This is one of my early project basses that I made a couple years back, when I was just starting out building. The goal was to cop the P bass vibe in a 5 string, but with some personalized touches to make it more my own. The result was actually spot on. This thing is old-school P sound, all the way.
- Swamp ash body, enhanced grain, sort of a "rustic" finish to it.
- Neck is 5 piece birdseye maple with mahogany stringers. DA truss rod. Very thin, front to back profile. Finished in TruOil.
- Granadillo board, 20" radius, 33.5" scale, 22 stainless frets, rolled edges, Richlite nut.
- Custom made Nordstrand P5 pickup with Alnico III magnets, in a MM Soapbar sized shell.
- Controls are volume/tone with the ability to bypass tone (pull volume) or change capacitor on the tone (.047 down, pull for .022). Fully shielded in nickel paint.
- Magnetic control cover is ash as well.
- ABM roller bridge.
- Hipshot Ultralight Imported tuners, 2+3 config, with Hipshot string trees.
- GHS Precision Flats strings
- 18mm spaced at the bridge, 1.905" nut width, weighs about 9lbs (scale was between 8.8 and 9.2 after multiple attempts).
EDIT: More neck details were requested, so here's those measurements:
Thickness (measured just behind the frets)-
1st fret: .7935
12th fret: .9160
Width of neck-
Nut: 1.905
1st fret: 1.975
12th fret: 2.756
22nd: 3.136
As I mentioned, this was some of my earlier work. There are signs of my "learning curve" that are on this bass, but none of them really hamper how good it sounds or plays.
I actually put the jack in the wrong spot, so I plugged the hole and re-drilled. The original idea was to do a burst finish, but I wasn't good enough to make that work, so I kinda just thought "call it rustic" and make it a simple finish that gets the job done. So yeah, it's not a show piece, but it rocks nicely. If you're not looking for something super flashy, it has an understated coolness to the lack of experience I had when I built it.
And the neck, well, I basically made it too wide. I was trying to go a little wider, ala more mass produced basses, but it ended up TOO wide. It honestly looks worse than it feels, but it's not really even noticeable until you get to the higher fret area.
I really haven't even played this one much since I built it. The call for me to need a P bass sound was rare before we all got locked in our houses, and how this just hangs on the wall, looking pretty. Honestly, it should be played more! So I'm hoping that someone out there is after a hand-built P5 style bass with a few modern touches to make it more interesting. There's little to no play wear on it!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Would be very happy to talk more about this.
Asking $799 shipped to the US 48.
PM if elsewhere.
Comes in a basic gig bag.
PayPal or Zelle preferred.
Might entertain trades, though my main goal is to make room, so pardon in advance if I'm a little picky about them.
