2020 Winter Build-off - Skeleton-P

[louie_b]

Hello all, This is going to be a ton of firsts for me so don't be surprised if it ends up a big pile of really expensive firewood at the end...

My first build-off ever. of anything.
My first neck-through
My first time building / Shaping my own neck
My first time installing my own frets
My first headless Bass (I've never even seen one in person, only on the interwebs)

So yeah, the challenge is more against myself to see if I can pull it off at all, not planning to win anything.

The design specs so far:
*Canarywood / Wenge laminated neck
*Stewmac Ebony pre-slotted fingerboard (34" Scale, 16" Radius 24 slots + nut)
*Stewmac 24" 'Hot rod' Trusrod
*Stewmac pre-cut and radiused Fret wire
*Pearloid Marker dots
*pre-notched Black TusqXL nut
*Motor City P-Bass pickups
*Alpha 16mm 250k Pots
*GHS Precision Flats 45-105 Strings
*NOVA Guitar parts headless Bridge and headpiece
*"Wings" made of a single piece of bar-stock aluminium bent into the shape of a traditional P-Bass body outline. Also going to attempt to make an outline of a P-Bass head stock as well (Here's where the "Airspace" comes in)

My entry Photo:

 

[Fat Freddy]

Hello all, This is going to be a ton of firsts for me so don't be surprised if it ends up a big pile of really expensive firewood at the end...

My first build-off ever. of anything.
My first neck-through
My first time building / Shaping my own neck
My first time installing my own frets
My first headless Bass (I've never even seen one in person, only on the interwebs)

So yeah, the challenge is more against myself to see if I can pull it off at all, not planning to win anything.

The design specs so far:
*Canarywood / Wenge laminated neck
*Stewmac Ebony pre-slotted fingerboard (34" Scale, 16" Radius 24 slots + nut)
*Stewmac 24" 'Hot rod' Trusrod
*Stewmac pre-cut and radiused Fret wire
*Pearloid Marker dots
*pre-notched Black TusqXL nut
*TBD P-Bass pickups and wiring
*NOVA Guitar parts headless Bridge and headpiece (this is planned, but he's out of stock and wont be in for a month so this may change)
*"Wings" made of a single piece of bar-stock aluminium bent into the shape of a traditional P-Bass body outline. Also going to attempt to make an outline of a P-Bass head stock as well (Here's where the "Airspace" comes in)

My entry Photo:
View attachment 3674271

Cool....Good luck!...

 

[postalflunkie]

Subbed
Glad to have ya on board!

 

[Reedt2000]

Cool design, I'm in

Sub'd

 

[Flamingo21]

Subbed.

Here to wonder, laugh, cry, and encourage.

 

[Novarocker]

Love the idea, subbed for sure! Best of luck, glad you're in!

 

[Jon Clegg]

Welcome aboard!

 

[dwizum]

Neck shaping and fretting were both things I was intimidated by when I started, but they were both also surprisingly easy once I had gotten over my nervousness and just given it a try!

Welcome to the build off!

 

[Jisch]

Welcome to the build off - I'm looking forward to this one!

 

[Scoops]

Welcome to the party!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Ambitious, but nobody ever scored by being cautious. YouTube is your friend, every possible step is covered, so watch a few videos for every sequence and use the technique that makes the most sense, and you have the tools to do. Lots of great builders on TB, they already made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to! Next build, shop the hell out of it, Stewmac has everything, and high quality, but most of what they sell can be had for less elsewhere. Good luck!

 

[Scoops]

I've been wanting to do a build like this for a while.

This is definitely a bucket list item for me

 

[nilorius]

Good luck, but too early for the thread.

 

[louie_b]

Got the wood cut into 1 3/4" x 7/8" x 48" strips, Then cut one of the Wenge strips in half into 1 3/4" x 3/8" x 48"

The original plan was to have 3 of the 7/8" Canarywood with 3/8" Wenge in between for accent but after cutting I found wormholes in 2 of the Canarywood pieces so no I'm thinking 7/8 wenge in center, 7/8" Canary on either side, then 3/8" Wenge on the sides. The outside strips aren't going to show at all at the head and are barely going to show at the body end so not sure if that's going to be good.

The other option would be to Epoxy the wormholes and go for broke.

Also, Stewmac order came in...

 

[Beej]

Nice combo

Some ideas:
What if the centre wenge laminate was tapered from 7/8" at one end to 3/8" at the head?
or...
What if you ripped a wide canarywood in half and used those to replace the middle two 7/8" canarywood strips?

Both of these approaches might help align the stringers to the fretboard without the join showing along the taper from behind? (Nothing wrong with that either, just another option).

Feel free to dismissively disregard...

 

[louie_b]

Managed to re-arange so the wormholes are where the pickups go. Testing my glue-up arrangement. Had to make sure I had enough clamps. Ready to glue tomorrow.

 

[ctmullins]

1. How do you know there aren't additional undiscovered wormholes?
2. Wormholes = "Air Space"
3. Wormholes let you travel from a C# dim7 straight to a Ab sus9-11 second inversion in an instant; a modulation that takes at least 3 modes for the rest of us

 

[Flamingo21]

Managed to re-arrange so the wormholes are where the pickups go.

I like how you think.

 

[kesslari]

1. Wormholes = "Air Space"
2. Wormholes let you travel from a C# dim7 straight to a Ab sus9-11 second inversion in an instant; a modulation that takes at least 3 modes for the rest of us

You, sir, win the internet today!

Cool idea for a build - I like it.

 

[louie_b]

all glued up and planed flat.