Fender Jazz, precision Alloy body are they viable

[funkgod]

Hello All, i have been talking with my friend who owns a cnc engineering workshop about the prospect of doing a body for 2 basses a jazz and a precision out of alloy, this would be done as a billet machined from a single block of alloy, polished and then maybe anodised, i am looking at having a jazz body done anyway as a test. everyone made could have the owners name machined into it and numbered.

My question is, all being good could this a viable product,  are there any out there already ? while the process is not going to be cheap i wondered would be the call for it price pending, i would imagine it would make the sound more tinny ? great for you slapheads,  maybe,  i have no idea till tested.

Thoughts ? Opinions ? info ?

Edited April 4, 2019 by funkgod

[bertbass]

There's quite a few guitars on youtube with aluminium bodies.

 

I remember quite a few years ago that someone made one but had serious problems with tuning stability because of temperature fluctuations on stage and they came up with an ingenious spring arrangement for constant tuning stability.  It was featured in the music mags at the time.

 

Just had a quick google and there's a few companies making aluminium guitars already.  I don't know about basses though.

 

https://www.drewman.co.uk

https://www.electricalguitarcompany.com

http://www.alumisonic.com/about.html

 

[Guest MoJo]

There's a market for everything but I imagine the market for alloy basses would be quite small. The novelty of a shiny anodised bass would soon wear off, I fear.

[Lfalex v1.1]

How heavy would it be, I wonder.

Would the neck be aluminium or wooden?

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Milling the bodies out of a billet has two big potential pitfalls, weight and coldness(aluminium is a very efficient conductor, so will wick heat away from any body parts in proximity to it).

You could get a very accurate idea of how heavy your finished body will be fairly easily;

-after removing neck, bridge and pickguard, carefully measure the displacement of the body by dipping it in a suitably large container of water (I'd put the body in a bin bag to keep it out of direct contact with water and hold by the top horn - air will be forced out of the cavities. You can then get the displacement of your hand separately and get an accurate figure)

-calculate out the finished weight of the alloy body and weigh the existing body

-procure enough lead flashing from your local builders merchant to make up the difference in weight, and gaffa tape it to the back of your existing instrument (assuming it has a poly finish, and taking care to place a protective layer of cloth between the flashing and the instrument to avoid scratching)

-see whether you can live with the extra weight, and publish the finished weight on here to get some feedback on whether other musicians could live with it.

The good thing about homogenous engineering materials is you can accurately predict how much material you need to remove to hit a target weight, so you might be able to make a swimming pool rout under the pick guard, or change up the design to be routed entirely from the rear and go hog wild with the weight relief given that you will be easily able to make a large one piece flat cover from flat plate and have it anodised to match the rest of the body should you decide that it is necessary.

[Stub Mandrel]

It's been done before, truckloads of aluminium necks out there, but alloy bodies as well, apparently this guitar is 10.1lbs:

https://reverb.com/item/18234435-2017-electrical-guitar-company-standard-baritone-aluminum

What surprisies me is that people always go with raw aluminium, OK when polished it feels OK but if it tarnishes it feels bad.

Anodised aluminium has a lovely feel, as nice as wood.

[SpondonBassed]

...and let's face it, it's gotta be great for metal.

[Dan Dare]

Interesting novelty? Yes. Viable product? No. Given that there are plenty of proven, stable materials to make bass bodies out of that don't weigh excessively, what's the point? There will be no performance advantage. At best, it will only look different. Given that it isn't likely to be cheap, why would anyone pay the extra over a body made of wood, mdf, ply ,etc?

[TheGreek]

Interesting experiment and I, for one, would be interesting in the tonal package that results.

Remember that there is a technique/ material which leaves a finish that looks like chrome. @xilddx (who hasn't been here for a while) has a Warwick with this finish.

http://warwick.de/en/Warwick---Products--Instruments--Customshop---Masterbuilt--Basic-Bass-Models--Signature-Models--Robert-Trujillo-Signature--Robert-Trujillo-Signature--4-string--Pictures.html

Edited March 26, 2019 by TheGreek

[funkgod]

bertbass thanks for the links, very interesting one of the guys seems to have toured with hiss alloy guitar for years so indeed have been round a long time.

Weight i am not sure yet

lfalex v1.1 it would be just bodies.

subsonic, loads to think about there, just thinking about pickup options would mean bodies have to be made to order as once ordered, it would be a real pain to change say the rear pickup to a humbucker on a jazz, so the idea of having a plate over a swimming pool rout sounds like a great idea.

Cheers for your comments and ideas guys i will be passing this thread and ideas on to dave who is looking at the possibility of building it.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by funkgod