Jabba_the_gut

I reduced the thickness of the top and applied a couple of braces to maintain the strength. I'm looking to use a leftover bridge from another project for the piezo. I've also started looking at the position of the jack socket and where the strings are going to come through. I drilled a hole for the volume/tone pot (thinking of stacked pot for this). I've also looked at the headstock and made it a little bit mor compact but sticking to the basic shape I've used for all my recent builds. I've also shaped a sound hole as such in the upper horn.

I cut a spare piece of the top into two slice and ran it through my drum sander (new bit of kit to me and I really like it!) to make two veneers for the front and back of the headstock when I get on to that. The drum sander is great - these are sanded to about 0.8mm. One difference with the Uke tuners compare to normal ones is that the headstock thickness cannot be more than 12mm thick as the winding drum is wider than the tuner hole so there is no room for movement. I usually make my headstocks 14-15mm thick so I'll have to bear that in mind when I get to that stage.

The back was marked up as to where the battery box would go and a small recess routed The back was then cut for the main part of the battery box There is no control cavity cover on this bass, I planning (and hoping....) that I can fit the pot, and preamp through the battery box hole once the top is glued on.

Once I had removed the bulk around the edge I used the router to tidy things up I then removed the remainder of the wood to leave one big hollow

I made a template that will be used for the final routing of the body cavity once all the excess wood has been removed My Forstner bits got some use removing the bulk of the wood

Body wood was cut into two pieces, the edges squared then glued and clamped. As was the top and a layer of wenge veneer in between The top is not glued on at this point, just in position to see how it looks.

The body for this is being made from some mahogany that I got in the form of the end of a church pew. It's been cut to size and thicknessed and looks quite nice. The top is maple (I think - I bought this a long time ago and can't remember what I was told!!) There's enough for the top and a piece left over to cut a couple of matching veneers for the headstock.

This build is completely @Owen's fault... A while back Owen gave me a set of tuners from a bass uke and the other week I thought it was time to turn them into something. I had a go on a rubber stringed Kala bass and kind of liked it so that's the plan. The plan is for a 21" scale, hollow bodied 4 string with a piezo pickup. I've already got some way with this (I took the body to the recent SW Bass Bash) so this build thread is catching up a bit. This is the scribble for the design with a couple of rough MDF templates

#7 Jez (Jabba_the_gut)

And the first one finished!

And it was great to meet you S’manth! See you next time

Thanks again to @scrumpymikefor organising this event. Always nice to catch up with folk again and meet some new ones too. Nice turnout and lots of really interesting basses and amps. See you next time!!

I’ve got an old Axl guitar amp I’ll stick in the raffle or give away. I was going to repurpose it as a guitar speaker cab but didn’t get round to it!! My Line 6 Studio 110 amp I’m bringing will be up for sale if anyone is interested. I’ve also got a Harley Benton Shorty for sale that I’ll bring along. Looking forward to it - see you all tomorrow.

Excellent news. All the best.

ELmO

Get well soon Mrs Wrinkley. All the best.

Just the truss rod cover to sort - all other jobs done!! Electrics all sorted - not the world's biggest cavity and no spare height to work with for the EMG push/pull pot but it fitted!! Here's a couple of pictures of it next to my MarkBass 801 - makes for a nice little mobile set-up!! I'll take some proper pictures when I've finished the truss rod cover. Cheers

I like that idea. Always interesting to hear these comparisons.

That would be my plan…..

I’ll be bringing the following: Semi hollow fretless bass 5 string mini bass Ibanez RB960 bass Markbass 801 Line 6 Studio 110 TC RS450 combo and some raffle stuff!!

Definitely. I have a Markbass 801 and a Line 6 Studio 110 that I can bring along for comparison if anybody wants to hear them.

And a little more done.... Before I start applying the final finish, I wanted to make sure everything fitted together properly so any adjustments could be made without creating more work! I've fitted threaded inserts for the pickup screws again - just something about them that I like but a minor detail. The strings for this bass are custom made by Newtone strings, this set is .105 to .025 so tuning E to C. I'm quite pleased how the tuner arrangement has worked out - the headstock isn't much bigger than the four string versions I've made before. I will use this headstock layout again on a longer scale 5 string at some point soon. I've played it acoustically and I'm really liking it! The pickup is and EMG 40TW so has a pull switch on the volume to split the coil and give a bit more variation to the sound for a single pickup bass. Next task is to fit the other hardware and electrics so I can finish the body. The neck then needs the frets dressing and I need to make a nut. No too far off so should be ready for the SW Bass Bash.

Just a quick update. LED issue sorted - won't make that mistake again!! Holes drilled for tuners, headstock edges rounded, neck sculpted and sanding sealer put on the neck and body. Next task is to make a truss rod cover and nut and to install the frets.