New build: 5 String Multiscale

[benh]

Well - after a rather lengthy hiatus due to work/family/mental health and all that jazz, had the wood kicking around for this for ages so decided it needs doing. Decided to go full DIY (sans hardware) - winding my own pickups and making a preamp! Doing this as more of a "proof of concept" than anything else, as I've never built a multiscale bass before, or indeed put a preamp together.

Bit late posting as most of the process is done now, but hopefully is of interest to someone! First of all, as always I spent a good few evenings designing in Inkscape, here were the results:

[benh]

Woods chosen were a big slab of flamed ash for the body, flamed maple and ovangkol for the neck (7 piece laminate) and wenge for the fretboard. Usual glue up pics!

[SpondonBassed]

5 minutes ago, benh said:

hopefully is of interest to someone

 

Me, for one.

 

I have been collecting timber and hardware for one of these myself.  I'm wondering what strings you will use.  33-35.5in scale length suggests a standard set might fit with the possible exception of the low B.

[benh]

48 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Me, for one.

 

I have been collecting timber and hardware for one of these myself.  I'm wondering what strings you will use.  33-35.5in scale length suggests a standard set might fit with the possible exception of the low B.

I just got a Dingwall nickel set for ease - reasonably priced and they fit well

[benh]

Marked out the fretboard for cutting slots - basically made a small mark for each fret using both scale lengths, from the parallel fret (in this case I settled on the 9th). Then joined those marks up very carefully using a 0.5mm pencil. Used a planed offcut of the body clamped to the top as a guide for each slot as a precaution, which worked really well!