Basvarken Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 (edited) Hooray, another Brooks bass is born! The Brooks FV-12 - Korina body wings - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Nine ply Korina/Mahogany Neck through - Cherry Burst high gloss finish - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Mother of Pearl position dots. Aluminium Circle dot for 12th - Jumbo frets - 30 1/2" scale - Buffalo horn nut - ETS Custom made twelve string brass bridge and tailpiece. Black - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Pickups: Lace Alumitone DB7, Black - Controls : volume, volume, tone - 0.047mfd capacitor - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Black - Gotoh ST-31 octave string tuners, Black - Output: Pure Tone Multi Contact jack - d'Addario custom strings - Weight: 4.3 kg In posts below I'll show pics of the build process. Edited April 20 by Basvarken 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 My wood supplier made the neck blank for me. It's a nine ply korina with mahogany strips in between I had some triangular pieces of korina in my shop that could be used for the body wings On most builds I start with the fretboard. And in this particular case the 12th inlay. I sawed off a ring off an aluminum tube. Drilled the holes for all the inlays. In this pic you see the 12th position hole Glued the mother of pearl dots in. And also the ring for the 12th position. On the inside of the ring I used a black position dot marker (not very well visible in this pic, sorry) Sanded the inlays flush with the fretbaord using a 16" radius beam Taped off the fretboard to prevent superglue splattering all over the board while I hammered the frets in. After hammering each fret in I used the fretpress to make sure they were seated well. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Next I shifted my attention to the neck blank. Starting with the slot for the carbon reinforcement strip. And then the two slots for the trussrods on either side of the carbon strip. They follow the taper of the neck. Made the truss rod access slot and cover. The body would get a 7mm thick bookmatched top of quilted maple. So I had to take away 7 mm thickness on that part of the neckblank. And it need to have a neck/body pitch in order to get the right action at the bridge. So I made a jig for my handheld router. Place the neck blank under an angle and routed away the desired depth. Here's the routed part. Still had to chisel away the parts next to the fretboard. But first I glued the fretboard on. Used a staple tacker and cut off just above the blank to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" away during the clamping. Then glued it on. Using rubber strip (of bicycle tubes) to get an even pressure Chiseled away the parts next to the fretboard. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Drilled the holes for the side position markers Made a special marker for the 12th position. Using a small aluminum tube. And a regular black inlay that fits inside the tube. Glued the markers in. Didn't take a pic where I saw off the headstock angle. So fast forward to the headstock shape. Clamped the neckthrough part to the workbench and started shaping the neck. With a shinto rasp, a spoke shave and strips of very coarse sand paper. Shaped the volute. Drilled the tuner holes. I don't drill all the way through. I leave about 1.5 mm thickness on the back. Because I like the holes on the back to be smaller. That makes sure you won't see any gaps when the tuners are installed. Glued the body wings on. I cut steps into the sides to make sure the clamps had proper grip. Since you can't clamp a diagonal piece 😉 Free hand routed the wiring channel.It was going to be covered up by the maple top. So I didn't bother to make a template. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 The beautiful set of bookmatched quilted maple that I found at Holz Faszination was ready to be glued onto the body. Then routed along the mdf template to give it the body shape Looks like a Flying V already! Shaped the heel area. Routed the controls cavity form the back Routed the pickup cavities Not the neatest routing job I've ever done. But I was going to use pickup rings so I didn't mind that much. Wetted the top with a damp rag to make the quilt pop. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Now was the time to make a decision about the "armpit" in the body. On my previous (long scale) Flying V Bass builds I had used and extra part in the armpit to allow the bridge to be as far back as possible. This would keep the original V shape visually in tact. And my original plan for this bass was to do exactly the same. I was going to use 24 ferrules for the 12 string through body attachment. I figured since it is a short scale bass it was not really a problem to have the bridge a bit away from the edge. And I had my doubts about the strength of the wood with all the holes that would have to be drilled quite close to each other. With all the string pull it might snap a chunk off? And the binding would ba a quite complex affair. One part would have to follow the original V shape and the other would have to follow the black part. So after some restless nights I decided not to used the extra part. I routed the binding channel (sorry no pics) and glued the pearloid binding in https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-fv-12-qm-binding-glued-in_orig.jpeg Drilled the output hole for the Telecaster style cup And holes for the potentiometers Holes for the bridge screws Time to stain the bass! First I did a yellow stain all over. I really like the korina with the yellow stain. But my customer wanted a mahogany colour for the back and sides. Then took to the burst. I used a light red stain for the trabsition to yellow. Plus a darker red stain for the outline. After a few layers of clear lacquer: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 After lots of layers of clear and lots of sanding in between I could apply the decals. Sanded it with 800 grits > 1200 grit > 2000 grit > 3000 grit. And then polished it I painted the cavities with shielding paint. But I'm horrible at soldering. So I had my good friend Sjoerd take care of the wiring for me. He did a very neat job. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basvarken Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Here's the inevitable video demo 😉 I injured my left hand a few weeks ago, so my playing is a bit sloppy. I just don't have enough strength in my fingers yet. But the video does give a good enough idea how the FV-12 sounds. 😉 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 On 20/04/2024 at 13:52, Basvarken said: There is beauty in a tidy and well-ordered headstock. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 Terrific work! Congratulations! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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