benh

27 minutes ago, Smanth said:

V.Nice! Perhaps the stain or not choice will be guided by the wood when it arrives?

S’manth x

Thanks! Yeah that's the idea. Will try a few test pieces.

Placeholder for now, but wood is on it's way along with hardware and other bits and bobs! Design is finished. Wanted a tip of the cap to a jazz, but a bit different.

Specs will be:

34" scale 5 string

Poplar body with flamed maple top

Maple neck with carbon rods, with goncalo alves fretboard

EMG 40TW bridge pickup and EMG 40P5 neck pickup

Passive tone

Excited for this one! Not decided on whether to stain or leave natural, or finish yet. 

More to come!

15 hours ago, tauzero said:

Looks really good. Headless is so much better than headed.

 

On the practical side, can you stand it up without the tuners touching the floor?

This is actually the first headless I've ever owned (and built) but I think I'm a convert to be honest. And yes, it does stand up without touching the tuners, so long as the straplock is clipped on

That is some fine looking wood!

Looking forward to seeing this progress - fingers crossed your back situation improves!

Another to add to the medium scale collection 🙂

39 minutes ago, Andre_Passini said:

Wow, this is an awesome bass!

Thanks Andre - the bridge is awesome. So easy to use

Complete! Very happy with the results. Not perfect, but certainly better than my last build.

Forgot to take pics of the boring bit. Sanding, pore filling with Z Poxy, more sanding, sealing, spraying, wet sanding... Over with now! Buffed with Meguiars ultimate compound, I think it's come out alright!

Schoolboy error. Glued the body wings on before carving the neck. Ah well, onwards!

Small update. Fretboard glued in place (remembered the truss rod, just in time), fretted, tidied up the body shape (and routed for the pickup). Lots and lots of sanding to go, as well as hardware to fit and electronics to sort, but getting there!

Another option could be to wait for the tung oil to fully cure, then do a couple of wash coats of shellac (dewaxed) before priming and colour coating as normal. The shellac should act as a barrier and stop any adverse reaction.

Fret slots cut, started on the brass fret markers

20 hours ago, JGTay said:

Couple of updates. Yesterday (before the football! ) I decided to get on with the fretboard radius so that I could see how the fret position markers looked, they didn't really work as I had hoped, they were kind of camouflaged against the grain of the fretboard unless you were directly in front of them. Good decision to do the radius before working on getting the sides levelled off, I have moved on to the second fret marker option of using aluminium sheet.

 

This morning I measured up and found the best saw with the closest kerf to the sheet, did a test piece first, which worked really well and then set to work marking out then re-cutting the edge slots. Once they were all cut I then did the aluminium pieces to shape, flattened them out and then glued them in the slots. Once the glue had dried it was just a matter of levelling off the aluminium with the top and edge of the fretboard using a file and a quick sand and clean.

 

Still need to level off both edges of the fretboard.

 

 

 

Need to go over the radius again and take it up through the grades, but very pleased with how well the aluminium is looking.  

Looking great - I'm planning on a similar fret marker solution in brass!

Some more slow progress.

Already looks stunning, and only going to get better under finish 😍

Good lord. Inspiring craftsmanship as always from ACG! Congrats

Could try Minerva https://minervahearing.co.uk/ - we use them at work for custom hearing protection, always get decent service

Neck blank glued and planed

Love it!

Some lovely basses above by the way - gonna have to delete those before I finish so mine doesn't look so naff 😂

21 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Can I ask what sort of money your build cost ? I’m honestly curious 

 

lovely work btw 

No worries - I'd estimate about £100-£120 for timber, £100 for the preamp and  £120 for the pickup. Around £20 for the fretwire. £10 for Warwick just a nut. Pots, wire, control knobs, truss rod etc I already had so not sure.

Just a small update. Cut and planed all wood to thickness, currently in the process of gluing the blanks up. Sneaky shot of the zebrano fretboard!

Ordered a Delano pickup through BD last month, told it'd take 3 weeks, was on my doorstep in 2. Happy with that. Super helpful and responsive to emails beforehand too.

A thing of beauty! Congratulations.