Basvarken

Another addition to the Blue Bass family. The Brooks SparkleBird. The pics don't do the colour justice. In real life it is much more teal/turquoise. This pic comes close. But still misses the vibrance of the colour

Yes. That's where is got them. Not exactly cheap...

Yes, for a Cheap Trick tribute in the USA, called Cheap Trip. The customer now owns 7 Brooks 12-string bass guitars...😵

And made a demo video of course.

Did some pore filling. And stained the back and sides a mix of yellow and oak. To give it an aged Korina look. After lots of spraying and sanding layers of clear, I could apply the decals. The top was quite a bit of a challenge. Customer wanted a teal blue sparkle finish. The only proper way is to make it a candy finish. First a layer of coarse metallic flake silver. Then a layer of transparent mixed with silver particles. Then the cobalt blue transparant layer to achieve the teal/turquoise look And sealing it off with several layers of transparant. The matching headstock got the name decal Laser cut the pearloid pickguard Modified the Schaller Grand Tune octave tuners to save some room

Then I came up with a crazy idea. I had the big tone chamber on the lower horn. And I had the extra large controls cavity with some spare room for a little extra feature. Why not put a led light in the lower wing? I did a little test with a discarded pickguard... Let there be light. And there was light

Shaped the heel of the neck to fit the pocket Checked the neck joint angle Routed the pickup cavity Drilled the holes for the volume pot, kill switch and jack output Glued the neck in the pocket

Filled the gaps underneath the fret tangs with a mix of rosewood saw dust and wood glue And drilled the holes for the side position markers. Glued them in Et voila! Luminlay glow in the dark dots. Switched back to the body, to route the neck pocket.

Then shaped the neck profile. And headstock shape Drilled the tuner holes

After the special inlay was done, it was time to put the frets in Made the truss rod access slot plus cover Then prepared the neck to glue the fretboard on. Tacked in a staple. And cut it off 1 mm proud of the neck to leave two sharp pins. These help to prevent the fretboard from sliding in the wet glue. Then glued the fretboard on. Using the strips of inner bicycle tubes for clamping.

Customer plays in a Cheap Trick tribute band. And as you may know those guys have something with the checkerboard pattern. He asked me to make a checkerboard inlay on the 12-position. So I made a drawing of 5 x 5 mm blocks. And laser cut a white piece of acrylic and a black piece of acrylic. Then made a lay-out of the black and white blocks combined on a piece of sticky tape to keep them from flying away 😉 But realised that was not going to work to keep them tight against each other. So I made a little template with a rectangle that would keep them tight against each other. Cut out a "swimming pool" in the fretboard. With a knife and some chisels. Then glued them in. Using super glue onthe fretboard. And a piece of high tack (aluminium) tape to keep them together. When the glue had hardened I sanded it to flush to the fretboard in the desired radius (16") Pretty happy with the result

The switched back to the body again. Routed the outline along a template (sorry no pics) And then I realised I had routed the controls cavity wrong. So I made a new template and routed the corrected shape. Didn't even look half bad 😉 Rounded off the edges on the back. Routed the profile for the binding Glued in the pearloid binding. Used acetone instead of glue, because I knew I was going to stain the sides and back. (Stain does not work on glue remains) Glueing the binding always requires extra attention on the corners. I use strips of inner bicycle tubes to clamp them till they're dry Looking good so far

Switched to the neck next Routed the channel for the carbon reinforcement strip in the middle The routed the channel for the two truss rods. I let them taper to follow the taper of the neck itself Sawed the head stock angle. And planed it smooth. And sawed the back side of the headstock in the desired angle. Still needed to plane/sand that side to the right thickness too.

Bought a nice two-piece slab of White Limba (aka Korina) And routed the tone chambers Routed the controls cavity. And later realised it had the wrong shape for the lay-out of the controls that I had in mind for this bass... Sawed the f-hole in the matching two-piece top (White Limba/Korina) And then glued it on. You can never have enough clamps 😉

Drrrrrrum rolll! Here's the Brooks SparkleBird - Body: Korina. Chambered. Thunderbird shape - Neck: Korina three piece. Glued in. - Two spokewheel truss rods. One carbon stiffening rod - Fretboard: Rosewood. Checkerboard inlay on 12th - Luminlay side markers (blue) - Frets: Jumbo size. Sintoms. Nickel-silver - Scale: 34” - Top Nut: Buffalo horn - Bridge: ETS twelve string bridge set. Gold - Pickup: Gemini Dominator TB Pickup. Gold - Output: PureTone 1/4 inch Jack. Gold plated - Controls: Volume . Kill switch - Pickguard: Pearloid with blue led light - Binding: Pearloid - Bass string tuners: Gotoh Res-o-lite GB350. Gold - Octave tuners: Schaller Grand tune Gold. Pearloid buttons - Strings: d’Addario. 170-12 - Strapnuts: Large, Gold - Finish top: Cobalt Blue Candy - Finish back and sides: Stained. Finish clear transparent. - Weight: 4.6 KG Led light ON Led Light OFF I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

You're forgetting one very important aspect: A carbon rod is passive. A truss rod is an active part. If you dial a curve into a truss rod it compensates the tension of the neck much more than a carbon rod that just sits there.

I think that should be doable, if the neck pocket is wide enough for the string spacing of the ETS bridge.

Two carbon strips and just one truss rod would not be enough to withstand the string pull. You really need two truss rods and one carbon strip to compensate the enormous pull of the 12 strings.

Wow! The Black EXB-12-TP that I built for Tom Petersson is Bass Of The Week @ NoTreble! Check it out: https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2025/09/08/bass-of-the-week-tom-peterssons-custom-12-string-bass-from-brooks-bass-guitars/

And the question was ?

Normally when I'm working my day job, it takes between 2 and 3 months. Since I have to do the lutherie in the evenings and weekends. And my little tool shed is a limiting factor too. I can't saw and sand while I'm in the middle of the lacquer process. 😉

The actual build of this bass (together with one other bass) was done during my summer vacation of 4 weeks. But the finishing process (of endless building up and sanding) took another 4 weeks. So all in all 8 weeks. I have three more bass guitars planned to build this year. And I am working on the finish of the other bass that I built this summer. I hope to close that off in two weeks from now.

And of course I made the mandatory video demo of the newborn bass 😉 All kidding aside: With the Laballa Low Tension Flatwound Strings the bass sounds very round and even all across the board.

And after endless checking an fine tuning of the neck fit, I glued it in All of a sudden it looks like a bass... Fine tuned the pickup cavities I stained the top. Yellow first And red for the burst effect After many coats of clear and sanding in between, I applied the decals Shielded the controls cavity.

Routed the profile for the binding Glued the binding in. I seldom use glue. But I use acetone instead. This softens/dissolves the binding, so it adheres to the wood without leaving glue spill. This is essential because I use waterbased stain. And watyerbased stain does not work on glue... When the binding was done I routed the neck pocket Shaped the neck heel. Always checking the alignment. See the blue line on the purple tape. Routed the pickup cavities Drilled the holes for the potentiometers and switch And the output hole on the side of the body