Hazza590

A high gloss oil probably

On 15/02/2018 at 09:54, Pea Turgh said:

Was it a special order? I couldn’t see a bass jaguar body there.

I decided to go for a walnut pj body and ditch the whole jaguar idea as all the parts for a jaguar were far more expensive than a normal pj bass

There’s a great website that sell custom bass guitar bodies for not a lot of money called guitarbuild.co.uk I’ve just ordered a body and it should be here in a couple of weeks

The pickups have arrived 

Does anyone have a jag that they could draw around so I have a template for the body

I’ve just bought a second hand maple neck with tuners, string tree and neck plate included

14 minutes ago, Grangur said:

I have 2 chrome knobs.  They're push on ones. I know they fit the small pots I have here. 

"Bent Bit of Tin" Chrome bridge. Its in virtually "as new" condition. I'm happy to put them in the post to you. Don't post your address here. If you want them, PM me.

Thanks that sounds great I’ll pm you the details 

9 hours ago, Grangur said:

I was just thinking I and some others might have some bits hanging about we can contribute. I've probably got knobs and might have a bridge.

What I do have is all the tools for leveling and crowning the frets. I'm down the road in Bishops Stortford. So if you and Dad fancy a drive over, when the time's right, I can help you out with a go with my tools. That will save you needing to buy them.

Thanks I’ll probably do that @Grangur what colour what colour do you reckon the bridge and knobs would be?

1 hour ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

Here's a few pictures of a neck template I made:

First, I used a couple of straight strips of wood running tight down the side of the neck. These could be checked against the centre line of the bass. These bits of wood are typically about 6mm thick then pinned to the mdf with panel pins

A second row of wood was added but just to keep the router bass level when cutting the pocket in the template.

Another piece of wood pinned in place to mark the end of the pocket (and a second short piece again to keep the router level)

Then use the router with a bit like this one below to cut out the neck pocket from the template.

This will give you a template a bit like this for cutting the actual pocket on the bass.

 

Hope this makes sense! If not, drop me a message and I'll explain further.

Cheers

 

 

Thanks alot 

46 minutes ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

And welcome HazzasDad!

You can buy templates from places like StewMac for pockets and pickups. You can find small differences in dimensions in different brands of pickups (in my experience mainly around P pickup mounting lugs) and always watch out with J pickups as there are two lengths (one for bridge and one for neck).

I've always made my own templates from MDF (6 or 9mm) for most things. MDF is pretty good for running the bearing on a router cutter against. I did take some pictures once of a making a neck pocket template - I'll dig them out and post them on here. Usual story is to make sure you have some scrap to practice on before you commit to the actual job!!

Out of interest, where are you located? You might find that one of us is local which might be useful.

Cheers

 

 

Bury st Edmunds in Suffolk

4 hours ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Making a solid body from scratch isn't particularly difficult - the first time I did a project like this, I asked around the local shops to find a cheap donor that was uneconomical to repair (got a full yamaha guitar with massive crack in the body but everything else present for £20) and then used the neck, pups and hardware, and made my own solid body from timber sourced from a local timber merchant.

The big question is what scale length  and nut width do you want?

At 34" there should be plenty of potential donor basses with the right shaped headstock and choice of P or J width available cheaply, at 30" your choices are a bit limited.

I’m going for a 34” scale and have got everything I need on the way so watch this space

Finish wise I’m thinking a light blue nitro finish like this Strat, any thoughts?

7 hours ago, paul_5 said:

What pickup configuration are you going for?

I’ve just bought an Emg GZR PJ pickup set and 2 sets of Ernie ball strings on eBay for £125

4 hours ago, paul_5 said:

What pickup configuration are you going for?

PJ

1 hour ago, Jimothey said:

You very brave to take on a scratch build at the age of 14 (I take my hat off to you!!)

I probably wouldn’t make the body out of ply as I had a ply bodied p bass and it was really heavy and the sustain wasn’t very good (but that’s just my opinion...) some of the seasoned luthiers on here have probably got more experience on the subject so hopefully they will give some advice 

As for a the neck some people have had some good luck with the necks on eBay but it depends how much you want to spend??

Check out the for sale part on this forum for pickups you might be able to pick yourself up a bargain

It might be an idea to consider starting off with a kit build ie a Jazz bass kit and reshape the body to the Jaguar shape and reconfigure the pickups and make a custom pickguard....... just a thought??

I’m looking to spend a maximum of around £350 and getting all the wood needed shouldn’t be a problem. Me and my dad have been doing various woodwork projects in the past so shaping it shouldn’t be a problem but thanks for the suggestion of the diy kit.

Thank you for the advice I’ll bear it all in mind

Hi I’m a 14 year old boy who’s just started learning to play bass and I’m building a jaguar bass from scratch, please track my progress. I’m trying to build a jaguar bass with a maple neck. I’m thinking of making this out of birch ply, any reasons not to? I’d like to put some Emg gzr p bass pickups in, is this a good idea? Has any body got any reasonably cheap maple necks or pickups that they’re willing to sell? Anything would be helpful as I’m building my bass out of my pocket money. I’ll be taking pictures along the way so please stick around. I’ve inserted an image of my template so you can see what shape I’m thinking of.  Looking for any help I can get.

Cheers, Harry.