JGTay

Bit limiting on the volume, only goes up to six... 😜

You could go with a DP12 and have a new body made with the correct pickup. Keep the DP12 body as is and then just swap it if you want to sell it at a later date. At least that way you wouldn't have the extra cost of having a custom bridge made.

Good option with this. 👍

Lol, I went off pink when doing my daughters guitar, she wouldn't/couldn't show me the exact shade of pink she wanted and I ended up having to redo it several times until she was happy with the colour... roll on a few years and she now wants everything black, go figure. 🤣

That is looking very good, don't like the pink but it does what you need and highlights any low spots nicely. 👍

The majority of my builds have had Danish oil finishes, I find it easy to use and can usually do three or four coats in a day. You do need to put a lot of coats on to get a good finish. I have never tried Osmo, but looking around a few woodworking sites it seems like you don't need as many coats and it is meant to be easier to apply, but a longer wait between coats.

Not 5 people, but these two brothers have been doing it since they were kids. Around the 2 min 30 seconds mark.

Good luck with this, hopefully there is something nice to work with underneath. 👍

Thank you. ☺️ The fretboard is something I had wanted to try for a while, I am so pleased it turned out how I imagined. I agree with regards the rounded corners on the cavities, this was my first time doing a bass and this style of pickup, I have only done humbucker pickups in the past and they have had the pickup surrounds which hide the cavities. Definitely something I will take into account next time. 👍

Just swapped out the silver pickup screws for black ones. The silver ones kept catching my eye. Looks better for it. 👍

I am playing it whenever I get a chance at the moment, it has been at least a couple of hours each afternoon and around 4 hours every night when the wife goes to bed. 😂 I am surprised how much I am enjoying playing bass. 😁 Can't afford to buy a bass amp yet, so it is Rocksmith on PS4 through the 5.1 surround.

😂 I think most people would like a custom build when first starting out learning, but the majority of people buy something cheap just in case they don't get into it. As the wife said, with this we can at least have it on display in the front room if I don't enjoy it. 🤣 My last guitar build made me a fan, hadn't considered one before and I am glad someone asked me to build one. It is such a good shape to carve and I love the bevelled edges. It is very comfortable to play as well.

Thanks Andy. 😀 I know Andyjr from some guitar forums, his skills are much better than mine, really love his work.

Thank you. 😊

Here we go, final pics... sorry there are quite a few. 😁 Extremely pleased with how it has come out. I am not a bass player, this is the one I will be learning on, so no sound clips just yet.

Thanks Paul. I do like the No Nonsense stuff, much cheaper and you can get the same results as the higher price brands.

Managed to get the final bits done next. The spaghetti wiring. I had some left over copper sheet, so put it over the soldering on the back of the pots. Made a truss rod cover next. And tested in place. Then gave it a coat of oil. It will need more but it will do for now. I then got it all strung up and everything in place for the weigh in, the screen on our scales is a bit dim, time for a new set. It shows 7.3 1/4 lbs. which isn't too bad. Happy with that. Glamour shots coming up next.

The next week was spent oiling the front, getting enough coats on there to match up with the rest of it. Also drilled for the bridge earth. This was before final sand and buff. Next up was the final sand and buff, no pics for that as it will show in the final pics at the end and will have a final polish. Then it was the magnets for the cavity cover, ran out of my biggest ones, had to put a mix of smaller ones in and with the cover being mahogany it is a bit of weight so I had to add a few extra to get it to hold firmly in place. Also drilled for the jack and got the plate in place. I then got on with the shielding. And then it was in with the pots and 3 way switch. Next up was putting the tuners in, screwing the bridge in place and also the strap locks.

Moved on to lightly sanding the cavity cover, back, sides, neck and headstock ready for the next coats of oil. Hopefully this should be the final coats for the body, cover and sides, but the neck and headstock still need some more to catch up with the amount of coats. It then got a few days to harden. Once it was oiled with enough coats all over I could do the final higher grade sanding and buffing all over in one go.

Managed to get the holes drilled and test everything in place. Very happy with the layout.😁

The next few days were spent oiling the back, sides, neck, back of headstock and cavity cover, getting plenty of coats done with sanding in between every 3 coats. The back, sides, neck and headstock are ready for another light sand before the next coats. I was getting ready for the sanding, but then had a delivery of items, which included the bridge. I decided to go with a high mass bridge, for no other reason than I liked how it looked, was in my price range (not too cheap/nasty and not overly expensive) and also it had 18mm string spacing which was within the range I had been looking for (between 16.5mm and 18mm at the max). The only thing I hadn't taken into account was the size of the base plate and saddles, the base plate is just over 5mm and with the saddles it lifts the strings 17mm above the body. The fretboard is only 7mm in the centre and the frets are less than 0.9mm, which would give a string height of 9mm at the final fret... the options became obvious, either get a different bridge or sink it into the body. I went with the second option 😃 Firstly cut a couple of bits of thick cardboard for the body to sit on so that it had protection and could compress down with clamps without damaging the back, put some masking tape around the area for the bridge, then marked out the scale length, moved the treble side saddle to the edge of the bridge plate, lined up the string break point with the scale length and marked the position of the bridge. Then scored the lines with a Stanley knife and went round it with a chisel. And then gradually started chiselling out the wood. Once it was to the correct depth and level all the way across, the bridge slotted in nicely. The base plate is just below the surface and the lowest position of the saddles gives just under 1mm string clearance at the final fret. Next up I needed to decide on the control positions, had a few options.... And after speaking with the wife and daughter, decided to go with the first option with the switch towards the back, but inline with the pots. It is more aesthetically pleasing and keeps the switch away from accidental knocks when playing.

The next few days were spent tidying up my workshop ready for finishing. Still need to find some space for all the stuff at the back, but much better now. Even mounted some of my Kef speakers to replace some old dodgy shelf speakers and hung up some cat pics my daughter gave me. I then marked out and drilled for the tuners. Tested them in place. And then tidied up the headstock. Next up was the first coat of Danish oil on the back, cavity cover and sides. Didn't do the neck at this point as I was doing flood coats to start and needed to be able to wipe off any runs going over the sides to the front.

Progress was slowed slightly over the next few days due to the first heat wave, my workshop was actually quite a bit warmer than outside even with both doors and window open. I did manage to get the neck profile sanded up through the grades and also did the transition between neck and body, then moved onto the back bevels. All the bevels match up top and bottom, including the arm bevel as I do like a bit of symmetry.

Got on with the bridge pickup cavity next. With both pickups in. And after clean up. Also sanded the back up through the grades, still needed to do the bevels and then I could move onto the neck profile.

Collected the pickups, Wilkinson WJB Jazz Bass Pickups with Alnico V Magnets. Bridge: 7.5k Neck: 6.8k Going with 2 vol and 2 tone with a 3 way switch. I rounded the edges of the frets and accidentally caught the last few frets slightly along the tops, but they will have a final clean-up and polish once I have done the finish. Pickup marking out time. Had been dreading this bit!! Drilled some pilot holes to the correct depth. And then a 13mm bit to take it close to the lines, scored the outline with a Stanley knife, went round them with a chisel and then started chiselling out the wood. Still needed cleaning up, but it was the correct depth and managed to hit the wiring channel sot on in the bottom right hand corner. The pickup sits nicely.