Spalted Maple Top 4 String Bass Build (complete)

[davens]

Hey all,
I think this is the first build that I've posted on talkbass, though it's my 8th build (3rd bass).

Here's the specs:
Curly spalted maple top
Mahogany body core
5pc Wenge neck w/ mahogany laminates and carbon fibre rods
Wenge fretboard and knobs
Delano xtender pickups
Vol / Bal / Tone / 3-way switches (parallel, series, single-coil) for each PU
Mono rail bridge, Zerofret, Mother of Pearl inlays, Aluminium side-dots
Black hardware

Sorry, progress pics are a little bit sparse.

Lumber planed, neck laminated, top came bookmatched from fraser valley fine woods:


Body glued up, roughly cut to shape:


Neck scarf jointed, test fitting CF rods and truss rod


gluing up the fretboard

[davens]

Body fully routed


Slotted and Inlayed - this took forever...


Began fretting, headstock laminate placed

[davens]

First coat of danish oil on the body


Likewise on the neck

[davens]

Complete pictures:

Full body


Details...

[davens]

Details...

[Joel Graham]

WOWZER!! Nice work!!!

[Beano_z]

Amazing work! If I could do this, then I wouldn't bother going out buying basses / guitars, I mean, every one of yours is like a custom order / master build instrument!

[etherealme]

Fantastic! I love the design; in particular the input jack placement, use of spalted maple, the fretboard inlay figures and the back of the headstock. A fine build. My compliments. How does it play?

[Max Pratt]

this bass is like an Ibanez sr750 on steroids!!

But seriously amazing work, what kind of finish did you use and also what bridge is that?

[Triad]

Great project: tasteful wood combination, very nice body shape and flawless construction. I'm not into bolt-on instruments but I really like this one.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Great wood combination! What do you think of the xtenders? Which ones are they?

[davens]

etherealme: Plays very well; fast, punchy, but lots of sustain. I'm not used to 4 strings, nor 34" scale, so it feels petite to me. The CF reinforcements made a big difference in stiffness I found.

Max Pratt: The client very much liked the style and feel of the SR Prestige so it has some similar styling elements and I based the neck geometry on what they had listed in their specs. I hit both the body and neck with a few coats of watco danish oil, with a bit of wet sanding, then protected with a few coats of satin minwax wipe on poly. The bridge is a set of brandless mono rails. I spent a long time calculating the placement of them; a bit more complicated than a solid one, ha.

Geoff St. Germaine: These are the Xtender 4 HE/S. They are fantastic; I'm very jealous. With the 3 way coil tap switches, the bass becomes a swiss army knife of tones. You can easily get a P tone, MM tone, a more modern ibanez sound, a stanley clark sound, or more of a j tone.

[RedMoses]

Fantastic!

[JIO]

nice build!

[MPU]

Looks very nice.

[Grant Bass]

Very nice!
i just noticed you were from stoney creek!
my first shop i set up with my buddy from Fbass was in Winona
thats crazy!
good clean build man!

[loopee]

lovely bass
I have a mahogany/wenge neck just like that on my new custom.....I love that neck

[loopee]

how much for a shortscale 30" version
lightweight (6 - 7 lbs) (chambered?)

[davens]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone!

Originally Posted by Grant Bass

Very nice!
i just noticed you were from stoney creek!
my first shop i set up with my buddy from Fbass was in Winona
thats crazy!
good clean build man!

Yeah, F-Bass is just about 10m from me. I should try and make friends there so I can take a tour or something
You do fantastic builds yourself, btw! I think I mentioned it in another thread, but I remember seeing a picture of yours at exotic woods (a block away from where I work) and was very impressed...

[darren1970]

WOW..... superb workmanship