6 string fretless build

[headlikeahole]

Just started this project about a week ago since i recently finished a guitar i had been working on for the better part of 3 years and decided to dive right into this 6 string thompson style rainbow. Wish i had the money to just buy one eh

36" scale fretless
set neck
emg 45dc
emg btc system
probably use black gotoh tuners

Body Woods:
Curly Maple
Bloodwood
Purple Heart
padouk
wenge
african mahogany
walnut
cocobolo


Not sure exactly what im going to do with the neck. probably head out to the store on monday to find some good quartersawn maple for the middle then maybe some 1/8" purple heart and mahogany strips on the outside something along those lines.

Anyways this is what I have so far just gettin to the fun part







So far so good lots more shapeing sanding and routing in my near future. Let me know what you think

[bassteban]

Likin it, & although I've seen Les spank the rainbow a coupla times, it's been awhile- but it seems fairly accurate so far.

[headlikeahole]

really not much like les's as far as the wood but same basic idea of course

[jordan_frerichs]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[headlikeahole]

got a little bit more done today and took a few pictures. made a template for the control cavity and then routed that out. After that i decided to do a little more shaping on that wing everything went fairly smoothly still lots to do but coming right along. hopefully i can get in the garage for a few hours again tomorrow.














all three pieces next to eachother again after the little bit of shapeing

[543432321234]

This is an incredibly amazing bass! Where did you come up with the pattern? or was it just kind of random? also, where did you get the wood from, and how much did you pay for it?

[J. Crawford]

Very, very Claypool Rainbow bass-esque!

[headlikeahole]

thank you what did you mean by the pattern? i got most of the wood years ago from highland hardwood in epping new hampshire and to be honest im not sure exactly what i paid for it. maybe a hundred bux worth of wood in the body rough estimate

[tdogg]

very cool

[543432321234]

By the pattern, i mean it looks mirrored on each side to me, but I'm not sure. what made you first think of building this style?

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by 543432321234

By the pattern, i mean it looks mirrored on each side to me, but I'm not sure. what made you first think of building this style?

Type Les Claypool rainbow bass into Google, and all will be clear .

[headlikeahole]

yea its mirrored on both sides left and right and front and back except for the middle. Basically picking the woods and the pattern was just me sitting in the garage playing with things till i got something i thought looked good. what made me think of this is of course les claypools carl thompson rainbow bass. ctbasses.com if youve never seen his stuff you should most definitely check it out.

[543432321234]

the only thing that (and this is just me being extremely anal about tone) is that, to me, EMG's have a synthetic sounding high end that no EQ'ing will work out of the mix, but that's just me.

[headlikeahole]

i actually was thinking about using a lane poor double stacked soap bar style pickup i've had forever. it was originally for a 5 string but its just as big as most 6 strings so i may give that a whirl haven't decided yet.

in other news i had been out of work for months and i finally started working this past week so i haven't made any progress in a few days. pretty excited about the weekend ill have some pictures up tomorrow. heading out to look at some quarter sawn maple for the neck in the am.

[MrMe]

Well, we are waiting for the pictures!

[tdogg]

must...see....pictures...

[headlikeahole]

didnt get nearly as much done this weekend as i would have liked to. I showed up to the hardwood store about 2 minutes after they closed on saturday. nothing like a half hour drive for nothing. so instead of starting on the neck i carved out the back of where the strings will go through the body. then i drilled the holes for the strings. Today i did a little bit of sanding and cleaned up some of the two sides. gonna glue all the sides together tomorrow. id have done it today but my joiner is messed up at the very end of the pass it seems like it drops onto the cutter and takes off a little extra wood for the last like inch its pretty annoying. i was about ready to take the sledge to it today. sooo ill have to head to a friends house to get this thing joined.





the sanding helped show some of the maple strips a little better so a took these. also cleaned up the back side of the horn pretty good.





Still haven't decided if im going to use this yet i had originally decided that i was just going to throw the same setup as claypools rainbow in this but this pickup sounds amazing and welp its already been paid for haha.

[headlikeahole]

also your posts are extremely motivational. id have done absolutely nothing on this thing all weekend after missing the store this saturday if it wasn't for peoples interest in this and comments asking for new pics. just like to say thanks to those who are following along with my progress on this bass ill try not to keep you waiting too long between posts

[throbgod13]

if you're wanting LC's tone, you'll have to set it up like his.. but he uses so much outboard processing that i think that he would have to use an EMG for a clean signal.. IMO.. i'd just use the Lane Poor.. you have it, and it's a great pickup..

the build is nothing short of great.. the woods, the pattern.. the carving looks smooth, precise and well thought out.. unlike some other basses that use this pattern, some look rough and chiseled.. just unfinished..

you are doing an incredible job on it.. cripes, if i had the money i'd contract you to build one for me.. fretted, though.. come to think of it.. i'd like a Novak fan fretted rainbow 7 string..

overall, it's coming out beautiful..

what electronics are you going to use?? or is it going to be passive??

[headlikeahole]

all depends on wich pickup i decide to use but it most certainly wont be passive.