Brooks twelve string Thunderbird

[Basvarken]

New Brooks offspring was born last weekend!
It's a twelve string bass and we call it:

TB-12-SF

 

Specifications:
- Khaya Mahogany body wings
- Nine ply Khaya Mahogany/Walnut neck. Neck through
- Seafoam Green high gloss finish
- Ebony fretboard
- Luminlay side dot inlays
- Jumbo frets
- 34" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- Three ply black/white/black pickguard
- Custom made twelve string bridge set
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bars
- Controls: Volume Volume Tone
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners
- Schaller GrandTune octave tuners
- Pure Tone Multi Contact jack output
- Schaller S-lock strap buttons
- d'Addario EXL 170 - 12 strings
- Weight: 4.5 kg

 

I'll share the build process in separate posts below.

 

 

[Basvarken]

The neck blank is a nine-ply construction of mahogany/khaya and walnut strips in between. This combination makes it very stiff and consistent already.
I started with the reinforcements in the neck.

Routed the slot for the carbon strip in the middle

 

Then routed the slots for the two spokewheel truss rods

 

 

Taped off the edges where the fretboard will sit. And then shaved/planed the part where the body wing will be glued in an angle to have the neck a perfect pitch.

 

 

 

And at the other end of the neck I cut off the headstock angle. And planed that nice and smooth

 

 

As you can see the truss rods  taper a bit following the taper of the neck. Narrow at the top nut and wider where the neck meets the body.

 

 

 

I glued in little pieces of mahogany  where the spokewheel part lies a bit deeper

 

 

[Basvarken]

Prepared the neck blank for glueing up the fretboard.
Made these half round cut-outs to make some room for the band saw

 

And after I had cut off the excess at both sides of the neck, I prepared it for the actual glue-up
Using a staple to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" sideways when clamped.

 

Fretted the ebony fretboard. No inlays this time

 

Used the trusted method of clamping with strips of inner bicycle tubes:

 

Let it det and dry for a couple of hours.

And then started to shape the neck profile. I use several tools for that: shinto rasp, rounded coarse file, scrape steel and strips of sandpaper.

 

Drilled the tuner holes

 

And cut out the headstock shape

 

Drilled the holes for the sidemarkers

 

Glued in the luminlay (glow-in-the-dark) dots.

 

[Basvarken]

Filled the little gaps underneath the frets with a paste of ebony sawdust and titebond.

[IMG size="1067x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-filling-fret-gaps_orig.jpeg[/IMG]
[IMG size="1067x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-inlays-done_orig.jpeg[/IMG]

And shaped the neck profile some more

[IMG size="600x800"]https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-tb-12-sf-shaping-neck-profile2_orig.jpeg[/IMG]

After I was done with shaping the neck and headstock I glued the body wings to the center piece.

 

Could have left it there and call it the Bo Diddly Bird.

 

But no.

Cut out the rough outline prior to routing along the template of the body shape

 

Then routed along the template

 

Voila! It's a Thunderbird

 

Rounded off the edges

 

Routed the controls cavity

 

And the profile for the cover

 

Drilled the holes for the potentiometers

 

And the output hole on the side of the body

 

Routed the pickup cavities

 

Squared the corners with a chisel

 

Made a tummy cut with the shinto rasp

 

Ready for the lacquer process

 

Seafoam Green is a difficult color to catch on camera

 

[Basvarken]

After multiple layers of seafoam green and clear coat I was ready to apply the decals

 

 

Laser cut the pickguard and engrave the flame logo.fille dit in with white acrylic paint.
And mounted all the hardware

 

[Si600]

I'm not happy with this at all. Stop posting pictures of beautiful basses! 😉

 

This is the best I can do... 

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 21:04 by Si600

[Hellzero]

Excellent work as usual @Basvarken !

[snorkie635]

1st class. Enjoyed looking at this and am seriously impressed.

[NancyJohnson]

Just stunning.

[Basvarken]

 

[Pea Turgh]

I was wondering when the video would be up!  How the hell does it not have neck dive?!

[Basvarken]

37 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

I was wondering when the video would be up!  How the hell does it not have neck dive?!

None of the Brooks basses tend to be neck-heavy.

Thanks to a combination of carefully selected materials and their arrangement:

- Super light tuners. The modified Schaller GrandTune tuners for the octave strings weigh only 17 grams each. And the Gotoh GB350 tuners for the bass strings weigh only 39 grams each.

- In addition, the rear strap-button is positioned well above the center of the bass, which shifts the center of gravity.