Bassisgreat

Yeah, Al, I thought of you when I saw my sister's Easter decoration and couldn't resist. I was wondering if you'd catch that! Sorry about the slow progress folks, I'll get on the ball soon!

ok, it's been 12 hours (exactly ) where are the pics?

Man, I'd love to have as many instruments finished by the end of the year as you've done so far in the last 2 months!! looks great, and a great idea. I really doubt your son will be saying "Dad, I have a little bit of an action problem on my bass" before he grows out of the small scale. Hopefully it will get him more into music as well as an early appreciation for the instruments themselves.

Looks killer! I agree that the headstock really sets off the Explorer body. Good work!

sweet build! I'll be watching this one. Yeah, I'd sand the heel of the neck down some to make sure it's flat and smooth. It will be somewhat protected from the elements by the neck pocket itself, and the grain has already been sealed, so it's all good. I love seeing the creative and out of the ordinary projects on this site! Gets the brain moving in a positive way. Thanks! Hope this one turns out as well as it's gone so far.

Looks awesome! That's an interesting way to do pickup covers! I'm going to be making mine asap. Can't wait to hear the bass!

Not as much as I'd like to report, but I can only get into the shop on some weekends at this point... Today I cut out my template and jointed the ebony top. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture033.jpg Here's the neck I'll be using - 7 pc paduak and flame maple with mac ebony board I couldn't get a great shot of the board, I'll try to do that soon. It's more swirly and spotty than striped, so it will not look quite the same as the body, which I like. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture045.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture040.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture049.jpg And on a side note, here is a piece of Pink Ivory I'm selling, made a top from it already and there's 11/32 thickness left, so someone else can have fun with it too. This wood is amazing... :D I'll be putting it on the 'bay in a couple of days. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture017.jpg and a little damp http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture023.jpg all these pics are pretty crummy, sorry. I'll do better when I have some REAL progress to report.

humina humina! looks great so far! As for the neck pocket, I haven't dealt with that (yet), but I've seen folks here have some success with veneers and shims. You just have to take your time making them the right size with proper taper, etc. Good luck on the rest of the build. Can't wait to see it finished. On a side note, isn't the smell of Walnut being worked amazing? I LOVE it!

I have a little bit of poly at home that I've never messed with, I'll try it out on some scrap tonight and see what I think. Turns out I do have access to a compressor and spray gun, should a rookie try a spray finish, or would a hand applied finish be better for learning purposes? edit: going to read in the finishing forums.

I have a final drawing and will be making 1/2" clear acrylic templates (and taking a few pics ) tomorrow. I left the thigh cutaway the way it was. I just like it there, and I really don't think it will have any negative impact on sitting playability. I'll have my thick template to give me a better idea tomorrow. I've been considering finishes. I want a hard clear finish on this one, and I'm thinking a brush on epoxy finish. I've seen some users of this and other forums have success with them and it seems easy enough... Any experience or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, since I know basically nothing about finishing (experience wise - I've done lots of )

Thanks, Phil. I am certainly not acquiescing to someone else's aesthetic tastes, just trying to make sure I don't make any "rookie mistakes." I KNOW I will, BTW , but prevention is the key to keeping them minimal. I was actually looking at a Jazz bass body and the thigh cutaway on that is placed pretty far from the 24th. While I can see the 24th fret as being the ideal position, I don't think it will cause any problems if I leave it where it is. I may move it up a tad, but just enough to keep my aesthetics the way I want them. I do think I will make the tip on the bass horn a hair wider though. Just enough to not have any flaky bits at the end. It won't be supporting anything, and the strap should never touch it. I can't see a reason that anything would get into that space to break it, but the universe can be mysterious... As far as the length of the upper horn, I am playing with that too. I really do want to make it about 3/4" longer, ideally, but I am a little constricted by the size of my body blank (20" long) I do think that with some of the design tweaks I've made, I'll be able to add another 1/4" or so. The next one, assuming I end up digging this body in "real space," will be made from a larger blank. I have some small challenges ahead as far as using the ebony alone as a top, but I hope I'll be able to work it out. I kind of have my heart set on it now.

she's a beaut!

That neck looks killer! Hopefully neck dive won't be an issue. Does the tip of your bass horn come anywhere close to the 12th fret? I'd go with the lightest tuners possible, if it's going to be a small bass, it may as well also have the advantage of being extremely light! Looking forward to seeing it done.

nothing much to update, but I am going to play with the body design some more and see if I can come up with a way to keep the "feeling" but make it more practical. After talking and typing with a few people, I'm a little worried about the tip on the bass horn being too fragile, but haven't completely found a solution yet. I really want to keep that accent there, but need a way to make it more stable. I am also going to work on getting the peak of the thigh cutaway to line up, more or less, with the 24th fret for playing comfort. I may compromise a little here and there if it doesn't please me aesthetically, but in the end I want an instrument to play, not to look at. I am trying my best to plan this thing into oblivion before I do anything that can't be undone, but it sure requires patience... Not that I actually have a problem with that, I'm just anxious to get going! On a side note, I'm going to try to find a way to use the Mac ebony as a top by itself. It's a beautiful top and I don't want to muck it up with a bunch of laminates. Not that there's anything wrong with laminated bodies, but I like this one left natural. Besides, there is going to be a somewhat flashy inlay in the middle of the body. I'm going to make my own pickup covers out of some birdseye maple I have. I'd like to get flamed maple to keep everything completely in theme, but birdseye is as close as I can get without spending more money I don't have... I think it will work out fine. I'll post an updated drawing as soon as I have a photo. Any thoughts on how to "fix" the body?

Those are gorgeous instruments. I am drooling over that LP. And I'm usually all about natural finishes. I think it's the flame maple binding that sets it off for me. Just plain sexy. *drool*

looks nice!

ohhh yes, the good old days. Sad thing is, I never realized how good they were til they were gone... Hopefully to come again. I figured I'd throw alot of my pricey stuff together on this bass, since my next one probably won't have some of the luxuries like custom pups, unless I wind them myself or can find someone to make them for me at a very reasonable price... Fortunately, I DO still have enough purdy woods to make at least 2 more tops. Then I may start building one piece bodies and calling myself a minimalist (in the wallet dept). On a side note, I swear I can't complete a post without using emoticons... that's probably annoying, haha.

Thanks alot for the flattering comment, Phil! You make some beautiful instruments yourself! I've been a fan since the olive topped bass. I got the ebony from gilmerwood.com several years ago...4 or 5, I think. I was 'windowshopping,' (or would it be "Windows-shopping"? ) and I couldn't pass it up. I also have a gorgeous figured pink ivory top (plus enough scrap to make at least one bass fingerboard) that I bought from them about the same time. In other words, when I had money...

Andronico forges the steel for his strings himself.

That's superfly TNT. Great work!

I'd just like to second that. Let the kid get through his first guitar with lessons learned about integrity and honesty and maybe next time he'll be inspired to shoot for a higher goal. All this rhetoric would make me consider throwing in the towel. However, I wouldn't get myself in that position, but that's beside the point. Zeb, the guitar is not my style, but I really hope it turns out great. There's a good reason people build replicas of other guitars, even if they plan on using their own designs in the future, and that is to become familiar with what has been proven to work. After you've gotten a grasp on that, the sky is the limit as far as unique designs go.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I worked some more on the body design last night (tiny tweaks here and there) and hopefully very soon I'll be able to post a pic of that AND some more progress! I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for the great folks on this and other musical instrument building forums, so THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! I guess from here on in, I am just going to be very careful and see if I can't come out with a beautiful, great sounding bass.

Thanks for the reply, Jon! I hope it all turns out ok. I'll do a search on TB and see if I can work out how to make the covers myself. I need to find a piece of flame maple the proper size, and don't want to spend a fortune on somehting much bigger than I need, so I'm gonna be on a search for that. Any thoughts on the wood selection? The reason I'm including the center section of ziricote/flame maple is because the M. Ebony is not wide enough to make a top on it's own, I am considering whether it would look better if I just put the ziricote in there and left out the maple stringers in the body. I don't want it too be too busy or look gaudy. I don't have constant access to a camera, but hopefully I'll be able to document this build reasonably well. I hope to get some feedback and advice from the folks here.

I forgot to mention that there will be gold hardware (except for the padouk and maple knobs made by Roger at THG Knobs). I'd go with Black if I could do it again, but I was on a gold trip for a while. The bridge is an ABM with adjustable EVERYTHING, it's great, if a little heavy. It's solid brass. I'm thinking that I will want a nice thick glossy spray finish on it, but I don't have the resources to do that myself, so I'll need to see if there's anyone in the DFW TX area that may be able to help a brother out!

Hey everybody, I'm FINALLY getting around to building my first bass after years of collecting parts, starting, messing up, going on hiatus with the project, then starting up again... The specs are as follows: TOP: Macassar Ebony with Ziricote center strip bound by 2 thin strips of flamed maple. If things go to plan, there will be a cool inlay between the pickups in the center of the body. BODY CORE: Hard Ash BACK: Figured Sapele NECK: I purchased the neck for this bass. I will build the next one, but this time, I'm flaking out on that task it was made by the people at Musikraft. The details are : 35 " scale - 7 pc Paduak with flamed maple strips - macassar ebony fretboard 2" at nut 3.25 at 24th - 17mm string spacing Electronics: Pickups: Custom Aero JB6AE single coil (he built them for the first attempt, which had a myrtle top and I had myrtle covers made...now I'm thinking I may try to make my own flamed maple covers because I don't want the myrtle to look out of place, I'm kinda picky about that) Wiring: Passive J bass wiring Volume/Blend/Tone The body design has been through many variations and tweaks, and I'm almost there. I don't have a photo of my most recent drawing, but it is not much different from the one shown. There are lines everywhere showing some ideas I had on one of them. I am open to input on the body. Here are some pics of what's up so far (not much) here are the boards that will make up the body (minus the thin maple strips... Here's the rough body design, when I get pics of the "more finished, and I mean really close" version, I'll post em. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture009-1.jpg and some more pics of woods used, etc. http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture011.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture002.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture004.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c19/JQR3/Picture005.jpg Any comments, suggestions, etc would be appreciated!! Edit: changed my wording from a word the censor didn't like to "picky" Also, anyone know who could make some pickup covers for me without a huge cost? I'm po'