Rexel Matador

Incidentally, I had just had a look at a video from Ben Crowe at Crimson Guitars (an absolute goldmine of luthiery advice) and he recommended planing the two halves of the top one at a time, instead of together, as I suggested above, the reason being that if you make a slight error vis a vis straightness, you're not doubling it up. Makes sense, I guess!

I know this is blasphemy to a lot of serious woodworkers, but I have been using the "scary sharp" method, ie progressive grades of sandpaper on a flat piece of glass (again, plenty of tutorials online) and it seems to work pretty well. I keep meaning to get around to buying some decent sharpening stones and putting some more effort into learning the technique, but it's working well enough for me at the moment.

You need a plane (ideally a long jointer plane, I think, but I used the one that you see in the picture because it's the only one I have) and a shooting board, which is a simple jig that holds the pieces in place, raised a little off the surface, so you can run the plane along on its side and shave the edges of both pieces at once. There are plenty of demonstrations of the shooting board technique on YouTube which can probably explain it better than I can. If the plain is sharp it should be pretty straightforward. Edit: I should add, as a caveat, that I am far from an expert. I am relatively new to this so you're only getting the benefit of my somewhat limited experience and what I have gleaned from watching many hours of guitar building videos online. If anyone else has any pertinent advice on this matter, feel free to jump in!

I'm questioning my memory now! I think the thin bit of the neck pocket broke when I was putting it in - so possibly my fault as much of anything. I remember it all being very awkward. The scratchplate definitely didn't fit.

I bought one of those Gear4Music bodies and I really think they should make it clearer they're not quite a standard P-Bass shape. I had a neck and scratchplate from a Squier Matt Freeman and neither fitted properly. I couldn't get the control area of the scratchplate to cover the cavity. Also, when I asked, they told me it was unfinished, and when it arrived, it had a thick glassy gloss finish on it!

Tonight, jointing the top and trying to learn how to wire a push pull pot I thought about adding a second pickup, but have now decided to experiment with a series/parallel switch instead. Onwards and upwards

Magnetized control cover. I did this in the last one too but it wasn't great. It was very nice to learn from my mistakes and have another go. It fits together perfectly this time 😀

I made a bitsa P bass with a cheap Pawlonia body. With a normal P-Bass neck and tuners it was far too neck heavy, but otherwise ok - sounded absolutely fine. With a shorter neck or lighter tuners it might be ok, but for me, something that light is not appropriate from a balance point of view.

Magnetized control cover. I did this in the last one too but it wasn't great. It was very nice to learn from my mistakes and have another go. It fits together perfectly this time 😀

I can't stand the Foo Fighters but it seemed apt. Apparently I'm addicted to building basses. I started this one while waiting for the finish to dry on the last one! It's semi hollow - maybe a little less than semi - I've left quite a lot of wood in place, it seems. It's 30" scale, and it's going to have a big MM style humbucker on it. I've also decided it's going to have flat wound strings on it, which wouldn't really be worth noting at this stage except that I read somewhere that through-body stringing is not ideal for flat strings, so I'm avoiding that this time. Basically it's everything I don't look for in a bass, just to see what happens. I'm excited! So far we have... A template A rough body - I'm waiting for a piece of maple to arrive for the top. It's going to have F -holes! And a scarf joint currently drying (the joint isn't as bad as it looks. That black line isn't a gap, it's just the shadow where one piece is hanging over a bit. It'll all be chopped off in the end anyway) I have a sort of slotted headstock type of thing in mind. Should be good if it works!

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it, definitely an improvement on my last one so I'm on the right track. I'm realising now that the good balance is at least partly due to the body being quite heavy - because of the abundance of maple, I guess. Not unbearable though.

And there you have it. The electronics aren't done yet because I lost the tone cap I was going to use, but other than that it's pretty much done. I cracked the scratchplate (again) but it's not that noticeable. I'll make (yet) another one when I can be bothered, but it's a minor quibble for now. The thing I'm happiest about is the balance. It sits perfectly - not a hint of neck dive!

Three to suggest the lightbulb would shine even better if it was hooked up to a KiogOn loom?

I didn't realise that picture was so blurry when I uploaded it on my phone. Poor focus hides a multitude of sins. I'll put some better pics up in due course. Even in these conditions you can see the apparently unsandable scorch mark on the edge of the headstock. Hopefully my next build will be free of such things.

Frets are on and the first coat of oil is drying

I love how subtly defensive this is - trying to appeal to the budding bass player's nagging inferiority complex 🤣

I've done it with a coping saw but you have to be careful as the material can crack and that's utterly soul destroying! Use a nice sharp blade and proceed with caution - it should be fine. In my (admittedly limited) experience, it is a fair bit easier with a jigsaw.

Just spent the entire evening making this barely visible scratchplate. Was going to give up after cracking the second attempt, but then I realised I'd already made a couple of the screw holes. I'm glad I persevered though, I think it adds something.

Shaping up...

Basic shaping is pretty much done. If anyone needs me, I'll probably be sanding

Well, it's been a while, but the wonky wonder is still under construction. Fretboard is on and I've started shaping the body.

I'm unconvinced re shielding paint. I tried it and it didn't seem to work as well as another one I did just using foil from the kitchen. Maybe I didn't use enough though.

And if I have a separate control cavity, unlike the picture above, should the shielding of that be connected by a wire to the shielding in the pickup cavity? I think this is the case, but I just wanted to check if I've understood correctly!

My question is whether the partial shielding actually has an effect, or is it not worth doing?

True - I was just giving context