The Making of A Bassworks PPJ5 in Daphne Blue Nitro

[Bassworks 133]

This bass is effectively a sister to my build diary for a PPJ5 in Surf Green that sold recently. I'll try to find some different pictures from the ones that I chose for that build diary. Feel Free to comment and ask questions along the way. I'll start with a recent photo, I'm just at the point of fitting the nut and John East UNI Pre active electronics, so this is nearly but not quite finished. It weighs in at exactly 4Kg with strings and everything else. It is a Chambered Swamp Ash body, Canadian Rock Maple asymmetric profile to the rear with a proprietary "thumb-groove" further slimming the fast "J"-like profile. It sports a compound radius Macassar Ebony fretboard 12"-20" radius with block inlays. The Daphne Blue Nitro has been lightly aged with a cryo-relic process. There is the usual high specification hardware and electronics from Hipshot, Bartolini and John East. This bass is available and I'll be shipping it out at the Black Friday week deal price from last year on her Surf Green sister. Complete with a branded Hiscox hard case and 2 years of free setup and service (fair use policy applies).

Please DM me if you might be interested.

EDIT: I have added a picture of this bass with the neck swapped out for a fretless one that I am making for Bassworks Artist Lee Pellington. Mwah for days!

Do head over to @bassworksluthiery on Facebook for other information, if you can't wait for me to populate this build diary over the next week!...

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Edited January 29 by Bassworks
Added a picture

[Bassworks 133]

Lets start out with some neck stuff like the last build diary. The neck for "Daphne" is propped up here with her siblings in blank form. Carefully acclimatised for several years, the blanks are just about to be bandsawn to around 10mm oversize and then left to de-stress before rough machining commences.

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Here we are a little further down the line fast approaching truss-rod fitting and bonding Daphne's fretboard on. Precision is the name of the game for a premium instrument. Here I'm able to dial in some truss rod adjustment if necessary to ensure a truly flat neck during final truing operations and to support each neck with profile specific jacking plates at their mid-span to limit deflection during machining.

[Bassworks 133]

Jigs, fixtures and special tooling are valuable resources to high precision work. When it comes to fretting a neck as well as pressing frets in with an Arbor press, I use a little hide glue in the fret slot (which is blind and a constant depth from the top of the curving fretboard surface) and I clamp the whole neck and 22 Frets perfectly flat whilst the hide glue sets. Here you see the lower fret press "caul". The upper caul with 22 discrete compound radius features is about to be manufactured from the billet behind.

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And there's a peak at the upper caul...

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As standard my instruments come with my "Aero" fret end treatment. Here you can see the difference between that and a more traditional fret end treatment.

All instruments also come as standard with Luminlay side fret marker dots. In the other picture you can see early trials of photo-luminescent materials ranging from Luminlay rod, through to mixing photoluminescent powders into CA and Epoxy. When my old band The Nile Deltas opened on it's EP launch in 2018, we were waiting for the compare to finish his introductions and then all the stage lights were killed. EVERYONE on stage was caught out and the drummer started a 4 count. You could smell the adrenalin as the lights stayed off! I thought I was dead in the water too as my hands had been off my bass when the lights were killed. I looked down at where I thought my bass neck should be and there they were 10 beautiful blue sentinels! All I'm saying is that the drummer and I nailed the start! 😉

Edited January 29 by Bassworks

[Bassworks 133]

More often than not my headstocks are lightly chambered beneath the Bassworks logo in a choice of Mother Of Pearl, re-constituted stone and body coloured phenolic sheet. There's a Birdseye Maple headstock plate of circa 4mm thick on top of the neck timber (typically Canadian Rock Maple, Roasted flamed European Maple, Wenge, or Padauk).

[Geek99 1,610]

I cannot stand all this effortless competence

🙄

 

just for once post “the fcuking chisel slipped ... I kicked the cat and crucified the dog. Twice. Bad day at perfection central” 

Edited January 29 by Geek99

[Si600 3,313]

36 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

I cannot stand all this effortless competence

🙄

 

just for once post “the fcuking chisel slipped ... I kicked the cat and crucified the dog. Twice. Bad day at perfection central” 

Have you not read any of my threads? Though I'm not in perfection central, so the impact is probably not as great as to when one of the real luthiers on here drops a clanger.

Edited January 29 by Si600

[Geek99 1,610]

6 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Have you not read any of my threads? Though I'm not in perfection central, so the impact is probably not as great as to when one of the real luthiers on here drops a clanger.

I’m talking about mr bassworks and all the other people who seem to think that making a chambered headstock out of powdered fairy dust and having it blessed by druids (at solstice, naturally) and kissed by unicorns is just run of the mill stuff that anyone can do 

Edited January 29 by Geek99

[Bassworks 133]

38 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

I cannot stand all this effortless competence

🙄

 

just for once post “the fcuking chisel slipped ... I kicked the cat and crucified the dog. Twice. Bad day at perfection central” 

In my early years I resembled Kenny Everett's accident prone DIYer. Youtube it.Once I sanded a crucial bass playing finger down to the bone on an oscillating belt sander. Does that help? 😉

[Geek99 1,610]

Only if it was your luminlay dot insertion finger 

[Bassworks 133]

1 minute ago, Geek99 said:

Only if it was your luminlay dot insertion finger 

It was!

[Geek99 1,610]

8 hours ago, Bassworks said:

It was!

You probably made a prosthetic finger replacement out of Wenge (maple core, naturally) that’s slightly smaller than the luminlay dots so you can use it as a press tool for them, I’ll bet it’s held in place by a (chambered) rivet made of narwhal tusk, magnesium powder and unicorn saliva 

Edited January 30 by Geek99

[Bassworks 133]

Bartolini pickups are a popular choice with my customers and I play a PJ set myself. Great tone!

[SpondonBassed 7,760]

I notice that your top is overlapping the pickup routs.

Would that be to allow for the two P pickup halves to be angled, following the fretboard curvature, without leaving a visibly large gap around the pickups?  Also the J to be angled to favour the G string's lesser oscillations compared with the E?

Or summat...

Edited January 30 by SpondonBassed

[Geek99 1,610]

And he should know about G string oscillation....

[Bassworks 133]

50 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I notice that your top is overlapping the pickup routs.

Would that be to allow for the two P pickup halves to be angled, following the fretboard curvature, without leaving a visibly large gap around the pickups?  Also the J to be angled to favour the G string's lesser oscillations compared with the E?

Or summat...

More to do with neatly retaining any copper foil shielding SpondonBassed! No doubt Geek99 will have already trolled your comment and this thread. Suitably Ignored. Guy really does needs to get some help.

[SpondonBassed 7,760]

39 minutes ago, Bassworks said:

Guy really does needs to get some help.

In fairness, I think most of us do by now.

I hadn't considered the copper tape being visible as needing a solution.  As an amateur, I have tolerated it in my kit and Frankenbass builds.  I've even made a subtle feature of it on my not so subtle YamaCore.  If you can't be ǻrsed to hide it, flaunt it, I suppose.  I really must make a better translucent scratchplate for it though.

I love the way you've used the technology to make something worthy of its sophistication rather than trying to reproduce the traditional build methods with current tooling.

Edited January 30 by SpondonBassed

[Bassworks 133]

7 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

In fairness, I think most of us do by now.

I hadn't considered the copper tape being visible as needing a solution.  As an amateur, I have tolerated it in my kit and Frankenbass builds.  I've even made a subtle feature of it on my not so subtle YamaCore.  If you can't be ǻrsed to hide it, flaunt it, I suppose.  I really must make a better translucent scratchplate for it though.

I love the way you've used the technology to make something worthy of its sophistication rather than trying to reproduce the traditional build methods with current tooling.

Thanks. Not visibility though unless you choose to remove the pickguard I suppose. Adhesive on Cu foil can de-bond over time. If the foil is burnished into the top corner of the undercut, it's not going anywhere even if the adhesive becomes a bit jaded. Took a look at your Yamacore. Nice work. Fabulous Copperwork too!

Edited January 30 by Bassworks

[Bassworks 133]

A nice slab of Macassar Ebony milled and ready for bonding to the Canadian Rock Maple neck.

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Neck just prior to fretting. Block inlay position is offset and governed by string spacing and gauge. The devil is in the detail folks!

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Side jack detail.

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Final clear gloss coat.

Edited January 30 by Bassworks

[Geek99 1,610]

6 hours ago, Bassworks said:

More to do with neatly retaining any copper foil shielding SpondonBassed! No doubt Geek99 will have already trolled your comment and this thread. Suitably Ignored. Guy really does needs to get some help.

I apologise for inadvertently trolling you. Never again will I tease you for your lack of incompetence 🥺

Edited January 30 by Geek99