budget bassist

Haha, it looked fine in solidworks, realised I had over-done it a bit though once I had it fitted! No matter though, took all of 30 seconds on the laser cutter, I can just do another

This has been a while coming, it's not 100% finished - electronics need work, and I'd like to have matching hardware at some point, when funds allow! I also need to make my own neck, that's getting there, I need to start machining it though. Maybe in a week or two. I have the thing built with the OLP neck anyway, and it plays pretty nice, though it could do with a proper set up.

That's what I'm doing - that's the first coat of an oil finish in the photo.

I've been messing about with finishes for the last couple of weeks, hence the radio silence. I couldn't get the stains to work right, the ash was just really porous and wouldn't soak it up, even with grain filler on there, so I gave up for now. I'll be experimenting with it some more though for sure, I'd like to get a decent stained finish done at some point. So here's where I am now, filled the grain with black filler, to make it 'pop', as you can see, and then just put a coat of tung oil on there. I think it looks awesome! I'll probably put a few more coats of oil on and call it done. There are some light marks though that I couldn't see before the oil went on, so I'm tempted to sand it back and get it perfect, even though they'll be mostly obscured... I'll decide tomorrow.

Welcome! I can also call Nottingham my hometown, though I moved away a while ago. I do miss the music scene a bit.

Ooooh that's loverly.

[quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1412721903' post='2571472'] More eyecandy is better no? [/quote] That middle one looks very cool with the pickguard

I also stripped the neck and refinished with a single coat of tung oil - it's come out really nice. A sort of soft matte finish, nicer than the poly satin finish that was on there before.Looks a bit more natural. [attachment=172907:IMG_4395.jpg] [attachment=172908:IMG_4396.jpg] I also drilled the hole for the side-mount jack and countersunk it, though I won't post photos as it's not hugely interesting. I'm just waiting for the black dye to turn up now so I can get on with finishing it. I also have some maple on order for the neck.

I'm thinking of offering 3D CAD files for sale, for personal use, so that other people can do what I've done, without having to learn the CAD skills to design the body. Either bog standard templates, or I could produce custom ones for a little more. Likely to be in the region of a few tens of pounds. Would anyone be interested? I've been working on a few designs - the ones that can be seen earlier in the thread, a Jazz body, an explorer style body, and a Precision body (still need to get the exact dimensions for control cavities etc.) [attachment=172899:jazz body.jpg] [attachment=172900:explorer2.jpg]

Spent the day trying to sort out the neck, design a headstock etc. Let me know what you think. I'll have to remember to get some better quality screenshots tomorrow in the office. [attachment=172546:IMG_1049.jpg] [attachment=172547:IMG_1050.jpg]

It'll be in two pieces, fretboard and the main part of the neck I think, though I'm a little unsure as to the process I'll use when I'm routing it. I'm thinking I'll route the neck and fretboard separately and then glue them together afterwards. I thought about the skunk strip approach, but I'd like to be able to use a variety of different woods for this eventually, which obviously that doesn't lend itself to.

Go the front and back of the body sanded down to 320 grit today with the orbital sande,r and sanded the neck down to 220. Going to get some more sand paper so I can do the neck and sides of the body down to 320ish and then it should be ready for staining. Dye still not turned up... Though I did only order on Sunday. I also started work designing a neck in Solidworks. It still needs work, as you can see. [attachment=172465:IMG_1034.jpg] [attachment=172466:IMG_1035.jpg] [attachment=172467:IMG_1036.jpg]

Stuck the bass together today to get an idea of how it sits with it strung up, neck might need a shim, getting a bit of fret buzz. Seems good though. I think I'm about done sanding, so can probably start to dye it, whenever that turns up.

Quick update on this, I think I'm done on the rough sanding and have taken it up to 180 grit today. Going to do 240 grit tomorrow and hopefully that should be it ready for the dye, whenever that turns up.

This I can do. I'll drop you a message shortly.

As an aside, I'm thinking of making some money out of this. Would anybody be interested in purchasing the files for a bass/guitar body of this type (or something else) so that you might go cnc it yourself at a local fablab? Also, would any of you be interested in buying a body? Potentially custom designed, or as part of a pre-designed range? Available finished or unfinished (I still need to work on the finishes, and eventually necks hopefully.) Prices should be reasonable, as I'll be using cnc. If anybody is seriously interested in commissioning some work, please contact me!