So, I had all these wenge scraps lurking around the shop, just waiting to jump out and bite me (damn splinters!), so I decided to cobble them together into a short scale bass... the pieces I had to make the neck were not long enougn to do a standard scale neck, hence the short scale.

http://users.adelphia.net/~shawnball/myspace/wenge_bass_start.jpg

Alder body core, wenge top and back ~1/4" thick

Wenge and hard maple neck... wenge fretboard.

28 5/8" scale (decided to do something different, and that's all I could fit on the neck and still have 24 frets!)

About half way through there was a bit of a mishap... I grabbed the 1/2" roundover bit instead of the 3/8" roundover, and took too much off the top. :eek: So, I planed the top off and glued on a new one, then checked (TWICE!) that I was using the 3/8" roundover for the little guy. Debated doing this as a bolt on neck, but decided in the end to do it set-in, for a cleaner look.

http://users.adelphia.net/~shawnball/myspace/Wenge_short_scale_small.jpg

The bridge is carved from striped ebony, with a strip of hard maple on the bottom for an accent. When the pickups get here (Nordstrand NJ4SV set) I will make pickup covers from the remainder of that striped ebony block, and then I probably won't be able to put the thing down. I've been playing it unplugged for almost 2 weeks now, and it's a little groove machine. I strung it up with Ernie Ball Slinky heavies, and the tension on this short scale is as high as my standard scale 4-string with medium-lights (maybe even a little stiffer).

All in all, a more than satisfactory way of cleaning up wood scraps without letting them go to waste. :)

looks good man! love the bridge!

Cool, scrap use at its best!

I thought so... I get really crabby if I have to waste perfectly good wood. Thanks for looking!

Nice Scotty !! That is looking amazing !! love your originality. Keep it up ! Peace.

My name is Shawn, but it's a compliment to be confused with Scotty ;) He rocks!

Oh sorry Shawn, I got confused with Scottyd. Nice Work Shawn !!

Nice work amazing what a few scraps and some talent can get you

btw have you thought about stringing her up as a piccolo?

Really nice bass... and the new top look better than the original one.

:eek:
Holy crap. I'm lovin the upper horn.

WOW...amazing... i love the look of the wenge, and i've had gas for a short scale for a long time. looks like i have to build one my self. keep up the good work.

-Casey

I considered stringing it up piccolo, but have been in a rather Beatle-esque place lately... that, and a bit of a Stanley Clarke vein... I know that Stanley also uses piccolo basses, but I've always liked his work on the stort scale strung up standard. Also, lately it seems that I'm always the (GASP!) guitar player in the bands I'm in, so stringing up piccolo just seems a little too much like guitar envy to me, and this little bass thumps so hard, it would be a shame to take that away from it. :)

Incidentally, the original top, fretboard, and all neck laminations came from one billet. I trimmed the chunk that became the neck laminations off of the width, and the remainder was resawn as the top and back. When I planed the top off, I planed the back off too, and used another small billet I had planned to resaw for body laminations under maple or myrtle, and used it for the new (matching) top and back.

I'm working on the wooden cover plate, probably going to attach it using rare earth magnets.

So, I'm up in the air, now, about pickup configuration, and I'd like opinions...

I'm either going to install a pair of Jazz pickups, or a MM pickup. Either way I'm going to be using Nordstrand pickups, for sure, so I know that either will sound good, but each setup is a completely different animal from the other, and as this is my first short scale bass, I'm wondering if anyone has a preference... I'm so completely on the fence about it, that I don't know which I'd choose.

Help me out!!! :)

How about MM-J?

I've always liked that combination.

J-MM would be cool, too. I've seen it on some Warriors and it looks pretty neat. I've heard that it sounds good, too.

Jazz behind a MM pup

Nice! What a beautiful bass.

Jay

Now that IS nice.
I really don't like Wenge as a tonewood...never have, but if it looks like it does here...well one might almost think again.
How about just using a nice piezo under the bridge to keep the looks intact?
To me it looks a lot like a carl thomson bass.

Very nice!!!!:D

Its sad that i feel homosexual on a short scale bass.. My fav parts is the bridge and upper horn. Sooooo sweet!

lol... Linkert, thanks, man... you don't need to feel homosexual on short scale bass... think of how many hot chicks McCartney has had! ;)

This body design took me a couple of years to refine, but basically started with the idea that the spacing of the strap buttons needed to be exactly like a Warwick Corvette Standard... my buddy plays bass, and I was just a lowly guitar player and builder, I had never built a bass up to that point. He wanted a longer scale 5 string that matched the rough body dimensions/spacing of his Warwick Corvette, but he kinda dug the idea of a scroll on the upper horn. So, we started sketching things out. Then he decided that he liked the lower horn of a Parker Fly guitar, and so the initial lower horn design was heavily carved to sort-of mimic the lower horn on a Fly.

The scroll eventually developed into a hook, the waist narrowed and offset a little, and the butt end became oblong, kinda like a Jazz bass. 5 years later, I still love this design. It just feels so organic.

Anyway, I don't think I'm going to combine the J and the MM pickups... I've got a 4-way rotary switch that I picked up from Sheldon Dingwall, and I'll either use it on the MM pickup (split to neck or bridge, and both in series or parallel), or I'll wire the J pickups to it.

So, everybody, for *this* bass (not across the board, but in this instance), which do you think would fit the personality better - the single MM pickup or a pair of Jazz pickups?

I look forward to hearing everyone's opinion, and why.

BTW, I think I've settled on the Aguilar OBP-1, as it greatly resembled the old MM preamps back in the day, and means fewer knobs, a cleaner look.

If you're only going for one pickup, then I would personally go with the MM.

That huge pickup on this tiny bass would look epic :cool:

I guess it would sound pretty good, too....:p

If I went with the jazz pickups, I'd install a pair of Nordstrand NJ4SV pickups. I would wire them to a 4-way switch that would allow for switching between neck and bridge pickups, as well as series/parallel wiring when both pickups are on.

If I install the MM pickup, it would have that same switching using the 2 coils in the humbucker (split to neck, both parallel, both series, split to bridge).

I think it would look awesome with a soapbar. But that said it definitely has the vibe of a one pickup bass so i'd say MM out of the options you got.

MM

I reckon one passive humcancelling jazz, With just a volume nob. That would be so cool

My only thing about the jazz set is that I don't want to split them up, and now I'm thinking of making another short scale, sorta like the Rob Allen Mouse 30, in that it would be fretless semi-hollow, and have a nice wooden bridge with a piezo, but also a pair of jazz pickups (WWJD - What Would Jaco Do?) ;)

Very nice looking bro!!! :)

WHEW! At long last, I get a chance to revisit this one. Geez, I've been busy... lol

So, I installed the pickup last weekend, then went to wire up the controls last night, and found that my pots were "short shaft" ones, and the top was too thick.

SO, out comes the router, and I get to work thinning the top from inside the control cavity.

THEN, tragedy strikes... apparently I didn't sufficiently tighten the collet on my router (working with power tools after working 12 hours at a day job *might* be a bad idea...), and the bit drifted out slowly. Slowly enough, in fact, that I didn't notice until it went right through the piece. Rather than a thinner top, I ended up with a large gouge clear through the top... NOT a place I wanted to see daylight.

What can you do, when fate (read: inattention) deals you a bad hand? You BLUFF! Er, wait... no, you DRAW! That's it...

So, I made a top cover, a la Carl Thompson... I made it slightly boomerang shape, in homage to the MM heritage, and mounted the controls to it... Volume, tone and a 4-way rotary switch (allows either coil separately or both in series or parallel).

Here's a full frontal shot: ;)

http://sdbguitars.com/wenge_short_scale_front.jpg

And here's a close-up of the body:

http://sdbguitars.com/wenge_short_scale_close.jpg

Sound clips to follow, probably this weekend, I'd guess... and yes, I'm aware that the poles don't *quite* line up. I plugged it in, and the sound is very balanced from string-to-string, so I'm not going to complain about it. I may do a cover without exposed poles, at some point, mostly for aesthetic purposes.

sweet. my control cogver is kinda like that only bloodwood, and thinner

Yeah, likely that's not the *final* piece... I think I want something lighter in color, and I'm planning on getting some wenge knobs for it.

I almost went with Spanish cedar for the plate, as that's what the body is made of, but I'll probably go with maple instead, as it's more durable.

Nice, I don't normally like wenge on a body but the grain of that piece fit the shape so perfectly. It's beautiful and really great work.

Yeah, once it's done, I don't know if I'll play it, or if I'll sell it. I'm still not sure that short scale basses are my thing. I'm working on a 32" "medium" scale bass right now, as well as a standard 34" scale, both with variations of my prototype singlecut body.

Wow that really looks great. I hate to say it, but I think I'd like the look more without the control top cover, but it's still a great solution for the tragic router mishap. Anyways, very very good work, and I'm stoked to hear a sound clip.

So, here's a 1am-straight-into-the-PC-soundcard recording of the little wenge monster. ;)

http://sdbguitars.com/wenge_short_scale_demo.mp3

Recorded into Audacity, one take, around 12:40am. I'm going to bed. Please don't hate on my lousy playing. LOL

No comments on the tone... HMMmmm. Any thoughts?

That sounds great! How well does the wood bridge intonate with it being fretted?

it actually intonates well. I used my strobe stomp, and was able to intonate within a cent or so... :)

Wow - great tone - very "barky". And it does seem to be intonated pretty well - the upper-register chordal stuff on the demo sounds pretty much in tune to me!

Good job!

yep... the action is pretty low, too...

I tried to to a variety of things on the demo, but it *was* 12:30am, and so I can't guarantee it's *entirely* representative. A better player could have squeezed more out of it, I'm sure. Between Jaco, Paul, and Geddy (none of whom I could hold a candle to), I figured there would be something everybody could appreciate.

I like it too. Lots of authority in the tone. I would go for a plain-black MM pickup without covers, though...

I like it too. Lots of authority in the tone. I would go for a plain-black MM pickup without covers, though...

Do you mean a plain black cover without holes for the pole pieces? I'm looking into that, if I can find one that is 4-conductor.

I never got around to posting the picture of the back, so here it is.

http://sdbguitars.com/wenge_short_scale_back.jpg

I never got around to posting the picture of the back, so here it is.

http://sdbguitars.com/wenge_short_scale_back.jpg

Nah, dude, thats really messed up, uhhh, you should send it to me... to dispose of properly... :hiding:

Seriously good lookin bass...

Nah, dude, thats really messed up, uhhh, you should send it to me... to dispose of properly... :hiding:

I suppose I could do that... I hear there's processing and transportation fee, tho. Damned bureaucrats! ;)

Seriously good lookin bass...

Thanks, man... it's a fun little low-end thumper!

Do you mean a plain black cover without holes for the pole pieces? I'm looking into that, if I can find one that is 4-conductor.

Yeah, that's what I meant. :rollno: My spelling/proofreading is generally better than that.

I agree that 4-conductor > 2-conductor, though.