wesfinn

thanks steve and ebs so today I didn't manage to get much done apart from drum sand the fingerboards, I did go and pickup loads of wood though which includes swamp ash, alder, rock maple neck blanks, flame maple neck blanks, spalted maple and absolutely gorgeous old growth DARK indian rosewood for fingerboards! Also I have a new compressor and spray gun coming! Im waiting on some CNC cut templates made with correct dimensions to arrive. Once they are here I will route the pickups and cavity and neck pocket etc. tomorrow I shall do some more work on the neck and maybe make a start on a 59 P style and a 55 P style!

Well good!

looking good man!

Did a little bit more today... first up heres a shot of the neck where you can see the light flame! going to look gorgeous I reckon! After some comparisons with early 60's J images I decided to recut the belly contour and make it a bit deeper and also make the forearm more rounded as they were back then. looks a lot nicer now. I always find it good to go back to things like the next day as you see things in a different light which you might miss when youve been staring at the same piece of wood all day! got my harness together too with some sweet reproduction caps alongside switch craft jack and CTS dual concentric solid shaft pots. and heres some of the hardware (still awaiting the rest and the Pups). note the string mute set which will be going on this! I was going to relic this bass but I think it'll look much better as 'Factory Fresh' especially with the flame in the neck! Here I am drilling the strap button holes to specs. note the rear buttons were not drilled on the centre line! thats all for today. Hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend! Wes

And with regards to it being quick, if you plan what you are going to be doing properly everything should run pretty smoothly! this bass has had about 12 hours work in total so far!

[quote name='Sibob' post='793838' date='Apr 1 2010, 10:54 PM']Looking awesome mate, and quick too lol! Is this going to be the natural Jazz, or colour finish? Si[/quote] This will be the blonde one mate. Im getting the timber for the solid colours next week.

[quote name='BassBod' post='793649' date='Apr 1 2010, 07:21 PM']Your workshop looks very tidy..... Can't wait to see some spray-gun action![/quote] Haha. My Mum always made me tidy up after myself! I'm going to start making my spray booth soon. Thats also a reason I keep the shop tidy as when I do the spraying I want there to be as little dust as possible to avoid contamination. I'm getting an air filter soon which will take any dust out of the air. and I've got a pretty powerful vacuum/extracter for cleaning everywhere else!

next up I roughly cut out the neck on the bandsaw then check for straightness as the neck has been relieved of tension. I will let the neck settle for a few days and check to see if it needs to be flattened again. Heres a shot of the body and neck and fingerboard I have picked out for this build. I have decided to use a brazilian board after all More soon! Thanks Wes

heres an update on the build first job was to run the body round the pin router with the correct radius ovolo cutter. On the back making sure to stop at the correct points by the heel for an early 60's. Then its time to do the forearm and belly contours. I mark these out free hand as they were always slightly different. Also gives the bass a bit of character! Then to rough cut the forearm. The way the contours were cut in the olden days was on a large belt linisher, which i dont have. So I do mine with a rasp file by hand. Then the same for the belly contour. I then use my sander to level them off ready for the final sanding. Heres some shots with the contours nicely blended in. I think it looks quite nice Next I place the template onto the front of the body and drill the bridge holes and the neck holes.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='731325' date='Feb 1 2010, 08:09 AM']I've owned all 3 makes - Aguilar GS112s, Bergantino 112s, an Epifani UL310 and a 410. I'm currently using two Aggies - a GS112 and a 112NT and I love 'em to bits. I don't know if it's my imagination but since I got the Aguilar AG500 head, they've been astounding me with their tone ever since. The two Bergies I had were also fantastic cabs with better mids than the Aggies, great build quality etc. The Epifani UL410 was monstrous - a fantastic cab with a huge sound and ridiculously light too but I think the cab that gave me the most pleasure was the UL310 - it ticked all the boxes, light loud, small, punchy, articulate etc. Truth is, they're all good cabs - well made and they sound fantastic, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.[/quote] I'll second you on the Aggies with the AG500! I used to use a markbass little mark with them which I thought was great, then I got the AG500 due to needing the 2 channels. Since then the GS112's really have come into their own!

Bit of an update, I have ordered all the hardware , pickups etc for this build and also for the P bass, 62 J and 64 J and also for a 62 Tele****er Also I have just managed to source another 9 Brazilian rosewood boards which look superb! all are 50 years old + and very dark! I'll post some pictures when they arrive! Back to more building and picutres in the next few weeks i promise!

[quote name='Sibob' post='776463' date='Mar 16 2010, 05:22 PM']All these vintage Fender styles are getting me hot under the collar! You'll be building be a faded sonic blue '64 Jazz before I know it! :-D Si[/quote] That can be arranged Si

[quote name='umcoo' post='775693' date='Mar 15 2010, 09:07 PM']Bumping this...any more progress?[/quote] Thanks for the bump. I havn't had a chance to do any more to this bass as I have been busy fitting out the new workshop! I have designed the workshop to replicate early Pre-CBS building methods and have loads of new machinery/tooling on the way which will help me reproduce them as accurately as I can! The shop will be up and running by early april, and when it does I shall continue on this build as well as another early 60's Jazz bass with 3 knob control plate in faded 3TS (so it will look 2 tone), a 59 Slab board Precision in sea foam green with a matching headstock and a 60's P bass with veneer rosewood board in candy apple red. I will also be making 3 basses of my custom range which will hopefully be submitted for review and then available for sale and demo at GAK Brighton. stay tuned people!

I personally don't mind people playing on my basses. I wouldnt ever be able to tell if they had marked them anyway haha! I do like people to ask (unless its members from my band or friends) but for some people it may be the only chance they will get to play on a high end instrument.

Thanks Edward!

[quote name='BassBod' post='749742' date='Feb 18 2010, 02:33 PM']Congratulations...hope it isn't too expensive! I took my boys to visit our local luthier yesterday. It might be a converted pig-stye, but they loved it. Nothing like all those bits of wood and gadgets and the smell of wood fire, fresh tea and a hint of rosewood dust. Yum.[/quote] Thanks Duncan! Nope it' within my budget. Its small but adequate for my needs at the moment (and room for a kettle ) and theres the option to move into a bigger one if i need to at a later date! I get the keys on the 1st March! Can't wait.

Not a build update but an update none the less.. i have just found and secured my first workshop! This is very exciting for me as it means i can really start to concentrate on getting Steed Basses to where I want it to be. Its based in Henfield, West Sussex. Details to go on my website which goes live in a week or so. website address will be www.steedbasses.co.uk wes

As it was said earlier Mark is off at the moment, although he is still taking emails. I will be in saturdays - Wednesdays and can be reached by PM or email on [email protected] Apologies to anybody that has had a bad experience when ordering from our sister company website. Please give either Mark (mark_random) or myself an email or pm if you wish to order anything and we can personally deal with your enquiery. cheers Wes

Haha, yeah. It is a bit trickier that pressing them in! with the right tool though it's pretty straight forward!

So I got some Brazilian Rosewood through. this is perfectly quartersawn and straight grained and has been curing for 50 years! I may not use it on this build though as it's pretty spectacular. I have some very dark indian Rosewood and some Honduras Rosewood coming which may go on this particular bass. Also as Brazillian rosewood is no longer available in the current market I would prefer to keep any pre CITES brazilian boards for customers basses and not stock instruments. Heres some pix for you any way! my website is also now under construction so should hopefully up and running in the next few weeks! wes

HAHA ridiculous! love the way they tried to make you sound stupid. some people ay!

[quote name='Sibob' post='737244' date='Feb 6 2010, 02:39 PM']Look great, will follow this eagerly!! What do you think your price-point will be eventually? Oh and do you know if the different shades of ash will be as obvious once they're lacquered up? Si[/quote] hi Si, price point i am not sure of yet. Once I've built a couple I can work out total costs etc, labour. Need to source some more of the original materials too to try and make them as authenticly reproduced as possible. I hope they will be lower cost that say Nash and Bravewood. The first couple I will let go for less money obviously as they are more trial builds to establish the costs. with regards to the finish shade on this, the blondes from the late 50's to 62 didnt have too much grain showing throug, the edges were also opaque and sprayed with a 45 degree angle much like when applying a sunburst finish. I think it will look fine , if not I will do a black over the blonde and relic through so some of the blonde shows!

[quote name='RIM Basses' post='736730' date='Feb 5 2010, 10:16 PM']Real nice so far Wes![/quote] Thanks Robbie! It's been a while since i built anything, making me really want to seriously get back into it again! I love the jazz style bass you just finished! really cool take on the design! wes

the body blank has been in the clamps for a good few hours now and is ok to come out and be drum sanded to correct thickness. I then trace the template (note there are no joins in the centre of the bass, Fender did this so as not to draw attention to the joins) and then rough cut the outline on the bandsaw to the outside of the line. theres a slight colour mismatch with the wood gran but I'm hoping the blonde doesn't show this up...If it does it'll get a custom colour overcoat! Pin router template is attached to the rear or the body with the correctly positioned pin router holes. and then the horns are sanded as close as posible to the template to avoid any tear-outs on the pin router. and then flush trimmed on the pin router now this is what I have finished up with, ready for the edge rollover which will have to wait for a couple of weeks till I have some spare time! hope you are enjoying it so far! cheers Wes

So I've just got home to Brighton after a couple of busy and productive days in Essex working on the build! heres an account of the last 2 days... Day one was pretty much spent making the body template...but this is what it looks like. all the holes in the right places etc... I also had a look at the swamp ash I will be using for the body.. unfortunately at the moment Mike and myself are finding it hard to source some decent ash so I had the choice of a couple of bits that Mike had available. It's not the best swamp ash in the world (lots of knots/shakes etc) so I ended up making a 3 piece body with what I could find. Weight is OK, not light, but not heavy (about how I like my personel passes). For the purpous of this build it will be fine as It's probably going to be one I keep. heres the ash in rough cut form and heres the body blank in the clamps after thicknessing/drumsanding/squaring also managed to find a nice bit of hard rock maple, It had the lowest frequency in the tap test, should work nice with the swamp ash. Leo apparently used to test all his timbers with a tuning fork and match them up tonally, but as I havn't had much choice of timber with this build I'm not going to worry too much! heres the blank planed and drum sanded to just above the correct thinckness ready for the rough cutting on the bandsaw then having the template mounted for the flush triming on the pin router.