A Venture Into Building... Finishing the Simmons Echo 06104

[Firesalt]

So last weekend I picked up a couple of project pieces from the family of the late Dave Simmons. I always thought he had interesting basses but never had the time to look into them further... I was stuck on my more traditional look basses at the time.
Anyway, I'm an aspiring builder and long time lurker here and thought I'd get some input from you fine folks to come up with options to complete these basses. Both are the Simmons Echo design and look to probably need some refinishing work and fretwork before mounting hardware, nuts, electronics and all that... I'll start a different thread for the other one once the work begins on it.

Echo #06104

First I suppose I'd like to ask what type of wood was used for this top? The center appears to be maple and Indian rosewood (maybe?) with an ebony fretboard and the back ash with a layer of maple between accent lines.








This one will need some sanding and filling and then finished. There's a number of spots on the top that are not so pretty and the stringers are uneven. They must have swelled or moved while sitting in the shop out of climate control. You can feel the slight raised portions between the maple and rosewood on the back of the neck and on the top.
Spots on the top are shown here:





I'll end up routing around the control cavity in order to countersink the cover.
I'm also tossing around the idea of carving pickup covers for a set of Nordy DCs (poles hidden) because the pickup routes are designed for the Barts P45CBC which is no longer made. I could have some made by Nordy with the plastic covers but I figured that while I'm feeling ambitious I might as well go the full monte.
I've also thought about mounting individual bridges instead of the solid frame bridge but I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with it.

[Firesalt]

I forgot... it also has a matching headstock.

[Firesalt]

Alternate title was going to be "Identify my wood!" but I thought that was a bit much.

[lbridenstine]

That's a nice looking bass. These are my guesses, but I don't really know as much about wood species as most of the people here, kind of interested in seeing if I'm right about any of these: ambrosia burl top, Indian rosewood and maple neck, alder back, and I don't know if the fretboard is ebony or if it's rosewood stained black.

[Firesalt]

Thanks for your input. I think the fretboard is ebony because of the slight yellow markings between the 20th and 23rd frets that look like the ones on my double bass' ebony fingerboard.

[FBB Custom]

My guess would be redwood burl, indian rosewood, ebony. Hard to say indian for sure from those pictures.

[Firesalt]

I have to agree with the redwood burl... and the ebony... as you can see it checked quite a bit while I was on vacation.


It sat in the climate controlled house while I was gone.

Any suggestions on how to fix it?
I initially thought about filling it with epoxy/ebony dust mix but I don't know what I'm doing.

[StarbardGuitar]

The top almost reminds me of camphor burl.

As for the dark wood in the back, it is difficult to tell. Some ebony is browner, but I don't think that's ebony. I'd guess rosewood or possibly walnut or something like that. I agree with the maple, but the back looks much more like ash than alder to me. Alder is very consistent looking. That sure looks like ash grain to me.

[Yvarg]

That wood in the neck definitely looks like a dark piece of morado (pau ferro) to me. Does it appear to have open pores in the grain?