Jabba_the_gut

Here's the first pile of wood for the next one of these..... And the second pile of wood!

Not done that much on these (as I'm building four basses at the same time at the moment - two of these short things and two more semi hollow basses) but have glued on the burl and joined the two halves . On the basis that I'm quite slow at building anyway, this could take a while!! Think the top of this short thing should look quite nice when it is oiled. It needed quite a but of filling so some sanding dust and wood glue mix was used to fill the holes. This is what the layers look like from the side so these should look nice once the body edges have been rounded over. Next step is to cut this to shape and trip it with the router. After that, the various pockets can be routed.

I'll be interested to know what you think of the pickups - I was eyeing a pair of these for a project....

That has turned out beautifully!!

I like the Warwick bridges and have used a few on my builds. I made templates for routing both parts but have found slight differences in sizes between tail pieces (I do tend to be very tight with my templates and leave very little tolerance). I have a bass I built to have chrome hardware and changed my mind, so I bought some black hardware instead but the new tail piece wouldn't fit. It won't take much to fix but must give myself a bit more room next time!! Just thought I'd mention it as you are making a pair of basses.

Got to be honest, I really like the natural finish much more than the red!! Very nice project this.

Got plenty of my own dust, thanks anyway!! I've got about a third of my garage as a workshop and I know what you mean about wheeling things around to use them. Looking forward to seeing these builds progress. Cheers

Very jealous of your workshop!!

Cheers for the positive comments - very much appreciated! I'm planning two more of these in the near future. The first will be the same as this one but fretted, the second will be maple bodied with a walnut top and fretless. I'll stick build diaries up for these once I get started! Cheers again Jez

This maple topped one will have something similar to bubinga, the other will probably be ebony..

The top is quite thin - only about 4mm. I’ll try different radius cutters on the offcuts to see what looks best. Ive tried to do this top so the rougher sections will be removed when the bridge and pickup is fitted. Hope it works!

Absolutely! I’m supposed to be decorating the downstairs toilet but that seems to be taking longer than expected....

Here's the second one. This is going to have a sapele body, ash veneer, wenge veneer then a thin burl top Almost a shame to veneer over the ash as it has quite a nice grain.

Started cutting and gluing!! I'm going to try to make 2 or 3 of these to try a few different things. First off is a sapele body, wenge veneer and maple top. The maple should look quite good when oiled (I'm hoping!!) Glued up sandwiches.... To make running wires through the body easier, I drill holes before gluing the two halves together. I then insert a straw in the hole to prevent any glue clogging it up when the halves are joined. To ensure I don't drill too far into the body, I draw the rough direction of the hole then mark the length with masking tape on the drill. The side have then been joined Then the outline of the bass is rough cut ready for routing

And some more piccies in the garden sun! I replaced the original string retainer bar as I got a comment that the Hipshot one on the ash bass I made looked much better. I quite agree!

Will do. I'll try and post some tomorrow. Cheers for all the comments - much appreciated!!

Cheers Lee . I’m really pleased at how nice this sounded - I will be building another one!!

Thanks to @Si600 for organising this. Nice to meet up with everyone again and trying a few new bits of kit, in particular @Lee-Man's Precision and @prowla's Rik. Always good to see @Lee-Man playing my basses as I get to hear how nice they can sound in the hands of someone who really knows what they are doing!!I See you next year!!

For quiet, active EMGs are excellent and silent. I've used them with both EMG and East preamps and really liked both. The new EMG stuff is really easy to install as the have just got connectors; only down side is it the existing holes in the body for wiring are too small for the connectors then it is soldering time! Cheers

For me, I rarely use forstner bits. I generally cut pickup and neck pockets with a router using a normal cutter to remove the bulk then a template cutter for the finishing. When I made my semi hollow bass, I did use a forstner bit in a pillar drill to remove the bulk as it seemed easier and a pillar drill is less aggressive than a router!!!

Anymore people definitely coming to make it a bit louder?!! If so, please add to this thread. Cheers

Looking very nice! How are you planning on cutting the neck pocket?

I’ve made some modifications to the headstock clamp (and considered the experience Mottlefeeder) to something that feels like it should work!! I’ll make a test rig to try this before to see if this works prior to cutting the neck for this part. Then if I need to do something different, at least I won’t need to remake a neck. The headstock clamp looks like it is made out of some kind of alloy and is soft in comparison to steel so will need to be careful no to strip any threads....

Hi David, Cheers for the details. The headstock clamp was the next thing on my list to look at to see if it would work as I'd like or if another solution is required!! I anticipated that this may be awkward and require some modification so I bought a spare headstock part but your advise will save me trying some things out. Cheers

Absolutely! Want to make sure the neck has a nice, neat and tight fit before I cut anything. Same for the control cover, bridge etc..!!! Cheers