretty standard and that actually there was only a relatively small length where the body would have to wrap around the neck.

But I also realised that this would have to incorporate any neck angle needed and also would need to be gap free in three dimensions, including a tapering neck.

The other challenge would be to get the curve where the neck meets the heel carved right in mirror-form.

I agreed the basic body shape with Pete (a different Pete) and that allowed me to work out where the neck heel needed to come to:

 

I decided I needed to mock up a mini carve of the neck pocket and joint area.  Something like this:

 

This was helpful because I was able to envisage better what was going to interact with what and where any gaps were most likely to appear.

[Andyjr1515]

I agreed with Pete that I would use some leftover English Walnut from another build for the top, Sapele for the back and a 6mm layer of purpleheart in between to give a passing nod to the pickup and control panel covers.  Then also do a purpleheart feature strip on the back

:

You can see clearly the brown/purple issue at the beginning of the colour cycle!

I did some check, double check, triple check stuff on what level the neck heel needed to sit at, given the Schaller bridge Pete had sent me and - huge stroke of luck - realised that it was exactly where the Sapele would sit and that the Schaller bridge was low enough to avoid the need for a neck angle.  This meant that I could cut the heel shape into the purpleheart (the neck had now arrived)

 

[Andyjr1515]

So this was the area that would need the first part of the 3D carve:

Once I had done this, I would have to continue the carve once the top had been put on - but judged that I could do it in those two stages.

I used school chalk as an 'engineers blue' indicator of highspots and used files, scrapers, and sandpaper to gently drop the neck and transition down for the heel to drop down flat with the neck pocket.  I also realised that for fretting hand access, I could follow the original neck heel line to at least the middle of the neck

More by luck than judgement, the centre line of the back was roughly in the right place to line up with the neck skunk line:

 

So - after routing a pickup cable slot in the purpleheart, I could start to look to putting the top on:

That pencil line would be crucial in the next stage

[Andyjr1515]

Last part of the update for today.

While all of this was going on, Pete was still plotting further challenges.  This pickup cover...well - could it be like a plastic cover but made out of purpleheart and then sent off to the UK branch of Armstrong Pickups for a pickup to be built into it ?

My answer, of course was, "What the ****??????????  Don't you know how thin a plastic pickup cover is and YOU WANT ME TO MAKE THAT IN WOOD ??????"

To which Pete's answer was a conciliatory, "Yes, please "

So time for another trial.  With some scrap purpleheart and mahogany, I cut a few slivers of purpleheart as thin as my bandsaw would cope with - just over 1mm thick - and built a box with that either side and on top and stabilised by two shaped end blocks:

It was remarkably strong and stable.  And quite the most satisfying thing I've done in a long time

So I made a second one, but this time with purpleheart ends and sent it off to Aaron Armstrong:

 

And it came back like this:

 

Just how cool is that???   I'm glad I thought of it               

[FINEFUZZ]

Very nice solution to the pickup cover!

[ScottR]

18 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

My answer, of course was, "What the ****??????????  Don't you know how thin a plastic pickup cover is and YOU WANT ME TO MAKE THAT IN WOOD ??????"

To which Pete's answer was a conciliatory, "Yes, please "

You've got some scary friends, Andy.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

34 minutes ago, ScottR said:

You've got some scary friends, Andy.

SR

That's what people say to them!  Can't think who they could be referring to 

[Andyjr1515]

The critical bit in this whole build is the neck carve.  I used everything - micro-planes, files, scrapers, mini thumb planes and sandpaper:

And finally finished with a decent fit:

 

 

So now I could start the body carve.  Pete wanted a passing nod to an SG-like chamfer:

And I suggested some relief carves at the back:

Now I had the basics there, I could start adding things like the set screw inserts and washers and removing some of the wood at the neck/body transition:

And cutting the pickup chamber and laying out the controls plate:

[Andyjr1515]

Then onto the neck stain.  As mentioned, the purpleheart is always going to be a snapshot moment of one colour shade, but the colour it will probably stay the longest at first was an almost burgundy purple.  In the long tradition of 'in the style of, I opted for a combination of one red ink, one purple ink and one red spirit stain:

As you can see, the depth of colour was closer to the tru-oiled purpleheart pickup cover than the Osmo'd purpleheart centre splice, but the colour tone itself was at least complimentary

Next was logo.  Pete wanted decals.  He wanted an AJR roundel and the name 'Nemesis'.  I found a decal maker who does white!

 

Then onto the control plate and body finishing.  I used Osmo polyx satin for the body:

It was getting close!

[Andyjr1515]

Which brings me up to this week.  It goes to Pete tomorrow

Here it is finished with some spare 'line things up' strings - Pete will fit his own strings when he gets the bass in the morning:

I'm quite pleased with this one

[ScottR]

That is brilliant Andy, I can see why you are pleased. Pete actually has a fine sense of color and balance.

Your woodwork looks like fine furniture with a sweet satin finish.

The thing is staring at me though. With eye's from Munch's "The Scream".

SR

[FINEFUZZ]

I love things with faces.  Beautiful color combination.

[mistermikev]

nicely done.  a beauty.  would love a shot of the pocket all done if you have one... just curious - don't go to any trouble.  you really nailed it.

[Andyjr1515]

54 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

nicely done.  a beauty.  would love a shot of the pocket all done if you have one... just curious - don't go to any trouble.  you really nailed it.

Thanks and yes - got a shot from just before the final assembly.  I'll post in the morning when I boot up the desktop.

[mistermikev]

looking fwd to i!

[Andyjr1515]

These were the two components before I bolted them together, @mistermikev 

[Andyjr1515]

11 hours ago, ScottR said:

The thing is staring at me though. With eye's from Munch's "The Scream".

SR

You ought to have seen it before...shades of Ghostbusters???  

[mistermikev]

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

These were the two components before I bolted them together, @mistermikev 

wow.  that's pretty cool.  thanks for sharing.

[ScottR]

7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

You ought to have seen it before...shades of Ghostbusters???  

If only it were slime green.

SR