Jabba_the_gut

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1489490602' post='3257321'] Excellent to see another one of you builds, Jez Great concept and I just love that shape. In elepsed time, how long so far to the stage you've got to? It looks fast work to me [/quote] Cheers Andy. It has been pretty fast so far - I've faffed around a lot less with the design this time!! I've also had practice on previous builds making templates so that has been much quicker this time too. I'm not sure how long but I'd guess I've probably spent a day actually building so far. I'll try to keep a track of material costs as well for this one out of interest. Won't be a true cost as such as I'm using some off cuts I already have but here's an approximation so far: Sapele wood for body £20 Truss rod £10 Tuners £6 Bridge £7 Neck wood £0 (offcuts) Central block on body £0 (rejected from another project) Fretboard £0 (recycled) Spalted beech £0 (offcut - I paid £15 for the piece this came from which also made the top in the previous post) Wenge veneer £4 (cut from a larger piece bought for £16) EMG pickup £5 (from bargain bin in local guitar shop) Nut £4 Still need a few bits of hardware like pots, strap buttons and fret wire. Haven't decided on the finish for this yet.

The spalted beech was just a left over bit from where I cut another top which was wider than I needed. This is the other top waiting to be used on another build later..... The black arc is just a mark from the saw - will soon sand out.

Then roughly cut to shape... And that's where it's up to so far!

And glued and clamped again...

One thing I didn't have was anything to use for a body. I bought some sapele from a local hardware store - cost £20 but has quite a straight grain and is quarter sawn. There was an offcut that will be long enough for another neck....... I've used a piece of wenge veneer between the spalted beech and sapele just to provide a little contrast. All glued together and clamped.

The neck has been cut to basic shape...

I've got some black tuners and individual saddles - they're only cheap ones from China I bought off eBay a while back. I also bought a pickup from the bargain bin of a local guitar shop. It's an EMG 45CS, a little bit scratched on the face but works fine - can't got wrong for £5!!! I like EMG pickups because they are silent, though they're not to everyone's taste. I made neck and body templates from 6 and 8mm MDF. I'd like to have a bit of an angle on the bridge to match the neck join but will probably have to adjust this to get the saddles in the right place for intonation.

I've done a bit of scribbling and settled on a shape for the body and neck.

I've cut the spalted beech into four strips, each about 5mm thick with the aim of joining them to make a top. I'll put these either side of the sycamore block left over from a previous idea. There are a few places where the spalted beech is a little thinner (because I used a normal handsaw to cut them and it didn't go entirely to plan...) so this an the length of the central block will start to dictate the shape of the body.

Neck sandwich clamped..

The StewMac website has a useful tool for calculating fret positions for a given scale length. The neck for this build is just a little short but I've settled for a scale length of 29 1/2". I'm hoping that this minor adjustment in length won't affect tuning too much. I've measured and marked up and cut the slots (using a jig I bought off here a while back).

I've cut a strip of the desk and thicknessed it - it's got quite a nice grain to it as it turns out.

And this is the bit of old desk to be used for a fretboard.

The spalted beech is only about 4 1/2" wide and 1 1/2" thick is the offcut from a top I cut recently - not wide enough for the 'wings' ok be cut into strips.

I keep hoarding bits of wood, like offcuts from previous necks, that I think will be useful one day. A while ago I glued a few strips together to see if this might be possible. The blank was shorter than a normal bass neck so I thought about making a guitar. Having left this for a while and having seen the error of my ways, I've decided to make a cheap short scale bass. Here's the build so far... I started this with pretty much no plan as a 'we'll see what happens as it goes along', my starting point is the neck blank I've made a set of D'Arrario XL155 strings that I picked up from here a year or so back. The strings are designed for a 6 string 30" scale Jerry Jones guitar but I'm going to just use four of them for a short scale bass. I'm aiming to have this as standard tuning but that might change depending on how it goes. I'm also aiming for this to be reasonably cheap. I'll have to buy a few things but I'd like to keep that to a minimum. Here's the starting point - offcuts from a couple of previous necks laminated to (just) make up the required width. I've got some bits of hardwood from the edge of an old desk, a narrow offcut of spalted beech and a bit of sycamore I'm going to use. The sycamore was made up to be the central block of another bass but it wasn't good enough for that project but will be ideal for this one.

Probably a bit late but I have two tickets for tomorrow that I won in a competition but I can't go. Tickets say not for resale but I presume that I'm okay to give them away for free. Drop me a message if interested. Cheers

I'm liking this project! I really like the re-use of wood and what you are doing with this.

Sounds good. I'll aim to come with some home built basses from the 'Build Diaries'. Cheers

The dark side of the board is the longest side and would be the top edge (with dots) making it right handed as far as I can tell. Nice piece of wood for the board!

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1486575734' post='3232960'] Jez, you are not helping my GAS. I'm SO pleased this isn't a 5 and it's not for sale. Hey! There IS hope for Mick! I actually agree with you, Mick! [/quote] I was tempted to leave the plate alone, but I like shiny things so off to be plated it went!! I'll be at the Herts bash again this year so will bring it along. I haven't done anything else with it this week except play it. I really like the sound, it's completely different to my other basses. I'll try to sort a sound clip of my poor fretless playing just to give some idea of what it is like. I wanted to try a fretless piezo bass as I'm planning on building another but this time chambered and made from some nice maple/walnut I have. I'm also looking at another recycled/scrap build of a short scale (not sure how short yet..) bass. Last year I glued together the offcuts from the wood I was using for another bass neck and should be good to make something up to about a 30" scale. I also got some short scale strings off here a long time ago - so should finally get to use them!! But I need to finish this build first and also the sycamore/wenge build I still have going on.......

It's also quite lightweight - when finished it will be about 3kg / 6 1/2lbs.

I've still got a fair bit to do, but I feel like it is getting there now! I'm going to fit a scratch plate and control plate the same as the ones I made for the PJ bass; the control plate is packaged up ready to be sent off for chrome plating. I've also set the neck angle today as the action was too high as it was, and I've moved the bridge slightly to make it align exactly where I wanted it. It was only a couple of mm out but it was annoying me! I did assemble the bass a couple of days ago, stuck a set of round wounds on it and plugged it in through a bog standard, cheapy onboard guitar preamp. I really liked how it sounded. The bad news is that I know this project is going to cost me for a decent preamp, such as a Fishman or Headway, but that will be used for my next project also (got to get this one finished first..!!) I've put it all back together this evening and fitted the Tru Bass strings. String height is looking pretty good, needs a little adjustment but not much, and the bridge is more pleasing to my eye now. Was quite a bit of hassle to move due to the inserts I'd fitted to bolt it into. they needed to come out, be filled and some new ones fitted in the correct place. But that's done now. I've plugged it in again and had a quick go - first impressions with the new strings and set-up is quite pleasing. All the major build work is done so will get on with the finish over the next couple of weeks.

Kind of been a while since I did much to this one but finally got the time today!! As a bit of a recap, I made two bodies from the from door. The first I turned into a PJ bass, which I really like the sound of and has been to a couple of bass bashes with me. The second body I want to use to make a fretless, piezo pickup'd bass with the neck being build from the old shelf. I recently bought a used set of LaBella nylons which I've had on another bass for a few weeks now. I really like these! So for this bass, I have an unused set of Rotosound Tru Bass strings that I bought from a Manchester bass days a few years back that I'll use. I did a bit of work on it at Christmas (carving the neck profile and starting to fill/sand the body) but I've either been busy or the garage has been too cold since....... One other thing I have done to this is to make a new bridge. This has come about partly to gain a bit of extra length so the string silk and taper is in the right place for the machine head, but also because this time I've used some ebony for the bridge. This matches the fretboard so looks better than the previous one. I'd also managed to damage the veneer on the head stock so have fitted a new piece. The back of the back has been shaped to suit the neck - I'm quite please with how the shelf has turned out for the neck!!

Good advice from both JPJ and Norris!! You can never measure enough times.... Looks like it should be a nice build. There's a Bartolini p bass pup in the for sale section if that's the sort of thing you're looking for. Cheers