JPJ Build No. 2

[JPJ]

Build number two started with me buying this bass off Thunder Fingers here on basschat.







The spec was just too good to miss, Status Graphite Neck, OLP Tony Levin sig body, Badass V bridge, Seymour Duncan Alnico pickup, Seymour Duncan 3 band Stingray preamp, Hipshot American Classic tuners. As you will note from the shot of the back of the bass, the body isnt in great shape so I intended making a new body out of this;



A rather nice two piece swamp ash body blank and cap it with this;



rather tasty piece of quilted maple cap, all the way from the good'ol US of A

The finish will be transparent black which should look good with the black hardware. Cant decide whether to steam the maple and drop it over a front contour or whether to do a slab body, either way the intention is to do it with PRS style faux binding.

I hope to have a day in the workshop (shed ) next weekend and unlike my previous build, I intend taking progress shots of each stage of the construction to bore you lot with!

Just a little routing, sanding, a little more sanding, some sealing, sanding, staining, sanding, lacquering, sanding, lacquering, sanding, polishing and I should have bass No 5 in the stable.

Edited April 13, 2009 by JPJ

[steve-soar]

Hubba Hubba.

[steve-soar]

Oo, oo, stick some chambers in it to drop the weight, as I suspect the neck is quite light.
Black stain will bring the quilt out very nicely and faux binding will look great.

Edited April 14, 2009 by steve-soar

[budget bassist]

nice, sounds like it's going to be really nice You still going for the SR5 body shape?

[Toasted]

That'll be ace JPJ

[JPJ]

[quote name='budget bassist' post='462023' date='Apr 14 2009, 12:30 PM']nice, sounds like it's going to be really nice You still going for the SR5 body shape?[/quote]


I'm still undecided

I thought I didnt like the SR5 body shape until this arrived and now I can see how it sort of works, but it keeps reminding me of a Gibson Grabber so I'll probably go with an SR4 shape. It should also be easier to do either a slab top or drop top on the SR4 body shape with the faux binding.

[JPJ]

[quote name='Toasted' post='462041' date='Apr 14 2009, 12:40 PM']That'll be ace JPJ [/quote]

Cheers mate, it was the pictures of your Sadowsky that helped me decide on the translucent black finish!

[EBS_freak]

Translucent black??

Tiger eye it! Tiger eye it!

[budget bassist]

[quote name='JPJ' post='462135' date='Apr 14 2009, 02:03 PM']I'm still undecided

I thought I didnt like the SR5 body shape until this arrived and now I can see how it sort of works, but it keeps reminding me of a Gibson Grabber so I'll probably go with an SR4 shape. It should also be easier to do either a slab top or drop top on the SR4 body shape with the faux binding.[/quote]
Oooh here's an idea! You ever seen a 20th SR5?



DO THAT!

Edited April 14, 2009 by budget bassist

[JPJ]

[quote name='budget bassist' post='462189' date='Apr 14 2009, 03:10 PM']Oooh here's an idea! You ever seen a 20th SR5?



DO THAT![/quote]

Yep, something like that only in trans black.

Another thing I dont like about the SR5 is the scratchplate, so I intend putting a clear perspex SR4 shaped scratchplate on it as well. Still toying with the faux binding as well, but I'll have to do a few tests on some offcuts before I fully decide on that.

[Spoombung]

Where did you get the ash from? Did you glue it together yourself? I can't find a timber yard in London that stocks it...

[JPJ]

[quote name='Spoombung' post='462360' date='Apr 14 2009, 06:28 PM']Where did you get the ash from? Did you glue it together yourself? I can't find a timber yard in London that stocks it...[/quote]

I had to do a fair bit of searching to find this bit and eventually tracked it down at Tonetech Luthier Supplies [url="http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk"]Tonetech[/url] and the blank came ready glued up.

[Marcus]

Ha'Way man get a move on....... i'd have had it done by now !!!

..... mind it would have been Rubbish

[The Bass Doc]

I'm not sure we should rush JPJ - he may be quite careless with tools - I noticed from the first pic that he only has 4 toes on each foot.

[budget bassist]

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='462673' date='Apr 15 2009, 08:23 AM']I'm not sure we should rush JPJ - he may be quite careless with tools - I noticed from the first pic that he only has 4 toes on each foot.[/quote]

[JPJ]

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='462673' date='Apr 15 2009, 08:23 AM']I'm not sure we should rush JPJ - he may be quite careless with tools - I noticed from the first pic that he only has 4 toes on each foot.[/quote]

Never, I repeat never use a chop saw in bare feet

[Kiwi]

thats a promising looking build Kev, can't wait to see how it pans out!

[yorks5stringer]

"Cant decide whether to steam the maple and drop it......"

I did a maple cap and if you get it thin enough ( 2mm) it is possible to just glue it onto the forearm contour by clamping your body template above (and below) and tapping in wedges above the contour to bring it down on the body. Can't remember if I wet it as well......

See [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27964&hl=kbass"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27964&hl=kbass[/url] and on post#2 theres a photo of what I have inexpertly described.

Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs!

Edited April 18, 2009 by yorks5stringer

[JPJ]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='466373' date='Apr 18 2009, 08:52 PM']"Cant decide whether to steam the maple and drop it......"

I did a maple cap and if you get it thin enough ( 2mm) it is possible to just glue it onto the forearm contour by clamping your body template above (and below) and tapping in wedges above the contour to bring it down on the body. Can't remember if I wet it as well......

See [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27964&hl=kbass"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27964&hl=kbass[/url] and on post#2 theres a photo of what I have inexpertly described.

Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs![/quote]

Hey no problem, all advice gratefully received, especially when you've been tutored by a bass jedi master

I was planning on leaving the maple at the full 3/8" thickness (less sanding loss) as I'm thinking of doing faux binding, so thought it might be prudent to steam the maple and use a water activated adhesive.

[josh3184]

this is going to be awesome! Looking forward to more pictures

[JPJ]

Episode II - The serious wood butchery begins

1) Stripping the donor bass, including tagging all the wires I cut to make reassembly easier



2) Its amazing what you find used as neck shims, this looks like the previous owners library card


3) To cut the body shape, I make a template out of 10mm MDF to guide my router. To start, I mark the outline of the donor bass body onto the MDF


4) Then, I measure the offset from the router guide collar to the cutter edge


5) Then I mark the offset onto the template using a compass


6) Using a jigsaw, I rough cut the template leaving about 1.5 – 2.0mm over


7) Which I sand off using my custom sanding station (ok, it’s a belt sander clamped in a workmate : :-[)



** note the use of appropriate safety equipment - overalls, dust mask, safety glasses, iPod ear defenders **

Edited April 19, 2009 by JPJ

[JPJ]

8) Using the maxim of measure twice cut once, I screwed the template to another piece of MDF and cut this using the router to check that the finished body will be the right size etc before I attacked the expensive bit of Swamp Ash




9) Because I’m putting a maple cap on this one, the body blank was actually 6mm too thick. I don’t (yet ) own a planer/thickness’er, so to reduce the thickness of the body blank, I made a series of longitudinal cuts 6mm deep with the router, leaving 1mm between each cut to support the router base.



10) I then planed off the 1mm strips and sanded both sides of the blank with the belt sander until I had the desired thickness.


11) I then screwed the template to the body blank and made the cut using multiple passes with the router. The router I was using is a high power model which meant I was able to take about 10mm per pass around the template, so the cut didn’t take long at all which was just as well as I was bricking it the whole time


12) At the end of the day (well six hours later anyway) I have a finished body blank, ready for the comfort chamfers back and front and gluing on of the maple cap.



In the next instalment, I will modify the template to include neck pocket, pick up and control cavity routes, cut these into the swamp ash, then bookmatch the maple top, steam it and glue it into place.

I would have got more done today but when I was getting my tools out this morning, my bloody back went again , so I have been working at half speed most of the day (Mrs JPJ would probably say thats my only speed )

Edited April 19, 2009 by JPJ

[steve]

fascinating stuff

[yorks5stringer]

Excellent, love the way you got around not having a thicknesser and bandsaw by using your router to carry out different functions:i.e. thickness and cut.

[JPJ]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='467320' date='Apr 20 2009, 11:29 AM']Excellent, love the way you got around not having a thicknesser and bandsaw by using your router to carry out different functions:i.e. thickness and cut.[/quote]

Cheers, but as they say "necessity is the mother of invention"

As you will see from the photos, my workshop facilities are limited to an 8' x 6' garden shed and a black'n'decker workmate! All of my power tools are therefore handheld (with the exception of my 1/2 size drill press) and whilst I'd love a planer/thicknesser and a good band saw, I really have no where to store them let alone use them.

I looked again at the maple top I have for this bass and its only 4mm thick and quite dry, so I will be steaming it before bending it over the top.