Jabba_the_gut

Turned my attention to sorting the electrics. I decided to remove the copper film and re-do the cavity with conductive paint. First I stripped the cavity back to bare wood then used masking tape to cover the side walls where the cover will go With plenty of masking tape around the body to prevent any little splashes, I painted a couple of coats in the cavity: I have also been looking at the original cover I made. I found some veneer that I think is a much better match. The old cover: The veneer for the new: And the two pieces side by side for contrast. I've also glued a couple of blocks together from which to make some wooden knobs. Not sure which will look better so will plan on making two sets to see: And finally, I've started getting the actual wiring sorted. I'm following the same layout I used in the previous bass as that seemed to work well:

The fitting of the j pickup isn't the tidiest, or the additional knob position. Shame as the rest of it looks nice.

Not much chance to progress as much as I hoped over the past couple of weeks but this week should be better! I need to get the neck sanding finished and get on with the frets.....

Things have been a bit slow for the last couple of weeks, including my planer/thicknesser playing up! Hopefully, I'll make some progress m=next weekend!

I particularly like the line: 1.I am an honest and reliable seller, please trust me !

Now gone to a new home. Cheers

This particular piece cam from an event called Treefest that used to run at Westonbirt arboretum. There was a guy there selling lots of different boards of beech, walnut, ash etc. at very reasonable prices (probably a good job I was constrained by the size of my car!). Unfortunately, that event has finished now. A possible source worth looking into are tree surgeons. I found a chap local to me selling boards from trees he'd felled. I bought a nice board of ash from him, the only downside is needing to leave it to dry for a few years. A good source but only if you are not in a rush for a few years..... You can always get boards from specialist suppliers such as Exotic Hardwoods, David Dyke, Tonetech. Generally nice timber, fully dried but not cheap. Possibly worth looking to see if you have any sawmills nearby. I found a couple within 40 miles of home and bought a very nice wide rippled sycamore board big enough for three full size bass bodies. Apart from that, eBay is the other place. I've mostly has a good experience of the timber bought off there. There are a few reasonable sellers, The Sherwin Group, Feel Good Wood are the ones that spring to mind and have some interesting stuff. Hope that helps!!

I think this would be very dependent on the actual piece of timber. I've had a few pieces of spalted beech where parts of it, generally the light coloured areas, are very crumbly so I won't use them. This particular piece is solid, with no signs of soft areas at all so shouldn't be any issue with strength (famous last words.....!!)

Done just a little more on this. I've trimmed the body to the template so it is ready to have the neck pocket and control cavities cut. I've found a bridge that I think will look nice on this and follow on from the headless version; this bridge will require the body routing for it to mount correctly. That should be here in a couple of days so I can size it up and make a template for it.

Hi. Both slots (the short allen key one and the truss rod channel have both been cut with a flat bottom. I have got a couple of round router cutters that I will try on the next neck - might look just a little tidier on the adjustment channel. I'll post on here how it goes (good or bad!!0 cheers

And more shaping - the heel end this time. Takes a bit more time to do this as I'm blending the curves into an existing, finished body so I don't want to scratch the lacquer. Lots of sand a bit, check the fit. Sand a bit, check the fit etc. A little more to do but nearly there!

I've also got a 5 string Crafter acoustic bass that could do with a new truss rod - might do that as well!!

Manage to get a bit of time to do some more neck shaping. Starting to take shape now. The wood looks like it will have a really nice grain - it's birds eye maple but also has a nice flame to it. Hopefully that will come out nicely when the finish is applied - we'll see!

Hi Andy, Yep. I clear the entire area for the inlay and use an offcut of the neck wood in the middle of the logo. I try to find a bit of wood that lines up with the surrounding grain (even though no one would really notice!!). Cheers

Nice work! I've got a Patrick Eggle Milan IV I was going to scrap as the neck has a twist and a bump in it. Might just try removing the fretboard for practice now!! Never know, might even be able to do something with it rather than toast marsh mallows.....

The neck for this bass will need the truss rod at the head end which I have only done once before and that was a few years ago. As I don't want to ruin a nice piece of wood I'm trying this out on some Sapele offcuts to see how it goes. The Sapele wasn't wide enough so I have joined two pieces - looks quite nice how the grain has aligned. I've routed the truss rod slot and access for the allen key to adjust. I'm also making another headless neck at the same time to try on one of the mini basses. This will be fretless this time just to see if it works!!

I've used my Dremel to route the headstock for the logo - always a time consuming process!! I've glued the logo in and sanded it flat. I've also completed rounding the area on the front between the nut and the headstock. I'm also doing the neck shaping at the moment using my Shinto saw rasp - lovely bit of kit.

For me, I’d use a Forstner bit to remove the bulk of the cavities then use a router to tidy it up. I also spend quite a bit of time making templates for the cavities and the body itself to get accurate shapes with the router. Looking nice so far!

This is what someone has said to me before! You'll see from posts in my build diaries that I'm not the best at determining what can be charged for a handmade bass (I don't know what to ask for one, so I don't and I have lots of basses at home)!! I have only parted with a couple of basses.... But a lot of this is back to the old chestnut that it is worth what someone will pay for it regardless of how nice the woods, components etc. are. There are quite a few people out there that will pay £1000 - £1500 or more for a bass be it custom or off the shelf so there is a market, it is a question of finding out where you fit in. I also think that not many folk work out just how quickly the component costs can mount up when you are buying things as a one-off; just plucking figures from thin air but say £90 for a bridge, £75 for some tuners, £150 for a pair of pickups, £100 for a preamp, nut/strap buttons/knobs another £40 - that's over £450 before any wood has been bought! Even a basic body blank would easily be £60, basic neck blank £50, fretboard £40. Want a nice top and a better body wood then add another £200 say.....that's around £800 of parts. Admittedly, not everyone would want all of these but it shows how quickly costs can go up. And you haven't cut or shaped anything at this point, let alone applied a finish. It also comes down to if you are making a one-off for some one or a small batch. Someone may be willing to pay more for something that is unique to them rather than you making a bass then trying to sell it. I think people are also aware that they may spend a lot on a custom bass for them but if GAS strikes, the used value may be considerably lower. Then there is the reason you are doing this; are you wanting to make a living from it, subsidise another income or just doing for the enjoyment of building and selling to cover costs? These are the same questions I ask myself!! Not a particularly helpful response I know (sorry!) - just my thoughts. I think you just have to try and see what happens. All the best Jez

Often the piezo has four elements that sit beIow the saddle. It will be worth checking that the bottom of the saddle is properly flat and when it was put back in that it isn't snagging on the edge of the slot or any crud has got in underneath that prevents it from sitting flat. This is what quite a few piezo elements look like - your saddle probably isn't sitting properly flat on a couple of these hence the poor sound from two strings.

I've been getting on with some shaping and other bits and bobs on this neck. First the neck was marked up to give the rough shape (and so I don't get carried away and remove wood from the wrong place....it has happened...got carried away once and cut the channel for a truss rod on the wrong side of a blank so ended up having to make an upside down neck!) I've also fitted the side dots. Firstly need to find the middle point between the two frets then draw a line. I then use a drilling template to ensure that all holes are in the same line on the fretboard: Once these are done, the plastic dot rods are inserted: Then cut flush: I've started the neck shaping and working out where the logo will go so this can then be routed out with a Dremel and inlayed.

I'm thinking the spalted beech one would look nice with an ebony board and a maple neck. Nice, plain colour combination. This is the kind of thing (longer neck from another bass but this is how long the bass will be).

Very nice indeed!

Thinking of turning one into a mini fretless jazz with stacked knobs..... Will probably keep this one simple with a light matt oil finish and no fancy top.

Ow, go on then......