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My custom P bass - Shuker bass building course 20/07/09


Mikey R
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Ok, I wasnt very good at taking photos, I mostly forgot due to getting stuck in to the building.

[b]Monday[/b]

Today was mostly spent marking out and making the templates, and getting to know the bandsaw and router :)

Mounting the template to the body. I'd already bandsawn out the body outline to about 2mm outside of the line:




Then I just routed around, in 6mm steps so the router doesnt get bogged down too much.

Gluing up the body - thats Jon is the background:



With the wedges in to bend the top around the forarm contour:



Gluing up the neck:

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[b]Tuesday[/b]

With the body out of the clamps, trimmed the top flush with the body on the pin router:



Cleaning up the outline on the spindle sander:



Guess who:



Routing the slot for the truss rod:



The slot is routed about 2mm deeper than the rod, so we can add a strip of mahogany.

The neck template on the neck blank. I'd already gone around with the bandsaw, so now preparing to rout to the line:



Job done:



With the truss rod in, we then made strips of mahogany and glued them over the rod, being carful to only glue the sides to the neck and not the rod. After the glue dried, we planed away till it was flush with the neck:



Then we were ready to glue on the fingerboard.

Roundover:



The roundover at the forarm contour needed to be done by hand:



Gut cut:

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[b]Wednesday[/b]

Holes for dots drilled and dots glued in:



Heres the other two guys radiussing their boards:




Heres mine:



We had to keep checking with a straight edge to make sure the neck was perfectly flat. Heres Chris:



This bit was really nerve wracking - cutting into that beautiful top:

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[b]Friday[/b]

The first look at the whole thing:



A mistake lead to me routing the pickup hole in the scratchguard in the wrong place:



While I was photographing my mistakes to bug me later, I thought I'd also get a shot of this:

[size=7]THE HORROR!!!:[/size]



Seriously, what was I thinking when I did that???

With the mistake of the scratchguard, I realised I wasnt going to get finished today, so I decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the day in the 'shop. Jon has kindly said I can go back on a Saturday in the next few weeks and finish up.

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[quote name='steve-soar' post='551006' date='Jul 25 2009, 11:50 AM']THREE dots at the 12th fret? I've got the radio on at the moment and this is getting discussed at an emergency cabinet meeting live broadcast.

Great work there Mikey, really well done. :)[/quote]

[quote name='OldGit' post='551016' date='Jul 25 2009, 12:04 PM']Top Jobbie!
I like three dots at the 12th .. Very distinctive :rolleyes:[/quote]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='551031' date='Jul 25 2009, 12:23 PM']Mistake? I don't think so Mikey, more a case of daring to be different :lol:

Looking good.[/quote]

Cheers guys, if there were three dots on the face, then it would look cool. And it would also help if the three were equally spaced and in a line... unfortunately the drill slipped and the middle dot was off by just enough to make it look bad.

Next time Im going back to using a hand drill - much slower so you can tell in plenty of time when youre making a mistake! :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Heres the finished bass:



Ive attached a recording made this evening. We recorded direct to the EMU soundcard, and used quite a lot of EQ from the presets - pretty nasty! Ive also got the original dry tracks - I'll try and put them up later too.

Edited by Mikey R
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[quote name='funkypenguin' post='560531' date='Aug 4 2009, 07:18 PM']thats one of the nicest P-basses ive ever seen! lovely piece of work :) well done[/quote]

Thanks!

I was having a play after work today, Im just so pleased. The balance is perfect, it looks cool and I can get all of the P-type sounds I need from it. Really good rock bass and I'd suspect it would do some pretty good funk tones too. :rolleyes:

Theres only three problems, and they are probably very minor but they bug me cos its mine:

* The pickup route in the scratchguard is not quite centered in the strings, so Ive had to move the strings over towards the treble side a little. Schaller 2000 bridge made this really easy! I'll eventually make a new scratchguard.
* The neck has a few dips and bumps. Its slimmest at the 5th fret but then gets thicker by a very small amount towards the volute.
* The HIDEOUS three dots!

Im tempted to keep all these imperfections as a reminder not to rush, and plan and measure EVERYTHING!


But Im totally hooked on this building thing - Im planning another bass (after Merts of course), same thing but a little different...

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[quote name='Mikey R' post='560544' date='Aug 4 2009, 07:30 PM']Thanks!

I was having a play after work today, Im just so pleased. The balance is perfect, it looks cool and I can get all of the P-type sounds I need from it. Really good rock bass and I'd suspect it would do some pretty good funk tones too. :)

Theres only three problems, and they are probably very minor but they bug me cos its mine:

* The pickup route in the scratchguard is not quite centered in the strings, so Ive had to move the strings over towards the treble side a little. Schaller 2000 bridge made this really easy! I'll eventually make a new scratchguard.
* The neck has a few dips and bumps. Its slimmest at the 5th fret but then gets thicker by a very small amount towards the volute.
* The HIDEOUS three dots!

Im tempted to keep all these imperfections as a reminder not to rush, and plan and measure EVERYTHING!


But Im totally hooked on this building thing - Im planning another bass (after Merts of course), same thing but a little different...[/quote]

Mike,

My neck has a few bumps too, but I still like it. Where will you make your next bass?

Steve

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[quote name='Sercet' post='560547' date='Aug 4 2009, 07:33 PM']Mike,

My neck has a few bumps too, but I still like it. Where will you make your next bass?

Steve[/quote]

Hey Steve, our basses are totally unique - I love that about them. The few very minor problems they have just prove that point. Yours just sounded so nice! Was that a Basslines pickup in yours?

I'll be out of the country for a while, but when I get back I'll be looking for a new house with a garage. Its going to be a busy end of the year but Im hoping there will be a bandsaw somewhere in my future!

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[quote name='Mikey R' post='560544' date='Aug 4 2009, 07:30 PM']Thanks!

I was having a play after work today, Im just so pleased. The balance is perfect, it looks cool and I can get all of the P-type sounds I need from it. Really good rock bass and I'd suspect it would do some pretty good funk tones too. :lol:

Theres only three problems, and they are probably very minor but they bug me cos its mine:

* The pickup route in the scratchguard is not quite centered in the strings, so Ive had to move the strings over towards the treble side a little. Schaller 2000 bridge made this really easy! I'll eventually make a new scratchguard.
* The neck has a few dips and bumps. Its slimmest at the 5th fret but then gets thicker by a very small amount towards the volute.
* The HIDEOUS three dots!

Im tempted to keep all these imperfections as a reminder not to rush, and plan and measure EVERYTHING!


But Im totally hooked on this building thing - Im planning another bass (after Merts of course), same thing but a little different...[/quote]

Mikey, it looks awesome :) I still can't put the 5 stringer down (cue disapporving looks from nic as I should be changing Theo's nappy :lol: ) so I bet this is a cracker. Can't wait for mine, but first you get yourself to San Francisco and enjoy :rolleyes:

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it really is nice! its corrected two of the things i normally dislike about P basses, the shape and the lack of a 2 octave neck. very nice job, specially considering the time youve done it in!

i second (sorry third!) the call for more pictures!

Edited by funkypenguin
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