A new body for my darkstarred t-40!

I've mentioned my plans for a new body before, but the process started today.

Backstory...
This bass here http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=327397&highlight=peavey has served me well. I love the sound, and the hardware, and the neck. It's just a bit heavy. Well not "just a bit" it's really freaking heavy. I'd like it to be my main bass, but I can really only do about one set with it before I have to switch basses. I tried routing away a bit of the wood under the pickguard, but that didn't really help at all.

I just stopped in today to visit Tomm of Redemption Bass ( Link Removed ) to put my down payment on a custom body. This was my first experience with any true "custom" transactions and Tomm was very helpful and personable. I got to poke around his workspace and he explained the various bodies that he had rejected for one reason or another. I had brought along one of my t-40's. He will be using it to measure for the neck pocket, pickup placement, and bridge routing (the t-40 hast a string through body bridge with a small sustain block) and we used it to do some refining to the drawing he had made of the body. Then I saw the piece of mahogany he had selected and I got to decide on the orientation of the two halves.

The first edition of the sketch is at the bottom below. It's basically a combination of a Decade and a Wal. Since that sketch, we have modified it to keep the lower cutaway the same depth, but bring it more in line with the neck heel and have taken a bit off the bottom rear bout. I saw this body in person... (Just to be clear, it's not mine)
Link Removed
...and immediately decided that my bass would have gibson'esque angular contours rather than the more rounded fender contours.

I wanted the decade/wal 'ish shape, but also to keep a bit of the t-40 look. To that end, I'm using all the original t-40 hardware (including the massive bridge), and after recieving the bass, I'll be finishing it with a satin poly finish. Unlike a t-40, it will not have a pickguard.

I'm pretty excited. This project won't require Tomm, to blaze any new ground in bass design or mechanics, but I'm very excited about the body shape, and the overall concept.

Tomm will be sending me update photos as progress is made, and I'll post those. Baring unforeseen difficulties, the body may be done in a couple weeks!

Thanks!

One question for you wood-o-phile's out there. What is considered standard weight for a fender style bass guitar body? I thought it was 9 lbs, but I can't remember.

I want to know so that depending on how heavy Tomm tells me the body is, I can choose to have a rear contour added or not. I want to make the bass lighter than a reguar t-40, but not so light that the neck is perpetually diving toward earth.

Rodent said:

9 pounds for a fully assembled 4-string bass, but not for just the body

for the body by itself you're looking at somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 pounds for the average low/high weight spectrum

all the best,

R

Click to expand...

Thanks for that clarification. Sounds like we are on the right track as far as weight is concerned.

I just got an update from Tomm, Here's the rough cut of the body "wet".

I choose to orient the grain so it would sweep upwards toward the horn. I'm not sure if the effect worked totally, but I'm satisified with the look thus far.

The next stage of shaping is done. I'm really happy with the results. Tomm has managed to extend the upper horn a touch from the original design and yet keep it looking "vintage", so in terms of balance, we should be in good territory.

The angular top and bottom body countours are in, and the only thing I am considering is having them continued forward to the point of each horn. What do you all think?

Next up is the routing for bridge (t-40 has a sustain block), pickups, and controls (rear route). When that's done, the weight and balance will determine if we go with rear contours or not.

Thanks. After staring at the shape for a while, I decided that I like it as is, then I showed the pictures to my wife and she felt the same way. Any additional contouring for lightening will come off the back.

Quick update, The body is pretty much shaped. It's a bit heavier than expected, so Tomm is going to add a back countour. Also, I decided last minute to have the neck pickup bumped almost all the way to the neck, like a telebass or decade. Hope to have pictures of a pup-routes soon.

The pickup routes are in! It's looking really great. The control cavity is also routed, and a back contour has been added, but the body is currently weighing in at between 5.75 and 6 lbs.

I'm not sure if this is right for the project, or if it's going to seem heavy, but I will be diassembling the t-40 and weighing the t-40 body to get some idea of the weight comparison. I think it will be all right as-is, but if it is a bit heavy, we may take a bit more wood off the back. Regardless, I am really happy with the way it is turning out so far.

Thanks, or more correctly, thanks to Tomm.

I forgot to mention, that when I take apart the t-40, I will also be stripping the finish off the back of the neck. I really like the t-40 neck shape, but there are a number of very serious dings that while I might not be able to completely be rid of, I'd like to at least minimize. I recently had a very successfull experience with satin wipe on poly and a warmoth neck, so I'll be going with that as the new finish.

I want to keep the peavey decals and pinstripe on the headstock, but I also want make it satin, to match the neck and body (will also be satin wipe on poly) so I will probably be taking a green scrub pad to the headstock to degloss a bit.

Bad news. The body is still coming in a bit heavy. I weighed the t-40 body, and it was only 6lb, 6oz, less than a pound heavier than the new body. Tom's going to try and take some wood off the lower bout, and possibly the butt end of the instrument. This will make the top and bottom (right and left?) bouts more symetrical which shouldn't take away too much from the look of the body. If we can get it near 5.25lbs, I'll be satisfied.

He's offered to source some lighter (but likely less figured) Honduran mahogany and start over at no charge, but I really like the grain of the current African Mahogany body. Keep your fingers crossed folks.