mrbacco Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 Sorry for the prolonged silence here, but a few hiccups in life and late deliveries have forced me to pause the project. But now I have managed to resume. So I have almost finished the raw body: I have put a 9mm additional colored pine sheet in the back. Ordered a large roll of maple veneer for the front. Work has been done so far with jigsaw and lots of sanding (manual and with a sander) Then will be finishing with the pickup routing (pickups are almost in Ireland ;-)) and the sanding before proceeding with coloring. Plan to color the back of the body and neck in satin black and leaving the front maple. Also: not sure what to do with the back cavity; I mean cover it with a black piece of plastic or just wood? And yes, thanks to @PaulThePlug I have decided to put an aerodyne style jack on the front of the bass: wish me luck for the carving!!! Some more over the weekend. Cheers!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) Aha! @mrbacco before you make the hole for the Jack 'Boat' in the front... have a think about having it fitted to the control cavity plate at the rear... plug could Angle Out and Downwards 45Deg-ish or out to the but or strap pin.. and not get in the way... sleek as sleek thing! 😉 Edited February 9 by PaulThePlug 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 4 hours ago, PaulThePlug said: Aha! @mrbacco before you make the hole for the Jack 'Boat' in the front... have a think about having it fitted to the control cavity plate at the rear... plug could Angle Out and Downwards 45Deg-ish or out to the but or strap pin.. and not get in the way... sleek as sleek thing! 😉 I gotcha man, or at least I think I do! 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 I know it is not the best outcome in terms of body shape and in terms of precision, but it seems it is the best I could do with my skills so far ... One thing that is bothering me is that the right and the left of the bass are very different, even if the neck is centered ... but that is still bothering me ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 19 hours ago, mrbacco said: One thing that is bothering me is that the right and the left of the bass are very different, even if the neck is centered ... but that is still bothering me ... In what way different? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 (edited) 4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: In what way different? different distance from the end of the neck pocket to the right wing and the left wing of the bass, whereas there is no difference in a standard P bass, if that makes sense? or maybe I am just wrong ... Edited February 10 by mrbacco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 (edited) Finally I managed to finish the covering of the sides and the front with maple veneer; need to touch up the sides a bit, then and I think I might change slightly the plan and give it a bit of black color back and front leaving out only the front of the neck. Still not sure, like my Squire Deluxe Jazz Bass IV Active sold a few months back. Edited February 10 by mrbacco 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 2 hours ago, mrbacco said: different distance from the end of the neck pocket to the right wing and the left wing of the bass, whereas there is no difference in a standard P bass, if that makes sense? or maybe I am just wrong ... The shape of the body is predominately about personal preference, so no, if you are happy with it, then it isn't an issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 (edited) Still moving on with this project, slowly but surely. OSB floor is substituted by the garden, as I am doing loads of trimming of wood in there. So, as I am changing mind very frequently, I now decided to paint the body in satin black and give it a road worn look, plus I now made (very bad) cavities for the pickups and then I will be installing pickup covers to cover the slaughtering of the wood I have done with the cavities. Sorry folks ... ehm ... I will send another pick of he back, as I fogot. As I forgot to clean it after the sanding! apologies! Still need to finish: - the back control cavity plate - lining everything up between bridge, strings, pickups. - holes in the body for the pickup cables - installing the jack (I might not go for the aerodyne style, as I have done horrible pickup cavities already 😞 , so I will stick with the standard jack on the side of the body, that might be easier for me at this sdtage) - soldering the controls Edited February 15 by mrbacco 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 (edited) In order to fix the bad work done on this body, I will start all over again. Phase 2.0 with the below setup in terms of body. Top in poplar (15mm), main middle part in pine (20mm), bottom with unknown from a scrap set of shelves (15mm). Total thickness is 40mm. I have built for this case a better hard platic template for the jazz pickups in order to avoid the first bad job done already, or contain the mistakes. Edited February 20 by mrbacco 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 09/02/2024 at 12:34, PaulThePlug said: Aha! @mrbacco before you make the hole for the Jack 'Boat' in the front... have a think about having it fitted to the control cavity plate at the rear... plug could Angle Out and Downwards 45Deg-ish or out to the but or strap pin.. and not get in the way... sleek as sleek thing! 😉 Need not even be angled - a right-angle jack plug would solve that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 (edited) Shaped a bit better this time ... (sanding the borders better soon); the bottom wood (I don't know what type it is) is quite hard to work with, and the top is very very soft ... I got a hiccup while sanding it, a a little piece got off, so I had to glue it ... now let's make the cavities as a nice human being would do! 🙂 Edited February 18 by mrbacco 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 (edited) And this time it might be a good idea to wait with attaching the neck till the body is 100% done. Edited February 20 by Baloney Balderdash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 Ready now to start the routing of the pickups. I made a brand new couple of templates for the jazz pickups, and measured around 90mm of distance between the two on the body. There is where I am gonna route. Finger crossed now! The top is really soft, too much, but it's ok. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said: And this time it might be a good idea to wait with attaching the neck till the body is 100% done. Yeah, thanks man, I was measuring the straightness of the overall neck pocket, and I needed to measure how much to cut on the bas of the side of the pocket so that it's flush with the neck itself ... then I took the pictures. I am now 95% satisfied with the neck pocket, so I took it off today (after the pics) to perform other works tomorrow evening. 🙂 Edited February 20 by mrbacco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 Here I am with another update ... routing done. And pre paitning too ... there will be another paint on the front, and I might keep the sides and the back as they are, just treated then with wood oil.... let's see. .. . I put a layer of maple veneer on the neck pocket to even it a bit better... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloke_zero Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 Cool - it looks like you carved a bass from carbon! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 (edited) 2 hours ago, bloke_zero said: Cool - it looks like you carved a bass from carbon! Nice ... Thanks... I haven't thought about that .. but yeah it could be called ... The coal bass! Haha Edited February 21 by mrbacco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 1 minute ago, mrbacco said: Nice ... I haven't thought about that .. but yeah it could be called ... The coal bass! Haha You might need to patent that finish and call it "Carbonized Black" or something like that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 (edited) I went a bit more on with the carbon bass project (as some of you have suggested, thanks! ). 🙂 I was happy enough with the straightness of the neck and the pickups when I stringed her! I now have to deepen the holes for the controls then do the soldering and finally create a plate for the back (thinking of using some maple like wood I have left to create a bit of contrast with carbon black. I know my pickup routing is far from good, so, I ask if anyone has a link to some or someone inexpensive jazz bass pickup rings that I can put around the 2 I mounted to conceal a bit the not straight lines? Also: I have 3 choices for the control knobs: Chrome chicken heads (my favourite) Chrome cilinder Black chicken heads (plastic) Edited February 23 by mrbacco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 I don't know what the first set is called but the next one is p bass and the third is j. These are chicken heads: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 (edited) Loving the Big Poles... I'm also interested in J bezzles/surrounds for my Ibby J's 3D Printing anyone? Those Chicken Heads would look kinda mad, in a good way! Edited February 23 by PaulThePlug 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said: Loving the Big Poles... I'm also interested in J bezzles/surrounds for my Ibby J's 3D Printing anyone? Those Chicken Heads would look kinda mad, in a good way! Yeah ... The big poles are class ... I'll tell you later how they sound when I connect the whole thing! Cheers!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 (edited) Still haven't connected the whole parts, been busy with "life impairments" like paying bills, storms, and all that BS ... anyway ... I had a bit of time to work on the final tuning, and now I am ready for the soldering and testing. I had put the covers on the pickups, plus another layer of black paint to finish it better. I am also finishing the plate that is gonna be on the back to cover the electronics. This is how it looks like as final from the front: Edited March 3 by mrbacco 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 The Double Cover look is kinda cool... Quite like the look of a cover without the scratch plate... You going for a Bridge cover as well? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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