five string neck-through jaguar bass!

dave-chaulk · #1 09-23-2011, 04:41 PM

hey! I started this bass today in a rather spur-of-the-moment manner. My intent is to build a neck-through five string jaguar (as aforementioned). This is a step outside my comfort zone as it will be my first five string, my first use of a top, and my first non-pine body.
I'll be continuing to build these in the style of my last two neck-through basses, what with the whole thickness block to build up the neck thickness instead of actually cutting the back taper out.

The setup:
five-piece maple and walnut neck
Spruce body with maple top (only on wings)
five-string fretted walnut fretboard

I haven't yet decided on electronics or hardware, so that will be posted whenever I figure it out.

It may seem like I started this thread really late, but I actually just got to this point with the bass this afternoon.

My K10D is broken, so I've been taking these pictures with my cellphone - I apologize for the quality.

dave-chaulk · #2 09-23-2011, 04:49 PM

Pictures.
I'm not positive that I can post pictures this way, but I want to try to get away from tinypic.com - it just takes too long to upload them.

I'll try posting links to the photos which are posted in an album on my facebook. I've made the album public, so it ought to work. if not, just fill me in and I'll post them properly.

I cut and planed all the walnut I had bought in one shot - here it is.
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I skipped photographing a few steps, but in this photo the neck is glued up and planed out, ready for cutting, and the body is planed to thickness but not cut. the top is connected, but it's not very "poppy".
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Here's the rough-cut body with the tapered neck running through.

Since these were taken I've given the body a round-over and made the neck's body-side thicknessing block. tomorrow I will glue it all together and all rough-shaping will be completed.

the headstock will be a fender-style 4+1, I believe.

dave-chaulk · #3 09-25-2011, 03:32 PM

OK, so today I got the neck taper cut out and the body wings glued on, as well as some neck shaping around the nut. I'll get my camera back soon enough and start with pictures - this one's turning out alright.

devo_stevo · #4 09-25-2011, 03:46 PM

Nice. I'll be waiting to see how the walnut turns out on the fiberboard as I've read both that it works fine and that it doesn't.

cjmodulus · #5 09-25-2011, 03:54 PM

Subbed. I really like the sound of the concept, can't wait to see the finished product.

Also, if tinypic isn't working, why not try another image hosting site like flickr. Seems like it might work better than using Facebook, although I have no experience with those kinds of websites.

dave-chaulk · #6 09-25-2011, 06:40 PM

could the pictures I posted earlier work?
I'm just going back to tinypic - I'm still awaiting the repair of my "real" camera (I've been a bit of a semi-pro photographer for a few years, so I've got a backup but apparently it's pretty bad...)

I've got two pictures of where I am now - the body has been glued to the neck, which is roughly shaped as I said before.

I apologize for the terrible quality of these photos - I'm really ashamed of myself, haha.
I guess that's it though - I'll take better ones soon, in the day time. the colours in these are extremely terrible, but it's just to show the general idea.

cjmodulus · #7 09-25-2011, 07:01 PM

I use the mobile app 99.9% of the time, and one of the links worked okay. One of the others just took me to the sign in page. Anyway best of luck again with the build, I'm looking forward to seeing it come along.

dave-chaulk · #8 09-25-2011, 07:04 PM

ah, well I was really just showing the materials and really early rough work. I need to start photographing the process more - I used to do it a lot. when I get my camera back I'll start with it again.

dave-chaulk · #9 10-09-2011, 01:16 PM

ok, so the body is shaped and the fretwork complete! I thought that I updated this thread more than I have!

crappy cell phone pictures:

headlikeahole · #10 10-09-2011, 06:39 PM

Lookin pretty sweet man. One thing I notice is where the neck meets the body could be flattened out quite abit. It will be much more comfortable down on the high frets if you flatten that out and make it more of a gradual climb.

dave-chaulk · #11 10-09-2011, 09:00 PM

That was my initial intent, but I got a little bit chisel-happy and took off a lot lot of wood. I'll flatten it out soon though, along with finishing up the roundover around where the neck joins up.

hover · #12 10-10-2011, 06:40 AM

looks pretty cool man...sorta has a Henman Bevilacqua vibe to it...can't wait to see more.

dave-chaulk · #13 11-03-2011, 05:17 PM

So, this bass is virtually done. The second clearcoat is drying as we speak. I decided to go with a single pickup, volume control and output - simple as possible, I love it. Too bad it's up for sale. All that remains to do is finish the clearcoat and stick in the tuners.

I'll post pictures soon enough!

dave-chaulk · #14 12-16-2011, 01:29 PM

The finished product!

Very poppy sounding, what with the electronics setup and string choice. It's perfect for heavier music or slap-happy funk.

Ready for sale:

Facebook

I set the photo to be publicly visible, so it should be fine.

dave-chaulk · #15 02-26-2012, 02:04 PM

I'm just the worst at keeping threads updated - I tend to have too many irons in the fire and by the time I finish one up, I've forgotten that I've got a thread going on it at all. But I suppose it's better late than never!

Front shot on body

Here it is, to the right of it's fretless four string sibling

Here it is in a cluster of my most recent builds - on the far right

dave-chaulk · #16 03-25-2012, 04:21 PM

Here's the long put off video sound clip.

It's incredibly awkward and don't mind my playing (I couldn't think of anything, was just noodling about), but it helps relate the idea of this bass's sound.

David Chaulk Bass - J2 Sound Samples. - YouTube