6 String Headless Singlecut

[miner]

This is going to be my first "real" bass build. I've made bodies for necks and put together parts basses before. I built a guitar (SG) from "scratch" for my sister earlier this year, and now I think I am going to do a bass.

I had an ibanez sr506 six string for almost a year a while ago. I liked the sound and my band loved it, but I hated playing it. While I like big "baseball bat" necks, this neck was way too wide. I never really got comfortable playing it and ended up ebaying it (for a profit).

I was watching a video about John Myungs gear and his bass tech said his bongos have a 5 string neck. I thought that would be a great idea, but that really isn't a common feature for a six string bass. I decided to build my own. On this bass the string spacing is .55" (about 14mm), so the neck will be more like a five string width.

I am building the headless parts. I found a design for headless tuners by ScottyD http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/making-headless-tuners-708307/#post9927675 and I am basing my tuners off of his. The nut end will be a brass block at the end of the neck that locks the strings down. It will have a zero fret right after the nut.

It will be a neck through with a four piece maple neck, and swamp ash body wings. It will have a 24 fret cocobolo fingerboard. My plan is to use bartolini pickups because I had them in my last six string and I want this to sound similar (unless someone has a better suggestion). The controls on the bass are blend (push pull on/off) treble and bass. I don't need a volume control, the on off will do exactly the same for me. It will be the standard 34" scale.

Here is what I have so far
[URL]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/making-headless-tuners-708307/#post9927675[/URL]

Any comments or suggestions?

 

[Randyt]

I would cut back the lower bout to have better access to 24th fret....if you have room...go 26 -28 frets
Im not sold on the bridge over hanging the body.

other than that...looks great..sorry..just my $0.02

 

[xavplusplus]

More access but if its neck through which I'm pretty sure you said it would be I wouldn't mind buying one of these babies off of you. Depending on quality mind you

 

[pilotjones]

If you're looking for something very narrow like a Steinberger, you're close. But there's so little on the treble side that your control cavity will be very close to the bridge pup cavity, and to the screw fixings for the bridge. Also, unless your body roundover is very small, your neck pup will be right up to the roundover, nearly spilling off the edge of the bass.

If you were to expand the treble side overall so it had projection away from the centerline similar to the bass side, it would be a much more visually balanced design. And you could improve your upper fret access, which now is kind of pinched.

If you are in love with the body shape as it is, I would still try shifting the entire neck/pup/bridge group as a whole a bit to the bass side, and readjust the horn connections.

 

[miner]

If you're looking for something very narrow like a Steinberger, you're close. But there's so little on the treble side that your control cavity will be very close to the bridge pup cavity, and to the screw fixings for the bridge. Also, unless your body roundover is very small, your neck pup will be right up to the roundover, nearly spilling off the edge of the bass.

If you were to expand the treble side overall so it had projection away from the centerline similar to the bass side, it would be a much more visually balanced design. And you could improve your upper fret access, which now is kind of pinched.

If you are in love with the body shape as it is, I would still try shifting the entire neck/pup/bridge group as a whole a bit to the bass side, and readjust the horn connections.

Thank you for the suggestions, I would be happy if this comes out looking a quarter as good as your "storm king" bass. I am going for a bit smaller than usual body. I think it helps balance out the headless part some. I tried moving the treble side away from the centerline some and I think it really did improve it. I am not really a visually artistic person and I have a hard time trying to come up with a body shape, so I really appreciate your input.

I don't have time to make an image file of the new version right now, I will do that later after work.

 

[miner]

Ok, here's the new version!

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