SIMpleONe89

Looks great! 

I decided to go for the cheap wilkies because I was half expecting this project to fail so I didn't want to spend ten times the amount on some nice Aguilar ones. I may upgrade in the future now that is build exceeded my expectations. 

Also I'm not a bassist so I'd rather splurge on guitar parts instead.

Far out this thing weighs 5kg/11lbs!

Haha I'm terrible at slapping anyway so I won't be slapping much. 

What about the pickups specifically? The soapbars? 

Also another thing I would've changed would be to slim it down, like you pointed out. The waist is too broad and it's really heavy! 

And I would've removed more wood from the butt of the neck because the bridge sits too far from the edge in my opinion. 

I've yet to do a complete setup and there are a couple of high frets which I have to take care of. But it sounds really loud and punchy and feels great to play. 

YES! It's finally assembled! This project was the toughest ever and the most time consuming. I'm glad I pushed myself because the end product looks and sounds fantastic. 

Things I could've changed in retrospect:

1. Bigger lower horn cutaway. 
I have problems reaching the 24th frets on the bass side because the lower horn gets in the way. Clearly a design flaw, but I probably won't even reach those frets!

2. Left the control cover as it was without laminating an aluminium sheet. 
It was a pain trying to get the veneer to stick evenly onto the aluminium because it kept breaking and I had areas where the glue didn't contact the veneer. The aluminium also made it much heavier and I couldn't get the magnets to get a firm grip enough so I had to use some screws in the end. The cover held in place with the magnets but a gentle knock against the edge would make it fall off.

3. Straight string feed from the nut to the tuners
The A and D strings were at an angle going to the tuners, which isn't ideal. I designed it this way purely to get the tuners to line up nicely with the headstock edge and I neglected the string pull. I don't think it's a big deal on a bass without a tremolo unlike guitars, but I guess it's purely aesthetics. 

Anyway enough reflecting. Time for some pics!

I agree! I found pine harder to shape than mahogany! 

Thanks Carl! I'm not a bass player so hopefully I'll do justice to it. 

To be honest I purely went for aesthetics when designing the three builds. I was lucky to achieve great tones. 

Like for the zebrano and qld maple guitar, I've not seen or heard any guitars like that. So it was a leap of faith and it turned out really well. 

7 hours ago, ScottR said:

That is one to be proud of for sure!

There is an eye staring out of the center diamond of your twelfth fret inlay. I'm pretty sure it is watching me.

SR

Thanks! I've not noticed it till now! Now it's watching me! 

That headstock faux binding looks great! How did you pull off such a clean line? 

Nice! Looking forward to it! 

What's next? 

She does have a beautiful arse! 

I think it makes more sense to cut first then radius, then recut after radiusing. I do it that way because I can clamp a straight edge down on a flat, unradiused fretboard.

Thanks Zack.

Here's a more comprehensive demo of the different possible tones.

Nothing like the feeling of finishing something but also wishing it never ended. 

Here's a jam showcasing the clean, OD and dirty tones. Man this guitar sounds great!

Apologies for the out of tune bends. I used 10s on this and I'm not used to it yet! Also sorry for the out of focused camera. I fixed this in the later demo videos to come.

Lots of lessons learned! Good thing you practised on cheap wood. I did that for my first build too and was much more confident when I used the more expensive wood. 

So that proves that Toneriders are superb, value for money pickups!

Yes that happens to be my favourite OD pedal. It's a TImmy clone and that pedal is amazing. 

The hottest in Sydney recently was 45 deg C. That was insane!

I also made matching wenge/vic ash knobs and a flamed maple truss rod cover.

Ok I've been spending the last few days sanding and sanding and sanding...Sigh I really, really hate sanding. But it's important to get a great finish!

This is after one coat of wipe on poly...

There are a few spots where the tear outs were which I couldn't fix well enough. Also some glue spots in the tight corners which I can't be bothered to get rid of. It's been a long two months and I have to finish this project. Other than that, I am very pleased with how this turned out. Definitely the hardest project to date but worth it.

Looks much better! 

Such a nice arsenal of chisels!