Jabba_the_gut

If you are tight on space for a normal neck pocket you could extend the pocket all the way to the neck pickup. This would give you more to p!ay with in terms of the shaping of the neck body join and also make it an easier to cut/route. You then could shape the end of the fretboard in any way you like as it wouldn't be determining the size of the pocket. Hope this makes sense!!

If you're thinking bolt on, then mark on your drawing where the neck screws will go to make sure you have enough neck. On you're current design you would probably need to extend the neck down to the neck pickup. I'd also look at where the neck is; it might look better if the mid line of the neck was in line with the point where the two curves Mick has drawn intersect (if that makes sense!). Cheers Jez

Hope you enjoy building this - really like the shape. Look forward to seeing how this develops.

Sold P-zarn an EMG balance pot. Really nice guy to deal with and straightforward. Hope it does what you need. Cheers Jez

Cheers for the comments! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and is enjoying a break. I've had a few hours spare so I've got on with a couple of little jobs. First I thought I'd sort out the logo inlay for this. Decided to use an offcut of the fretboard: I cut this to shape and then put an ebony veneer edge around it to create a defined line around it. I drilled the holes for the machine heads and tried the logo for size. Next job is to fit the logo and start shaping the neck.

Once the glue on the neck was fully set, I trimmed the neck to the finished shape and checked it fitted the neck pocket. It fitted nice and snuggly first time - well chuffed!! Just for an idea of how this is going to look when finished, I put bits of hardware in place and it looks like this: Still got lots to do but pleased with the progress so far.

Fret slots cut and went for 24 frets again. I'll need to be careful installing the 24th fret so it doesn't chip any pieces of the fretboard out. I've routed the channel for the truss rod and fitted that whilst I still have a full width neck blank. The neck blank has been trimmed to a rough size so I can keep the offcuts to make a neck for a short scale bass (or even one of those funny high pitched plinky 6 string things that some folk seem to use...). As per usual, I've used everything to clamp this together.

Routed the tabs for the pickups. One more little job done. Pickups fit quite nicely.

Got lots more sanding to do but this is how the body looks at the moment. Next task was to mark out the position for the fret slots and cut them. I used StewMacs online fret position calculator for this; the bass has a scale of 800mm. The scale length was determined as the templates were created for a previous bass that was being strung with LaBella nylons and that was the maximum length available for that design so the silk wrappings were in the correct place.

I really like the look of both of these basses - stunning work. I like the contrast of the wenge and padauk so much I just went and bought some padauk for a future project!! Keep posting the progress. Cheers Jez

And the back marked out for a bit of carving too.

Cheers Norris. Really useful tools these.

I like that!

Started shaping.

Rough rounding of body done. Bit of shaping required then lots of sanding.....

Will do.

I have to say I'm starting to get into them too. I made a short scale bass with a neck using the offcuts from a long scale bass neck I was making. It was only short scale as that was how long the wood was but it turned out really well and is lovely to play. I also made a medium scale fretless bass using the same body and neck templates I'm using for this bass and that is also really nice to play. I will be using the offcuts from the neck on this bass to make another short scale - that'll be another project for next year!! I'm looking forward to seeing how this fretted bass turns out.

Control cover cavity now routed. String ferrule holes drilled and now ready for rounding the edges. This is the bit I like doing as it really transforms it from looking like a block of wood to looking like a bass body.

I've cut the pocket using this repaired template and it looks fine. Second template ready to go in the picture for the control cover cavity.

I used some more MDF to make a couple of templates for the control cavity and cover. I made a bit of a pigs ear of the cavity template and needed to build back up a section where I got a bit carried away with the router - doh!! It looks a bit untidy where layers of veneer have been added and sanded back but this is absolutely fine for a template.

Cheers. Hopefully it will look and sound nice when done. I have no idea what the Schaller pickup will be like so will have to wait a while to find that out!!

I used the template to trim around the shape and make everything look a bit neater!! Next task was to cut the pocket for the pickup. I've previously made a template for the main body of the pickup and it worked well last time. There does seem to be a fair bit of difference when it comes to the size of the mounting lugs so I'll make another template that will suit this particular pickup and add that to the template library. With the pickup routed, the hole drilled for the wires can now be seen (and has ended up in the right place thankfully!). Next task is to route the control cavity and check that the hole made it all the way to that. I don't have suitable templates for this so they need to be made first. Two templates are required; one for the actual cavity with space for the cover screws, and one for the actual cover shape.

Hi Mick. This bass will be the same shape as this spalted beech one but will be a little heavier!! The two pieces of ash weighed about 5.7kg but should drop by a couple of kg when the body shape is cut. With the body halves joined, I checked them front and back and they needed just a little sanding to make them completely flat. With that complete the body shape was rough cut.

Done also. Cheers

This is one option I'm considering but can't decide if it looks 'cheap'. The two edges of the body were planed and a hole drilled for where I want the pickup cable to run - sometimes it is easier to do that at this point rather than trying to use a long drill later on in the build (just have to record where the hole is so cavities can be routed in the right place later!!). I then joined the two halves using three clamps to hold the body together and two g-clamps to keep it aligned. Even at this point, I'm quite pleased with how this ash looks. The piece I bought from the tree surgeon is plenty big enough to make another body from and, if anything, the piece I have left is a bit nicer than this. This piece has some kind of 'feature' in it but that will be well out of the way when the body shape is cut.