al heeley

Not sure about the string gauges yet - I guess i'll strat with an old set of 40-100's tuned in conventional bass fashion and see how it sounds/feels. No truss rod - simply cos i wanted to put one together using offcuts and spares from other projects without spending or ordering anything more. I didn't have a short truss rod to put in there so I'm taking a gamble with a sturdy neck and a CF bar it will be playable enough to get my son started.

No thats how it is supposed to work. The channel is curved deeper in the middle than the ends and the truss rod set into it in a curce. Tightening it makes it want to straighten out thus tensioning the neck more against the pull of the strings. However, +1 for a modern dual action rod for $15.

Nice job on the neck, very sleek.

-1 for grain filler/sealer on hoggnie, +1 for the wet sanding of danish oil. I like to believe this creates a slurry of oil and sawdust which can help fill the larger pores but bow to others experience on this. Danish oil has driers in so once penetrated the pores will start being filled. You need a good few very light coats rubbed in with fine grit paper, allos a day to cure and dry then continue until you start to build up a good sheen to the surface. then when fully cured, buff up with a good hard furniture wax polish.

Shielding from hum is a massive subject that is intricately taken apart in a thousand threads on Guitar Nutz Forum. Main causes: 1) No ground to bridge (& therefore, strings) 2) bad solder joint somewhere 3) control cavity not shielded with sticky back copper foil or grounded 4) Crap cheap guitar lead 5) dirty electric supply (eg: fridge, flourescent lights close by on same ring mains)

I hate taxi drivers, journalists and politicians. You need some loud music therapy, a well-cranked valve amp and an empty house to have a good blast for an hour. remember - if the windows aren't rattling then you're not playing hard enough.

+1 for steel stiffener rods either side of the truss rod.

Love your headstock design, looks really mean with the body shape. Good work

Coming on well, great to see some eggs sneaking into the pics too. Rock on dude!

As my son, aged 7, is starting to take more of an interest in music, I thought I'd use some of my various project offcuts to put together a mini precision bass for him. This is going to be 3/4 size, about 25" scale length. Mahogany neck and body, body with Zebrano cap. Maple fretboard (probably - depending on a mate lending a hand with the offcuts bin... ) Neck/head shape cut and channel routed for carbon fibre stiffening bar - no truss rod on this. Here's the zebrano cap on the body after a little countoring:

More pics please!

Great birds eye maple neck - looks really sweet, and I love Walnut for the body, esp. bookmatched and open. Really nice - you'll sort the neck pocket out with a couple of well-fitting shims, no problem.

Finally got the machine heads on and a set of strings. Nut cut rough, needs a good setup now but she's all working and making some of the right noises. A fair bit of fret buzz in places for now but nothing that a bit of levelling won't solve. I must say it does feel very comfortable virtually striaght off the bat playing fanned frets, far easier than I was expecting. Thanks again for the comments, suggestions and encouragement during this build - I've really enjoyed putting her together and learning a bit more about this great craft. I think a decent pre-amp system is on the shopping list for the end of the month.

I went for a pretty cheap GFS guitar preamp to test the basic sound. If the bass works out good with construction, playing feel and setup I plan to upgrade all the components - pre-amp and pickups, but this wh0ole build was a bit of an experiment for me.

I might shield the cavity cover if it needs it, but there's the little pre-amp pcb glued to it now. I have no experience of shielding requirements for passive pickup and 9v pre-amp systems yet! If it proves to be noisy then it's a 2 minute job. All oils will have some effect on colour. Tru-oil is more of a varnish than an oil, it certainly looks a lot darker out the bottle but you put so little on I'd say once dried it gives less of a darkening effect than Danish oil, even when built up into 6 or 8 thin layers. The tin of danish I currently have is Colron, I know it differs from Watco and Rustins but could not tell you which is darker - each manufacturer seems to have their own proprietory blend. Tru-oil is more viscous and will seal the surface pores better in my opinion. Maybe this is why you need less as it may not penetrate to the same extent? Maybe this helps reduce the darkening.

Great to see you starting this project - there are some lovely pieces of wood there for you to play with. Good luck int he build, look forward to seeing this come together.

Hmmm, less truss rod tension will give you higher action in the middle of the neck. I would try the opposite, to be honest. Add a little quarter turn tighter, then raise the bridge saddle height so the strings clear the high frets (when i say high I mean up about fret 15 to 21/22) and stop buzzing. You should be able to balance out the action evenly along the whole neck by getting the bridge height and the truss rod tension just right if you are sure all the frets are perfectly levelled.

Nice work on the fingerboard, that's looking sweet!

An inset top means we can cut a much thinner slice of wood... thereby charging you the maximum amount of money for our minimal expense, and no significant improvements in tonal quality. Mind you, if people are prepared to pay the extra for a fancy top then it's them that set the market prices.

You are right Daniel, but then you set the bar pretty high with the beautiful instruments you turn out!

Looking thru a recent guitar mag I see the new taylor solid body electrics go thru a rapid price hike once they get into the custom special end with a fancy wood cap on. But does that make them better guitars for the money? You are talking about adding an extra $900 or so, nearly doubling the price of the plain old solid mahogany 'entry-level' version. In terms of tone, isn't it generally better to stick to a single solid piece? These are pretty thin body guitars, nonoe of your inch and three quarters nine and a half pounds of timber here. Are you really just paying (a lot) extra for the looks or is there really a good tonal quality to be gained here?

Not much progress today. Side dots added to fingerboard and more Tru-oil to the back of the neck with a little buffing. Made a small truss rod cover from Prostheta's bloodwood. Very pleased with the slim neck profile this came out at, feels very comfortable while still having a bit of mass to it.

Please elaborate on the "looks smarter" part.... Agree 2" thick is quite bulky. I've had bodies that I rouonded over and it really made them look right, I've had other that I regretted rounding over as the sharp defining lines were lost and it all looked a bit too 'softened', it's purely personal taste about what shapes look better, and it is after all, your creation. It's a great looking top, I preferred the sharp edges to the body curves and maybe would have thought about shaving 1/4" off the back to bring the bulk down. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Now I am impressed, he owns the StewMac website. If you made the neck and fretboard yourself then you have made a very good, tidy job of it, especially if it's your first you should be really proud and very keen to show it off to everyone and post in-progress pics. As such, your post started off with a rather crudely cut strange lozenze shape wood body which is undoubtably 'unique' and all credit to you for creating such a marvellous unique body shape. Personally I think it's ugly, uninspired and will be uncomfortable to play. However the excellent work you have done on the fine strat copy neck leads me to believe you've got yourself into a hole and trying to lie yourself out of it. Haing preached the virtues of 'unique design' so strongly, why would you bother to go to all the effort of making a strat-copy neck? Zero cred, sorry, it's difficult for kids to lie convincingly to cynical adults. Good on you for having a go at putting together your own guitar - hope you keep it up and don't feel the need to have to lie in the future.

Lovely! What did you use for the black veneer accent? I know's still WIP but I have to say it looks smarter before the roundover. Maybe it needs a good sanding out.